It requires just a mobile phone to speed up the verification process and save cost.
Named Odyssey Epic, the product is typically loaded into a mobile phone that has a GPRS connection, a camera and a Windows operating system, to create a paperless verification and enrolment system.
It obviates the need to collect paper documents and photographs in physical format. Instead, it facilitates acquisition of the information directly from any client in a digital format through the use of a mobile phone loaded with Odyssey Epic software by a visiting agent of the organisation enrolling the client. While it takes nearly seven days for a bank to process the physically obtained papers/documents and put them into a digital format, it is done real time using Odyssey Epic.
According to Robert Raja, Chairman and Managing Director of Odyssey Technology, the verification process costs nearly Rs.100 a customer(the filing processes include photo-copying of document, taking the photograph of the customer and the like).The verification could be done at a practically low cost if done through the use of Odyssey Epic, he said. The Reserve Bank of India, too, accepted the digital form of documents that could be sent using the mobile phones, he pointed out. Usually, the digitization of documents was done at the enrolling organisation-end. However, in this instance, Odyssey Epic could do it at the beginning stage itself, he pointed out.
The verification process using Odyssey Epic typically works thus. A visiting agent of an enrolling organisation captures the data relating to the client in his Odyssey Epic-loaded mobile phone using the in-built camera. He takes the picture of the person who is enrolled and also the `verification' document (say, a driving licence).
The software application (Odyssey Epic) converts the textual inputs and images into a single PDF document. The agent then digitally signs it, using the smart card in the phone and a digital certificate that is previously issued to the agent. This ensures the `authenticity and integrity' of the collected data, facilitating the enrolling organisation to store them directly.
The security features were encrypted in an external mobile security card, Mr. Raja said. Odyssey would provide the software (in the mobile and at the backend of the client) to customers for Rs.5,000 to Rs.7,000 per agent.
