Latest / Identity at the Center / #261 - IDAC Sponsor Spotlight - rf IDEAS

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#261 - IDAC Sponsor Spotlight - rf IDEAS · Identity at the Center

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This is identity at the center. If it has anything to do with
0:10
IAM, this is the go to podcast now your hosts Jim McDonald and
0:17
Jeff Stedman. Welcome to the Identity at the
0:22
Center podcast. I'm Jeff and that's Jim.
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Hey, Jim. Hey, Jeff, how are you?
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Oh, not so bad yourself. I'm doing great and we're here
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recording a sponsor spotlight episode.
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I'm ready to get my learn on. Yeah, we've got another sponsor.
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Spotlights is great. People are really enjoying these
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each other. These are that's pretty cool
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when people embrace it like that.
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These are special off cycle episodes that we put together
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and we create these in collaboration with our sponsors.
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That's what helps us get into like more deeply into like
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questions around products, viewpoints, services, things
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like that. You know more of a more of a
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more of a deeper dive into those products than we would normally
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do. I would say, Jim, is that
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accurate? I think we, yeah, I think we've
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been very adamant about keeping advertising and marketing out of
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the podcast for years and it does create a limitation in
1:15
terms of some of the questions that they would otherwise ask.
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So I think the sponsor spotlight is kind of taking some of those
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constraints off and lets us, you know, learn.
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And I think what's really cool about this episode is it's, you
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know, it's not maybe our typical episode where it's like, you
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know, core, everyday technologies that people might
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understand. It's going to open people's eyes
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to maybe another area. And that's why I think is great.
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I mean, I'm. I love bringing that kind of
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perspective to the podcast. Yeah, for sure.
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I think this is an area that I'm excited.
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This is something I have a little bit of experience in the
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past with when it comes to like physical security and sort of
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the blending of logical and physical access, things like
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that. But it's always better when you
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have smarter people than me talking about that.
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So why don't we go ahead and get to our sponsor?
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RF Ideas is today's sponsor and just to make it very clear,
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right, this is a special, you know, one off, It's a fully
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sponsored episode. That's what gives us access to
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great experts that we're going to have here on the show today.
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So let's go ahead and get started.
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If you're not familiar with RF Ideas, I would encourage you to
2:22
go out and woke them up. But they're on a mission
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basically to bring and bridge physical and logical security
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together. And they have some pretty
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innovative credential readers. And it really provides a pretty
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what can be a a seamless authentication experience.
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It's like, OK, you sound like a marketing person, It it looks
2:38
pretty cool. We're going to learn more about
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it, and I want to welcome to the show Raul Cepeda.
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He's the vice president of product management and
2:44
marketing. Welcome to the show, Raul.
2:46
Thank you. And we've also got Sarah King.
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She's a pre sale engineer with RF ideas.
2:49
Welcome to the show, Sarah. Thanks, Jeff.
2:51
Thanks, Jim. So one of the things we like to
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do before we get started is learn more about the backgrounds
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of people in this identity space.
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And I guess I'm going to ask you a question around this is rule
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we'll start with you. Can you kind of start off with,
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you know what is your background in the identity space?
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Obviously you're in kind of the, I guess I I I equate, you know,
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physical security with sort of badges and readers and things
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like that. And I know we'll talk about it
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in a little bit, but how do you, how did you get into the space
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of identity? Yeah, so I I've been part of the
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tech world for the better part of the last 1314 years, mostly
3:24
in automation in general, but specifically on the security
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side, the 1st 12 plus years of my professional experience, I've
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been working as a systems integrator.
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So we worked, I worked for a systems integrator, we went out
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did implementations with end user customers and about two a
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little bit 2 plus years ago I joined RFID as to lead their
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their product and marketing and now we're out on a mission to
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develop innovative products out there for friend users and
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partners like. So you can say to yourself an
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identity person, a physical security person, an information
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security person, or some some weird hydra of all three.
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I think I'm a little bit of a Hydra.
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I mean, I think if I look at the background that I spent the 1st
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12 years, we implemented everything from bar coding
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solutions to physical security to identity solutions.
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Obviously the last couple years have been specifically tied to
4:18
identity. So learning much more about this
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space in the last couple years. And so I guess now I consider
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myself mostly on the identity side.
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Well, welcome. The water's just fine.
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It's very pleasant. People are very accommodating.
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Sarah, from your journey, tell us a little bit about how you
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got into the identity space as we're as we're welcoming you
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into this. Yeah.
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So my background for about the last 15 years has been anything
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technology. I enjoy learning about new
4:44
technology, how to help customers and and better their
4:49
processes using technology. Started with RF Ideas almost a
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decade ago. Started just in a support role,
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tech support role. Ended up managing that tech
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support department. Customer service, and now I'm on
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the sales side. Yeah, I looked at your LinkedIn
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profile Sarah, and I saw that you were there for over 8 years
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and was like, wow, must be a pretty cool company to work for.
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It's a it's a really great company to work for and a fun
5:14
company to work for and my my everyday changes.
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That's awesome to hear. Raul, tell us about this awesome
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company that Sarah just mentioned.
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What do you guys do? What do you do over Darf ideas?
5:26
Yeah. So we've been around for about
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30 years manufacturing credential readers.
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And So what we're doing out there is, you know, what makes
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us a little bit unique from other, you know, card credential
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providers out there is that we're pretty agnostic when it
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comes to the credentials that we support.
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You know, so everything from proximity to contactless to
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mobile credentials, we're working with a lot of the global
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leading credential providers out in the marketplace.
5:54
So that stands out out there. Most smart card reader
5:58
manufacturers are typically focused on one or two
6:00
credentials. We support you know over 100
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different credentials out there in the space.
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So we've been doing it for, for 30 years.
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You know, we're trusted across a lot of different verticals out
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there and so we're the go to for things in particular like
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healthcare. Just 30 years.
