Zebra’s dual-sided color P420i printer has been chosen by a southwest Florida school district to print its 11,000 employee ID badges which are part of a GE-installed system that includes access control, video surveillance, alarm monitoring and photo ID badging.

Print Photo ID Badges that Double as Access Control Credentials Used by Florida School District’s 11,000 Employees

Lee County Schools in southwest Florida serves 80,000 students attending 81 schools, with facilities that encompass a total of 87 separate locations including the schools and administrative sites. More than 11,000 employees keep the district running smoothly, despite its fast pace of growth. As the district expands, keeping up with security concerns is a top priority of Security Surveillance Supervisor Greg Lindsay, who has overseen security for Lee County Schools for the past 16 years.

As part of an overall effort to consolidate and coordinate security functions among the disparate district locations, Lindsay and his department selected the Topaz Access Control System from GE, which integrates access control, video surveillance, alarm monitoring and photo ID badging in one package. The district chose the dual-sided, full color Zebra P420i printer to create its employee identification cards.

“Our main goal was double-sided printing, but we also liked the ease of use, the printer’s portability, and the ability to hook the printer up to the district’s intranet and network it,” Lindsay reports. “We use the P420i to print identification cards for all the employees. The cards we use, HID proximity cards, also serve as access control credentials.”

The cards include a high quality photograph, the employee’s name and department, and a school logo. On the back is a message asking anyone who finds the card to return it to the district. Lindsay particularly likes the way the printer ribbons are designed, with a black strip at the end, so that less ribbon is used when printing on both sides of the card.

Previously, the district sent cards out for printing. However, the process took several days and about 20 percent of the cards came back with errors on them. Meanwhile, employees without cards were not allowed to enter any district facilities.

“If the printer is here, it’s more convenient,” Lindsay emphasized. “We can also design the cards the way we want them. Everything is right here and we don’t have to wait on anybody.”

Currently, the printer is packed up and taken to various locations to print employee badges for about five or six different departments. There is a plan in place to centralize printing operations in one area, however, with remote locations able to access the P420i printer via a network connection.

Because of the Jessica Lunsford Act, which was signed into law by Florida Governor Jeb Bush last May, any person who enters a school campus must be fingerprinted. The law is named for nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford, who was kidnapped and murdered by a convicted sex offender in Florida. Among other things, the law bans convicted sex offenders from school campuses.

The centralized printing operation envisioned by Lindsay will make it easier to create one identification card that shows an individual has been fingerprinted, without that person having to be fingerprinted at each school site. For instance, the printer could print a red band across the top of the card or a fingerprint icon alongside the photograph. Then, a contractor who maintains vending machines on campus would be fingerprinted once and then given a card that verifies his or her authorization to be on any Lee County school campus.

Overall, Lindsay said the district has found the P420i printer to be user friendly, and “one hundred percent reliable.”

“We love the printer, and we’ll probably have satellite sites that we can put more of these printers at and be even more efficient,” he added. “It’s made card printing more of a streamlined operation.”

The Zebra P420i
The standalone P420i dual-sided color printer prints sharp, readable ID photographs, graphics, and text edge-to-edge in seconds. The enclosure includes a viewing window to monitor the printing process without opening the unit. The P420i printer ribbon synchronizes automatically, eliminating the need for operator intervention. A self-cleaning cartridge thoroughly removes dust before printing, eliminating card rejects due to dust contamination. The P420i features Zebra’s revolutionary i-functionality, which simplifies card printing via automatic driver configuration, intelligent color optimization and a special RFID system for ribbon image counter and ribbon low notification.

Two years ago, CR80News conducted a quantitative survey of campus card banking partnerships in an attempt to put some numbers to trend . Our editors surveyed seven financial institutions that were determined to be actively involved in the market, offering banking services via the campus ID card. This month we endeavored to update this survey to provide a current picture of the market and investigate whether this often-discussed application is on the rise or decline.

