Professional Documents
Culture Documents
41 Bethlehem Alemu
41 Bethlehem Alemu
41 Bethlehem Alemu
Advisor
Dr. Hailemichael
June 2023
I Betelhem Alemu hereby declare that a project work entitled ‘Automated Educational Document
Verification Service’ submitted to The Department of Business studies of American College of
Technology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the Master Business
Administration is a record of original work done by me during 2023 academic year under the
supervision and guidance of Dr. Hailemichael. and it has not formed the basis for the award of
any Degree/Diploma/Associate ship/Fellowship or other similar title of any candidate of any
university.
__________________________________
Signature of the Candidate
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Appendix 4: Certificate
This is to certify that the project work entitled ‘Automated Educational Document Verification Service
submitted to the Department of Business Administration, MBA Program in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the award of the Master of Business Administration is a record of original project work
done by Betelhem Alemu during the period 2022/2023 academic year under my supervision and guidance
and the thesis has not formed the basis for the award of any Degree/Diploma/Associate ship/Fellowship or
other similar title of any candidate of any University and it complies with the regulation and accepted
standards of the College.
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Appendix 5: Approval Sheet
AMERICAN COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS STUDIES
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION PROGRAM
TITLE OF PROJECT
Id Number: RMBA/298/21A
Approved by:
Advisor
Internal Examiner
External Examiner
-------------------------- --------------------------
-----------------
Name Signature Date
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Appendix 6: Acknowledgment
First and foremost, I want to give my thanks to Almighty God for giving me the chance to enjoy the fruits of
my Endeavour.
Second, I thank my esteemed advisor Dr. Hailemichael for his incessant guidance, perspicacious thoughts,
constructive criticism, and his /her great efforts to clarify things clearly and easily throughout my thesis
writing period.
Third, my profound thanks go to the department head for her support and facilities extended throughout this
research work.
Fourth, I thank dean of the college for the co-operation, support, and needs rendered throughout my study
period.
Moreover, I wish to express my gratitude to my friends, relatives, colleagues, and students for all the
support and help that need to be extended to me for the completion of this study.
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Table of Conten
1. Introduction.........................................................................................1
1.1 Background of the project......................................................................1
1.2 Objective of the Project...........................................................................2
1.3 Statement and justification of the Problem.............................................2
1.4 Scope of the Project................................................................................4
2. Project Concept........................................................................................5
2.1 Opportunity study..................................................................................5
2.2 The project Concept and Profile..............................................................5
2.3 Preliminary study...................................................................................7
3. Project Methods and Procedure............................................................8
3.1 Project Design........................................................................................8
3.2 Types of data..........................................................................................8
3.3 Sources of data......................................................................................8
3.4 Data collection methods and tools..........................................................9
3.5 Data analysis methods and tools............................................................9
3.6 Population of the study..........................................................................9
3.7 sampling Design...................................................................................10
3.8 Sample size..........................................................................................10
3.9 Sampling Method.................................................................................10
3.10 Data analysis methods and tools........................................................10
3.11 Limitation of the Project......................................................................11
4. Project Preparation.......................................................................................................................... 12
4.1 Markets and Demand Analysis.............................................................12
4.1.1 Market demand analysis...............................................................................................12
4.1.3 Demand-Supply gap................................................................................................19
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4.2 Location and Site Assessment...............................................................19
4.3 Technology Selection............................................................................20
4.4 Technology Selection............................................................................21
4.5 Office Equipment’s...............................................................................21
4.5 Furniture and Fixtures.........................................................................21
4.6 Organizational and Human Resource....................................................22
4.7 Social and Environmental Analysis.......................................................24
4.8 Economic Analysis.............................................................................26
4.8.1 Project stakeholders......................................................................................................26
4.9 Financial Analysis..............................................................................29
4.9.1 Initial investment cost...................................................................................................29
4.9.2 Operational cost............................................................................................................29
4.9.3 Marketing cost..............................................................................................................30
4.9.4 Projection of cash flow............................................................................................30
4.9.3 Financial evaluation........................................................................33
4.9.3.1 Net present value (NPV)............................................................................................33
4.9.3.2 Internal rate of return (IRR)............................................................34
4.10 Legal analysis.....................................................................................36
5. Conclusion and Recommendations.........................................................37
5.1 Summary........................................................................................................ 37
5.2 Conclusions.......................................................................................37
5.3 Recommendations..............................................................................37
References..................................................................................................38
Acronyms
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Chapter One
1. Introduction
Ethiopia is currently implementing a strategy to advance digital transformation. The goal of
Digital Ethiopia 2025 is to digitalize services and promote e-commerce. In today's digital age,
ensuring only trustworthy people have access to digital spaces is mandatory. As a result,
document verification services that prevent fraud and maintain security will become a crucial
aspect of many industries in the near future.
