Category: English

Three technological solutions to facilitate consular operations and promote safer travel were presented at a ceremony chaired by the exiting Minister of Foreign Affairs, Heraldo Muñoz. Self-service modules, a mini website and a mobile device application will be available in the upcoming days.

Santiago, March. – Thousands of citizens travel monthly to other countries, not only for vacations but for business or studies. Like them, another important number of Chileans living abroad, need to access various technological tools to obtain consular documents or travel information. That’s why the Ministry of Foreign Affairs developed three technological solutions to facilitate their stay abroad.

The exiting Minister of Foreign Affairs Heraldo Muñoz, announced the instruments’ operation and noted that “we’re working to modernize consular services, due to the high demand that is reflected in the more than one million three hundred thousand consular actions registered by the Directorate General of Consular Affairs and the Consular Network. Technological initiatives are being implemented that allow us to bring our country closer to all Chileans, no matter where they are.”

With the Digital Government Unit’s support, the ministry will install self-service totems, initially in three cities – which will be reported soon – that don’t have consular offices, so that users can obtain the most requested documents by the State’s public services network, Fonasa membership/contribution certificates, cessation of coexistence, death, marriage and pensioner quality. These modules are manufactured by the Chilean company Vigatec, which works with the one-touch technology that correlates the applicant’s identity card and fingerprint to verify their identity.

Marcelo Díaz, Vigatec commercial manager considers that installing this equipment is a contribution to the nationals abroad, since it puts all the necessary services at their reach while saving them time and money. He states that “digitalizing certain State processes means that we can think that, in the future, citizens will be able to perform a greater number of procedures that could include the presidential vote.”

The other tools presented are the “Chile goes with you” application (Clvacontigo), designed to provide safety recommendations for trips to the 50 most visited tourist destinations, as well as information about the identity documents required for entry to each country, cultural information, among others. The microsite serviciosconsulares.gob.cl will be available on the chancellery website and aims to give easy access to the procedures that users demand the most, information about document legalizations, birth, marriage, death registrations, visas, apostilles, among others.

In the picture, Hugo Méndez,  Vigatec sales assistant manager, Juan José Muster, modernization issues adviser to the Directorate General of Consular Affairs and Immigration and Marcelo Díaz, Vigatec sales manager.

On Thursday, May 24^th, 2018, the following article was published: The Citizen’s Experience in Smart Cities.

Thousands of people carry out procedures expeditiously thanks to the self-care system that Vigatec manufactures for institutions such as Chile Atiende and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The main reason to create “Smarts Cities” is to improve the citizen’s experience through helpful digital devices.

To read the whole article, download it here.

The fair that brings suppliers together with the public and private market held its ninth version in the Mapocho Station Cultural Center, there, the technological solutions company Vigatec, presented some of its products and services, which help improve the citizen’s experience and control and secure institutions.

Santiago, May 2018.-  ExpoFEMER 2018 was held to show the solutions each participating company offers, the most important fair in the public and private market in which the integrated technological solutions company Vigatec, presented some of the solutions they offer.

The first of them was the vimatics line made up by products they themselves manufacture, it’s kiosks and self-service modules, which are used for service payments, obtaining documents, row management, among others, significantly improve the citizen’s experience and are used with very good results in state institutions. In addition, equipment manufacturing and payment method card issuance, personalization, among others, were presented.

Another of the solutions presented were those related to electronic security, such as televigilance cameras, attendance and access control, biometric fingerprint identification and facial recognition.

Carolina Lacalle, Vimatic Solutions Software Deputy Manager at Vigatec, says that the company’s participation in this type of fairs is an opportunity to expand their business opportunities, “it’s an important moment for the company, as it gets to present its solutions to the public market. These products seek to optimize and streamline the companies’ management processes so they can develop better in the current market”.

On June 21^st, 2018, the article Intelligent Waste Holders for Smart Cities was published.

The company Vigatec provides smart waste management solutions and innovation for the national and Latin American market. We’re talking about the IoT waste containers, which work with solar energy and significantly reduce waste collection costs by up to 80%.

To read the whole article, download it here.

On July 11^th, 2018, the article “Vertical Storage for all types of Industries” was published in El Mercurio newspaper.

Designed to revolutionize the company logistics, Vigatec presents an innovative automated vertical storage system. One of its main advantages is that it optimizes space, due to the different heights it can reach.

To read the whole article, download it here.

A LOOK AT THE PHYSICAL – DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF COMPANIES

The first edition of Vigatec Forum 2018 brought together more than 300 people, who were attracted by the concept “Beyond physical-digital convergence”. The event was visited by executives from other countries who wanted to learn about the digital transformation of services and the improvement of user experience proposed by the Chilean company, which has a presence in seven countries in the region.

Santiago, August 2018.- The concept of Vigatec Forum 2018 consisted of improving user experience through digital transformation. The Chilean company presented a series of exhibitions to demonstrate the tools and innovations they use to meet their users’ technological needs, as well as the services they manufacture and represent.

