The Authentication Experts

This article first appeared in New Straits Times, authored by Nur Zarina Othman.

Homegrown software company, Innov8tif, is doing its part in the nation's digitalisation agenda with a solution to identity fraud

FOUNDED by a group of Malaysians with backgrounds in business development, software engineering and corporate finance, Innov8tif is a technology company with a goal to realise the nation's digitalisation roadmap.

This Subang Jaya-based tech company is the producer and host of an artificial intelligence (AI)-based identity verification solution, which operates on its own integrated mobile platform known as EMAS that provides eKYC (electronic know-your-customer) solutions.

HOW IT STARTED#

At the beginning to mid-2010s, the evolution of customer service was driven towards opening mobile branches and bringing relationship managers closer to the customers' location.

Having an enterprise mobility platform to support mobile sales touchpoints, Innov8tif came up with the technology to authenticate MyKad using fingerprint verification, as well as to digitally recognise and extract information on identity documents.

This technology sped up the know-your-customer (KYC) process during face-to-face interactions, but then, customer preference started shifting to digital self-service channels, especially among millennials.

In a "document-not-present" environment, digital images of MyKad submitted by users or customers are becoming common. They are mainly taken using smartphone cameras, home scanners, digital cameras and sometimes, computer webcams.

Tapping into this trend, Innov8tif started to roll out an eKYC solution in 2017, which enables businesses to support real-time and remote customer onboarding from self-service applications.

According to Innov8tif chief operating officer Tiensoon Law, the eKYC solution is made possible by the maturity of deep learning-based facial recognition technology, where from the comfort of one's sofa, a proof-of-consent may be digitally confirmed by comparing a customer's identity photo with a selfie.

"Driven by an uptick in the interest in e-wallet and innovative financial services, we came across the need to support document authentication to offer eKYC solutions for 'document-not-present' scenarios, with the aim of preventing identity fraud.

And this problem statement led to the birth of AI-based identity document authentication algorithms — collectively branded as EMAS OkayDoc," said Law.

Click here to continue reading the full article