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educational institutions, companies, and regulatory agencies to confirm the validity of supplied
papers such degrees, diplomas, certificates, and transcripts. Such verification is significant not
only for personal identification but also for ensuring fair and open procedures in the workplace,
in immigration and other areas where the evaluation of educational qualifications is essential.
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2017).
One of the main reasons for document forgery in Ethiopia is the lack of centralized system for
verification. This makes it easier for fraudsters to create fake documents that are difficult to
detect. Therefore, this has created an environment where fake documents may be easily made
and used without being noticed.
According to Zegabi.com Ethiopia spotted more than 200,000 fake degree certificates, the
majority of which are offered to the government officials. The agency also claimed that it had
located a university college that had been offering out up to 15,000 fake master's degrees
annually while other institutions continued to award false degrees long after the institution had
been shut down.
Document fraud can have serious consequences for individuals, businesses and the government.
Businesses that hire or admit people based on fake documents risk wasting resources on
unqualified applicants. Genuine job searchers may miss out on opportunities to those with
falsified credentials, leading to underemployment or unemployment. Document fraud can lead to
Economical losses due to improper resource allocation, decreased productivity, and decreased
labour market competitiveness, document. The investigations and legal actions taken on fraud
cases may result in lost tax revenue and increased expenses for the government.
Additionally, the use of manual document verification procedures increases the risk of human
mistake, which could result in erroneous verification results, the lack of strong security
protections leaves them open to document manipulation, forgeries, and unauthorized access. As
a result, organizations are exposed to dangers like identity theft, fraud, and data breaches.
Moreover, manual document verification procedures take a long time and require a lot of labor,
which can cause delays to complete the verification process.
Identity theft cost users $52 billion in 2021 alone, which is an alarmingly high number for global
law enforcement agencies. The criminals mostly steal the identities of users from various online
platforms and make fake documents using their names, which are then used for various illegal
activities and applying for fraudulent immigration cases. Hence, it is quite crucial to implement
a robust document verification system for remote services, which never let’s fraudsters onboard
company systems using fake identities(Marley, 2022).
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A simple verification of credentials at the point of entry or during promotion could save a lot of
trouble and damage that is not easy to manage at a later date (Wondwosen, 2017 ). Digital
document verification services can offer a quick and effective approach to verify the educational
documents, ensuring that only people with the proper authorization have access to immigration,
further education, professional licensing and enables employers to mitigate wrong hiring as well.
This service verifies the legitimacy of documents and guards against fraud using advanced
technologies such as Machine Learning Algorithms, OCR and document ID.
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Chapter Two
2. Project Concept
This Opportunity Study covers a first investigation of the project idea and the identification of
opportunities. In today’s digital age, when identity theft and fraud are pervasive, document
verification services are becoming more and more crucial. The service offers a safe and reliable
approach to confirming the legitimacy of documents, guaranteeing that they haven’t been altered
or fabricated.
As Ethiopia implements a digitalization policy, the need for document verification services is
expected to grow as more companies and people will do their business online. This study aim is
to ensure there is market potential to take advantage of and provide this service to organizations
across various industries due to the demand for secure and effective document verification
solutions. Several businesses, including employers, legal, embassies, and the government, are
considered to benefit from this service. Moreover, the document verification system can be
integrated with other business systems and platforms to create synergies and increase its possible
uses.
Ethiopia's strategy to digitalize the nation is well in progress, with significant improvements
made in providing e-government services, building digital infrastructure, and investing in human
resources. Hence, as this strategy enables more companies and people to do their business online,
document verification services will become crucial. Document verification services have a
significant positive impact on a country by preventing fraud and identity theft, streamlining
processes and reducing administrative costs, enhancing security measures, and promoting
transparency and accountability.
This study aims to verify the feasibility of document verification services that enable a reliable
and efficient way of verifying documents to prevent fraud and identity theft.
Document verification services can assist in ensuring that only legitimate people are given access
to particular privileges or services by ensuring the legitimacy of the documents. In a number of
industries, including healthcare, education, and employment, document verification services can
promote accountability and openness by ensuring that individuals possess the required
qualifications or certifications. Therefore, these services can help to remove fraudulent activities
and promote fairness and equality.
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The goal of the proposed solution is to provide users with a simple online platform via which
they may electronically submit their educational documents. With this function, there is no
longer a need to provide actual documents, which reduces paperwork and enhances convenience.
