Partnering With a Badging Provider
Utilizing a card service bureau can simplify the deployment of ID credentials for end-user clients. Benefits include eliminating investments in card production equipment.
For end-user organizations embarking on large-scale ID badging projects the process of delivery and management — as well as the costs associated with investing in equipment and resources — can seem daunting at best. Realizing they lack the ability to rollout these types of projects, customers often rely on installing security contractors to help them meet their organization’s goals.
Increasingly, corporate rebadging projects are necessitated by regulatory requirements and other issuance factors that result in exceeding the in-house production capabilities of an end user. In such predicaments many customers call upon their integrator partners to discuss their options. Among the alternatives, these can include buying new equipment or utilizing a service bureau to meet their ID badge requirements.
Keep in mind, the same issues that face the customer often pertain to the integrator as well. Large-scale card personalization and complex card issuance projects can present numerous challenges, not to mention a great source of pain, especially when integrators are faced with tight customer deadlines. Whether the project requires 1,000 simple ID badges or 15,000 ID and/or smart cards with added technology or visual security, it makes sense for integrators to enlist the assistance of a card printing service bureau to fulfill the end user’s needs.
A Case for Using a Service Bureau
Primarily chosen for the convenience factor on the part of the integrator and customer, card printing service bureaus are able to provide quality service in a secure, fast and convenient manner. The service also has the ability to enhance any customer’s secure ID project by adding embedded elements and card personalization — all under one roof. Not to mention, card service bureaus benefit integrators and customers by simplifying and streamlining the deployment of personalized identity credentials within organizations of any size or location, while eliminating the need for capital investments on card production equipment or costly supplies and labor.
However, it is important to choose an experienced service bureau that is both familiar with and offers expertise in card technology and production, as well as offers the proper certifications and an extensive background in the security industry. Equally important, a card service bureau should support and provide full service capabilities, all the while being as invested in protecting the secured at a infrastructure as the organization whose data is being used.
Addressing these complexities, card printing service bureaus are better equipped to deliver the expertise in advanced printing and security features that improve the integrity of a card program, while increasing efficiencies and capabilities within an organization. Additionally, a service bureau is able to add advanced technology to credential printing that may not be available through all integrators.
Deliver Higher Levels of Security
From laminated artwork and anti-counterfeiting techniques to variable record printing and advanced personalization, an experienced service bureau should be able to deliver the support and knowledge needed to ensure the success of even the most demanding credential implementation.
Large-scale card projects can be delivered in a timely manner using the service bureau’s higher capacity printers in comparison to in-house printing, which can take weeks or months to coordinate data. The speed of printers and manpower required to complete a project are other factors that must be considered as well.
Plus, a service bureau can alleviate the burden placed on the integrator by freeing them up to focus on other aspects of their business, leaving the service bureau to manage the card production.
One key reason for using a card printing service bureau is secure data transfer of sensitive information. At a time when data theft is at an all-time high, using an experienced card printing service bureau ensures organizations can maintain public trust by placing the appropriate focus on high data security, eliminating issues with data security breaches.
Besides offering convenience, a service bureau can meet an organization’s brand conscious need for designing an ID badge that delivers a more professional and polished look than using traditional design software through the organization’s in-house printer.
An organization’s security function is well aware of issues surrounding corporate security, so when it comes to designing a badge that appropriately conveys corporate image, the chosen service bureau should be able to meet a customer’s needs by providing best practices and advising on proper card design and layout. While it may not necessarily replace an organization’s in-house printing capability altogether, it will deliver a more robust design that delivers a higher level of security and mitigates risk.
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