CeBIH seeks healthy competition for e-payment growth in 2017

As 2017 financial year approaches, the Committee of E-Banking Industry Heads (CeBIH) has called on banks and electronic payment (e-payment) service providers to embrace cooperative competition to maximise the industry’s potentials.

CeBIH, established in 2009, comprises heads of e-business/e-channels and cards services of all the banks in Nigeria, in efforts to promote electronic banking in line with global best practices

The Chairman, Dele Adeyinka, while speaking at the recently concluded yearly retreat of the group in Abuja, said: “Our industry needs a strong culture of cooperative competition among the various stakeholders to enable it maximize its potential and opportunities, while we collectively fight our battles and enjoy different levels of victory.

“Cooperative competition among stakeholders requires interactions and sharing ideas for the benefit of all. We are prepared to chart the course of creating an enabling environment for the industry players to come together more frequently and deliberate on ways of moving the industry forward.“This will be coming in the form of quarterly breakfast forums to review and appraise the performance in a previous quarter and set an agenda for the following quarter, as well as other programs aimed at fostering collaboration in the industry.”

Adeyinka noted that banks need to continuously evolve to remain competitive and relevant to consumers in view of the changes in the way individuals and businesses accept payment.

“The payment industry has recently witnessed the entry of diverse non-bank digital players- technology giants and start-ups, which are presenting increased competition for banks.

“While these categories of entrants have generally not been major threats to the banking and payments industry in the past, the aggressive nature of the digital players, the prominence of smartphones as a channel and rapidly evolving customer expectations have all made a difference,” he said.

He reiterated that to maintain the customer relationships and relevance, there is a need for all stakeholders to respond to these changes with new strategies, capabilities, and operating models.

“It is becoming evident that the key to success in this digital world is to evolve continuously in order to remain competitive and relevant to consumers. The way in which individuals and businesses accept payment is quickly becoming the next battleground of innovation. Consumers are now surrounded by a wealth of technologies,” he added.

By lnlnews.com

Content Marketing for Your Business Blog

 

Today many companies have a blog, but does every business achieve its goals with blogging? I bet this is far from reality. Creating content for a business blog requires a specific approach that differs from writing to amuse readers and provide fun. Blogging will be beneficial for your company only if you can develop a clear plan, define the major goals of your content marketing campaign and create and publish blog posts effectively.

Let’s find out how to write a blog for strategic business purposes and become a more productive content marketer with our #SEOcafe chat participants and special guest James Norquay, founder of Prosperity Media, SEO and content marketing consulting director, speaker and author of numerous search publications.

What Are Your Five Most Indispensable Blogging Tools?

The right tools can make your content creation process easier and help you improve your blogging. Here are 16 powerful tools that our chat participants use for effective blogging. We divided them by several categories, based on each tool’s purpose.

Searching content ideas

1. Quora. A question-and-answer website helps you get new ideas and inspiration for brainstorming. By looking through Q&As, you can get an overview of what people are talking about, what they want to know and which problems they face. This is a rich source of fresh and relevant topics that you can develop into blog posts.

2. BuzzSumo. When you enter a topic or a URL into its search box, BuzzSumo gives you information about what content performs best for social media sharing in your niche.

3. Feedly. A free service that you can use for tracking posts from the blogs that you’re following in your niche and picking up brand-new ideas.

4.AnswerThePublic.com. This is a relatively new service providing users with content ideas. Enter your keyword, and it will suggest you results in visual form. You’ll see a “wheel” of questions that are related to your topic and contain your keyword. All the results are divided into questions that start with what, where, when, who, which, why, how and are.

5.Google Trends. Use this tool to discover volume of different keywords. It will show you a relative level of interest for a certain keyword phrase over time, and will compare the level of interest among your target terms. The tool doesn’t give you actual numbers, so it’s worth using it in combination with services like the Keyword Planner.

6. Google Keyword Planner. All you need to do is enter your target keyword, and the tool will give you a traffic estimation for it and help you find relevant and related terms in your niche.

7. KeywordTool.io. This is a good alternative to the previous one and provides users with a great amount of keyword ideas – up to 750 suggestions. Also, it’s good for generating long-tail keyword ideas.

