CAMPBELL, CALIF. - November
8, 2006 - Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies today announced that Hetzi Henam,
a privately-owned Israeli supermarket chain, is using 14 biometric HandPunch
terminals to control access and input time and attendance for more than 1,300
employees at its six store locations in Israel. The HandPunch automatically
takes a three-dimensional reading of the size and shape of a hand and verifies
the user's identity in less than one second. Biometric readers eliminate the
need for employees to carry a badge, thus eliminating the problem of lost or
forgotten badges. They provide more accurate information about who is working
and when.
"Hetzi Henam supermarket chain was looking for a solution that would eliminate
'buddy punching,' the practice of employees clocking in and out for each other,"
avails Yona Flink, CEO of OptiSec, the system integrator, who also installed
its Da Vinci time management and access control software. "They additionally
needed a system that would reduce the need to manually record worker's hours
when the badges were forgotten, damaged or lost. Too much money was being spent
on issuing new badges and replacing old ones."
Although the supermarket chain first considered fingerprint technology, the
fingerprint readers were unable to verify users with damaged, dirty or dry fingerprints.
They also discovered that they had to keep the fingerprint sensor clear and
clean or it would perform poorly or not at all in the grocery and meat and fish
departments.
"HandPunch biometric readers handle demanding environments and increasing
user volumes with ease while providing impeccable reliability," continues
Flink. "The HandPunch readers proved to have a dramatically lower rate
of false rejects. Their value grows as the number of users and transactions
increases. At the supermarket, biometric handreaders were the only solution."
The Hetzi Henam supermarket chain uses a total of 14 HandPunch readers with
four used at the company's largest branch: one in the green grocery department,
two readers for supermarket employees, and one for the meat and fish department.
Ingersoll Rand Recognition Systems was named a recent recipient of the Application
Market Penetration Leadership Award for access control and time and attendance
applications in Frost & Sullivan's study, World Biometrics Market. Website
is www.recognitionsystems.ingersollrand.com.