Logging Tech: A Custom Software Development Solution
one custom app developer’s success stories and personal revelations
When I work for small business in developing custom software solutions, my sense of success might come from helping them automate a process and thereby save valuable time to reallocate to more pressing problems. Today, I am reflecting on the sense of success that comes from insight.
A recent client works in software sales. One of their big buyers is a manufacturer. This software company’s development team could meet all but one of the manufacturer’s new technical requirements, logging people in and out of the site using fingerprints. Many software developers do not have the capacity to manage legal risks posed by sensitive data collection.
Calloused they may be, but your fingerprints certainly count as sensitive data. The use of fingerprints to log people in and out is further complicated by how tightly finger print readers are connected to the operating systems. It’s kind of like trying to talk to your friend through their parent. One has to be careful. Finally, security is constantly changing and requires extra effort to actually do it correctly. Staying current and making sure what is secure today remains secure next month requires constant vigilance. Given all this, I certainly understood their development teams reluctance.
Discovering a Custom Software Development Solution
I worked on this problem in the usual ways: reading documents; chatting with the community; walking it off; sleeping on it; staring at the ceiling; banging my head on the desk. My insight finally came when I realized that the problem was not the fingerprints themselves but the system that would have to scan, store, and authenticate them. The software company did not need a robust biometric-collection system, as they had thought. Instead, they could have employees’ personal phones perform the authentication, via a link embedded in an RFID tag.
Using RFID
A “Radio Frequency Identification tag” (technically known as a “booper") allows people to access information and perform actions on independent systems or devices. You’ve already used this technology if you’ve ever unlocked a door with a fob or tapped to make a payment with your phone. The application of RFID Tags are exploding right now. You can see boopers playing a role in baggage tracking at airports, inventory management in storehouses, safety information on a job site… with much more to come!
In the case of my software client, the benefit of using this light-weight technology would be keeping the authentication function away from their own systems. Employees’ phones can scan their fingerprints, and those devices can send approvals directly to the manufacturer’s internal databases.
Saving Money for the Business
I had estimated the cost of a complete biometric system at roughly $1000 per installation. By using boopers instead, the manufacturer would only have to spend about $25 per workstation. By my math, that’s a strong example of the power automation brings to businesses.
Presenting the Custom Software Solution
Tomorrow’s the big meeting: when I present RFID tags as my low-risk, low-cost, and hopefully high-value solution to the client. Maybe they’ll love this idea. Or perhaps tomorrow will be the beginning of a beautiful new discovery. Either way, the success I strive for has already come with a hard-won insight. And ongoing success will come too, with my renewed determination to create innovative solutions.
