Product Information

BioLink Solutions (Bio-Metrica) IDenium

by Peter Stephenson January 01, 2010

RATING BREAKDOWN

QUICK READ

• Strengths: Fully integrated biometric system that is easy to manage.
• Weaknesses: Documentation needs some work.
• Verdict: A competent enterprise-grade biometric product with good features.

The IDenium biometric system from Bio-Metrica provides a solid integrated platform for distributing biometric fingerprint logon for users throughout the enterprise environment. The IDenium server integrates into Microsoft Active Directory (AD), as well as Novell eDirectory and Citrix. This provides a great amount of flexibility.

Installation is quite straightforward and intuitive. The install splash screen that comes up when the product CD is inserted has the steps organized in order of installation. First, the AD tool installs the necessary schema extensions for setting up users. Then the server is installed followed by the admin pack. After the installation of the server components, the client components are installed on the client machines. From here an administrator can work with the product directly in AD and Microsoft Management Console.

This product plugs into the environment quite seamlessly and user enrollment is intuitive for users. Once a user has been assigned to enroll from the server, they can simply launch the control panel application from the taskbar and follow the enrollment steps.

Documentation was disappointing. It is set up as a few HTML help files, which are disorganized and difficult to follow. We found ourselves going in circles looking for topics. However, we think with organization, these help files could be useful as they do include screen shots and step-by-step instructions.

Bio-Metrica offers a free initial remote installation and configuration session, as well as maintenance and support for a period of 90 days from shipment date. The service includes updates and upgrades of the software, and technical support via phone and emails during working hours. After 90 days, maintenance and support can be purchased as part of a support plan at an annual price of 15 percent of the system components.

At a price of about $1,100 for the server components, plus user licenses starting at about $29 per license before volume discounts, and the addition of the purchase of hardware, this product can become expensive quickly. We find it does have solid capability and integration options, so we think it is a good value.