As a whole, there has been significant growth in the number of campuses with banking partnerships. The seven surveyed institutions accounted for 58 total partnerships in 2003. This number has risen to 96 partnerships, an increase of more than 65% during the two-year period (or 30%-plus per year).

In the time that elapsed between our surveys, five of the seven financial institutions increased the number of partnerships served. The percentage increases ranged from 22% to 200% increase. Two institutions held steady with the same number of partnerships in both surveys. The following chart details the number of programs and the percentage increase by bank.

Only one partnership was ended during the period and none were traded between banking partners. Though this survey is not definitive empirical evidence, the astounding lack of turnover seems to suggest that campuses are generally satisfied with their partnerships.

One of the financial institutions, Higher One, has also added a number of campus clients that were not included on the list because they did not fit the strict definition as “campus card banking partnerships.” While these installations did offer financial services via a institution-endorsed card, it was not make use of the official campus ID card. They are, nonetheless, worthy of note. At these institutions, a separate card is issued to enable students and institutions to benefit from the electronic distribution of aid and other payments. These thirteen institutions include: Kennesaw State University, University of West Georgia, Georgia Perimeter College, Texas Woman’s University, Hillsborough Community College, University of North Carolina – Wilmington, Macon State College, Dalton State College, Gordon College, Savannah State University, Spring Arbor University, Siena Heights University, and Aquinas College.

There are a significant, though unknown, number of campuses that have banking partnerships with institutions not included in this survey. For example, Eastern Illinois University partners with First Mid-Illinois Bank & Trust and University of Kansas with Commerce Bank. Many other campuses offer banking services via their campus card in partnership with a local credit union. Thus, this survey is not meant to provide an exhaustive list of bank partnerships but rather suggest a direction and magnitude of the overall trend.

To this end, it seems that the campus card and financial institution partnerships via the ID card are continuing to grow in a positive direction. The following chart summarizes the results of the survey listing the campus card partnerships by bank. If your campus card program has a banking partner and is not included on this list, please take a moment and send us an email so that we can update the list.

At the recent ASIS security conference, displayed alongside the line of ID card printers in one company’s booth was a big metal locker with a reader and computer attached. It was not what one expects to see amid sleek, footprint-conscious card printers. But according to representatives of the printer manufacturer showcasing it, this box could be one of the most important complements to a card issuing system.

The metal box was actually a safe designed for secure storage and inventory management of blank cards, printer ribbons, and other consumables. It is another step in the important effort to deter fraud and ensure complete accountability for the entire card issuance process. It is an effort that begins with sound business procedures, continues through staff training and evaluation, makes a stop at building security, and continues through network access control. The next stop on the journey involves the protection and control of materials used in card creation.

The safe displayed at the conference was offered by printer manufacturer, Fargo Electronics, and is called the SecureVault™. The safe is specifically designed inside to store cards and ribbons in an organized manner. Outside, it is sized to function as a printer stand and has an attachable tray to hold a computer and RFID reader. Access to the SecureVault is controlled by a card reader on its door.

The card reader ensures that only those personnel with specially-issued contactless or proximity access cards can access the safe. A log of this traffic is maintained for security monitoring. An optional inventory management system enables detailed records to be maintained on specific consumables in the vault and the persons that checked out items from the vault. Because most of the company’s consumables ship with RFID tags on the packaging, the optional RFID reader enables items to scanned prior to placement in the vault and automatically entered into the inventory management system. As the items are removed, another quick scan tells the system that the item is being placed into use.

While the SecureVault system seems to be a very versatile and well-designed solution, the message that it conveys may be as important as the product itself. Not all card issuers will deploy a solution such as this, but all issuers should learn from its example. Control of consumables can be accomplished in many ways, some technology-driven and others more basic and immediate.

The low-tech version of the vault and computer-based inventory management system, is the locked drawer and the clipboard. While any organization can certainly do better than this most basic procedure, it is surprising to learn that many do not even take these most rudimentary of protections.