The solution automates the verification process using cutting-edge technology including Optical
Character Recognition (OCR), Machine algorithms and document ID, ensuring quicker
processing times, accuracy, and a decreased reliance on manual labour. As notifications are
issued at different stages, it can allow users to receive real-time updates regarding the status of
their document verification. This keeps consumers updated about the progress.
The solution also makes use advanced technology to provide safe, impenetrable digital records of
certified papers. This guarantees the immutability and integrity of the verification process. As a
result, this technique produces safe, impenetrable digital records of authenticated documents.
The various stakeholders that can benefit from this project are as follows
Enables users to utilize their resource effectively as it reduces time, money and
resources required compared to the manual verification process.
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B. Submitters of the documents
Decreases the waiting time as the solution is capable of providing faster and reliable
results.
C. Regulatory organizations
By eliminating the need for manual document checks, document verification speeds
up the process. This allows regulatory bodies to concentrate on other crucial activities
because it saves their time and resources.
As this is a major gap, I believe document verification service is crucial to reduce the pain point
of various institutions and employers to easily verify the authenticity of educational documents
in a real-time.
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Chapter Three
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3.3 Sources of data
The data utilized in the study was gathered from both primary and secondary sources. The
primary data is used because they are original data’s consisting of greater detail and are more
accurate. A questionnaire is an effective and rapid approach to gather a lot of data from various
people. As a result, questionnaire is used to gather the necessary primary data in order to learn
more about the target market and customers.
In addition, a number of secondary data sources, including journal papers, various postgraduate
studies, document forgery reports, and websites, primarily Google, is used to pinpoint the issue
at hand and ensure the viability of the document verification service.
Population refers to the entire group of people, events, or things of interest that the researcher
wishes to investigate (Creswell, 2003). The population in this research is Job Seekers and
Employees, Educational Institutions, Employers and recruiting agencies, regulatory bodies,
Immigration Authorities, Educational Quality Assurance Agencies.
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3.7 sampling Design
Types of sampling design used in the study is simple random sampling; the researcher randomly
selects a subset of participants from the population. Each member of the population had an equal
chance of being selected. The survey was distributed and then collected from as large a
percentage as possible of this random subset.
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3.11 Limitation of the Project
The Higher Education Relevance and Quality Agency (HERQA) is a government agency in
Ethiopia responsible for ensuring the quality and relevance of higher education institutions
and programs. As HERCA has database of all university certifications, the plan is to integrate
with this agency in order to verify the authenticity of documents. However, detailed
information such as grade per each semester might not be accessed through HERQA unless
integration is done with each university colleges.
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Chapter Four
4. Project Preparation
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4.1.1 Market demand analysis
In this part both survey outputs and secondary data will be examined and plainly presented in
order analyze the current consumers market demand for the educational document verification
service.
30-45 61
46-60 60
Above 60 5
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Respondent Answer
Read and write 0
Certificate 26
College diploma/TVET 36
First degree 55
Respondent Answers
Daily 20
Monthly 40
Yearly 38
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Weekly 58
Respondent’s Answer
Manually 156
In-house system 0
Automated 0
Respondent’s Answer
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Time consuming 54
Costly 50
Human Error 52
Respondent’s Answer
Yes 134
No 2
Maybe 20
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7. What is your preferred method for document submission?
Respondent’s Answer
Online 100
In person 12
Via email 42
8. How much would you be willing to pay for a one-time document verification
service?
Respondent’s Answer
100ETB and below 32
101 and 250 birr 30
251 and 350 birr 48
Above 350birr 46
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Depreciation of office equipment
Materials QTY Unit price Estimated useful life Annual
Depreciation
Cash register Machine 1 10,000 5 2000
Computer 13 53000 5 10600
Front desk telephone 1 2500 5 500
Total 13,100
Depreciation of Furniture and Fixtures
Materials QTY Unit Estimated useful life Annual Depreciation
Price
Guest chair 2 6000 5 1200
Office chair 13 6000 5 1200
Office table 3 8000 5 1600
Printer, scanner 1 18000 5 3600
Managerial chair 1 30,000 5 6000
Total 13,600
Description Qty Unit Estimated Useful Annual Depreciation
Price(ETB) life
Server 1 347,908 5 69,581.6
Network infrastructure 1 37,637 5 7,527.4
User Interface Design 1 8000 3 2,667
software
Switch 2 105,000 5 21000
Total 100,776
Depreciation of operating equipment’s
Working Capital
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Salary 3months*192,000 576,000
The rent will be 3months deposit which cost 30,000.00 ETB on a monthly basis with a contract
for minimum of 1 year and renewable.
