Garden Fresh Says No to Restaurant Theft and Fraud With DigitalPersona Fingerprint Biometrics

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Sept. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- DigitalPersona, Inc., a global provider of authentication and endpoint protection solutions, today announced Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp. has rolled out DigitalPersona® U.are.U® Fingerprint Biometrics in 122 Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes restaurant locations throughout 15 states. Garden Fresh deployed biometric fingerprint readers with the Volante Systems Point-of-Sale (POS)  software to provide employees accountability and reduce unauthorized discounts and overrides.

(Photo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110614/SF19198)

Prior to installing fingerprint biometrics, employees used electronic registers that required a key to manage refunds, voids and discounts. The system made it difficult to track and identify who was actually accessing the cash drawer and authorizing transactions because keys were often shared. As a result, restaurants suffered losses that directly impacted the bottom line. Garden Fresh significantly reduced unauthorized transactions by replacing the electronic registers with new POS hardware software and U.are.U Fingerprint Readers.

In addition to combating employee theft, fingerprint biometrics help Garden Fresh show compliance with PCI-DSS requirements that require proof of controlled access to credit processing devices. Fingerprint biometrics enhance the security of POS systems, making it very difficult for unauthorized users to access the system. Due to the success of DigitalPersona's U.are.U fingerprint readers, the corporation plans to extend biometrics to its time and attendance system to eliminate buddy-punching and payroll fraud.

"We chose DigitalPersona's fingerprint biometrics solution because it was easy to integrate into both our POS system and our Linux-based business applications," said Rich Thomson, VP of Management Information Systems at Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp. "U.are.U Fingerprint Readers provide us a fast and simple way to reduce unauthorized transactions."

DigitalPersona's U.are.U Fingerprint Readers have been integrated into more than 90 percent of the biometric POS terminals in the U.S.(1) and are supported by a variety of commercial POS applications. They provide a reliable and verifiable authentication solution for accessing POS systems such as the ones deployed by Garden Fresh. Biometrically-enabled systems can significantly decrease unauthorized transactions and payroll fraud. DigitalPersona's Software Development Kits support the most popular programming environments, including Linux, enabling software developers such as Volante Systems to add the certainty, simplicity and efficiency of fingerprint authentication to their applications.

"Our fingerprint biometrics provides restaurant chains like Garden Fresh a fast and simple way to decrease inventory shrink and enhance employee accountability," said Jim Fulton, vice president of marketing at DigitalPersona. "And, as the most widely available biometric solution in the POS industry, DigitalPersona makes it easy for restaurateurs and retailers to reap the benefits and immediate ROI of biometrics on top of their existing systems."

About DigitalPersona

DigitalPersona, Inc. is a global provider of authentication and endpoint protection solutions that make security simple, practical and affordable for businesses of all sizes. The company helps enterprises, government agencies, custom application developers and independent software vendors close the gap between people and security to efficiently address growing compliance and fraud-prevention demands. DigitalPersona's award-winning technology is offered by market-leading computer manufacturers and solution providers around the world. For more information contact DigitalPersona, Inc. at: +1 650.474.4000, or visit www.digitalpersona.com.

© 2011 DigitalPersona, Inc. All rights reserved. DigitalPersona and U.are.U are trademarks of DigitalPersona, Inc. registered in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

(1) As determined from a list of current commercially available biometric POS terminals

SOURCE DigitalPersona, Inc.