Producing your RFID cards, smart cards, photo ID badges and key fobs by yourself is a substantial and complicated task – but not all off-site card and key fob production services are a good choice for organizations. “After digitalizing our onboarding process, we can proudly claim that our cards-as-a-service solution is the very best way to provision your cards and key fobs,” says Gustaf Broman, product manager at identity and security company Nexus Group.
There are 24 reasons for European organizations to opt for the Nexus GO Cards as a Service, according to Broman.
1. It enables you to focus on your core business.
Outsourcing your card and key fob production to Nexus means that you just order the physical credentials when you need them and get them delivered.
“No need to worry about processes, competence, equipment and maintenance; producing RFID cards, smart cards, photo ID badges and key fobs is a complicated task, involving everything from making sure that the printer ribbon is operational to being in control of the data parameters for each physical credential,” says Broman.
2. It is cost-efficient.
It costs significantly less to outsource your card, tag and key fob production to Nexus than to manage it yourself, since production of physical credentials requires skilled people, equipment and materials.
“Moreover, when you buy cards and key fobs as a service from Nexus, you only pay for what you get. If you produce your own cards, you will have to throw away 10–20 percent of all cards, due to complications such as printer ribbon breakages and unclean cards. Nexus GO Cards as a Service has a proven business case,” says Broman.
Read blog post 4 reasons to upgrade to multifunctional smart cards
3. It gives you flexibility in capacity.
“Nexus can manage very large volumes, without any upper limit. This means that you could easily rebadge your entire staff if you were to change your company logotype or acquire a company,” says Broman.
4. It gives you continuous high quality.
Nexus has a process that is highly digitalized and has very skilled personnel handling the manual parts.
“If, for example, your receptionist is asked to manage the card production, you run an increased risk of human error,” says Broman.
5. It makes you less dependent on people.
“With cards and key fobs as a service, you are less vulnerable to staff falling ill or leaving the organization, and you do not have to worry about keeping their competence up to date,” says Broman
6. Nexus makes sure that the cards get to the right places.
“Managing the logistics of sending cards and key fobs to the right office, factory or school can be a headache if you produce your cards yourself and have several locations. When you outsource the production to Nexus, you also outsource the task of getting the card or key fob to the right location,” says Broman.
7. It means you do not need to keep stock.
“Making sure that you always have enough card and key fob materials, card holders and consumables for the printers is a task that requires time, money and space,” says Broman.
8. It means you do not need to keep up with developments in the card industry.
“It is Nexus’s responsibility to follow market trends and keep security features, technologies, processes and equipment up to date,” says Broman.
9. Nexus’s onboarding process is smooth.
There are a lot of different types of card technologies, access control systems, and visual security elements on cards, which make it difficult to understand what types of cards and configurations a customer needs. With some vendors, it is difficult and time consuming to get started with cards and key fobs as a service.
“But Nexus has a very smooth and digital step-by-step onboarding process that guides you to the right cards for your access control environment,” says Broman.
10. Nexus has the resources to give you exactly what you need.
“Not all vendors of cards as a service can manage all types of advanced encodings and technology combinations – but Nexus can,” says Broman.
11. You get to design and layout your cards as you wish.
“And we provide help from our art directors,” says Broman.
12. Nexus only uses high-quality materials.
“We pick only high-quality manufacturers, use only original MIFARE RFID chips, make sure that the plastics in the cards can handle wear and tear, and control that the frequency in the antennas of the RFID cards is optimized,” says Broman.
13. Nexus offers multifunctional smart cards.
“There are many benefits to multifunctional smart cards; that is, cards that can be used for a wide variety of applications, such as opening doors and cabinets, visual identification, computer login, access to cloud services, payments in the cafeteria and follow-me printing,” says Broman.
14. Nexus offers visual security elements.
“Adding visual security elements – such as UV prints, micro texts and holograms – make cards much harder to forge,” says Broman.
15. You can get the latest within RFID technology.
RFID stands for Radio-Frequency IDentification, and is the state-of-the-art technology for contactless cards and key fobs.
“RFID technology is developing at a rapid speed – we make sure to keep up to date and offer you the latest, best and most secure RFID chips. Right now, as of May 2017, MIFARE DESFire EV1 and MIFARE DESFire EV2 are the best architecture platforms for cards,” says Broman.
16. You may brand your card holders and lanyards.
There is a wide range of different card holders on the market, suited for different people’s needs and preferences.
“We offer you several different card holders and lanyards, as well as the possibility to brand them with your organization’s logotype. It saves you a lot of time, money and effort to be able to easily order ready-to-use branded card holders at the same time as you order cards and key fobs,” says Broman.
Read blog post 8 benefits to buying ready-to-use cards as a service
17. You can place an order online, from any device, anytime and anywhere.
“Believe it or not, some vendors do not have online ordering portals – they only offer orders via email and telephone,” says Broman.
18. Nexus’s ordering portal is easy to use.
“We provide a personalized online catalog with pre-configured cards that people in your organization can easily order with a few clicks,” says Broman.
19. It is possible to integrate Nexus’s ordering portal.
“For super-smooth card orders, you will want to integrate the card ordering portal with an application such as your intranet or your identity and access management (IAM) software,” says Broman.
20. You get a priority delivery option.
“Sometimes you will need a new card or key fob on short notice,” says Broman.
21. There is an order overview in Nexus’s online ordering portal.
“This makes administration and card management easier. At the end of every month, you receive a report with the cards that will expire the following month. This allows which you to be proactive and make sure that your users always have valid cards. There is also a function that requires a responsible person in your organization to approve orders before they are processed,” says Broman.
22. You can easily get personal support from Nexus if needed.
“Even though our online ordering portal is great, sooner or later you will run into issues that need to be sorted out by a skilled professional,” says Broman.
23. Nexus offers IAM software.
It is a big plus if your cards as a service vendor also offers identity and access management (IAM) software. A centralized IAM software lets you enforce uniform policies in the management of identities, credential data and physical access entitlements.
“You also get centralized and correct information on who is in possession of which physical or digital access credentials and entitlements at any given time,” says Broman.
24. Nexus offers interoperable authentication software.
“If you want to use the cards for windows login, digital signatures or single sign-on to your digital resources, it is beneficial to opt for Nexus, since we can provide interoperable authentication software,” says Broman.
Even though there are many benefits to Nexus GO Cards as a Service, some organizations may still want to produce either some or all of their RFID cards, smart cards, photo ID badges or key fobs on premise. Nexus therefore also offers all the equipment and materials needed for this, such as photo capturing equipment, plastic card printers, encoding software, encoding hardware, table readers, identity carriers and card holders.
“Buying equipment and materials for producing your own cards and key fobs is not an easy task, so we offer expert help for choosing the right products. We also offer installation services and support from our highly trained staff, competent in all the products we sell,” says Broman.