6:16
I'm, you know, it's it. You guys have been on this
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passwordless journey for 30 years, right?
6:21
It's always been about possession based authentication.
6:24
Talk to us in that 30 years. Talk to us a little bit about
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the journey and some of the milestones that you can tie back
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to that 30 years. Yeah, I think you know if if we
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look at kind of where we were, where we started, where we
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really got our started, it's it's really in healthcare.
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You know we we partnered with a company called Imprevada who
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does a single sign on and we found an opportunity to help
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clinicians and staff improve their day-to-day productivity.
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The most common use case that you'll see out there is staff
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and clinician are going from patient room to patient room
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typing in a username and password, you know every time
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they go to a new room. And so we identified an
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opportunity to kind of help cut the time and and put more of the
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focus on the patient by allowing clinicians to take their ID
7:13
badge and tap it on one of our credentials which enable them to
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single sign on you know onto their workstation or or PC.
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So you know it what we found is that it it started to cut a lot
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of the time you know for for those those patients so that
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they could be more focused on by the clinicians.
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Yeah, I mean, cutting the time's important, but it darnwell
7:35
better work, right? I mean, you have a patient who's
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maybe in like a critical position, right, that you go up
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there, you do the the procs card, that person needs to get
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into the system and they've got to be the right person.
7:49
So absolutely, you know, mission critical stuff, right?
7:53
Absolutely. Yeah, I mean I I think secure
7:55
authentication is part of it, right.
7:57
Compliance is another factor that plays into it.
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I mean if you look at the big market drivers for our
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technology, you know it typically comes down to to three
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things. It's it's all about security
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mostly with data and endpoints, it comes down to compliance.
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So in in the healthcare example there you have things like HIPAA
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and then you have workforce productivity.
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So it just happens that in that one use case you see all three
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that that organizations are benefiting from.
8:24
So rule one more question. So this name RF ideas and it's
8:28
lowercase RF ALL CAPS ideas. I'm wondering how did that name
8:33
come about because it's pretty unique.
8:35
Yeah, it's, it's actually interesting, Jim.
8:37
So we actually went through a rebranding a couple of years ago
8:41
where if you looked at the spelling of our name, it was
8:44
actually RFID was all caps and then the rest of it, EEZ was
8:49
basically lowercase and that really stemmed from the
8:53
technology that we supported which was RFID technology.
8:56
So now Fast forward to a few years ago when we started saying
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hey, you know we're we're not really we're we're kind of
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pigeon pigeonholing ourselves into you know RFID.
9:08
But we're much more, we're evolving into much more support
9:12
credential support nowadays. And so we made a decision to
9:16
kind of change the name branding to go lowercase RF and ideas.
9:22
And part of that decision was that there's RF technology that
9:25
we're supporting nowadays that's much more than just your
9:29
traditional proximity cards or smart cards.
9:31
We've evolved into mobile credentials, we've evolved into
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things like biometrics and so you know with it, it's kind of
9:39
the RF which is kind of the base of the technology into more
9:43
ideas that we're we're supporting.
9:45
I love the origin story of company names.
9:47
If I ain't fascinating, There's so many, so many interesting
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ones there and I love the play on words a little bit that
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you're doing the right kind of like RF ideas, like, OK, cool.
9:55
Kind of the same thing we do with right identity at the
9:57
Center for the podcast. You guys are in a very crowded
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space and you know, there's lots of vendors that play in physical
10:02
security and have different form factors and so forth.
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Let me ask you a hard question. Maybe it's not so hard.
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I don't know. Why are you guys different?
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What sets you apart from your competitors in this space?
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Yeah, I think there's two things, right.
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One of them I I kind of touched on a little bit earlier in that
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our credential providers are agnostic when it comes to the
10:20
credentials that we support, right.
10:22
If you look at a lot of our competitors, they tend to kind
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of focus in on one or two credentials that kind of
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dominate a a particular region or a particular vertical.
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We tend to be a little bit more horizontal than vertically
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focused even though you look at some of the major markets that
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we are being implemented in. You'll see things like
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healthcare and and manufacturing.
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But I think the agnostic aspect helps us get into more
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environments out there. When you start to see
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deployments where there's multiple credentials being
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deployed, some for you know manufacturing settings, some for
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the front office, it's IT. It kind of gives us a little bit
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of a competitive advantage in those cases because they can
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leverage the same base platform or the same reader for a variety
11:08
of different use cases. So you know, I'll give a great
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example here where you know we we've been deployed in a couple
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of Fortune 500 companies where they started using our
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credential readers for time and attendance, where they affixed
11:22
our our readers to a time clock to automate and keep track of
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who was you know clocking in and out.
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And once they saw the advantages of our technology, they started
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evolving the use of our credential readers to things
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like single sign on and secure printing and and a variety of
11:39
other use cases. So it's it's kind of the one
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benefit that if you have a multi credential support or there's a
11:46
need for a multi credential support in your environment, our
11:48
readers can can support them all.
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I feel like there's a lot of different form factors and
11:53
standards when it comes to identity.
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And I know that, you know, there's things like Fido out
11:57
there for credentials and authentication, you know, maybe
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more historically on the logical access side, but now creeping
12:04
into the physical side as well. I guess one of the things that
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concerns me sometimes in this space is like, OK, well, I
12:10
bought this product and now I only have things that work with
12:12
that product. Is there some sort of
12:14
interoperability or things like that that from a support
12:16
perspective where you know there are some common worldwide
12:20
credentials that you know the organization is supporting or
12:23
helping to contribute? To what's really cool is that
12:25
you could see our our readers amongst so many different
12:28
variety of of places. You know, you could could walk
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in, you could see them on a production line on a on APLC.
12:35
You can also see them on on HM is helping secure you know those
12:41
typical use cases for a a shared workstation.