On college campuses, corporate sites, and entertainment venues, I have seen many examples of this. Cards and ribbons are frequently stacked next to the printer in plain view and within reach of card office employees, cleaning crews, and even the general public.

Simple steps such can greatly reduce the likelihood of pilferage and potential fraudulent card creation. If you don’t have a secure location to store your consumables, purchase one or more inexpensive fire safes from a local retailer. Limit access and authorize only a select number of key staff to remove items from the secured location. Keep an accurate log of items as they are checked into and out of inventory.

These are only the most basic of procedures. Other practices are also imperative to maintaining total inventory control. For example, keeping track of bad cards as well as total cards printed reduces the likelihood that missing cards can be “explained away” as misprints.

Better tracking of consumables also leads to better understanding of your supply levels. Perhaps the most common complaint I hear from card suppliers is that customers are always in a rush because they are “running out of cards or on their last ribbon.” Securing your supplies is key to knowing your supplies.

In summary, the safe and careful management of consumables is an essential weapon in the battle against card fraud and it has the added benefit of helping ensure smooth office operation. Whether you employ a high-security solution like Fargo’s SecureVault or simply put common sense procedures into place, this should be established as an immediate goal of your issuance team.

Additional resources:

To learn more about Fargo’s SecureVault offering, click here.

With the increasing demand for security, access control is an increasingly important campus card function in Europe as it is in the rest of the world. One Spanish company is capitalizing on this rising need with a cost-effective and innovative door control system.

Salto Systems, located near Bilbao, Spain, focuses on just one area: building access. Salto can take a college’s existing contactless smart card and, with a few tweaks, make it capable of managing every door on the university’s campus.

Marc Handels, vice president of marketing and sales, said its most well-known clients currently are Cambridge and Oxford universities in the UK. But the company services about 40 colleges, across Europe and in Asia.

Salto’s door control system is ideal for colleges because it doesn’t cost a lot to install, yet it can handle hundreds of doors, said Mr. Handels. Instead of hardwiring every door, or connecting every door to an online system, Salto lets the smart card serve as its “messenger.”

“We have made a bridge,” he explained. “We do online doors, but we limit those to a minimum. Most of the other doors (are controlled by) what we call stand-alone electronic locks. These locks have no wires to a network; so they’ll work on their own. That means installation is cheap.”

Offline doors don’t talk directly to the system. However, with Salto’s virtual network–a bridge between the online and offline doors–the company has found what it calls “the missing link that has always been the difficult part when attempting to manage several hundred doors. Normally, you would have to use a portable programmer and go door-to-door to update the readers,” said Mr. Handels.

Yet, if all those locks are offline and stand-alone, how can one control and manage them in a timely manner? “That’s where the key card technology plays an important role,” said Mr. Handels. “We link the stand-alone doors to the online system. But instead of linking them by hard wires, or having to use a portable programmer to update each door, we let the user’s contactless card update the system for us. Simply by using the card and opening doors, (the user or card) becomes our messenger between the door and system.”

For example, if a student graduates or an employee is terminated, that information is entered into the system. When a card user enters an online door, his card is updated. Then, every time that card accesses an offline door, it updates that part of the system, said Mr. Handels.

“In the case that a card is no longer valid, it gets immediately eliminated. The next time it reaches an online door, it is immediately locked out,” Mr. Handels added. “If that card doesn’t go to an online door, all the other cards will be informed that the card is no longer valid. (Then these cards will ‘spread the news’ to the offline doors through normal use) and the system is updated that way.”

“(Our cards) use several technologies. On the contactless side, we use Mifare, Desfire, ISO 15693 and we’re looking into HID’s iCLASS. We only use high frequency contactless cards that are very secure because the information is kept on the card,” he added.

What makes Salto’s system attractive to universities is that it will work with a college’s existing card program. “We can provide them with a little piece of software that allows them to put the Salto sector on those cards,” said Mr. Handels. “A student can go to the student center and load Salto applications on the (existing) card,” he said.

