Geenius.ee, Estonia’s largest IT news website, talked to Piruza Harutjunjan, who leads our business services team, about how Smart-ID is used in Belgium and other European countries. She also talked about the challenges of expanding this complicated service to new areas and dealing with competition in other countries.

Piruza explained that Smart-ID has users in six countries and supports eight languages, with varying models of implementation, such as licensing in India or a hybrid model in Iceland. The selection of Belgium for expansion was based on a comprehensive market analysis that highlighted the country’s openness to new solutions, an existing ID card system similar to Estonia’s, and high potential user acceptance.

She explained that the expansion of services to other countries is a continuous process. „We always follow what our customers want. The fact that Smart-ID works in four countries ensures that organizations delivering in these countries can also open up new markets. Now, Belgian organizations can expand to the Baltics and our companies to Belgium much more easily and cost effectively, because they can use the already existing identity solution, or Smart-ID, very easily in a new country.

She also talked about the newest service – anonymous age verification: „On the one hand helps people maintain their privacy — if one wants to buy alcohol, the seller does not need to see all buyer’s data. The only thing seller needs to know is that buyer is at least 18 years old. Similarly, alcohol sellers are not interested in data storage. So, it is convenient for both the service provider and the end user. We develop and test such new services because the market is very dynamic.“.

According to Piruza, in the future, SK is focused on expanding its footprint within the European Union, aiming to boost the share of export revenue by entering several new markets. The mission revolves around amplifying its positive contribution to society, empowering clients to broaden their businesses in ways that would be unachievable without a strong cross-border electronic identity solution. Piruza underscored the openness to exploring further business ways with a strategic commitment to delivering sustainable value to their clientele.

Read the full interview here.

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