ACURA acts as manufacturer and distributor of high value equipments, software and accessories for Access Control and Timeclock Control, notably readers, antennas and RFID tags, and also biometric terminals and modules. We have more than 600 active resellers in the country, and big manufacturers of security systems.
We seek to amplify the potential of using RFID and Biometr, using the existing simetry between them for use in the area of access control. We always focus business on channels, and this makes all sense in a continental country like ours. The dissemination of our RFID and Biometric products and solutions depends fundamentally on continuous training of our resellers and system integrators.
We can narrow down to two advantages.
The first one is the great potential, in terms of integrated security, in using RFID chips over systems based on legacy technologies, like barcodes or magnetic stripes. However possible, it is not very probable to counterfeit RFID carts for use in access control systems. The use of RFID in vehicle identification, which is arriving at great speed in the big urban centers of the country, also improved the security in access to residential and commercial complexes, schools, airports, etc.
The second advantage to be highlighted is the confort offered by RFID. In the case of badges in access control systems, this technology allows identification without physical contact, through radiofrequency waves, resulting in great benefits for the end user. The use in vehicles offers great advantages since the automobile can be identified in motion and automatically, with RFID tags normally installed in windshields, similar to electronic systems already used in toll stations.
Korea is today known by excellence in education and innovation, and also quality, design and performance. Companies like Samsung, LG, Hyundai, Kia, to name the most renowned, have been dominating the world scenario in their respective areas. VIRDI of Brazil is a Joint Venture of ACURA Global and VIRDI, biggest Biometry company of South Korea and one of the biggest in the world. The Made in Korea concept is part of our marketing strategy to link our Biometric products to the excellence grown by the Korean pairs.
From VIRDI, is undoubtedly the revolutionary biometric terminal AC-F100, with amazing finish and design and, above all else, highly innovative system which works with WiFi and may be operated through smartphone or tablet.
From ACURA Global, the Encrypted AutoID system, which increases security in automatic vehicle identification.
This partnership was celebrated in 2009 and was focused in offering OEM modules and biometric terminals straight from South Korea, and, in a second moment, the SKD manufacturing of these devices in the country, which shall start still this year.
Dimep, Telemática, Trix, IDDATA, RW, Trielo, Digicon, Vault, Maxtel, ASP, Task, Sigis, Nepos, WPS. We still have many others to which we certainly owe great part of our success and aknowledgement.
In a distinct way, once the big manufacturers of access control equipment prefer to use their own brands, which makes sense, using our products in OEM regulation. Others adopt our many brands as a way to consolidate their access control and timeclock solutions. The marketing is more focused on websites, and also social media and business events, and today, in lesser scale, printed media.
We are obviously not immune to lack of specialized handwork. We provide regular trainings in our company and in our meeting room, but we have also been succesfully using webinars, long distance trainings with the use of webconferencing tools.
It is still very important and we have been taking part of the main national security events annually. We have a main objective honor our business partners, using these events to narrow down our relations, without forgetting, however, to disclose in first hand new products, always highlighted in segment fair events.
We believe this sector have been growing steadily in the last years. The use of RFID in the health segment has vast applications. Among the main ones, we highlight the control to ensure the presence of doctors and health employees in public hospitals, avoiding frauds, hospital asset control, normally high cost equipment. RFID is also widely used in the control of babies in nursing homes, management of medicine in public and private network and authentication of original drugs, with the use of RFID labels, which prove their legal validities.
ACURA has prioritized constant innovation and pioneering. We introduce the concept of Smart Label, the automatic vehicle control system with RFID, the Mifare technology, best known as an electronic payment medium, in the use in access control systems and the dual technology, which embeds double technology in a single badge card, among others.
Brazil is very well positioned in the segment of RFID, however its adoption is uneven in the many regions of the country. The use of RFID in access control systems is widely disseminated in the big cities of the country, as it is observed in any commercial building, university, among others. In the same way, the use for vehicle access control and anti-theft applications systems is already common. We have in the country, also, a semiconductor factory already manufacturing RFID chips and we develop a proprietary standard for the toll system and national vehicle control, Siniav. I can securely say that Brazil is way ahead of its peers in Latin America and very close to USA in some sectors.
It can, and not only in access control systems. It is present, however, in the use of public transportation, industrial automation, animal identification, mining, logistics, transport, retail, so practically all economic sectors of the country.
We adopt worldwide standards. In terms of radiofusion legislation for the challenge of massification of RFID in the country.
We have branches in USA and Chile and a Joint Venture in Argentina. We carefully look at the countries with best performance in our region, such as Chile, Colombia, Peru and Mexico, which have potential for large scale adoption of our products and solutions.
We have been improving the security of our products, with the adoption of multileveled encryption. The highlight, however, is in the Brasil ID, a system which will be adopted nationally by all governmental spheres and private initiative. This system will act to drastically decrease tax evasion, through the control of cargo moved all over the country through chips.
Very high, with the Artesp system in SP and Siniav all over the country for use in vehicles. Aside from that, we can't forget the fact that many public offices use RFID technology for years, in access control systems. State companies as the Correios, Petrobrás and Metrô de SP are notorious examples, which give an idea of the adoption rate of this technology in the country.
Certainly the adoption of RFID in anti-theft vigilance systems, the called EAS. We also need to grow and distribute the technology to smaller urban centers. This start accentuating as the country growth happens outside of the Rio-São Paulo axis.
We are pretty optimistic for the second semester, which has already started off strong in terms of profit and new opportunities. We are consolidating the development of new products and seeking to expand our collaborators' board to not let business opportunities go to waste.
We don't have a big legacy of old technologies in Brazil and we use to skip steps. One example is the adoption of current technologies, sometimes before the USA. They have an opposite reality, with many legacy technologies, which take some time to be replaced. The difficulties exist, but they bring many opportunities. Brazil has a population which loves consuming technology and demanding more comfort and security. This is our market.