8. SEMrush. The recently launched SEO Keyword Magic Tool is an all-in-one tool for keyword research, allowing to estimate potential of your targeted words, group them into niches and export up to a million keywords in a single file.

9. Editorial calendar. An editorial calendar is crucially important for your content marketing campaign. It helps you define and visualize your plans for content, manage the content production and approval process, archive blog consistency and content balance across your topics.

10. Trello. This tool provides you with a flexible and simple way to organize your content ideas. Each of your ideas is turned into a card with notes that can be easily moved within lists as you progress through your writing process.

Improving your writing experience

11. Google Docs. With this free and very easy-to-use service you can create and edit web-based documents and store them online. Also, if you write directly in Google Docs you can integrate other services with it, for example, some spelling and grammar tools.

12. Grammarly. The writing-enhancement platform is a great proofreading and plagiarism-detection resource. Grammarly checks for spelling, punctuation, style and many other elements.  

13. Hemingway App. This free unique tool analyzes your text and highlights common errors and long, complex sentences, helping you improve its readability.

14. Canva. Canva is probably the most popular visual content tool that makes the whole process of image creation very easy and smooth. With its multiple templates even non-designers can create nice looking images for their blogs.

15. SnappaIO. Another visual content tool, which probably is not that rich in terms of functionality, but has awesome collection of backgrounds and free images, as well as some really cool and handy features.

16. Landscape by Sprout Social. Recently Sprout Social has launched a free tool for resizing images for seven social media networks: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google+, Pinterest and YouTube. The process is easy as pie: upload your image and choose the network for which you’d like to resize your image. When you finish cropping, Landscape will export you a ZIP file.

Anastasia Sidko

Affiliate Marketing

Clients have been asking me whether affiliate marketing is a good strategy for startups and other businesses trying to grow. They often sound sceptical but my answer is always Yes. If I had to point out any disadvanteges of starting an affiliate program in an early stage of growth, only very few would come to my mind, if any. I will get to these later, let's focus on the advantages first.

The Pros of running an affiliate program

To make sure that we're all on the same page, let's see Wikipedia's definition of affiliate marketing:

"Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate's own marketing efforts. The industry has four core players: the merchant (also known as 'retailer' or 'brand'), the network (that contains offers for the affiliate to choose from and also takes care of the payments), the publisher (also known as 'the affiliate'), and the customer."

For those of you, who prefer visualisation over text, here's a short video on what affiliate marketing is and how Post Affiliate Pro works:

Why is affiliate marketing a good option for Startups?

According to eMarketer, 46% of marketers consider affiliate marketing to be “very cost effective” as it relates to customer acquisition, second only to email.

1. You only pay for results – unlike traditional advertising methods, affiliate marketing is the most cost effective one. If your affiliates don't perform and bring leads, they simply don't get paid. Have you ever received a check from Google saying that your AdWords didn't bring enough revenue so they're giving you your money back? Me neither.
2. You don't spend time on advertising – let others do the work for you so you can worry about other, more important issues, or issues that you have skills for. You don't need to be a marketing expert, neither you have to learn any marketing methods to run an affiliate program. Simply setup your affiliate program and then payout your affiliates once a month. That's where your job ends.
3. Get lots of traffic and improved SEO – lots of affiliates generate lots of backlinks. In addition Post Affiliate Pro makse sure that all of your links are SEO friendly.
4. Find Super affiliates and you're golden – you don't need hundreds of affiliates to succesfully run an affiliate program. In general, most of businesses have 3-5 Super affiliates who generate more than 50% of the revenue from their whole affiliate program.

David Cacik

Teacher adds one more Language Leveraging Microsoft's Virtual Academy

Learning to code educational apps with UWP

Whether it’s learning C# or French, developing fluency in a new language is challenging.  

French teacher and Windows developer Cyprien Marie shows with his memory-improvement app Memorize It! that the Universal Windows Platform and its online resources can help simplify and accelerate the language-learning process – for spoken and programming languages. 

