CAMPBELL, CALIF. - May 25,
2005 - Recognition Systems, the biometric component of Ingersoll-Rand's (IR)
Security & Safety's Electronic Control Systems, announced today that Birmingham
City Schools in Birmingham, Ala. will be using 159 of its biometric HandReaders
to track time and attendance for employees at 61 school district sites, making
it one of the largest deployments of biometrics in a school district. All 6,200
district employees will use the HandReaders.
HandReaders automatically take a three-dimensional reading of the size and shape
of a hand and verify the user's identity in less than one second. Recognition
Systems was named recipient of the 2004 Application Market Penetration Leadership
Award for access control and time and attendance applications in Frost &
Sullivan's study, World Biometrics Market.
"Birmingham City Schools wanted a complete employee attendance management
system that would encompass logging attendance through an advanced time management
system," reports Tom Vines, sales manager for the district's dealer/integrator,
Gorrie-Regan & Associates, Inc., of Alabama. "The district desired
to combine the biometric technology with advanced Internet- and telephone-based
absence reporting systems that actually search the substitute employee database
to find the most qualified substitute employees. One of the main issues the
district was trying to solve was the difficulty of selecting and utilizing its
substitute employees."
So far, 133 of the 159 total HandPunch 3000 units have been installed. There
will be at least two HandPunch units at each school and administrative facility.
The HandReaders are connected to each other, the CRS Subfinder system, and the
Attendance Enterprise time management system, by a Windows 2003 Server network
with fully redundant IBM servers. The total cost of the project, including all
cabling, is $1.25 million.
"Birmingham City Schools chose biometric technology as the backbone of
the system because of the integrity of employee punches," Vines explained.
"With the HandReaders, district officials know with certainty that each
employee is punching their own registration."
In addition, district officials liked that they no longer had to create, maintain
and distribute employee badges.
"The district feels it will be able to track employees much more accurately
now," Vines added. "They also like the ease of enrolling employees
on one clock and then distributing that biometric template to all other clocks
the employee may use."
HandReaders handle any population volume with ease while providing impeccable
reliability. With dramatically lower false reject and failure to enroll rates
than other biometric technologies, the value of HandReaders grows as the number
of users and/or transactions increases. They are recommended for outdoor applications.
About Recognition Systems
With over 100,000 hand geometry units throughout the world reading millions
of hands each day, IR Recognition Systems, founded in 1986, is the pioneer and
only manufacturer of the leading two biometric technologies, hand geometry and
finger scan. The world sales leader of biometric verification devices used in
access control, time and attendance and identification applications, it serves
an international clientele from its headquarters in Campbell, Calif. Its website
is www.handreader.com. Phone is 408-341-4100. Recognition Systems is the biometric
business unit of Ingersoll-Rand's Security & Safety's Electronic Control
Systems. Ingersoll-Rand is a leading innovation and solutions provider for the
major global markets of Security and Safety, Climate Control, Industrial Solutions
and Infrastructure. Ingersoll-Rand's website is www.irco.com.
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