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Document Optical Character Recognition (OCR): technology to convert scanned or
photographed documents into digital text, making them searchable and enhancing
the verification process.
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4.6 Organizational and Human Resource
A company's organizational structure describes how it is set up and how its many parts and
functions are connected. It offers a structure for outlining the relationships, positions, and
responsibilities that are part of the organization. How information is shared, decisions are made,
and work is coordinated across various people and departments is determined by the
organizational structure.
Organization structure is useful to ensure that there is a clear channel of communication and
coordination in the company. It establishes the channels of reporting, the decision-making
process, and the reporting lines. This aids in efficient cooperation and communication inside a
business. Additionally, it aids in defining roles and duties and allocating resources like human
capital, making sure that funds are given to the appropriate teams or individuals based on their
qualifications. A clear hierarchy is also provided through organizational structure.
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No Position Qty Hrs/week
1 General Manager 1 25000
2 Operations Manager 1 18000
3. IT manager 1 18000
4. PMO 1 18000
5. Sales and Marketing head 1 12000
6. Customer support 2 12000
7. Developers 3 15000
8. Project Managers 2 12000
9. Sales and Marketing 2 8000
10 HR Manager 1 8000
11 Quality Assurance 2 8000
12 Database Administrator 1 12000
13 Accountant 1 8000
14 Legal consultant 1 18000
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Marketing
10 HR Manager 8000 1445 880 560 5995
Tota 192,000
l
Amount
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Additionally, the service can reduce the chance of skill mismatches and job requirements, which
leads to a more efficient use of human capital. Therefore, by encouraging productivity and
innovation, this solution promotes economic growth.
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applying for higher education, for career progression, or just making sure their records
are accurate.
Educational Institutions:
The other stakeholder of this project are educational institutions (schools, colleges,
universities). In order to verify the educational qualifications of potential students or
applicants for academic programs, educational institutions can use our document
verification service to ensure the validity of documents provided.
Employers and Recruitment Agencies:
Employers and recruitment agencies are one of the main users of educational
document verification service. As part of the recruiting process, employers frequently
ask applicants to provide documentation of their educational documents. By using our
service Employers may make sure the data supplied by candidates is correct and
trustworthy.
The Government:
The government will engage in this project by creating guideline and requirements for
the document verification service. They will be taking a part to develop laws and
regulation that specify the criteria for approving educational documents, establish, the
rules for the operation of such services, and develop standards for safeguarding data
security and privacy. Generally, the government will set standards to ensure the
service aligns with regulations.
Data Protection Authorities:
The Information Network Agency(INSA) is one of the government bodies
responsible for overseeing data protection in Ethiopia. As they are in charge of
ensuring user data is handled securely and in compliance with data protection laws
they are the stakeholders of the proposed project.
4.8.1 Project beneficiaries’ identification
The Government
Additionally, government organizations frequently invest a substantial amount of
money in examining educational credentials for a variety of reasons. By streamlining
these process, this service can help government departments save time and effort.
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Educational document verification service can also help ensuring educational
institutions comply with government regulations, are operating as per the government
regulation and requirements.
Moreover, this service can significantly speed up the process of placing people in the
workforce and promote economic growth. As a result, there will be increased
economic activity, job creation, and consumer spending, the government receives
larger tax revenues. Additionally, it reduces compliance monitoring costs.
Individuals
Individuals such as students, employees and job seekers can gain from having a
reliable method for verifying their academic credentials because it improves their
employability and opens up more educational opportunities for them.
Employers and Recruitment agencies
When employing new staff, employers and recruitment agencies can also benefit from
educational document verification services. Employers can be certain that they are
hiring applicants with genuine qualifications by verifying the educational documents
that job applicants claim to possess. This is especially crucial for jobs that call for a
particular set of credentials or degrees.
They can use the result of the verification result to make well informed hiring
selections and avoid other people who could have lied about their qualification.
Therefore, they can make informed decision and avoid any fraudulent activities
during the employment process with the use of educational document verification
service. Employers can efficiently allocate human resources and save a significant
amount of money as this service eliminate the need for extensive background checks
and manual verification procedures during the hiring process.
Educational Institutions
The main beneficiaries of document verification services are educational institutions.
During the admissions process, the institutions may use these services to confirm the
validity of the academic credentials provided by applicants.
Institutions can confirm that applicants have the appropriate qualifications and that
their degrees or certificates came from reliable sources by verifying the educational
records to make sure they are valid. This service can reduce the possibility of
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fraudulent applications and guarantees that only qualified people are accepted into
their programmes. As a result, the institution's reputation and quality are preserved
which encourages more candidates to enroll there and increases the institution's
income and profitability.