He created Memorize it! based on an in-class memorization exercise in which students used hand-held whiteboards to write their answers in French. Similarly, with Memorize It!, students enter text, select a memorization technique like fill-in-the-blank or word jumble, and then test themselves out loud. 

He developed the memorization-learning app in Windows Phone 8. By making the switch to Windows 10 and the UWP, his audience has gotten much larger: In the last three months, Memorize It! on Windows 10 was downloaded almost twice as many times compared with its Windows Phone 8.1 version.  

Microsoft

The Retail Leaders Conference (TRLC), Nigeria 2016

IBUKUN AWOSIKA

IBUKUN AWOSIKA is the Chairman, Board of Directors, First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Nigeria's premier and most valuable banking brand. She is also the founder and CEO of The Chair Centre Group. The companies in the group include: The Chair Centre Limited, Sokoa Chair Centre Limited, Furniture Manufacturers Mart, TCC Security Systems and Cubes and Boxes Limited. These companies are involved in manufacturing, retail and bank-way security systems services.

Ibukun chairs a number of corporate and not-for-profit boards amongst which are: House of Tara International and Afterschool Graduate Development Centre (AGDC), a facility which she promoted to help address youth employability and enterprise issues in Nigeria. She sits on the boards of Digital Jewel Limited, Cadbury Nigeria Plc., Convention on Business Integrity (CBI) and the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority. She was Chairman, FBN Life Assurance Limited, FBN Capital Limited and Kakawa Discount House Limited.

Ibukun is a graduate of Chemistry from University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), Nigeria; an alumna of the Chief Executive Programme of Lagos Business School; the Global Executive MBA of IESE Business School, Barcelona-Spain; and Global CEO Programme of Wharton, IESE and China European International Business School (CEIBS).

PETER ESHIKENA

PETER ESHIKENA is the Managing Director of Frieslandcampina Africa. He has previously been the Managing Director of FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria.

He also served as the Sales Director and Deputy Managing Director of FrieslandCampina WAMCO.

Peter joined FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria PLC as Shift Production Manager in Can Factory Department before moving up as Logistics Manager in the Logistics Department. He later became the Project Manager of Total Quality Management in the Quality Assurance Department. Due to his dexterity and resourcefulness, he moved to the Commercial department as Sales Admin & Logistics Manager. He served as the Distribution Manager in the Supply Chain Department and later moved to the Sales Department as Sales Manager.

He thereafter rose to become the Sales Director and Deputy Managing Director until he was appointed the company’s Managing Director.

Peter is by profession a Mechanical Engineer and has an Executive MBA from the International School of Management, University of Navarra in Spain. He is an alumnus of the Lagos Business School.

ADENIKE OGUNLESI is the founder & CRO of Ruff 'n' Tumble, a children's clothing line in Nigeria. From a tiny shop, she turned Ruff 'n' Tumble into an instantly recognizable brand. She has built a reputation for being one of the best manufacturers of children's clothing in Nigeria, with a brand that can compete with any clothing line globally.

In her second year as an undergraduate law student at the Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Adenike opted out of school unsure of what to do with her life. She then reluctantly accepted her mother's invitation to work in her women’s tailor shop. That experience helped her to discover who she was and what she wanted to do.

Today, Ruff 'N' Tumble, this proudly Nigerian brand operates a ware house, factory with distribution in Nigeria and along the West African coast. She is now a formidable employer of labour with branches in key cities in Nigeria.

Adenike was featured in the Africa Open for Business documentary and was recognized as the FATE Foundation Model Entrepreneur in 2005. She is a mentor to Junior Achievement of Nigeria and the Fate Foundation.

She is a Director of Lafarge Africa Plc.

TEMITOPE OSHIKOYA

TEMITOPE OSHIKOYA, Founder, CEO/Chief Economic Strategist, Nextnomics is a seasoned economist, policy analyst, chartered banker, and certified management accountant. He served as Director-General/CEO of the West African Monetary Institute, appointed by the Authority of Heads of States of Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, and The Gambia; and worked with governors of Central Banks and Ministers of Finance.

He has also served as Group Head of Public Sector at Ecobank Transnational Incorporated covering 35 African countries, pioneer Chief Economist at Africa Finance Corporation; a Director at the African Development Bank, and a consultant to the World Bank.