Some of the topics developed were the digitalization of services such as parking, logistics, payment methods, self-service, electronic security and environmental solutions. These solutions are available and executed successfully, but the challenge facing Vigatec lies on how to get a better customer satisfaction while using technology in these areas. How will technologies migrate to carry out this imminent digital transformation?

Marcelo Fernández, Vigatec’s CEO emphasized on the challenges that companies face at the moment, “the first has to do with knowing the users, connecting with them, with their behavior and with how they want to be served. The second is a change of mentality for our generation, how we adapt to the speed with which the world moves today and, finally, the synergy that we need to use in startups, which can do great things without a large investment capital and from a digital platform.”

Fernandez continues, “all that involves a very interesting competition, that has nothing to do with capitals, and all to do with adoption, with understanding what you want to do and how to use the available technologies, how we apply then and how to evaluate that information based on what the customer needs.”

The event was attended by international managers, executives and directives of large companies from all over the world. Vigatec Forum was conducted by the journalist María Elena Dressel, with the special participation of the radio and television presenter Nicolás Larraín, a panel that discussed the Physical – Digital Convergence, and was composed by Andrés Bustamante, Head of State Modernization, Ricardo Blumel, Transbank Marketing Manager, Wilson País, Director of Imagine Lab and Innovation Director of Microsoft and Jaime Navon, Deputy Director of Sciences of the PUC School of Engineering.

Talks were also offered by Vigatec executives and their partners, Modula, Hikvision, Synel, Datacard, Ingenico and Map city.

INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR FOR SAFE IDENTIFICATION

The Chilean company Vigatec organized, along with its associate Entrust Datacard, a two-day international seminar to explain technological novelties, global trends, methodologies and new design and printing practices to manufacture more secure identification documents.

Santiago, October 2018. – The State has the responsibility of providing citizens with identification documents that reflect their identity, name, picture, fingerprint, and other individual attributes that almost never change. However, it’s not just about supplying them, they must also guarantee that these are documents manufactured under high-security technological systems.

During the international company Entrust Datacard’s seminar, the Director of Government Relations, Zeca Pires, explained that fraud by credential and identity documents falsification leads to losses of up to 800 million dollars worldwide, according to the UN’s report. In addition, he added that Interpol has a 40 million projection for stolen or lost valid travel documents that have not yet been located, passports that could be used for identity theft or various types of fraud.

Regarding Chile, Zeca Pires compared the Chilean identification system, the quality of its credentials and identity concept, with countries from around the continent, “it’s one of the most advanced countries in this matter, it was the first to implement a passport and electronic passport project with very good security and reputation”.

He also talked about the challenge that the State has to create an infrastructure to take better advantage of the investment made to implement electronic documents, “the digital government’s first great application won’t be state automation but, the identity authentication of citizens in private entities. From a practical point of view, this means going to the shop, scanning your identity card, checking the State’s information and digital signature, biometrically authenticating the identity and immediately accessing the credit or performing various procedures. The idea is for the State to share citizen information with private companies”, he explained.

On the other hand, Hugo Méndez, Assistant Manager of SBU Sales for Vigatec stated that this seminar has been given at an international level and that the Chilean company had the initiative to replicate it at a local level to figure out any security information that is applied in different countries, “Entrust Datacard presented physical elements and some software that allows one to notice if somebody is trying to falsify or adulterate a credential. The State and the FFAA must understand that their identification documents must be kept safe, so that the existing ones aren’t falsified or adulterated”, he emphasized.

Security Technology for Identification Documents

Mary Olson, Government Solutions Marketing Manager, spoke about the technologies used to manufacture credentials and documents. He stressed that there are personalization processes to be followed, which include important security measures in terms of material quality, durability, a readable chip, and a high -esolution image that can be easily identified in the first review.

He presented various design practices, personalization technologies, materials such as PVC and polycarbonate, types of layers and laminates, suitable adhesives and added that the worldwide trend is moving towards laser printing, “80% of the US’s driver’s licenses are manufactured with this technology, because this is the country’s main identification, so it needs to be safer. The trend is migrating from polycarbonate to laser, because it’s a good solution to ensure the document’s high durability.”

Regarding security, he noted that “a document should be easy to check, if not, it doesn’t have a good purpose, sometimes governments add too much security and we can’t train people to evaluate it. It’s important to have the right amount of security elements.” Olson recommends not investing everything on a single security measure, “it could be more expensive, as this will be the measure that all counterfeiters are going to try and copy”.

During the seminar, officials from various institutions such as the Carabineros in Chile, the Armada, the Civil Registry, the Chilean Army, the Air Force, Conaset, PDI, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, among others, employed some of the tools exposed for the recognition of document authentication characteristics, such as multilayers, links between physical and digital security and best practices for the construction of passports, identity cards, driver’s licenses, official identifications, benefit cards, etc.