Converus Prepares for Substantial Growth in 2016
At its 2nd annual sales meeting, Converus announced many enhancements to its flagship lie detection product, EyeDetect — a brand it intends to make synonymous with “lie detection.” At the meeting, numerous Converus Premier Service Partners shared their excitement to be in on the ground floor of this technology.
The Converus staff and advisors continues to grow as the company prepares for sales of its EyeDetect lie detection technology to triple in some parts of the world in 2016.
LEHI, Utah – April 6, 2016 – Building on its 2015 success that included adding 116 new customers, technology start-up Converus is planning for exponential growth of its lie detection product EyeDetect in 2016. Numerous product enhancements, potential customers already in the pipeline, and potential approval from the National Center for Credibility Assessment to sell the technology to the U.S. government will all help contribute to this projected growth.
New customers include several government agencies such as SENASICA (Mexico Dept. of Agriculture), the Mexican federal government, the Colombian Military School, DIRANDRO (Peruvian police), Salt Lake Police Dept., Northumbria Police (UK) and a Middle East country government. The company also secured customers in the key vertical markets of private security (including PanAmericano, Hermes), financial/insurance (including Experian, BBVA Bancomer), distribution/logistics (including MIT, Air Sea Worldwide), retail (including OXXO, Caliente) and petroleum (Terpel, Ecopetrol).
At the sales meeting, held in Las Vegas in January, Converus President and CEO Todd Mickelsen announced a number of enhancements to EyeDetect. One had to do with the Converus Credibility Score. Instead of only indicating an individual is “not credible,” now it also states why, such as because of a “probable confession.” Another enhancement includes the ability to address multiple issues in a single test. Examples of these issues are: “Have you used drugs in the last two years?” “Have you committed a serious crime?” “Do you have any ties to a criminal organization?” Previously, a separate test would have been required for each test. Converus also added audio/visual support for Interview Route Maps (IRMs), improved the eye data gathering, added charts and reporting, launched a beta version of EyeDetect manager (a remote examinee monitoring software tool to complement EyeDetect), and began development of an Arabic version of the software and tests.
Converus Premier Service Partners — mostly from the U.S., Mexico, Central and South America — attended this sales meeting. After hearing presentations and updates from Converus executives, science team member Dr. David Raskin, advisory board member Mark Handler, and others, the partners were clearly energized.
“This is like the ‘new polygraph,’ if you will — the first new lie detection technology that has some credibility to it,” said C3A Vice President of Polygraph Operations Donnie Dutton. Dutton has more than 40 years’ experience working for the federal government in a variety of polygraph-related activities, including positions as a special agent with the U.S. Marine Corp, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army Military Intelligence, and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency.
“The EyeDetect technology is amazing,” said Will Draughon, police detective and owner of Draughon & Associates. “As a polygraph examiner who’s done thousands of polygraphs, I’m very excited to have EyeDetect supplement what I’m able to do professionally. It will fill a great void in many areas.”
In January, Converus signed Lafayette Instrument Company, the world’s largest polygraph manufacturer, as a Premier Service Partner. Its representatives also praised the EyeDetect technology.
“I think we’ll be able to sell a lot of EyeDetect systems and licenses,” said Chris Fausett, vice president of Lafayette’s Polygraph Division.
Sue Luttrell, Lafayette Instrument Company Sales Representative, added “I think everybody needs EyeDetect technology. It’s definitely the future.”
Converus, which recently surpassed $1 million in revenue, now has nearly 150 customers in 16 countries and more than 50 Service Providers in 12 countries.
According to Mickelsen, the vision of the company is to become the preferred screening provider for credibility assessment and deception detection, have the EyeDetect brand identified with lie detection, and double the size of the lie detection market within 5 years by tapping into new customers. Its 2016 goals are focused on penetrating the U.S. market and maintaining 300% growth trajectory in Latin America.
“We believe the lie detection market is a $1 billion market globally,” said Mickelsen.
EyeDetect uses an infrared camera to monitor involuntary eye behavior — including pupil dilation, blink rate and fixations — to detect deception while a person answers true/false questions on a computer screen. The test takes 30 minutes and provides a “truthful” or “deceptive” score within 10 minutes. Polygraph exams, the long-time standard for lie detection, require a trained examiner, take at least 90 minutes to conduct, and reports can sometimes take hours to receive.
Field tests show EyeDetect is 85 percent accurate. When used in conjunction with the polygraph, and when both tests have the same result, the outcome confidence reaches about 97 percent, says Mickelsen.
For more information, visit www.converus.com.
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About Converus
Converus (“with truth”) is committed to providing trustworthy credibility assessment solutions. Its flagship product, EyeDetect® is the first ocular-motor deception detection solution. It’s an accurate, cost-effective, efficient, secure and nonintrusive method that detects deception in 30 minutes by analyzing eye behavior. The same scientists credited with computerizing the polygraph in 1991 developed EyeDetect. It’s a new way for organizations to manage risk and ensure workplace integrity, and for law enforcement agencies and governments to detect deception. Ultimately, it helps protect countries, corporations and communities from corruption, fraud and threats. Converus is headquartered in Lehi, Utah. Visit www.converus.com.
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Press Contact: Jeff Pizzino, APR / +1 480.606.8292