Temitope has also served on the Board of Directors of several organizations in Africa including ARM Securities, East African Development Bank and African Capacity Building Foundation; and as First Vice President and member of the Governing Council of Nigerian Economic Society.

Temitope holds a PHD in Economics and in addition, he also has an MBA in Finance and Management. He is a chartered banker and certified management accountant. Temitope has attended various local and international courses including INSEAD, UCLA Extension Program, and Euromoney. He is a member of the National Association of Business Economists.

Bukky George

BUKKY GEORGE is the Founder and CEO of HealthPlus Limited and CasaBella International. She is a registered pharmacist with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria. She shares the benefits of focus, knowledge, networking and going the extra mile to succeed in life and business.

Bukky fondly referred to as the Queen of Retail in Nigeria based on the steady success of her pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies started her career with May & Baker and worked for a little while as a medical representative and then Smithkline Beecham still as a medical representative.

She resigned her appointment as an Assistant Manager to find and pursue her true passion and fulfill her purpose in life. She would later on establish HealthPlus Limited and CasaBella International with both companies growing to become household names in Nigeria and beyond.

Bukky holds many prominent corporate positions outside her businesses. She is Chairman of Sanofi Pharamcy Advisory Board, and a member of the Pharma Strategic Committee which maintains the well-being of the pharmaceuticals industry in Nigeria, as well as an associate member of WIMBIZ.

She was invited to be a panelist at the IFC Euro Finance Week in Frankfurt, Germany in 2012.

Bukky was selected for the Fortune 500 Global Women’s Mentoring Program, and she is the first recipient of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria Board of Fellows’ Award for Excellence in Community Pharmacy.

NNAMDI EZEIGBON

NAMDI EZEIGBO is the founder and CEO, SLOT Limited, one of Nigeria's biggest phones and gadget outlets. Nnamdi started SLOT Limited a small space in Lagos-Ikeja computer village in 1998 as a sales and maintenance company for computers, computer accessories and other electronic gadgets.

With the advent of GSM in Nigeria, Nnamdi later pioneered GSM sales in Nigeria with more than 43 outlets across the country with huge employee. Today, SLOT has become a house hold name and one of the biggest phones and gadget sales company in Nigeria.

As part of his contribution to the development of the society, SLOT Systems Limited has trained about 20 teachers from the Lagos State Technical College on some cutting edge technologies required for present age Telecoms industry.

Nnamdi has indeed secured a slot in the Nigerian technology industry, one wide enough to accommodate his rocketing ideas and advancements; while adding substantial value to the lives of Nigerians.

Nnamdi has received various awards and recognitions that include; Business Man of the Year, by Hall of Grace Awards, Nigerian Telecom Awards, Mobile Phone Dealer of the year, 17th City People Awards of Excellence, Best Mobile Phone Retailer, Global Leader of Integrity Merit Award, Distinguished SME partner Award by Fidelity Bank (2014); Nigerian Telecom Awards, Mobile Phone Dealer of the year (2012) and Nigerian National Integrity Award (2009)

Nnamdi holds a degree in computer science and an MBA from Lagos Business School. He is an alumnus the Harvard Business School.

RAPHAEL AFAEDOR

RAPHAEL AFAEDOR is the Co-Founder & CEO - Supermart.ng. Supermart.ng is a 3-hour grocery delivery service based in Lagos, Nigeria.

With over 50,000 products, Supermart.ng is grocery and everyday essentials retailer in Nigeria, stocking inventory from fresh meat and vegetables, local ingredients, household and office supplies, and more. Supermart partners with all the leading supermarkets in Lagos.

Raphael is a pioneer of internet retailing in Nigeria as the Co-Founder & former Managing Director of JUMIA.com.ng.

He was also previously the MD/CEO of Sestava Group; Head of Marketing & Business Development & Head of Sales (for West, Central & North Africa) of Notore Chemical Industries; Investment Manager (Summer) of Goldman Sachs; and Senior Manager, European Products, European Product Manager & Software Engineer of Monster.com.