12:44
And again, as Raul mentioned, you know, supporting so many
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different varieties of of badges, this could be used just
12:53
about anywhere. So, Raul, a couple of acronyms
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got dropped there. HMI, I think it was PLC.
13:01
Can you kind of tell us what those are?
13:03
A human machine interface is, it's a user interface that
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connects a person to a machine or system.
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So quite often you're going to see these and in manufacturing
13:13
facilities, that's where really where you're going to see them
13:15
in manufacturing facilities. And so with frontline workers
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there, it's it's a shared workstation where you'll want to
13:22
see, you know, users that want to authenticate onto these
13:26
systems. Because it's a shared
13:28
workstation, you're typically running, you know, 3 shifts
13:31
throughout the day. And rather than having a shared
13:35
PIN or a password, they're going to tap their reader or they're
13:39
going to tap their badge onto a credential reader to
13:41
authenticate. And I think the primary purpose
13:44
there is for accountability. You know if something were to go
13:46
off, you know they they know who was on that shift, they know who
13:50
was on that machine. They make sure that that person
13:53
is certified to to use that that those machine systems.
13:56
Yeah, and similar to APLC. So PLC is a programmable logic
14:00
controller similar to what Raoul said it it comes down to
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accountability on those manufacturing lines, making sure
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those who are supposed to be, you know, working those lines.
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Are, are. Actually permitted to do so,
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yes. All comes down to accountability
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as well as making sure that you know you're not taking the time
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to log in and out, you know of something that could bring the
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lines down. So also productivity.
14:27
Yeah, you know, I'm, I'm picking up on the common thread.
14:30
So there's these shared workstations, especially in
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healthcare, you have different patient rooms regardless of
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who's logging in. It's not like they bring their
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PCs from room to room, right? There's a a PC sitting there in
14:43
a lot of cases and they just they can tap in and out
14:47
manufacturing floor. You've got manufacturing
14:50
stations where people share the workstation maybe throughout the
14:55
day. What other industries are
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because it seems to me like there's just so many industries
15:01
where you could run into the shared workstation scenario.
15:04
And you know, I'm wondering, are there others that you see
15:08
traction in or some of the most interesting use cases outside of
15:12
those two? Yeah.
15:14
So outside of those two, you know I'll give a couple of other
15:18
shared workstation examples. The first one is you know going
15:22
to your earlier question Jim about kind of the remote work,
15:26
you know you're you're starting to see these we work
15:28
environments, right, where it's shared offices and they have
15:31
shared workstations in an office environment.
15:34
So really enterprise organizations that that have a
15:38
hybrid environment, employees come in, they have their little
15:41
cubicle set up with their workstation.
15:44
That's a great example there where you got another shared
15:47
workstation environment, it might even be down to the shared
15:50
laptop, right. And so a user taps their badge
15:53
on their credential there and it's their user you know that
15:58
that pops up or populates on the workstation And then the other
16:02
common one you'll see is retail, right.
16:04
So retail associates at the point of sale, very commonplace
16:07
where you'll start to see some shared workstations where again
16:11
typically you'll see a lot of Max stripe readers or even
16:15
shared pins that they're that they're leveraging there.
16:17
And again, there it's about accountability.
16:20
You know, big retail stores want to make sure what associates
16:23
were on those POS lanes and making sure that there's no
16:26
theft occurring there at the same time.
16:28
Now that you see one, the scenario where you have one of
16:32
these shared workstation use cases and it's a large
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percentage of the user population, but you also have
16:38
the corporate environment where then it's like, hey, let's
16:41
bridge it back and have this kind of level of productivity
16:44
for everyone. Because not only do you have
16:47
that great share, you shared PC use case, but there's also just
16:52
a convenience factor of not having to remember a password
16:55
and rotate a password. If I can use the same badge to,
17:00
you know, enter the door, get into my computer, you know, stop
17:05
and start my time card, you know, I think you referenced the
17:08
use case like that earlier, or a situation like that earlier, but
17:12
I bet that happens more than you suspect.
17:15
Absolutely. I mean work workforce
17:17
productivity is is absolutely important with a lot of
17:20
organizations. They want to make sure their
17:23
their employees are efficient. So I I completely agree with you
17:26
there, Jim. Yeah.
17:28
So you talked about imprevada and that that healthcare
17:31
scenario, I'd like to hear more about that.
17:34
I mean you know is it make you I would imagine is making a lot of
17:39
productivity impact on top of just the security.
17:43
And like what I was, you know what impacted me First off was
17:47
you know the ability to get in there quickly and and have it be
17:50
reliable. But I would think from a
17:51
productivity standpoint it's also like a huge impact.
17:55
But what do you what do you really see out of this
17:57
improvised use case? Yeah.
17:59
So they, you know, jointly, we conducted a study a while back
18:03
where improvised. I went out there to some of
18:06
their end users and started to understand like what is the real
18:09
return on investment that a healthcare organization's
18:12
getting out of this, this joint solution, right.
18:15
And So what they found was a lot of these nurses were typing in a
18:19
password up to 70 times a day, you know, so and and they
18:24
started do a little bit of a time study around it and they
18:27
found that each clinician, so a nurse as an example was saving
18:31
upwards of 45 minutes per shift just by not having to type in
18:35
their password or do a password reset.
18:38
So there was, there was time savings there of 45 minutes per
18:42
person but then when you factor in the actual password resets
18:46
that caused their IT team time and money that was an additional
18:51
$770 per password reset that they had to do as well.
18:55
So I think at the end it, it looked like with some of the
18:59
major hospitals they were saving upwards of $1,000,000 a year
19:03
just on on cutting out password resets.
19:06
Yeah, there's no doubt that they're saving money.
19:08
But I also think, like from a security standpoint, if you just
19:13
type your password 70 times a day, guess what you're doing,
19:15
you're picking the easiest password.
19:17
And then when it comes time to change your password, you're
19:20
just adding an extra exclamation point or a dollar sign or
19:24
whatever you do to kind of increment it.
