Six states sign Viisage for driver's licensing

Viisage Inc. has won contracts with six state driver services agencies to deliver various kinds of driver testing applications.

Under these contracts, Viisage of Billerica, Mass., will improve the accuracy and security of the processes used to test applicants, prove identity, issue identification and deliver customer services in the various states' driver's license processes.

The six contracts total $2.3 million and use Viisage's AutoTest solution. Viisage acquired the application in December 2005 from Openshaw Media Group Inc., Birmingham, Ala. The Web-based solution delivers and administers randomized tests, so that no two applicants receive the same questions.

The system, which can be run from portable computers outside of normal department offices, also automatically scores the tests.

The states of Alabama, Mississippi and Nebraska will implement Viisage's portable testing solutions to turn sites outside their motor vehicle departments into secure driver's license testing facilities. Applicants will take their driver's knowledge test on computers that are wirelessly connected to states' central databases. The system will transmit data to and from the database in real-time, the company said.

Kentucky and Colorado have hired Viisage to expand their implementations of the company's secure knowledge testing solutions. And the Arkansas state police department will use Viisage's fixed-base testing solution.

The added safety measures could help move the six states closer to compliance with the Real ID Act, Viisage said. The act, passed in May 2005, mandates that states greatly improve all aspects of their driver's license processes by May 2008.

Viisage, which offers identity and security solutions to government and commercial clients, has about 220 employees and annual revenue of $66.2 million in fiscal 2005, according to Hoover's Online, Austin, Texas.