He holds a BSc, MSc (Computer Science, Czech Technical University in Prague), Masters, Marketing/Marketing Management, General (IUKB -- Switzerland) and MBA (Harvard Business School).

He holds a BSc, MSc (Computer Science, Czech Technical University in Prague), Masters, Marketing/Marketing Management, General (IUKB -- Switzerland) and MBA (Harvard Business School).

SAMUEL EJEH is the Founder/Chief Executive Officer of Grocery Bazaar Limited, a leading Nigerian grocery retail business.

An entrepreneurial by nature, has worked in various capacities in the oil & gas, banking, software and FMCG industries.

Grocery Bazaar Limited ("GBL") was founded to fill the grocery shopping needs of underserved markets in Lagos and across Nigeria.

Samuel is now leveraging his unique understanding of the hard discount retail concept to exploit the opportunities in the Nigerian grocery retail industry.

He has a first degree in Petroleum Engineering from University of Port Harcourt and an MBA from Babson College (Massachusetts, USA).

FEYI OLUBODUN

FEYI OLUBODUN is the General Manager/Chief Operating Officer at Insight Communications, an Executive Board Director. He leads the Account Management team and is actively driving the Digital revolution within the Agency business.

Feyi was formerly the Associate Planning Director, Head of Account Planning, Chief Strategy Officer for the Agency, and a member of the Executive Committee.

He is a marketing and strategy professional with extensive experience in data analysis, consumer insight management, account planning and strategy management.

Hei helps develop the capabilities, both in clients’ organizations and within Insight communications.

Feyi a graduate of Psychology. He holds an MBA and he is an alumnus of the Pan-Atlantic University and the prestigious Duke University –The Fuqua School of Business.

Deola Sagoe

DEOLA SAGOE is a haute couture fashion designer and Founder of Deola. She is the leading lady of African haute couture and the first black woman to present a collection at AltaRoma, Rome's celebrated fashion week.

Deola is a fashion visionary with a unique approach to her craft that has endeared her to fans and followers all over the world. She uses African fabrics, hand-woven materials, and by contemporizing almost-lost traditional African techniques, Deola’s designs present a unique vision and attitude for the modern woman.

She is a regular exhibitor at different collections at Cape Town Fashion Week, South Africa Fashion Week, ARISE, New York Fashion Week, the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Africa and more.

Deola is a winner of the “Africa Designs” and the MNET/ Anglo Gold African designs awards and Nigerian representative at the United Nations World Food Program “Catwalk the World: Fashion for Food.”

Deola, who has famous fans such as Oprah Winfrey and Will Smith, has several achievements such as winning the “Africa Designs” and the MNET/ Anglo Gold African Designs 2000 awards.

She studied at the University of Miami and University of Lagos with a Masters in Finance and Management.

Solomon Itegboje

SOLOMON ITEGBOJE is the President and Chief Executive Officer of The BOSS Group that is into Sales, Marketing and Strategy consulting company as well as providing cutting edge business and marketing engagement solutions. The Group consist of: Nigerstrat Limited, Centrum Marketing Limited, Marketing Services & Research Limited 3D Impact Marketing Limited Africa.

Solomon has more than 27 years' experience in Sales, Marketing and Strategic Management.

He was previously the Country Head/Director of Marketing of Coca-Cola Hellenic for Nigeria. He combined this role with that of Coordinating Commercial Director for the 4 Commercial Regions/Directorate of Coca-Cola Hellenic/Nigeria Bottling Company. He was also the Head of Channel & Customer Marketing and Key Accounts for the Nigeria Equatorial Africa Division of The Coca-Cola Company covering Nigeria and most of West Africa (9 countries).

He pioneered a lot of marketing practices for the Coca-Cola system in Nigeria that have become Industry Best Practices in Nigeria including Strategic Supply Depots, In-Outlet Look of Success, Globalscore Merchandising Ratings. He is a respected Sales, Marketing and Business consultants and has authored a number of Marketing and Sales practise articles.

