The difference between creating a product versus creating a program is vast and can make all the difference of success. Preparing for the jump into creating a program requires a specialized skill set and level of experience to ensure that there is product alignment with the business goals and necessary resources are in place. Several years ago, DBM Consulting was tasked with providing Technical Program Management services to Vancouver International Airport (VIA) to support their new Automated Passport Control (APC) kiosk product line.

DBM Consulting approached this new project by first assessing the available resources and technical capabilities of the resources currently in place. Once a baseline had been established, several new initiatives came into focus:

  • Establishing a technical roadmap that was properly aligned with the business goals and objectives.
  • Identifying the core competencies of the business and building out those resources internally
  • Staffing a support team that had the skillset and experience to support the new program
  • Creating strategic partnerships with external resources to support non-core business needs
  • Managing external development staff to complete current product development
  • Building out an internal development team and systems to work on future product development

Within two years, the program revenue grew by over 1,500% with VIA establishing over 70% of the market share in the APC business with the US Government with close to 1,000 kiosks in operation at over 33 air and seaports across North America. During that rapid growth, DBM Consulting implemented several major achievements, such as;

  • Implementation of a new biometric fingerprint capture process
  • the First vendor to implement a biometric facial verification process to the program
  • Support of a variety of travel documents
  • Creation of a variety of new kiosk hardware and designs

Today, Vancouver International Airport has expanded the Automated Border Clearance kiosk program into several countries around the world and operate over 1,500 kiosks globally. DBM Consulting is privileged to have been a part of that meteoric rise and success that greatly benefited VIA.