Going digital boosts efficiency and transparency in national identity systems

Berlin, 08 February 2022 – Countries around the world are harnessing the power of digital systems to modernize and optimize their identity document application and issuance processes.

More and more countries today are adopting digital systems to ensure fast and secure processing of ID document applications. "These solutions provide significantly more efficiency and transparency in the passport system, for example," says Veridos CEO Marc-Julian Siewert.

Traditional paper-based analog approaches have significant drawbacks. There can be significant delays at each step of the process. When there are backlogs there is no guarantee that applications will be processed in the order in which they were received. Manual inputting can introduce errors and sometimes citizens may even receive documents to which they have no entitlement. Furthermore, it is impossible for citizens to keep track of where they are in the queue and when they can expect to receive their new documents, which in turn may delay other public registrations or travel plans.

Digitalization allows a high level of process transparency which guarantees citizens and the respective state far more security and predictability. “Both benefit from this development," says Siewert, citing the People's Republic of Bangladesh as “an impressive example of this".

In Bangladesh digital workflow systems automatically raise “red flag” alerts if any step in the processing of a passport is not completed within a specified time, so that officials can intervene immediately. Furthermore, citizens receive automatic text messages when their new electronic passports are ready for collection.

"Bangladesh has also brought the entire passport value chain under its control by establishing production and personalization centers within the country," adds Siewert. "Comprehensive know-how transfer has proved to be a decisive factor in the success of this venture. Local employees have been trained in the technologies and procedures and are consistently putting them into practice."