A few days ago, I attended a course entitled “Finances for Non-Financiers". In addition to numbers, formulas, and terms such as risk, debt, and social equity, we talked about Smartmatic’s mission. The teacher asked me to read it out loud at least five times. Two words caught his attention: efficiency and transparency.
Although we can often see these two lines, as this blog is open to all on the Internet, it seems appropriate to write them down for those who don’t know them: Smartmatic’s mission is to bring efficiency and transparency to societies around the globe, through the creation and implementation of innovative technologies.
What does that mean, bringing efficiency and transparency? Why did the instructor gaze wide-eyed? How are these goals relevant? For us at Smartmatic, used to develop and deploy solutions for governments, it means that with our technology governments can become Good Governments.
Let's start by the 'ought to be', that is, by the ideal: societies should be based upon Good Governments which are participatory, consensus-oriented, responsible, transparent, effective and efficient, fair and inclusive, and rather importantly, governments which stick to the law. Smartmatic and its technologies rightly make it easier for governments to travel the path they must transit in order to fulfill their commitments towards citizens.
How can a technology guarantee more transparent processes per se? An example would best explain it: when we say our Electoral Solution strengthens democracy around the world, it is because it is 100% exact, which guarantees that the results from every election conducted by Smartmatic are only determined by the will of the voters. How much untrustworthy results can cost a society, leading into serious doubts about whether the authorities elected are legitimate or not? In Mexico, in 2006, there were losses of approximately $10 billion, caused by strikes, protests and riots from various sectors after Lopez Obrador and Calderon clashed with each other in elections. A reliable and secure voting technology will make sure that nothing of the sort happens and that results, in spite of being too narrow, are accepted by all contenders. This is quite an important value, made available to Governments by our technology.
Another example is Smartmatic’s Identity Management Solution, designed to register and authenticate citizens in the most efficient and reliable way, with biographic and biometric data, thus eliminating identity fraud and the damages it causes to society. With citizens properly identified Governments will be better prepared to design and implement services and programs that effectively improve their quality of life.
We could continue listing the benefits of various technologies for specific Government processes, but I think with these two examples we can illustrate that Smartmatic designs and deploys technological solutions aimed at helping governments fulfill, in the most efficient way, their commitments with their citizens.
Samira Saba
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