A major European IT project will see Accenture, Safran Identity & Security, and Atos collaborate to develop biometric matching for visa applications in the Schengen area.
The companies were selected for the project by eu-LISA, the European Agency for Large-Scale IT Systems. It’s not the first time eu-LISA has contracted work to Accenture, which teamed with Altran and Tieto in a major IT services project last year, but this time Atos will provide its IT infrastructure expertise while Safran brings its biometric border control solutions to the table.
The group’s task will be to develop an efficient and effective system for visa processing, with upgrades to the VIS Mail information sharing system and the biometric identification and matching playing an expanding role. The latter component reflects a growing interest in biometric border control among Schengen and EU countries as they strive to manage their ongoing refugee and migration crises, with measures such as last year’s introduction of a new law requiring non-Europeans to possess biometric e-passports in order to enter the Schengen free travel zone.
In a statement announcing the contract, Safran Border Control GM Philippe Arnaud emphasized that “Safran has worked with the European Commission since 2007 on the development and maintenance of the biometric matching engine at the heart of the EU’s visa system,” adding that the new contract is a continuation of those efforts.
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September 27, 2016 – by Alex Perala
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