31 Jul How Boxed Solutions Transform the Facial Recognition Market
When it comes to implementing facial recognition systems, many companies traditionally opt for custom development, fully aware of the time-consuming and resource-intensive nature of the process, as well as the unpredictability of the outcome. However, the biometrics market now offers new, industry-specific ready-made products that can effectively address client company needs.
Over the past 10 years, the biometric technology market has been maturing significantly. Facial recognition algorithms now enable fast and accurate identification of individuals, even when they are wearing masks or glasses, or have new facial hair. Solutions based on such algorithms have widespread applications in various industries, from banking and marketing to “safe city” and “smart city” systems.
How Mature Is The Facial Biometrics Market and Is There Any Growth Potential?
Analysts attribute the increasing demand for biometric technologies to the growth of e-commerce and banking, cloud technologies, public space security, identification for government services, and the shift towards remote work. These factors drive the advancement of biometric algorithms and complete systems based on them.
In the facial biometrics segment, the revenue growth rate of 29.25% and market volume growth rate of 15.4% indicate both technological advancements and high demand. According to a forecast by Fortune Business Insights, the global facial recognition technology market is projected to reach nearly $13 billion by 2027, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.8%. The niche of 3D recognition is growing even faster, with a CAGR of 21.6%, according to a report by Market Research Future.
The facial recognition market has reached maturity, surpassing the trial-and-error phase and initial custom development. It is now time to closely consider ready-made solutions.
The Dilemma: Intrigue or Predictability?
When a client chooses custom development, they become reliant on the system analyst. The stage of gathering and aligning system requirements is considered “risky” since it can divert the development team from the ultimate goal, lead to the inclusion of unnecessary features, and the absence of crucial ones.
According to K. Weigers and J. Beatty, “between 40% and 50% of all defects discovered in software products can be traced back to errors made during requirements gathering. Incorrect information from users and deficiencies in defining and managing customer requirements are the primary causes of project failures.” Requirement-gathering errors often result in implementation delays, budget overruns, and endless rework.
By purchasing a boxed solution, clients are spared from these unpleasant surprises. Most ready-made solutions have evolved from successful custom systems. The development of an off-the-shelf product involves analyzing and systematizing the end-users experiences with the real system and conducting in-depth marketing analysis. In other words, developers already know what the resulting system will be. Essentially, they take a specific set of user scenarios, optimize them, and refine them into a stable and tested software product.
According to Eugenia Marina, RecFaces Business Development Director for MENA, “If a client is ready to pay for custom development, our company can develop something additionally. But in 80% of cases, the end-user has enough solution functions already developed for him/her. 10-15% of requests are for additional integrations, which we make through the API. And only 5% is customization, which is easier for us to transfer as added value to partners, and focus on increasing the competitiveness of the solution. Eventually, everyone benefits from it: end users, our partners and vendors.”
Product development relies not only on bug fixing but also on customer feedback and the implementation of rational and demanded features. If developers can create a system whose functionality meets 80-90% of the customer’s requirements, such a software product can pose serious competition to custom systems. In such cases, clients have no reason to spend months on developing and implementing a custom software product.
Developing a Boxed Solution
The main argument of supporters of box solutions is that they are cheaper and allow businesses to start using the product quickly. Opponents, on the other hand, assure that all businesses have their own nuances and can only be taken into account during custom development. That’s why the company puts into its boxed solutions not only the most common and popular scenarios for the industry but also less obvious use cases that can be implemented simply by changing the default system settings.
Each RecFaces’ finished product is aimed at implementing biometric solutions in a certain industry or market area and is intended to work with a certain scenario specific to it. However, there are always many more opportunities in it.
For example, Id-Gate is designed to recognize faces at the entrance. Such systems are commonly used to replace passes and simplify the entry process. However, if security is crucial for the company, the system may not work as a replacement for a pass, but as an addition to it, checking that in front of it is really the same person who was issued a pass.
Try Before You Buy
All of these factors highlight the advantages of the “boxed” approach as a more quick, profitable and efficient way to implement facial biometrics technologies compared with a fully customized implementation project “from the algorithm” and even a cloud-based option. However, the RecFaces offer has another significant advantage, and that is the ability to install and run a PoC in a real-life environment.
RecFaces, a company at the forefront of this trend, has developed 9 industry-specific ready-made solutions with facial recognition functions and is ready to share the expertise at their webinars. During these training sessions, partners and clients receive detailed information about the functionality and fine-tuning of each product for effective ways for solving problems with its help. In this way, the company helps partners fully utilize the capabilities of the products and most importantly, evaluate the benefits of this approach for their budget.
