Beyond Biometrics

(This is my Foreword for Beyond Biometrics, FingerTec annual publication)

I always had the dream to build a world-class brand. And, I believed that full-fledged execution is the only way for me to get closer to that dream. Over the years with FingerTec, we have been building, improving and strengthening not only our products and services, but also our system and our people, in our way to achieve this ultimate goal of building a renowned brand.

When we created a vast pool of online resources based on practical branding that leveraged on Internet technology, we promised our customers that we would Make Things Easy. User friendliness is the priority in almost everything that we do, starting from leading-edge products to support systems. This strategy had brought us hundreds of loyal resellers and ten-of-thousands of customers in more than 120 countries around the world.

Our 2011 recorded a growth of 15% as compared to the previous year, which I'm proud about considering the volatile world's economic situation. Even though the coming year's economy would still be enveloped in a gloomy outlook from the likely spread Eurozone debt crisis, we particularly optimistic about the future ahead of us.

Let's welcome 2012 with the publication of Beyond Biometrics. This annual magazine contains FingerTec's past activities, and the retrospect of the brand's highlighted events. we also give you a hint of what's in store for the year 2012 by FingerTec.

Beyond Biometrics is not merely a title for our magazine, it has become our new slogan, succeeding We Make Things Easy, marking the arrival of a new era that focuses on technology transformation of FingerTec products, and the changes in our business approach simultaneously. The recent debut of our web-based and mobile TimeTec system has the market excited, and we expect to expand our platform to cloud computing technology and to offer it as SaaS (Software as a Service) in the short future would definitely stir another round of excitement.

Furthermore, we will continue to lift the slogan to a higher ground, to become our philosophical guide that blends into our strategic planning and daily operation.

With all that we have in plan and the team that we have onboard, I am confident that the FingerTec brand will soar to a new height.

It is my pleasure to present to you Beyond Biometrics and let's stride towards the promising future.

by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ

Persistency in Execution is the Key to a Successful Plan

Recently, during the IFSEC Arabia Exhibition, I had a talk with one of FingerTec distributors from Saudi Arabia.

“Since you make cold calls to get appointments, how many prospective customers do you meet in a day?” I asked, after he explained about his sales activities.

“Approximately three to four, about a hundred a month.”

“That’s a lot. Then how many readers you can sell in a month?”

“I reckon about fifteen to twenty. It varies from month to month, festive months would be less, and if there was a project, the sales would be more.”

“That’s quite impressive,” I replied. “How about next year, would you foresee that you could meet more potential clients in a month?”

My question caught him off-guard and he started to calculate the possibilities. He then raised his head and said, “Probably not. Because I think I would see less (customers) but selling more readers.”

Exactly. He saw the logic by getting more referrals and more quality potentials.

“But still, time is limited for everyone. Why don’t you try some new strategies?” As usual, I started my “routine lecture” to persuade him to look into Internet marketing as an alternative method to improve his company’s image and boost sales.

I began to explain how to tap on our resources, to use monthly newsletter as an effective tool to spread the influence and to reach the maximum target audience by a single click.

“And you virtually meet more prospective customers not by hundreds but by a few thousands every month. The mailing list will get longer much easier, and you will experience the days when customers will be calling you instead of the other way round.” Of course, I told him that rule of permission marketing is applied.

I received positive responses from his boss, who joined us later in the conversation, and him.  I sincerely told them that the Internet marketing might look simple, but without persistency, many had failed in adopting the strategy.

I recalled three years ago when I visited a distributor, I noticed that some ineffective conventional methods were being used by them to handle both sales and support in a vast country, I told them that they have to make a few changes to prosper.

I later spent a month writing FingerTec Distributor Guidebook as a reference, and urging more resellers to follow our successful strategies in expanding their business in the local market.  Because, I really don’t think that to increase sales amount, the workforce size needs to increase at the same rate.

Since FingerTec Way has been proven to work fine in expanding business to cover the worldwide market, I strongly believe that it should fit into other local markets effortlessly with some minor modifications. Even if resellers make use of the same concept and include some other products that they carry, I think it should work fine too.

Alas, although some distributors agreed, acknowledged and  implemented the idea, it was done in a perfunctory manner.  For example, they may set up Facebook accounts, but updated them once in a few months, not to mention tougher tasks such as sending newsletters with some of their own contents periodically, which I think would be a highly efficient way in yielding maximum advantages in the long run.

Persistency in executions is the key to ensure a successful plan; that is what I have learned over the years. In fact, relationships between FingerTec and its partners can be more intimate than just buyers and sellers if they were to implement the FingerTec Way. They are free to use our plentiful resources to grow their business. The persistency in execution is everything that they need.

The FingerTec Way is still in its infancy. Hence, wherever I go, I feel it is customary to promote it to the resellers that I met, hopefully to gain more followers. This has become my new persistency.

by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