19:27
But you know, bro, just to kind of key off of one thing that you
19:30
mentioned and I don't, you know, you just mentioned it once, but
19:34
you mentioned something about secure printers.
19:37
So can you expand on that use case a little bit?
19:39
So secure printing, the use case there is when you look at highly
19:44
regulated environments like finance, like healthcare where
19:49
information that is printed on a multi functional printer can be,
19:53
you know it's it's somebody's privacy, right, it's somebody's
19:56
confidential information, you have regulations like HIPAA.
20:00
And the Sarbanes-Oxley act where you can't be leaving
20:05
confidential information just laying around.
20:07
And so with secure printing, what that enables an
20:10
organization to do is, you know, a typical scenario is, you know,
20:15
I go to my workstation, I go to hit the print button and then
20:18
when I walk over to the multi functional printer, the paper's
20:22
already already there, right? So I just pick it up and I walk
20:24
away. But in these, in these
20:27
environments where it's highly regulated, this information just
20:30
can't be laying on the printer, right?
20:31
Somebody forgets about it, somebody else comes over, they
20:34
grab the paperwork and all of a sudden somebody's Social
20:37
Security number is is stolen, right?
20:39
Somebody's patient information is is taken.
20:42
And so the way it works with our technology is our readers are
20:46
embedded into these printers. And so I go to my workstation, I
20:49
print it. Nothing actually prints onto the
20:52
printer until I actually walk up to the printer.
20:54
I tap my badge on the reader that's embedded within the
20:57
printer and then it actually releases the job, the print job.
21:00
Yeah. I mean I've always said like as
21:02
IT professionals one of the things that we need to do is
21:07
make things more automated make people more efficient.
21:10
This sounds it's like it's right up that that alley where and
21:14
besides the environmental factor right instead of like getting
21:18
printed and someone just tossing in the trash can never gets
21:21
printed until actually the receiver is there to cap it and
21:24
get it. So I love all those factors kind
21:27
of getting the sense that you're talking about like there's just
21:31
OEM embedding use cases and I'm wondering how does, how do you
21:37
go about integrating your technology into other products?
21:42
Yeah. So we actually have a portfolio
21:45
Wave ID is really the the base of our portfolio and within
21:49
there we have several different form factors.
21:52
You know, there's desktop readers, we have these what we
21:55
call nano readers that are you know the the the world's
21:58
basically smallest credential reader on the market today.
22:02
But part part of that portfolio is also our OEM embedded modules
22:06
that we work with different, you know, print laptop, you know
22:12
medical device manufacturers out there where they want to have
22:15
secure authentication as part of their overall hardware.
22:20
And so we'll work with them to make sure that you know we
22:23
conduct A sizing study and embed our technology with them and
22:27
then along the ways get get the certification that's required
22:30
like FDA and everything else. So, So yeah, we work with a lot
22:34
of a lot of hardware manufacturers that want to
22:36
implement secure authentication as part of their end product.
22:40
Now imagine that you're probably working with lots of partners in
22:42
that space and I guess sort of that you know go to market
22:46
strategy of how do you, how do you get your product in the
22:48
hands of as many people as possible, right.
22:49
That's that's sort of the goal here.
22:51
So I guess is that, you know, that sounds like that's one of
22:55
the methods. Are there other methods of how,
22:57
you know, how do you get this thing to become like, Oh yeah,
22:59
This is why aren't we using this everywhere else?
23:01
Is it are you talking to customers, Are you talking to
23:04
like partners? Are you talking to, you know,
23:07
the Octas, the pings, the Microsofts of the world say,
23:09
hey, you know, we've got this fantastic product, how can we
23:12
work together? What are What are some of the
23:13
ideas that you've got there? No pun intended.
23:17
Yeah, Jeff, it's a great question.
23:19
I I think when you look at kind of you know we call it the
23:22
routes, the market, there's three different avenues that
23:25
that we kind of go to market. The the first one is kind of
23:28
your traditional systems integrators or or value added
23:32
resellers that you know they own the relationship with the
23:36
customer out there. They're kind of presenting
23:39
different solutions, understanding what the pain
23:41
points and then they come to us and say hey this is what my
23:44
customers pain points are, help us find a solution for that
23:48
customer. And so we you know we sell the
23:51
products through our distribution channel down to our
23:53
channel partners and then ultimately they're the ones
23:56
selling the product to the end user that's that's kind of the
24:00
first throughout the market. The second one is through Isvs
24:03
or independent software vendors. So we work with you know variety
24:07
of different application software providers.
24:11
So we mentioned a few like print management software.
24:14
You know, there's time and attendance software.
24:17
There's things like single sign on like like Improvata use case
24:20
that we talked about. And what we'll do is we'll work
24:23
with a lot of these Isvs, work on an integration between their
24:27
software and our hardware. And then ultimately they're
24:30
going to market with the full solution, the full software and
24:33
hardware solution. And then the third one is the
24:35
one that we just touched on a couple minutes ago, which is the
24:38
OEM route, right. So we work with some of the OEM
24:41
manufacturers again in the in the print space, laptops,
24:46
medical devices where they'll take our OEM modules embedded
24:50
into their hardware technology and then they sell it as a
24:53
full-fledged system or solution to to the customer.
24:56
So we are our primary go to market strategy is to go through
25:00
the channel. We don't really sell direct at
25:03
all. So we we tend to go through the
25:06
channel. You know what I, I see the
25:10
trending so much in the digital identity space is just this move
25:15
from password, you know, knowledge based authentication
25:19
to possession based authentication.
25:22
Sorry, I was actually wondering, you know, I saw a brochure that
25:26
you guys have around your digital wallet technology.
25:30
It's just like I was drawn to it.
25:33
It's like a a mobile app. Maybe you can tell us a little
25:36
bit about it. Yeah.
