NFC stands for Near Field Communications technologies. Essentially, it is a wireless communication standard which enables components to “speak” to one another over short ranges (of about 2 inches). NFC technology is embedded into almost every smartphone released today, and many different industries use it for day to day applications such as digital wallets, public transportation cards, NFC based locks and more. The FinestGov.com™ team of experts have years of experience utilizing NFC technology and we believe it ads significant value to the usability and to the safety our platform and to our range of products and services.
How do we use NFC?
The technology is based on placing a mobile phone close to another object. Once the two come in contact, the NFC component “comes to life” and data communication begins.
NFC in FinestGov™
FinestGov™ makes extensive use of NFC technologies in the following ways:
- Each employee (field worker or mobile contractor) has his own personal secure NFC tag. With this tag the employee can login into the system through our secure app on his smartphone, simply by attaching the tag to the device. The FinestGov™ application reads the NFC’s unique ID and identifies the employee. This procedure replaces the manual entry of the employee’s username and password during each login, which both saves time, and makes the login more secure. We also provide organizations with double and triple confirm methods where both the NFC tag and the password plus a specially received pass code, which is sent through a messenger or via SMS all need to be used in conjunction to log into the system.
- Each location or checkpoint, has a unique NFC sticker installed on it which uniquely identifies that checkpoint, point of interest or location. In order to verify that the employee did physical arrive at the right location during their visit, the employee simply reads the checkpoint’s NFC tag with their smartphone or another FinestGov™ enabled device. The system then reads the NFC tag’s unique ID and checks and verifies whether or not the checkpoint is the right location for the visit ( each route is pre-planned for the employees, thus saving time and maximizing efficiency. Each employee can request to change their route, for various reasons and the system will allow the manager to create allowances for such changes. This also guarantees that each employee actually shows up at each location, and stays there for the time duration, that they are supposed to be there (the employee, can be required to read the NFC tag again as they are leaving the location, after they are done), while also allowing the employee to record photographs, video or audio as proof of some of the more important tasks actually being completed, for record keeping, and for the protection of both employees and management.