IdentiPHI's SAFsolution 5 Enterprise Edition builds a platform on which an enterprise can integrate biometrics into the already existing environment. This product features integration in Active Directory for management and interoperability across several types of biometric devices. SAFsolution can be used to add biometrics to workstation logon or to authenticate to Citrix published applications and desktops, or Windows Terminal Server and Remote Desktop client sessions.
We found this product to be an easy install. We installed the server software on our Widows Server and the client software along with the device drivers on our Windows XP workstation. Management is done using the Administration Console. This console is simplistic and a little awkward to use at first, but after clicking around we found it to be simple to manage policies.
As noted, this product provides a platform in which to build biometrics into the enterprise. The SAFsolution does not tie itself to any single type of biometric, rather it can be used to manage several biometric types for different applications across the environment. In our test, we used just a simple fingerprint reader for workstation logon, but the sky is the limit for this product. It can tie into biometric readers - such as fingerprint scanners to optical scanners. This flexibility allows for the enterprise to customize biometrics for individual needs, rather than having to adhere to a single type.
Documentation is in the form of a PDF administration guide. This guide clearly details product installation and configuration on the server and client side. Also included in the documentation are a separate installation guide and some integration guides, which show configurations for integrating the product into applications.
Tech support is provided as part of standard software maintenance. There are two models: a standard software maintenance and support agreement is available at a fee of 20 percent of software purchase price, or a per incident support model is also available.
At a price of $50 per user before hardware, we find this product to be a good value for the money. While hardware is not included, this would be a good product for environments that need to incorporate several methods of biometrics and want something with which to centrally manage all of them.
