Review: IdentiPHI SAFsolution Enterprise v1.3

For: Biometric authentication product with Active Directory integration and support for several different readers

Against: Limited functionality, cost of ownership can be a bit high

Verdict: Interesting if limited product for simple workstation authentication using most available fingerprint scanners

We found the most useful feature of this product to be the large amount of compatible scanners it can use. This allows an existing environment to upgrade with little modification to the types of readers in place, or a new environment can be created with the customer’s ideal equipment.

We found this product to be just above average ease of use. The deployment and installation of the SAFsolution is a bit tricky as it takes a few steps and different installers. When first installing the server, we had to go through a deployment wizard, then the server installation wizard, and finally install the administrator tools.

On the client side, the scanners had to be installed followed by the client software, and finally the two had to be linked together. We would have liked a more streamlined process for installation.

This product performed well in our testing. It incorporates simple administration by adding a tab to a user profile in Active Directory where the enrollment and devices can be managed. This allows for seamless administration so the existing environment does not have to be modified to accommodate the use of biometric devices.

Documentation consists of a large PDF administrator’s guide that includes all the information for installing, deploying and managing the product. This guide is well organised, easy to read and includes many diagrams and screenshots. However, the table of contents is static rather than hyperlinked, so it does require scrolling to the specific section.

IdentiPHI offers a customer self-service web portal, as well as telephone and email support. The web portal offers a knowledge base and status updates of customer support requests. Telephone support is available during business hours.

The product’s price is US$49 per user. At a price of just under US$50 per user for the software, this product appears to be a good value for the money. However, companies do have to provide their own biometric devices, which adds to the cost.

security