On 21 October IT analyst Gartner published its first Magic Quadrant for Identity Verification. Inverid received an Honorable Mention in the MQ. Inverid partners Entrust and GBG Plc are a Leader and a Niche Player respectively.
Until now Gartner only published a buyers guide on identity verification. The new Magic Quadrant (MQ) for Identity Verification marks the moment that identity verification is reaching the Plateau of Productivity in the hype cycle. It is now considered mature by Gartner.
The MQ identifies 11 vendors that have a threshold revenue of more than $100 million (or over $30 million and 30% year on year growth). Mandatory features to be included are photo capture and data capture, document authenticity assurance, as well as face verification. The MQ does not require NFC, unfortunately. The MQ classifies five as "Leaders". In the Gartner classification Leaders deliver a broad and comprehensive IDV product that addresses a wide range of use cases and customer needs. They have successfully built a significant installed customer base and revenue stream. Inverid partner Entrust is one of the five Leaders mentioned in the MQ.
"[Inverid] offers a differentiated IDV solution by means of its primary focus on use of NFC to assess chip-enabled documents." Gartner
Inverid is included as an Honorable Mention: "[Inverid] offers a differentiated IDV solution by means of its primary focus on use of NFC to assess chip-enabled documents. As a result, Inverid is often used in high-assurance use cases. Many other IDV vendors in the market partner with Inverid to source their NFC capabilities." We are proud to be included in this first edition of the MQ and to support our partners in the MQ in their effort to provide trusted identity verification.
An interesting observation is that SaaS is the dominant model for the vendors in the MQ. SaaS - as supported by Inverid - has big advantages when it comes to updates of ML models and fraud prevention.
Challenges for the MQ
With this being the first MQ for Identity Verification, Gartner faced a few challenges. Most importantly, Gartner did not assess accuracy. They suggest buyers should seek data (and evidence) from vendors on volumes, automated vs. human agent and standards. We very much agree with this standpoint: as standardisation in (optical) document verification is lacking, you should always test yourself how the product performs. As the MQ states: "Comparing vendors’ accuracy in the IDV process is very challenging. (...) In most cases, testing a vendor against live production data for the target population and use cases is the only way to obtain the reassurances buyers seek."
We are proud that our ReadID NFC solution has no known false accepts in millions of verifications performed.
"Comparing vendors’ accuracy in the IDV process is very challenging." Gartner
Accessibility of the solutions also greatly varied. Gartner tried to assess compliance with WCAG 2.1 level "AA". Some vendors even declined to provide evidence, and some openly acknowledged they were deficient. Please note that our ReadID technology is WCAG 2.1 AA certified.
Feel free to contact Wil Janssen if you want to know more about the Gartner MQ for Identity Verification or on how we position ourselves compared to the vendors mentioned.
