AFIS market set to reach $160 million annually by 2010

Published 5 December 2006

Technological innovation as well as the government-wide transition from manually processing rolled fingerprint cards to fully digital processes drive growth; local governments now taking a life-cycle approach, with fewer overhauls and more software updates

Our readers will not be surprised to hear that the automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS) market is booming, but here are some hard numbers to chew on. According to Reston, Virginia-based research firm INPUT, the AFIS marketplace should reach $160 million annually by 2010: $100 million in the state & local justice and public safety sectors and $60 million in all other state & local verticals is anticipated to hit $60 million. Both technological innovation as well as the government-wide transition from manually processing rolled fingerprint cards to fully digital processes are driving the growth.

According to INPUT’s Chris Dixon, government agencies even at the municipal level are beginning to take a “lifecycle-oriented” approach that will require fewer long-term overhauls and more software upgrades and refreshes. “More sophisticated jurisdictions will also begin implementing vendor-neutral and standards-based architectures that will allow them to plug-and-play various AFIS components rather than be locked into a particular proprietary system throughout their jurisdiction,” Dixon said. “Vendors with expertise in AFIS, especially those not tied to specific technologies, will be in a good position during the next few years to help state & local agencies overcome current proprietary incompatibility issues.”

-read more in this company news release