Finnish Ministry tests SisuID biometrics, Nixu restructures Amsterdam team

The Ministry of Education and Culture in Finland has taken part in the biometric authentication pilot SisuID to enhance international student experience and deliver a frictionless process before they arrive in Finland, announced Nixu Corporation.

To ensure Finland maintains the quality of its educational system, the country wants to improve the application process, immigration and integration of students. The current process is lengthy and complicated specifically for students from non-EU countries.

Each education institution within the Agency for Education and the Immigration Service gather information in their own systems. When moving to Finland, students have to share their personal data with a number of institutions and services, and physically interact with service points both in their home country and Finland. Service providers usually reach out via email or ask the student to use individual user accounts for each service, which could put data transferred between institutions at risk.

SisuID lets the students create a digital identity and an identification tool is then used to log in all channels and across all sectors. This will speed up the application process, reduce the number of information forms to fill in and the number of trips to service points, and switch to electronic licenses from plastic cards, Nixu says.

SisuID is an initiative created by Digital Living International, Suomen Tilaajavastuu, and the Sandbox of Trust, which is led by Nixu.

Nixu Corporation moving team to Romania

Nixu also announced it is restructuring its Amsterdam office, and moving employees from the Dedicated Support Business Unit in Amsterdam to Romania. The unit has been delivering digital identity support services from both locations, which has proven ineffective. The Dedicated Support Business Unit will focus solely on Romanian operations and will function as an internal Nixu Service Center for back-office support for the whole company.

A workforce reduction plan will be set up for employees within Nixu Dedicated Support Business Unit who cannot transfer to Romania. The one-time costs are estimated at of 500,000 euro (US$553,531), with the costs to be incurred during financial year 2019.

“Restructuring of Dedicated Support Business Unit is part of Nixu’s already earlier communicated focus on streamlining our service offering and gaining associated synergies. The Service Center in Romania will continue to serve its existing clients normally with the third level support of other Nixu digital identity professionals in different Nixu locations. The other Dutch business units providing high-end cybersecurity services will also continue on their growth path,” Nixu CEO Petri Kairinen said.

Nixu has been on the Romanian market since 2017, when it acquired Expert Solution Support Center BV with operations in the United States, Romania and Australia.

Article Topics

authentication  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  facial recognition  |  identity document  |  Nixu  |  SisuID