This service can enable the educational institution to reallocate administrative
resources to other valuable tasks instead of manual verification processes which could
potentially lower operational costs. Furthermore, this solution can prevent the
educational institution from serious legal consequences.
Immigration Authorities and Embassies
Immigration authorities are essential in controlling the flow of individuals across
borders. This service can enable the immigration authorities to promptly and
accurately examine the educational qualifications of visa applicants. This assures that
those entering the country have genuine qualifications
This service offers quick responses by automating the verification process, which
saves all the stakeholders time. Therefore, the educational document verification
service results in an advantageous outcome for a number of stakeholders, improving
operational effectiveness, lowering expenses, and promoting economic growth.
Strategic Alliance
We will be partnering with organizations that align with our mission and vision to
provide much-needed services. Through our partnerships with these organizations,
we’ll be able to deliver successful services to our clients and contribute to the
economy of the country. Below are the list of the strategic partners.
Ethiopian innovation and technology minister & INSA: we will have
relationships with this companies for innovating up to date technologies that will ease
our services to our clients and enhance the security of the sensitive data.
Local workers- by hiring them in our company we consider them as alliance rather
than an employee.
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4.9 Financial Analysis
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4.9.3 Marketing cost
Our modern approach for ensuring the authenticity of educational credentials is called
educational document verification service. Our service provides a seamless and reliable solution
whether they are an employer, educational institution. The company will be making marketing
activities via social media only. Such as Instagram, Telegram, facebook. Therefore, there are no
costs associated with Marketing.
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Income statement
Y1 Y2 Y3 Y4 Y5
Refund - - - - -
Discount - - - - -
Operating Expense
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Cashflow statement
Y1 Y2 Y3 Y4 Y5
Investing Activities
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Ending Cash Balance 8,129,555 11,262,309.1 15,841,744.8 22,284,506.4 30,997,231.7
0 (2,143,545) 1 (2,143,545)
NPV 12,115,241.4
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4.9.3.2 Internal rate of return (IRR)
The internal rate of return (IRR) is an indicator of the efficiency or quality of an investment. A
project is a good investment proposition if its IRR is greater than the rate of return that could be
earned by alternate investments or putting the money in a bank account. If the projects IRR is
greater than the cost of capital, then accept the project; if not, reject.
BCR= PV/ I
BCR= 14,258,786.4/2,143,545
BCR= 6.651
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4.9.3.2 Payback period (PBP)
The payback period, also called pay-off period is defined as the period required recovering the
original investment outlay through the accumulated net cash flows earned by the project. If
payback period is less than or equal to the maximum allowed payback period by the
management, accept; otherwise, reject. Thus, the more quickly the cost of an investment can be
recovered, the more desirable is the investment.
ARR= 429.71
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4.9.3.4 Break-Even Analysis (BEA)
It is an analysis to determine the point at which revenue received equals the costs associated with
receiving the revenue. Break-even analysis calculates what is known as a margin of safety, the
amount that revenues exceed the break-even point. Once the break-even point has been reached,
the net operating income will increase by the amount of the unit contribution margin for each
additional unit sold.
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5. Conclusion and Recommendations
5.1 Summary
As the world transitions from traditional paper-based documents to digital ones, document
verification services are crucial to prevent fraud and maintain security. Document forgery
detection is essential due to the increasing incidence of fraud and identity theft.
Document verification is a process that checks the authenticity and validity of educational
documents, such as degrees, diplomas, certificates, and transcripts. Organizations like
educational institutions, employers, recruiting firms, and immigration authorities can use
this service to ensure the validity of submitted documents.
The marketing study covers the general business condition, , target market, demand. This
area talks about the structured questionnaires distribute to the respondents and the result
determines the demand and supplies.
Financial study provides financial information. This area discusses if the business is
profitable or not. The organizational study shows the form of the organization, the structure
of the business. The socio-economic study shows the contribution of the study to the
government and to the society.
5.2 Conclusions
Based on the research and study that the conducted, we can conclude that the business is
feasible and viable in the market
5.3 Recommendations
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References
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Sundaram, B. B., Sowjanya, M. S., Andavar, V., & Reddy, N. R. (2018). Opportunities and
Challenges of E-Commerce in the Case of Ethiopia. International Journal for Research in
Technological Studies, 5(4), 2348-1439.
van Beusekom, J., & Shafait, F. (2011, September). Distortion measurement for automatic
document verification. In 2011 International Conference on Document Analysis and
Recognition (pp. 289-293). IEEE.
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