He is a pioneering Alumnus of Ambrose Alli University (B.Sc Economics). He also studied at Unilag (M.Sc Economics) and Lagos Business School (SMP and EMBA). He has attended executive courses in Sales, Marketing, Key Accounts, Customer Marketing from 23 countries in Africa, Asia and Europe.

Solomon ItegbojeCHARLES IMUZEZE is the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Gr8 Measures Media Network. Having spent over 15 years in the marketing communications industry and is versed in media planning, strategy, buying, control & compliance.

He has worked on several accounts such as Cadbury, Interswitch, So Klin, So Klin Protect, Good Mama, and Society for Family Health (SFH), Redbull, Vlisco etc. and he always has a driving desire to meet and exceed clients' expectations Charles is a member of the Institute of Planning Nigeria, Full Member, and Advertising Practitioner Council of Nigeria (APCON). He has over the years attended several courses such as Building Brands (Lagos Business School), Emotional.

Intelligence Workshop, Project Management Programme and recently completed the DMSRetail District Management Workshop in Phoenix, USA.

He previously worked at Mediacom, Peapco Mediashop, LTC-JWT, Media Supermart.

He holds a Second Class Upper degree in Computer Science from the University of Benin and an Alumnus of Lagos Business School (SMP).

Joseph Ebata

JOSEPH EBATA is the President/CEO of the Bervidson Group, a leading retail & brand consultancy, training and development Group.

Joseph is a co-founder of 3D Impact Marketing Limited, a full Marketing Services support to discerning and leading brands across English Speaking West Africa.

He was former Deputy President/COO of 3DIM, an Assistant General Manager and Regional Business Controller at Intercontinental Bank Plc and Lecturer at the Ambrose Alli University.

Joseph has in the last few years, consulted and/or trained, and provided platforms of benefit to leading and reputable organizations and businesses in Nigeria, including fortune 500 companies with great success.

He is the Convener of The Retail Leaders Conference that brings together the very best of local and international thought and Practice Leaders From Retail Manufacturing, Telecommunication, Banking & Other Financial Institutions, other Service providers to Retail and Government to speak, hear, brainstorm, discuss and align on the key issues, challenges and opportunities of the Nigerian Retail Industry and importantly how to drive sustainable growth for the Industry to the benefit of all stakeholders.

Joseph has over 25 years in Lecturing, Banking and Executive Retail and Brand support.

He is an Alumnus of Ambrose Alli University (B.Sc Economics), University of Lagos (M.Sc Economics) and Lagos Business School (SMP). He was the Best Graduating Student of the Department of Economics and also the Best Graduating of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. He is a member of the Certified Pension Institute of Nigeria (CIPN).

How 3D Printing Technology Can Help Lawyers

The recent mini-series retracing the infamous OJ Simpson trial got us thinking about how far technology has come in aiding the legal profession to solve crimes. If Marcia Clark and her team had had access to, say a 3D printer, might they have had an easier time displaying crime scene visuals and things like Bruno Magli footprints? We will never know that answer, but we do know that 3D printing technology can provide some incredible tools for today’s lawyers and law enforcement personnel to obtain justice for victims of violent crime.

3D printing takes a flat image with little perspective or scale and produces an accurate-to-scale model, which bridges the gap between the expert imparting the information and the layperson who needs to understand it, visually and palpably.

Here are three new 3D printing applications that are helping the legal profession today: 

Crime Scene Reconstruction

The murder trial of James George Stiffler wrapped up in Helena, MT last month and charges were dismissed after a 10-2 hung jury outcome. However, the ten favoring acquittal of the defendant credited a one-of-a-kind 3D-printed model of the Stiffler home—believed to be the first time such a model has been used in a US murder trial—for assisting in their decision-making.

Utah-based WhiteClouds, the world’s largest full-color 3D print services provider, created an exact scale model of the home and all its furniture, in 2,105 layers of sandstone, down to the tiniest details, such as where “doggie gates” had been tripped and creation of the immediate topography (both important to the case).

This architectural model was created at the request of defense attorney Quentin Rhoades. His client was charged with homicide and the purpose of the model was to show the jury the locations of his client and the victim during the altercation. The model was created to exact scale using floorplans of the home and exact measurements taken from the furniture. The furniture was also measured and printed in their exact locations.

