[SAVANNAH, GA] September 2, 2007; Savannah-based Digitus Biometrics, a developer of highly-secure biometric access and control systems, drew widespread interest from senior executives at leading Swedish companies during a recent whirlwind tour of the country. Claude Galipeault, co-founder of the six-year old firm, was part of a delegation of Savannah business executives on a recent trade mission to Vaxjo, Sweden. The trade mission, led by Chris Miller, Executive Director of The Creative Coast Initiative, (www.thecreativecoast.org) established a working relationship between Savannah and Vaxjo, a university town of 80,000 people located 180 miles southwest of Stockholm. Vaxjo, like Savannah, is becoming well-known for its base of entrepreneurial companies, particularly those that specialize in renewable energy technologies.

The Savannah-Vaxjo link is an outgrowth of an international entrepreneurship project headed by Johan Gustafson, of Infosphere AB, a Swedish management consulting firm based in Stockholm. “We have created a Landing Pad System in both Vaxjo and Savannah where entrepreneurs on both sides help each other quickly establish business relationships,” says Gustafson, who spends about ten days a month in Savannah. By using the Landing Pad, businesses can bypass many of the traditional processes in getting set up to do business internationally. Digitus proved the point as it was the first Savannah company to use the Landing Pad to take an order from their Swedish counterparts.

“I was both amazed and thrilled at the extraordinarily positive reaction the Digitus product line received,” said Galipeault. “We sold a number of systems and met dozens of other CEOs and C-Level executives, many of whom expressed an immediate desire to enter into contract negotiations.”

One such company is a global logistics enterprise that handles over 60 million tons of freight each year, in addition to managing more than a million square feet of warehousing space, spread across more than 50 high-volume distribution facilities. Their expertise lies in their ability to get a customer’s shipment from point of origin to final destination using the simplest, most efficient and most reliable means. Handling over 25,000 customs clearances annually, this customer sees solid potential in integrating Digitus’ proprietary biometric access controls and management software into a new tracking system that can give both company and customs officials real-time information on whether something out of the ordinary happened to the container between the time it was sealed at its origin and the time it was presented for customs inspection at the destination port. “By presenting customs officials with irrefutable proof that the shipment traveled exactly according to plan right down to the drivers assigned to move the goods to and from the port, they can better prioritize those shipments they select for closer inspection”, said  Galipeault. “The theory is that companies using the Digitus system will be able to clear their shipments faster than those who do not.”

To fully develop this new integrated system, Digitus will need to partner with Georgia Tech- Savannah to research and propose global standards for highly-secure cargo handling processes. The company expects to begin beta implementation this kind of solution in 2008.