A Better Campus Experience through Smart Cards
Technology has come a long way since contactless smart cards were first introduced
- By Nils Wahlander
- February 01, 2019
Walking around college campuses
and universities it is commonplace
to see students walking to
and from classes, studying in
the library, and now playing
Fortnite in the student center with their free
time. What you don’t see anymore—which
used to be commonplace—are students utilizing
a magnetic stripe or barcode to access
their dorm, buy food, or check out books
from the library.
Many schools have discovered that using
these technologies, especially for door
access, are fraught with security vulnerabilities
and expensive to maintain over time. It’s
becoming increasingly difficult to find these
types “dumb” ID badges that are personalized
with only a color photo, black text, mag
stripe or barcode that function simply to
help others visually verify that we are who we
say we are. No longer a novelty, contactless
smart cards are now a large part of daily life
on campus for many of colleges and universities.
Today’s smart IDs serve not only as
photo identification, but also as access cards,
debit cards and even mass transit passes in
major cities across the world.
While the cards themselves have become
smarter often times the process to issue these
contactless smart cards has become more
complex and challenging for campus card
offices. This is in large part due to the makeup
of the smart card, which although they
very much resemble the cards of old in size
and shape, are quite different on the inside.
Smart cards have an embedded chip which
has memory to store data, such as a card number
for door access, and also has an antenna
allowing the card to be read using an RFID
(Radio-Frequency IDentification) reader.
These chips allow for additional security
as the card data is encrypted and typically
requires authentication to read the data
from the card. As a result, the process to
issue or enroll these contactless smart cards
into the credential management solution is quite different than that of a barcode or
mag stripe card.
For many years, the technology to read or
write the data from these contactless smart
cards wasn’t readily available making for a
cumbersome process that frequently resulted
in card enrollment errors. Typically, the card
data in a contactless smart card comes preprogrammed
on the chip of the card with the
value printed on the outside of the card. The
campus card office will then ensure that the
students card gets printed with their personal
data onto the outside of the card properly
and that it’s synced to the card data on the
inside of the card. Specifically, within a
school’s database, student record containing
a photograph, name and ID number gets
updated to include a unique card ID number
that was pre-programmed into a chip of the
contactless smart card.
Cumbersome Two-Step Process
How quickly and accurately the student’s
record is updated with the contactless smart
card data varies. The older outdated process
would start by using a desktop card printer
to print the personal data onto the outside of
the card. Next, they will pick up the card
from the printer’s output bin, turn to their
computer and manually type the pre-printed/
pre-programmed card number into that
student’s record in the database. If their system
is slightly more automated, they may
have an external desktop reader on which
they can tap the smart card in order to read
the contactless smart card using RFID technology
and copy the card data into the student’s
record. This is typically referred to this
as a two-step issuance process where the first
step is to print the card and the second step
is to manually transpose the card data into
the card management solution.
This two-step process has been used so
frequently over the past decade that card
offices have grown accustomed to issuing
contactless smart cards in this way, even
though it negatively impacts the issuance
process in the following ways:
Slows Issuance Process. Multiple manual
steps significantly delay the time to issue a
single card to students
Poor Operator Experience. Operator
involvement is high and operators will need
to ensure that they remember to perform
multiple manual steps
Increases Chances for Error. Manual steps
and data entry provide more opportunities for
card issuers to misspell a name, transpose a
number or commit other avoidable mistakes.
Lastly, the student experience is also a poor
one as they need to wait longer for their ID
card and if there is an error entering the card
data into the card management solution, it is
not discovered until the student attempts to
use the card. This compounds the error and
adds even more time to the issuance process
since the student will need travel back to the
card office to obtain a new card.
Simplifying the Complex -
Introducing Inline Personalization
Technology has come a long way since contactless
smart cards were first introduced.
Long gone are the days when the only option
was the two-step process. Today, the tools
enabling universities and colleges to move
away from the outdated two-step process
into one, inline smart card personalization
process are readily available. In an inline personalization
process, users submit a card
into a desktop printer equipped with an
internal contactless smart card reader/write,
and in one seamless step the printer/reader
personalizes the card inside and out. This
inline personalization process is the answer
to the outdated two-step process and brings
forward the following benefits:
Simplifies the Complex. Card issuers are
no longer required to jump among multiple
applications to issue credentials; they can
click the print button from one application,
and that completes the issuance process.
Enables Instant Access. Students are able
to use their cards as soon as it is printed, with
no requirement to get the card activated with
a second step.
Increases Throughput. Elimination of manual steps decreases the time it takes to issue a card, giving issuers
more opportunities to focus on other tasks.
Automates Processing. Errors that commonly occur during the
two-step contactless personalization process are effectively reduced,
and denied entry for students due to incorrectly entered information
is eliminated.
Implementing Inline Personalization
If inline smart card personalization sounds appealing, it’s now easier
than ever to implement this process with the majority of card printer
manufacturers offering the option to include contactless smart card
readers/writers into their card printers. This is only one part of the
solution as the issuance software is really the most critical component
in the inline personalization process.
When evaluating software to read/write contactless smart card
data it’s important to clearly understand what card data you will be
managing with the contactless smart card and where there this data
will be stored. For example, reading door access data and would like
this to be sent to the door access control software.
Yet all software isn’t created equal and its imperative to find card
issuance software that will meet your needs when it comes to synching
the contactless smart card data to your pre-existing solutions. The
following questions will help you in the evaluation process of both
card printers and software:
- Does the card printer and software you are considering support
the contactless smart card technology used by your school?
- What data do you want to read or write to the contactless smart
card? Will it simply read door access data, or would you like to
write a unique number that is used for on-campus applications
(i.e. cashless vending)?
- Do you want to use traditional PC-based card personalization
software or a cloud-based solution? The options for a cloudbased
solution may be limited, so be sure to get confirmation
from your cloud-based provider that they support inline smart
card personalization.
- Where do you want to store the card data? Will you be using a
pre-existing database, or do you want to transfer the card data to
another application such as a door access control solution or vending
solution? Ensure that the software supports or has a method to
connect to these applications.
If you aren’t sure how to answer these questions, don’t worry, there
are card issuance professionals who can help you navigate to the right
solution. Just know that there is plenty of help out there.
Time to Make the Move
Schools are making the digital transformation in how students interact
in the classroom and with their peers shouldn’t the card issuance
process take the next step forward as well? Its clear that there is a
better and readily available option to the two-step issuance process of
contactless smart cards, its time to make the move to a more efficient
inline personalization process.
This article originally appeared in the January/February 2019 issue of Campus Security Today.