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Cloud service answers question 'who are you?'

Verifying a customer's identity online can be incredibly challenging, but Scottish company miiCard is offering a potential solution for small businesses.
Written by Heather Clancy, Contributor

Later today, I have to visit my local motor vehicle agency to update my driver's license. Thanks to the realities of the world, I must bring a pile of documents to prove that I am who I say I am. There's even a slick brochure listing all the different ways I can verify my identity. (I wonder how much that cost to produce?)

The identity verification process can get even dicier online, which can make it difficult for small doctor's offices, legal services, or real estate firms to streamline some of their document workflow processes - even though it would be far more efficient for them to take them digital.

Enter DirectID Check, a cloud-hosted service from Scottish company miiCard targeted at companies that require proof that is as rigorous as an offline photo identity check.

Specifically, it supports Level of Assurance 3, which is a fancy way of saying that you can have "high confidence" in the identity of someone trying to sign into a portal.

The service is being targeted at law firms, real estate agencies, doctors offices and other small companies that might not have the resources (financial or otherwise) to include this sort of identity verification on their own Web sites.

Said one customer, Paul Atkinson, a partner at investment firm Par Equity:

"Identity proofing of clients is a regulatory requirement to providing services in industries like ours and in recruitment. To be able to remove the manual administration process of physical document checks, like we currently do, and have customers verify their identities all online using miiCard, means businesses can focus on delivering better service to clients sooner."

Although the service usually costs about $20 per year, for limited daily identification requirements, miiCard currently is waiving that fee in order to get more small companies to sign up for its service.

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