REDWOOD CITY, Calif. and COLUMBUS, Ohio — White Castle fast-food hamburger chain is using DigitalPersona, Inc.’s fingerprint authentication technology to ensure positive identification when enrolling 6,000 employees for healthcare benefits in more than 400 locations across the United States.

Trans Biometric Technologies, a DigitalPersona reseller, helped White Castle deploy on-site kiosks which use White Castle's electronic healthcare enrollment software and DigitalPersona's fingerprint authentication technology to streamline enrollment and eliminate paperwork.

Through DigitalPersona's biometric fingerprint authentication technology, White Castle employees are now able to electronically access and sign up for their healthcare benefits. Ninety-three percent of White Castle employees eligible for health benefits have already enrolled using the new kiosk.

"With DigitalPersona's specialized software and hardware integrated into our existing healthcare enrollment software, we have created a self-service environment," said Don Long, senior director of information services and information technology for White Castle. "Employees now have a secure and convenient way to enroll for their healthcare benefits. More over, there is almost no manual administration effort on our part. We have been able to cut out weeks of manual processing by eliminating the paperwork and streamlining the enrollment process which translates to a direct reduction in our payroll costs."

Before implementing kiosks with DigitalPersona's fingerprint technology, White Castle's benefits department struggled with the enrollment process for healthcare benefits for its 6,000 eligible employees, according to a news release. Every manager was in charge of making sure each employee eligible for healthcare benefits received and filled out the appropriate healthcare enrollment paperwork. White Castle's benefits department then manually processed the enrollment forms.

"By working with DigitalPersona and Trans Biometric Technologies, White Castle has created a customized kiosk application that tracks and streamlines their once lengthy healthcare enrollment process," said Vance Bjorn, chief technology officer of DigitalPersona. "We are pleased that our relationship with White Castle has expanded from an initial adoption of fingerprint readers in White Castle's corporate headquarters two years ago to the deployment of fingerprint-reader equipped kiosks in 400 restaurants for use by its employees today."

DigitalPersona's Platinum Software Development Kit (SDK), with the DigitalPersona IDentiy Engine, enabled the customization of White Castle's enrollment system.

According to Long, White Castle's future plans include an electronic hiring system using biometrics. New employees will register their fingerprint using DigitalPersona's fingerprint authentication technology. By simply placing a fingerprint onto the DigitalPersona fingerprint reader employees will have immediate access to necessary hiring forms. Once the forms have been filled out, the data will flow directly into White Castle's home office Enterprise Content Management System.