Vendors that develop fingerprint templates and matchers usually develop their own proprietary algorithms, but there is one instance in which the vendors work together.
ANSI INCITS 378-2009 (S2019) specifies a universal fingerprint format, and vendors can develop 378-compatible template generators and matchers.
How are these measured? By NIST’s MINEX III testing.
When sorted in NIST default order for a false negative match rate at a given false match rate (“Pooled 2 Fingers FNMR @ FMR≤10-2“), the top vendors include IDEMIA, Innovatrics, and Neurotechnology.
But remember that this only matters when using ANSI INCITS 378 templates. It doesn’t matter if you’re using a vendor’s proprietary template.
So who uses ANSI INCITS 378 templates?
Cards and systems based upon Personal Identity Verification (PIV) templates, as specified by Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12) and FIPS 201.
Certain cards using Match-on-Card technology.
But most systems you encounter will NOT use ANSI INCITS 378, so the standard may not matter to you at all.
Do your customers care?
But even if you are deploying systems that use ANSI INCITS 378, your customers don’t care.
They just care about complying with federal regulations for PIV cards.
In 2021, I wrote a series of posts on the topic of communicating benefits, not features, to identity customers. The first post in the series is here; click at the top of the post to view the other three parts. (And yes, it was originally supposed to be a three-part series, until I wrote a fourth part on a company’s distinct voice.)
But if you don’t want to wade through four Bredemarket posts, just wade through the following two words:
But if that’s too short for you, I plunged into the Google NotebookLM world and repurposed the four posts as three separate pieces of content: an infographic, a podcast, and a video.
The benefits over features infographic, “Winning the Identity Customer”
I’ve never created a NotebookLM infographic before, so I was interested in seeing how this would turn out.
Infographic from Google NotebookLM.
It’s busy, but ALL infographics are busy. And I like how it visualizes the response-time differences between rapid DNA, biometrics, and computer aided dispatch, where “real time” can mean very different things.
We on the AFIS side learned this the hard way when we introduced ourselves to our new colleagues.
“Hi, SCC folks, welcome to Printrak. You’re joining a company that sells REAL TIME AFIS that delivers results within one minute! Aren’t you impressed?”
The ex-SCC people responded, gently disabusing us of our pretensions to speed.
“Hello, new corporate overlords. We provide computer aided dispatch systems that send police, fire, and medical personnel to crime scenes and emergency sites as soon as possible. If our CAD systems took AN ENTIRE MINUTE to dispatch personnel, PEOPLE WOULD DIE. We use really powerful computers to get personnel dispatched in a second. Enjoy your real time AFIS…amateurs.”
So the company Printrak learned that it needed separate benefit statements, depending upon the product line the company was promoting at any given time. The CAD customers received one set of benefit statements, while the AFIS customers received a separate set.
Because there are different benefits for different “hungry people.”
The benefits over features podcast, “Sell the Outcome, Not the Math”
Unlike infographics, I’ve created multiple NotebookLM podcasts over the years. If you’re not familiar with NotebookLM podcasts, they have two distinct…um…features.
The podcasts feature a male and female speaker chatting with each other about the subject matter.
The podcasts are relentlessly positive. If you are feeling down in the dumps, upload your resume to NotebookLM and have the two speakers talking about how wonderful you are.
Anyway, here’s how the two speakers treated my source material.
The benefits over features video, “Stop Selling Features”
Despite the fact that I haven’t been able to customize the video so it doesn’t have the NotebookLM “look.” One identity/biometric company is sharing these videos, and I can tell immediately that it’s NotebookLM content.
Nevertheless I wanted to see the video that I got.
Video from Google NotebookLM.
And I finally figured out that if I explicitly upload specific pictures into NotebookLM, they can appear in the final video. Look for this one at the three and a half minute mark.
Perhaps I’ll experiment with some of the other output available in NotebookLM, although there are some formats that I will probably never use.
If I’m going to create a slide deck, I’m going to create it myself.
I don’t really have a use for flash cards, mind maps, or quizzes. Unless you, my readers, REALLY REALLY REALLY want to be quizzed on benefits and features.
But I now have these three pieces of content. And perhaps the next time I discuss this topic, I can drag the infographic out of my WordPress media library.
For one thing, they’re easy to remember: why, how, what, goal, benefits, hungry people (target audience), emotions.
So I use these questions in actual client work.
The seven questions.
Using these questions with a Bredemarket client
Again, this isn’t just ivory tower stuff. I actually USE these questions. Here’s an anonymized example of how I recently used five of these seven questions to launch a new client project.
The questions I asked
Why is this document needed?
How will this document be used? As a download? As introductory text within proposals? As a demo script, video script, or webinar script?
What funnel stage(s) should this document address? Awareness? Consideration? Conversion?
As a related question, what is the primary goal of this document?
Who should be the target(s) for this document? Decision-makers? Technologists?
Approximate document length?
Just between you and me, “approximate document length” is one of the questions I ask AFTER I’ve asked my initial seven questions. I normally don’t talk about my other questions (if I tell you about them I will have to kill you), but they’re there.
The questions I didn’t ask
And no, I felt no driving need to ask about the benefits of the document. The chief benefit is more sales of the product that the document will describe.
And in this case I didn’t ask about emotions. Perhaps I’ll address that once I have a better feel for the document and start writing it.
It’s too early to say how these questions will shape the final content, because I just asked them. But I believe the answers will give me a rapid head start on creating the client’s deliverable.
So what?
But you don’t care about my client (unless you ARE my client and are reading this). You care about YOUR content.
How can my question process help you create stellar content and more sales of YOUR product?
If you want me to annoy YOU with a lot of questions (in the same way that I annoy my existing clients), set up a free meeting.
4th Sector Innovations is no longer in Ontario—they paved paradise, put up a parking lot.
But bridges are just as important in 2026 as they were in 2021.
“Without a bridge, you’re stuck at one place and can’t get to the other place. Or you can try to get to the other place, but you may get very wet.
“Businesses need bridges to connect with their customers. When the bridges are erected, the customers understand what the businesses can do for them. If the customers need those particular services, they can buy them.”
This is critically important when the business is extremely technical but the customers and prospects aren’t. How does this amazing technology benefit the customers? Do they make more money? Do they keep their cities safer?
We were both saying the same thing, but from different perspectives.
Here’s part of how Wheatley put it.
“Focus on care and concern – reach out, offer help, stay true to your company purpose and values.
“Meet your customers where they are – both where they ‘hang out’ now, and to meet their current concerns.”
But it’s important to remember why you’re doing this.
“Building a good marketing plan helps motivate your audience to take the next step. And, in the end, to say “yes” to what you’re offering.
“But of course, they need to want to come. Your intent needs to be authentic. It will be if you genuinely believe that you can offer them value (and they recognise that) and you want to be in the relationship for the long term, not just to make a quick sale this quarter.”
Earlier this week I signed a contract with a former client from the first stint of Bredemarket (2020-2022). I had to end that contract because my then-new employer Incode competed with my client.
But then Incode became my ex-employer, and eventually my former client came back.
Bredemarket 