25:38
So it's been highly, highly requested years ago.
25:42
We, we started in the the Bluetooth space recently.
25:46
Now folks want to kind of go more of the the NFC route.
25:50
So kind of like an Apple wall integration.
25:53
So with the Apple Wall integration, you know you're
25:55
offering customers still a tap and go experience.
25:59
So you have your your credential on your phone embedded inside
26:02
your Apple Wallet, still a tap and go experience somewhere to a
26:08
way that you would present a card and also giving the
26:12
customer an even more secure credential.
26:15
Yeah, I think what's what's really cool about it is
26:18
obviously as an app there's no hardware cost, right you're
26:21
you're pushing it down to somebody's pre-existing, you
26:26
know that a device that they probably own themselves.
26:29
So it it kind of manages that hurdle, but at the same time you
26:35
potentially still have the option for the hardware based
26:39
solution. I'm just wondering like that
26:42
seems like an industry trend. What are some of the other
26:46
trends that you're seeing, Raul? Yeah.
26:49
So I mean just to add on a little bit more on the mobile
26:51
credentials, we look at you know 2023 for our organization, you
26:55
know, three of the four largest deployments that we had in 23
26:59
were all mobile credentials, right.
27:01
I I think we're starting to see a lot more organizations that
27:05
want a future proof their environment and kind of start to
27:09
stray a little bit away from ID, from physical ID batches, which
27:12
you know what we continue to support.
27:14
We see a lot of environments where they still want to have a
27:17
combination of physical batches for one part of their office and
27:21
mobile for another part of their for for their office.
27:24
So but we are starting to see a big shift away from physical to
27:29
mobile and in particular as Sarah mentioned kind of the
27:33
shift to NFC in particular or the OR the digital wallets.
27:37
And and we really simply launched a press release about a
27:40
month ago where we just became Apple certified for for the
27:44
Apple Wallet. But in terms of other you know
27:47
trends that we're seeing out there is for those organizations
27:51
that still want to stay with their physical badge this big
27:54
move to secure credentials, right.
27:56
So proximity is kind of, you know, was the first flavor of ID
28:01
badges that ever existed out there.
28:03
What we've come to find obviously now you know that
28:06
we've been in this space for a while is that proximity
28:09
credentials are not the most secure, right.
28:12
You know, somebody can take it, replicate it and and can you
28:15
know hack into your your facility, right, from a physical
28:18
access control perspective. But and the same thing for
28:21
logical right, somebody steals your badge but now with physical
28:25
what we're starting to see is you know is more a move to
28:30
secure credentials within their environment.
28:32
So they want some level of encryption.
28:35
And then to add another piece to it is you start to see this move
28:39
to multi factor authentication where you know they're assigning
28:43
either pass keys or a personal PIN or even biometrics to kind
28:48
of have that second and third layer of security for for their
28:52
employees. Yeah, you know, it's got me
28:55
thinking. So we got the shared workstation
28:58
scenario, let's say the hospital room.
29:01
Then you've also got folks who are, you know, maybe using
29:05
laptops, but they're more stationary, but still have this
29:08
use case that we're talking about from a hardware
29:12
perspective, I mean, do are we looking at the same thing?
29:16
Are the those proximity readers basically the same device
29:19
whether you're talking about like a corporate workstation or
29:24
something in the clinical setting?
29:26
Yeah, I mean we we have several different form factors of how
29:30
you know organizations want to deploy our readers.
29:33
We do have some that are mounted on walls, some of them that are
29:37
sitting on a desk. But at the end of the day the
29:39
beauty of our technology is we do have you know readers that
29:43
support all different technologies in one, right.
29:45
So as an example or Wave ID Mobile Mini is is one of the
29:50
products in our offering where you know in that same device, if
29:54
they want to support Apple Wallet credentials, if they want
29:58
to support BLE credentials, if they want to support physical
30:02
credentials, they can do that by standardizing on one product
30:06
within their whole environment. Yeah.
30:08
So it seems like you guys are are really like on this edge of
30:13
using the the mobile device. What about biometrics?
30:19
Because I think biometrics is kind of like the the trend
30:23
that's really picking up steam with the Face ID technology and
30:27
things like that. Where does that fit into?
30:31
You know, your stack of solutions?
30:34
Yeah, So we have a a product called the, the Wave ID bio.
30:39
The wave ID bio basically incorporates all these great RF
30:42
technologies that we've been discussing along with a
30:46
fingerprint scanner. So when we're talking in a world
30:49
of even multi factor authentication, you can scan
30:53
your ID badge and then also scan your your fingerprint for one
30:58
way to have a multi factor authentication.
31:01
Some of our partners also I mean they've they've embedded this
31:04
product into their product. So making it very, very easy,
31:09
especially let's say in a healthcare scenario to have
31:13
literally right at their fingertips a way of doing multi
31:16
factor authentication, biometric and RFI.
31:19
Think this is a really important concept.
31:21
So can these kind of traditional proximity cards and like a wave
31:27
ID bio live side by side you know all and because to me
31:33
that's always the challenge in IT is marrying legacy
31:38
technologies and I'm not calling the it's still much better than
31:42
the password right. But like now there's more
31:45
cutting edge stuff and having them live side by side.
31:49
I think that's the the real ticket.
31:52
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it's a all in one product.
31:55
So still leveraging you know whether you have an HID Prox
31:58
badge or you know any any of the 100 badges that we that we
32:02
support you can you can still use those along with the the
32:06
biometric reader. Back in my day, I used to manage
32:10
physical security, which meant ID badges and readers and things
32:13
like that. And I think one of the things
32:15
that I was when I was reading up on your company, one of the
32:17
features out there is Reader Remote Management, which sounds
32:20
very interesting to me because that is not something that I had
32:23
before. So that meant I had to go out to
32:25
specific readers, make sure they were, you know, connected to the
32:27
networks, download card holder data, right?
