Electronic Identification And Bluestone Software Team To Provide End-To-End Smart ID Card Solutions
State-of-the-Art Identification Solution Demands Best-of-Breed Application and Integration Server Technologies to Deliver Personnel ID to Security-Conscious Organizations
SAN JOSE, Calif. and PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 15, 2000-- Electronic Identification, Inc. (OTC BB: EISQ), the pioneer of the Smart ID Card(TM), and Bluestone(R) Software, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLSW), a leading provider of Enterprise Interaction Management software, announced today that the companies have teamed to provide end-to-end electronic identification solutions to security-conscious organizations.
Electronic Identification (EI2) solutions achieve an unsurpassed level of smart card security by embedding chip technology that contains critical, fraud-proof information about the cardholder. The company's advanced compression algorithms greatly increases the information storage capacity of each card, thereby allowing organizations to use a single Smart ID Card for multiple, wide-ranging purposes and service programs -- from visas, to drivers licenses, to health care, to welfare. The Smart ID Card employs radio frequencies to present its electronic information to card readers and other devices. The resulting "contact-free" process eliminates card swiping and other physical contact to expedite card reading and verification activities.
To create the bullet-proof foundation required to run its Smart ID Card solution, EI2 will use Bluestone's award-winning Sapphire/Web(R) Application Server infrastructure and Bluestone XML Suite(TM) Integration Server framework. Sapphire/Web provides robust, field-proven fault tolerance, scalability, and performance, while Bluestone XML Suite supplies the XML-based integration facilities needed to exchange and integrate the disparate document information and support any high security environment. The combined EI2 / Bluestone solution will run on hardware provided by Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HWP).
The EI2 Smart ID Card technology has staggering implications for the personal identification arena. With its ability to store photographs, fingerprints, handprints, and other biometric data on a secure, tamper-proof card, the Smart ID Card yields levels of authentication and verification unheard of in earlier paper-based and smart card-based ID systems. Consequently, the Smart ID Card presents a superior solution to public and private organizations that need systems for reliably and easily identifying their employees, customers, suppliers, partners, citizens, residents, and others who require access to restricted information, services, programs, and facilities. Individuals, in turn, have a valuable tool in the fight against identity theft and other fraudulent, ID-related crimes fostered by increasing Internet activities and electronic data exchange.
With Bluestone's technology underpinning the Smart ID Card solution, EI2 has a highly reliable, high performance personal identification system that any security-conscious public or private organization can depend on to deliver non-stop ID services. Bluestone's integration prowess enables EI2 to incorporate identifying information of virtually any type, from virtually any source, into its Smart ID Cards.
As part of this agreement, Bluestone joins EI2's newly-launched ePICS - an initiative supported by industry leaders and dedicated to providing best-of-breed electronic identification solutions. Bluestone and Hewlett-Packard are charter members of ePICS, whose membership is expected to grow as EI2 further extends its Smart ID Card technology and services.
One of the first deployments to result from the ePICS initiative will be a multi-million dollar project for the Middle East. Government agencies in this region are highly sensitive to security issues and need to adopt electronic identification as a means to provide a secure level of service to its qualified citizens and expatriate workers, while containing costs. EI2 Smart ID Card technology enables government agencies of all types to protect themselves against forged passports, driver's licenses and visas.
"Bluestone's participation in ePICS is absolutely vital to the initiative's success," stated Terry Kirby, EI2 Chairman and CEO. "They have the infrastructure that can support the types of mission-critical identification applications that the Middle East agencies simply cannot allow to fail. Bluestone's integration services let us create a true end-to-end solution that ties together all the internal and third-party legacy systems and information repositories that an organization may require to verify personal identification."
Added John H. Capobianco, senior vice president of worldwide marketing for Bluestone, "The Smart ID Card breaks new ground in personal identification by creating a fast, fraud-proof way of verifying individual identity. The Smart ID Card could potentially be used for visas, passports, insurance, drivers' licenses - any application that demands secure, positive personal identification. Within the ePICS initiative, Bluestone software enables the card's electronic information to interact with and travel over multiple network infrastructures and computer operating systems with a wide variety of legacy applications. Our participation in ePICS reaffirms our expertise at unifying disparate applications to create a single, seamless interaction."
Bluestone Drives Smart ID Card Solution
The Smart ID Card solution comprises several individual components, including EI2's application, the various public and private databases and information repositories supplying and verifying the personal ID information, and the Smart ID Cards themselves. To make these components work in unison, Bluestone technology works in the background to coordinate the interaction between them.
Using the Middle East as an example, the application receives ID information from various sources, including the Smart ID card and hand-held scanners, and connects to databases, which store information about incoming and outgoing people. Bluestone technology enables this database connectivity and lets the application send identification information out to the disparate sources, using Bluestone XML-Server(TM) to pass the information as an XML document. Bluestone's XML technology also lets the application easily exchange information with border centers and the central site.
Meanwhile, Bluestone's Sapphire/Web Application Server technology provides the high-performance, fault tolerant infrastructure on which these applications sit and helps deliver specific information from the centralized databases out to the border stations, and then back to the central site. Key to the Smart ID Card solution are Bluestone's deployment facilities, application management and load balancing. The latter feature is particularly significant given the fluctuating load at the individual borders.
About Bluestone Software, Inc.
Bluestone(R) Software, Inc. is a leading provider of Enterprise Interaction Management software. Companies deploying e-business applications, like Avnet, CDNow, Food.com, MCI WorldCom, Reliance National, Strategic Weather Services, and Time Inc., rely on Bluestone Total-e-Business(TM), Bluestone Sapphire/Web(R), and Bluestone XML Suite(TM) to provide comprehensive e-business platforms, Internet-class infrastructures, and robust integration services that e-business success demands. Bluestone is headquartered at 300 Stevens Drive, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19113-1597. For more information, please call 888-Bluestone or 610-915-5000, email info@bluestone.com, or visit bluestone.com.
About Electronic Identification, Inc.
Electronic Identification, Inc. develops and markets its Smart ID Card(TM) technology and works with affiliated industry leaders to provide ePICS (Electronic Identification and Control Systems) a best-of-breed Intranet-based framework for end-to-end electronic identification solutions that improve quality of service and contain costs. For more information, please visit eisq.com.
Smart ID Card is a trademark of Electronic Identification, Inc. Bluestone and Sapphire/Web are registered trademarks, and Bluestone XML Suite, Bluestone XML-Server and Total-e-Business are trademarks of Bluestone Software, Inc. All other names, brands or products may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Certain statements in this press release constitute forward looking statements as such term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, including those contained in Bluestone's publicly filed reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which may cause Bluestone's actual results, performance, or achievements or those of its customers or its industry to be materially different from the future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward looking statements. Specifically, the Company's beliefs with respect to the business opportunities presented by electronic identification and the Company's ability to profitably market and deploy its product solutions may prove to be inaccurate. In light of the significant uncertainties inherent in these forward looking statements, the information in this press release should not be considered a representation by the Company or any other person that Bluestone's objectives and plans will be achieved.
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Contact:
Bluestone Software
Press Relations
Susan D'Elia, 650/344-1260
sdelia@bluestone.com
or
Investor Relations
Joe DeSimone, 610/915-5000, ext. 3213
jdesimone@bluestone.com
or
Electronic Identification
Press Relations
John Di Cicco, 604/684-6906
info@eisq.com |