The entire model was printed in sandstone; however, at the request of the attorney, we created a working front door which was printed using a plastic-like material (UV-cured resin).

The model also shows the topography immediately surrounding the front of the home as this was important in the case. We created the topography based on measurements provided. This precise replica, according to attorney Rhoades, “provided what a 2D rendition could not: the size and proximity of rooms and doors and the ‘maze-like” quality of the old fashioned floor plan. The level of detail brought the scene to life for the jurors.”

Forensic Anatomic Models

Presenting anatomic information obtained from antemortem or post mortem CT/MRI scans or physical human remains, particularly those of children who suffered traumatic injury can be disturbing for some lay individuals, which in turn could bias a jury. Complex anatomic relationships, medical-related terminology, and radiographic data is not easily understood by the lay public which includes prosecutors, law enforcement personnel, or a jury. Working with Dr. Kieran McGee from the Mayo Clinic, we are using 3D printing to communicate an injury or trauma in a vivid specific, life size way. This not only partially “sterilizes” a potential gruesome picture, but also relays the pertinent information—bringing the scans and photographs back to the physical world—in a way that is very easy for a layperson to grasp and even hold in their hands. For example, a photograph of something as horrific as a screwdriver through a child’s eye that would make a jury shudder, can be viewed more “neutrally” in a true to life 3D printed model of the victim’s skull with the weapon in place during the CT scan. The model conveys much more information and much less emotion than a photo; the size of the skull is truly representative of the age of the person and can be turned 360° to provide a fuller view of the injury. This tool provides lawyers a more “real world” glimpse into what happened.

In another example, a 60 year old male was stomped to death by his son. A postmortem CT scan was performed, which shows the details of the multitude of fractures, but is not easily understood by non-medical personnel. On autopsy the bones will simply fall apart once the skin is removed, making this injury very difficult to photograph and understand by the lay public. A 3D printed model was requested to show the scope of the injury to all involved. 

The last photo of the model shows the direction the head was in when it was being stomped and you can see the skull is shifted from the nose down as it was separated from the rest of the skull due to the blunt trauma.

Reconstruction of Destroyed Evidence

The clock is always ticking on “natural” evidence upon which nature can so easily wreak havoc. Footprints in dirt or sand that can be washed away are an excellent example. Traditionally, investigators and scientists have used materials such as dental stone to create casts of footprints, Mikrosil for tool mark impressions, and other materials that can replicate the surface of an object either by impression transfer or curing. Although these methods are common and accurate, footprints and tire prints are prone to rapid deterioration from the elements. Time can often be a factor and in many remote areas where resources and equipment may not be readily available, first responders may have nothing more than a digital camera. Utilizing advanced photogrammetry software such as PhotoModeler Scanner1 or 3DReality2, a dense and accurate surface model can be created. Importantly, 3D models are actual replicas of the footprint rather than a surface that is cast as a “negative.” The created digital model can be converted into a readily acceptable format for 3D printing and in the absence of better casting materials, time, or resources, laser scanning, or photogrammetry can save the day for law enforcement.

Vehicle accidents represent another example where more than just photographs are required to do a proper investigation. Although more and more law enforcement personnel have adopted laser scanners to scan vehicles as they are found at an accident scene, some scenes require even more accurate visualizations to give the most precise account of how a vehicle found itself in its final rest position. Insurance companies often need evidence to provide the most thorough assessment of a collision or other incident and don’t want to risk erasing any chance of further inspection and all evidence with it.

With 3D printing, an expert witness can physically hold a model of a crushed car and point out areas that were of importance. A physical 3D replica preserves more of the evidence for jury viewing. The physical replica or replicas in some cases can show the actual extent of damage.

Some in law enforcement and the legal profession see a time where no criminal defense or prosecution will move forward without the inclusion of a 3D printed model. In the immediate future, we see the technology continuing to provide accurate real life data that can be used in all aspects of criminal law including education, research, legal proceedings. As the technology continues to grow the legal community will become more familiar with the potential uses of this powerful tool.

Jerry Ropelato and Dr. Jonathan Morris