32:30
All that stuff. For those who aren't familiar
32:32
with Reader remote management, tell us about what that is and
32:37
why that is so important for people who haven't experienced
32:40
that joy yet. Yeah, so one of the overwhelming
32:44
demands we've started to get from not only our partners but
32:48
end users is these readers are great, right?
32:51
They work seamlessly with the different credentials types that
32:55
are out there and what they have deployed in their environment.
32:58
But what they wanted to, you know, what they've Billy been
33:01
asking RF ideas for is a way to manage their devices in the
33:05
field. So anytime there's a requirement
33:08
for a firmware update, whether that's to, you know, fix bugs,
33:12
whether that's to update feature enhancements on our devices, you
33:17
know, historically it was a little bit of a pain to update
33:20
our readers with that firmware, right?
33:22
They had to go to every individual reader and tap a
33:26
configuration card or connect it to their PC and use some of our
33:30
software tools to be able to do that.
33:32
Well, this concept of, you know, device management has been, you
33:37
know, out there for a long time, especially in mobile devices.
33:40
And so we kind of replicated that same concept to say, hey,
33:44
we're going to build this tool that enables organizations that
33:47
can you know update all their fleet of readers on their
33:52
network all at once, right. And just like with mobile
33:55
devices, they, they do it probably after hours and IT team
34:00
will just push out an update and let all their readers get
34:03
updated overnight, right. To to be able to do that
34:05
seamlessly versus having to go one by one and waste IT
34:09
resources, time and money. So it's just a much, much more
34:12
efficient way for organizations to update their readers or
34:15
reconfigure their readers. You know, very often we're
34:18
seeing organizations that are shifting from 1 credential to
34:21
another. You know, that could be a
34:22
physical credential to a mobile credential.
34:25
And this is a way to reconfigure those devices to now say, hey,
34:28
we're now reading this new mobile credential and let's
34:31
update all the readers to be able to read that new updated
34:34
mobile credential. I would imagine that helps too,
34:36
with making sure that things stay current for threats and
34:38
attacks, right? There's always something that's
34:40
needs to be patched or updated. I guess from a security
34:43
perspective it helps with that as well, right?
34:46
Being able to deploy a patch or firmware updated, whatever it
34:49
may be right to stay on top of things.
34:52
Absolutely. Yeah.
34:53
I mean any any bugs we found any security you know risk that we
34:57
found it's the great thing is we have a great customer and
35:01
partner base out there that that brings us things to our
35:03
attention. And you know where we run as a
35:06
very nimble organization our engineering team is jumps right
35:09
on these these bugs and and whatever we we find a a patch
35:13
for it. We we redeploy the the new
35:15
firmware and then we get it out to our partners and customers
35:18
and you know more times than not we can fix these things in in
35:21
less than 24 hours. So we've been talking about
35:24
password less kind of throughout here as kind of a common thread.
35:26
It seems like it's weaving its way around, which is great.
35:29
I don't know anybody who likes passwords.
35:31
I was browsing the site and it came across this Converge ID
35:35
Password Plat Password less platform and it talks about
35:39
basically converting over to Fido 2 security credentials,
35:43
which is fantastic. And we certainly have, you know,
35:46
talked with Fido people in the past.
35:48
This is one of those first steps to removing passwords.
35:51
But can you talk a little bit about the Converge ID platform,
35:55
the password list platform and how that differs maybe from
35:58
something like Wave ID, which you've mentioned as well?
36:00
Because I know we're going to talk about that here in a second
36:01
too. I want to ask you about that.
36:03
Sure. So the Converge ID is our
36:05
solution for users to have a password list experience.
36:10
What's really cool about the solution and what sets us apart
36:13
from other Fido 2 software solutions is that we can take
36:17
the users current badge that they use to get into the door or
36:22
whatever they're using it for. So it can be a a standard prox
36:25
badge. Basically what the solution does
36:27
is it turns it into a a Fido badge, so no added cost to the
36:34
customer consumer and then offering that the extra layer of
36:37
security. That's pretty amazing, I think.
36:39
You take you so you take your existing badge.
36:40
You don't have to rebadge your population, which is a pain in
36:43
the butt. Yes, and expensive.
36:46
And expensive. Yeah.
36:47
And logistically a nightmare. And yeah, I've.
36:49
I've been through that. I don't wish that anybody.
36:51
Sometimes you have to do it for no, you know, for for reasons.
36:53
But so I can take my existing ID badge, convert it into a
36:57
password list credential, and then combine that with a wave ID
37:02
reader. Is that how that would work to
37:04
do? That that's exactly how it would
37:06
work. So it's basically taking you
37:08
know the option to to log in using the security key but
37:11
instead of actually having to have that that Fido key using
37:14
your your prox badges the Fido key and then in turn you can
37:17
turn that into multi factor by adding a pen on the other side
37:21
of that so. So tell me about the Wave ID
37:23
platform then how is that different from the Converge ID
37:27
password WAS platform? We've got Wave ID platform to
37:31
help me understand sort of the positioning of of Wave ID and
37:34
how that interacts. Yeah.
37:36
So, so Converge ID, if you look at it that way, converge ID is
37:39
the software side of our portfolio.
37:42
Wave ID is the name that we give to our hardware platform.
37:45
So you know we have several products out there like the Wave
37:49
ID plus mini. We have the Wave ID Mobile Mini,
37:53
the Wave ID Nano, the Wave IDSP Plus and the OEM embedded
37:57
products. These are all part of our Wave
38:00
ID hardware platform. So these are the actual physical
38:03
credential readers that get deployed out there in different
38:07
environments. So if you look at the two,
38:09
Converge ID is our software, Wave ID is our hardware
38:11
platform. Gotcha.
38:13
So the combination of the both is really is really the
38:15
differentiator saying we've got both the hardware and the
38:17
software side, we're able to do this conversion, we've got
38:21
password lists, everybody's happy and everybody you know
38:25
that that the solution kind of works together.
