Feature Company

Interview with Mizan Rahman, CEO M2SYS Inc.

April 2007

FB

M2SYS just recently received recognition from Frost and Sullivan for their 2007 North American Biometrics Technology Innovation of the Year Award. First of all congratulations and secondly, what does this mean to your company?

M2SYS

Being recognized by Frost and Sullivan for the North American Biometrics Technology Innovation of the Year is a testament to the revolutionary technology that we have developed. From early on, we realized that the main hurdles that companies face in the adoption of a large-scale biometrics system are the complexities involved in the integration process. Based on our realization, we developed our Bio-Plugin technology to eliminate the extensive development and ongoing support/maintenance process inherent to traditional fingerprint SDK/APIs. Many companies around the world have adopted our technology, and we are honored to be recognized for the impact that our effective solution has had on the growth of biometric adoption in the global marketplace.

FB

Can you run through a brief overview of your product lineup?

M2SYS

We are a biometric technology R&D company. We deliver fully functional, turn-key fingerprint recognition software that rapidly integrates into third party programs. We also offer several stand-alone, enterprise applications and desktop security products that leverage our biometrics engine to protect assets, lower costs, and reduce risk. Our products are classified into two categories: Core Technology Solutions and Business Solutions. The Core Technology products consist of Bio-Plugin Appserver, Bio-Plugin Webserver, Bio-SnapON, and Parallel Server. Our Business Solutions consist of Enterprise Biometrics Suite, Desktop Biometrics Suite, Bio-Tracker, and Bio-TimeClock.

FB

When we last spoke you mentioned that you were seeing growth on the commercial side. How is that going?

M2SYS

Extremely well! We've successfully penetrated a variety of vertical markets: public safety, health care, membership management, POS, time and attendance, education, banking...it is really growing and we see increased demand every day. The market is much more receptive about biometric technology. The issues about privacy and cost are also better understood now.

FB

You mentioned privacy...what other challenges do you face as you attack the health care, public safety, membership management and POS verticals?

M2SYS

Well besides privacy, I would say that cost is a major factor. Especially for small software companies, being able to provide this type of solution in their portfolio costs a lot of money and they typically do not have a lot of expendable resources. Our solution helps them tremendously because we allow them to provide this technology in a very cost effective manner. As end users become more aware of biometrics and begin to demand these solutions, we help companies to easily integrate biometric capability and eliminate the resource burden.

FB

I agree. For example, companies like Sequiam partnering with Black&Decker to provide a residential fingerprint door lock means that consumers are becoming much more aware of the benefits of biometric technology.

M2SYS

That is exactly what is happening. People are seeing biometric technology more and more in their everyday lives...laptops, opening the door to their office, time clocks, safes...the more people see and are exposed to biometrics, the more receptive they become to the technology.

FB

Are you stressing the convenience or the ROI when you sell your solutions?

M2SYS

It really depends on the particular vertical market. In some verticals it is now a must have to avoid problems they are currently experiencing. For example in the fitness club area or in schools, it is both convenience and ROI.

M2SYS

You recently announced that you were selected to provide fingerprint software for the Nigerian National Voting System. Can you elaborate on that for us?

M2SYS

We were approached by the Nigerian ID company that was providing about 10,000 units for that project. They were looking for a fingerprint solution and we basically plugged our fingerprint module into their voter registration application. Our technology just "snapped" right into their solution to provide exactly what was required for this particular project.

FB

This ability to be able to "snap" your technology into non-biometric applications seems fairly unique in the marketplace.

M2SYS

Yes, Bio-Plugin is definitely a unique innovation in the market, and this is a primary reason why we were selected for the Frost & Sullivan award. Our rapid integration capability became very important for the Nigerian project because they had a voter solution that required a quick and easy method of incorporating fingerprint technology. We stepped in and were able to create a winning scenario for them.

FB

Geographically, where are you finding the greatest growth?

M2SYS

We have experienced solid growth in the Middle East, Africa, and of course the US market is also a major focus for us.

FB

What can we expect to see from the company for the remainder of 2007?

M2SYS

As we discussed earlier, we are very pleased with the momentum we have seen with our products, especially on the commercial side. We will continue to push our technology in specific vertical areas where we have experienced solid growth in this past year.

You will see some very innovative and exciting product announcements from M2SYS this year.

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