38:26
And then you've got the OEM side of things where you're
38:29
integrating directly with other hardware vendors, right, that
38:32
might be out there as well to integrate that same technology.
38:35
So now you've got this cross-platform compatibility
38:37
which sounds pretty sounds almost too good to be true.
38:39
I'll be honest with you Rob. There's got to be a catch here
38:42
somewhere. Yeah.
38:43
Well, I I think the catch there Jeff is that we still need
38:46
partners to deploy this stuff, right.
38:48
I mean we don't, we don't do it, all right.
38:50
We we're still very, very, very reliant on our channel partners
38:54
out there whether that's the application software through our
38:57
Isvs, whether that's through the systems integrators who provide
39:00
their service and implementation and deployment services.
39:04
So. So while it sounds too good to
39:07
be true there with with the hardware and the software that
39:09
that we're kind of bringing to market, you know I I do want to
39:12
kind of re emphasize that you know we don't go to RAC, we we
39:15
are very reliant and we value our channel partners out there.
39:19
My initial impression when I looked at the RFI DS website was
39:25
man, you could really make a business out of this.
39:29
I think what I've I've come to listening to more about the
39:33
solutions today is like, well I see a huge value add here, but I
39:38
also see this is like a great model for your partners.
39:42
Yeah, no, it it's a great, you know if we look at our our
39:46
channel model, it's it's very, very traditional to what you see
39:49
with with other hardware manufacturers that sell through
39:53
a channel, right. And so the beauty and and the
39:56
advantage or the benefit for our partners is that you know they
39:59
can wrap around their services. They're the ones that own the
40:03
relationship with the end user customers.
40:06
And so you know, we just partner together behind the scenes to
40:10
make sure that we're providing the best solution for our
40:12
partners. But at the end of the day, they
40:15
own the relationship with the customers they're.
40:17
They're making their, their profitability, they're putting
40:19
their margin mark up on it and they can still be very highly
40:23
profitable. You know a lot of our, our
40:25
partners feel like you know the margins they make with our
40:28
products are are you know superior to to others out there
40:31
in the marketplace. And so it's it's kind of a win
40:34
win for all of us. Yeah, I mean the software by
40:38
itself isn't going to do anything without the hardware.
40:41
So you need the hardware. What does it?
40:44
I mean if is there a typical implementation, what does the,
40:47
you know, what does an implementation of your product
40:51
look like? Is it really that you're rolling
40:54
out the software and the hardware just is alongside of
40:56
that? How or do folks say already have
41:00
like a software like an Improvata environment and then
41:03
they're upgrading to a better hardware solution being RFI DS?
41:10
Yeah. So it really depends on on who
41:12
the software partner is that you are working with a partner like
41:15
Impervata, they've already leveraged our software
41:18
developers kit, all of our AP is within their software.
41:20
So a lot of times our our hardware is plug and play in
41:24
those situations with with other software solutions, you know it
41:29
would depend on you know the size of the location, what the
41:33
focus is for that vertical, the architecture that you're
41:36
deploying the reader into. So there are some variables
41:38
involved, but we are lucky enough to have really, really
41:41
great partners that we work with that have a really great
41:44
understanding of our product as well.
41:48
Yeah, that's really cool. Now if somebody already has
41:52
badging system that they use, can they take those existing
41:55
badges and leverage your hardware or do they need to
41:59
reinvest in new badges? No, see the the the batches that
42:04
they have because RF ideas we we read you know at least 100
42:08
different card types at this point and all of the the
42:10
industry leading card types out there we can basically read all
42:15
card types on the market that are low or high frequency.
42:17
Yeah, that's that's the beauty of it.
42:19
I mean I think as we kind of you know, I think Jeff started the
42:22
podcast here today is that you know we're we're merging these
42:26
two you know markets together, right, the physical and the
42:30
logical together. And and the beauty of our
42:32
technology is that organizations you know can leverage the
42:37
existing badge or the existing mobile credential that they're
42:40
already using for physical access, for logical access.
42:44
Now that user might need to have a different software, right,
42:47
whether that's single sign on or time and attendance for those
42:51
logical access solutions. But but again, it's it's the
42:54
beauty of our technology that our readers can already leverage
42:57
the existing credentials and and implement it for for anything
43:00
beyond the door. I love the idea of this because
43:03
I think it's an area that is under explored and under
43:06
leveraged in a lot of identity programs today is a lot of folks
43:10
draw the line at Oh well we handle logical access well, why
43:13
not parts of the physical as well.
43:15
What if you could use some of those things that were already
43:18
carrying around to do MFA? You know, hear a lot of times
43:21
like OK, well you know, can't use a phone or can't use these
43:24
other sort of form factors, but they have an ID badge.
43:28
Guess what, Now you've got you know potential for MFA between
43:32
that and you know other components of the of the EMFA
43:35
factors. So I love the idea of this and I
43:37
love especially with the fact that I don't have to rebadge all
43:40
of my employees, which is awesome.
43:41
So thank you for that. I want to end the conversation
43:45
on a lighter note and you know, we've had kind of a neck deep
43:49
conversation. I feel like getting really kind
43:51
of deep into RF ideas again, no pun intended readers, NFCHMIA,
44:01
whole bunch of other stuff. I want to talk sports and
44:04
Olympics specifically. So we're going to wrap up
44:07
today's show by talking about if you could compete in any Olympic
44:11
sport, summer or winter, doesn't matter, just Olympics.
44:15
Which one would it be and why? Sarah, I'm going to start with
44:19
you because I know you're itching to answer this question.
44:22
I am. Oh, OK.
44:24
I'm a huge sports fan. I'm not typically a fan of
44:27
winter. It's funny because I live near
44:29
Chicago, but I think I would have to go with bobsledding.
44:34
I don't know if it's from the Cool Runnings movie or say, the
44:38
Jamaican bobsledding or I I think it's would just be the
44:43
biggest adrenaline rush and I'm all for that.
44:46
So I would have to go with bobsledding and I've never done
44:49
anything like that before. OK, so that was my next question
44:51
is like, OK, so this is not based on any experience other
44:54
than just watching a movie and seeing like, oh, that looks cool
44:58
now would it be like solo or would it be like a bobsled team?
45:02
No, I feel like I would have to be with a team so that people
45:05
could calm my nerves while it's all happening instead.
45:09
Of just yelling your your entire face out the whole way down.
45:11
Yeah, I'd probably be that person.
45:13
Pretty much. Raul, how about yourself?
45:15
If you could compete in any Olympic sport, which one would
45:18
it be and why? Yeah, so I mean, maybe I'll
45:21
start Jeff with a little interesting fact about me.
45:24
I was, I was actually pretty close when I was 17 to
45:29
participating in the Olympics. So I was invited to try out for
45:34
the Team USA Junior Olympics for hockey.
45:37
Unfortunately, I got cut on the last cut and so I wasn't able to
45:41
participate. So I wasn't quite quite up to
45:43
par to to make the team. But, but I think it's a no
45:46
brainer for me. I mean, I've been playing hockey
45:48
since at the age of 6. I I now still am very, very
45:53
involved in youth hockey here. My daughter Alexandra plays
45:57
hockey. And so for me, I I would have
46:00
loved to have had a chance to participate at A at a Winter
46:04
Olympic hockey game in my time. Another Miracle on Ice per
46:08
chance. Exactly.
46:11
Jim, if you could compete in the Olympics, which sport?
46:13
I guess the obvious answer for me would be baseball, because
46:16
Lake Rowell said that was my sport growing up, but I can tell
46:20
you definitely not good enough to represent this country in
46:24
baseball. But a sport that I've always
46:27
thought that I would be good at was curling because I know how
46:30
to use a broom. I think I can get on one knee
46:35
and slide on the ice and I think it's kind of sport, like the
46:38
practices would be fun, bring your own 6 pack and you would
46:43
just practice for a few hours. Yeah, or just or just drink and
46:47
have the six pack at. At least right be on like the
46:52
backup to the backup. What about you Jeff?
46:54
You. Know this is a tough one because
46:56
it's a few different sports. I kind of ripped to my Rolodex
46:59
in my head here. I don't know if Taekwondo is
47:01
officially a sport yet or not, but that was something I did
47:05
when I was younger. But I'm actually most excited
47:07
for the flag football coming to the Olympics in the near future.
47:11
I love the NFL, That's my jam. And I think having played that
47:16
very long time ago, a much faster, slimmer, younger Jeff
47:20
was pretty decent at at football.
47:22
So I would be on the flag football team, sort of a
47:26
Christian McCaffrey type, kind of a scat back slot receiver and
47:31
also the kicker. Because.
47:33
This is what I did. So that you might pick
47:37
basketball, even though you're not really the hype for
47:39
basketball that was your. No, but I was good at basketball
47:41
too, when I was younger. So I was, I was, I was actually
47:44
probably much better at basketball when I was at
47:46
football. When I think about it, that was
47:47
probably a better pick. But I just like football, so
47:50
I'll stick with that final answer.
47:54
This has been a great conversation.
47:55
I really appreciate you guys taking the time to kind of
47:57
demystify this a little bit. This is an area that we really
48:00
haven't talked too much about in the past on this podcast, is
48:03
that blending in the physical and the logical worlds.
48:06
I think there should be more of this and I really hope people
48:09
take a look at some of the solutions you guys have out
48:10
there. You know, go out, visit the
48:12
website rfideas.com. We'll have some links in our
48:14
show notes for people to check out things.
48:16
But I love this idea of taking things that we're that people
48:21
are already familiar about. You do not have to train people
48:23
how to use an ID badge they already know.
48:25
So why not leverage a solution like that for multi factor
48:28
authentication or or heck even go into password lists.
48:30
Write things like that and chances are you property already
48:33
have a mix of the technologies you might already need.
48:35
But I would certainly encourage people go out, check out the
48:38
website connect with Raul or Sarah on LinkedIn.
48:41
We'll have their LinkedIn profiles and our show notes
48:43
roll. I want to turn over to you for
48:45
kind of final thoughts. For people who listen to this
48:47
episode, what's the one thing that they should take away from
48:50
this conversation? Yeah, I I think the one take
48:54
away here is and and Jeff kind of already touched on it is if
48:58
you're, if you're an organization that is looking to
49:01
kind of leverage the physical access credentials for logical
49:05
access. So you want to secure your
49:07
endpoints, you want to secure your networks, you want to
49:10
secure your data. You know we're the solution for
49:13
that, right? If you have a need for better
49:16
productivity, for better security, for regulatory
49:19
compliance, we're the good fit for that.
49:22
So you know, come visit us, you know, talk to Sarah and I and
49:25
and we're happy to help provide a consultation.
49:27
There, Yeah, so visit the website rfideas.com again, links
49:31
that we in our shows for people to check out.
49:32
We're on the web idacpodcast.com at Twitter IDAC podcast.
49:36
If you got questions that you wish you that we had asked, send
49:39
them our way and we'll if you don't reach out to Raul and
49:42
Sarah directly, we're happy to do it and maybe follow up in a
49:44
in the future episode. So with that, we'll go ahead and
49:47
leave it there for this episode. Appreciate everyone for
49:50
listening and we'll talk with everyone in the next one.
49:54
You've been listening to Identity at the Center.
49:58
We hope you've enjoyed the show. Make sure to like, rate and
50:02
review and we'll be back soon. But in the meantime, hit the
50:05
website at identity@thecenter.com and find
50:09
us on Twitter at IDAC Podcast. See you next time on Identity at
50:17
the Center.