What about colleges still using mag stripe cards? “We have nothing against mag stripe, except they’re very easy to copy. One of the key elements that has made us so successful with universities is that we use very high security ID media, like contactless smart cards which cannot be copied or cloned,” said Mr. Handels. “If some college still has mag stripe readers, we can provide the university with a contactless smart card with a mag stripe on the back.”

Salto, which recently opened a U.S. office in Atlanta, Georgia, started five years ago “from scratch,” and has since installed some 200,000 doors, said Mr. Handels.

Additional resources:

To visit Salto on the web, click here.

At first glance, card system vendors don’t seem to be as much a part of a European campus programs as they do in the U.S. But look a bit deeper and you will find country or region-specific organizations helping campuses build their programs. According to one such vendor – London-based Fortress GB, – card requirements are often very country-specific. The company’s Smart Campus solution currently services four universities in the UK: University of Hertfordshire, South Bank University, Thames Valley University, and the University of Gloucester.

According to Natalie Easson, Fortress’ marketing executive, the company expects to add “substantially” more universities in the next year.

Fortress started out with contact-type smart cards for its clients, but that is changing, said Ms. Easson. “A few years ago contactless cards were brand new technology and therefore more expensive than contact cards. As with all technology, things move on and become cheaper. We are now in the process of migrating our Smart Campus clients over to contactless cards.”

“Each card is preloaded with a wealth of applications (e.g. student ID, time and attendance, credit, debit, logical and physical access, laundry) and self-managed student registration (including online student record update and electronic expiry date). Also electronic voting, as well as an e-purse for use with photocopying, printing, room booking, equipment hire, vending machines, student shops, parking, loyalty schemes and it can integrate with third parties such as transport systems, leisure centers, retailers and so on,” added Ms. Easson.

Fortress GB also supplies multi-application smart card solutions through its Smart Stadium program. Via tie-ins with the stadium offering, students at Thames Valley can use their Fortress Smart Cards to pay for and enter the Madjeski Stadium for matches and events. “The nature of the pre-loaded applications means that universities can choose which applications to activate at no extra cost as they are already preloaded and ready to go which also means that cards do not have to be recalled or systems changed,” she said. “Being able to introduce third parties to the system gives the additional benefits of new revenue streams for the universities.”

The Smart Omnicard at the University of Hertfordshire incorporates a dual interface chip (with both contact and contactless capabilities), a magnetic stripe and a bar code on the single card. This card enables all of the functions that used to be contained on 5 separate cards: identification, bus passes, an access card, a library and computer card, and an e-purse for use at the university’s shops or in vending machines. Launched in February 1999, there are approximately 20,000 cards for students and student nurses in circulation.

Value is loaded onto the e-purse (contact chip) at the administration center or via an ATM, in return for cash, check or credit card. This value can be used as cash in shops and vending machines or converted to bus tickets or season tickets at self-service Value Transfer Terminals (VTTs) located at various points around the University’s campuses.

Fortress started out in Chip and Pin design and has 15 years’ experience with microchip security design. “Today our solutions are used globally by a diverse array of customers, spanning airlines, football clubs, universities, school and city transport systems. Our Smart Stadium solution has been adopted by leading Premiership football clubs, and at the prestigious 2003 SESAMES Awards, it earned us the award for Best Software,” said Ms. Easson.

Additional resources:

To visit Fortress GB on the web, click here.

To read a case study on the Fortress GB installation at the University of Hertfordshire, click here.

By Andy Williams, Contributing Editor

Campus card programs in Europe are starting to accelerate, thanks in part to creation in 2003 of the European Campus Card Association. While Europe is often in the forefront of card usage in areas such as transportation and secure payments, it has lagged behind the U.S. when it comes to campus cards.

Eugene McKenna, general manager of auxiliary services for Waterford Institute of Technology in Ireland, and president of ECCA, suggests a possible cause: the 2002 failure of a large campus card company in the U.S., Cybermark, “sent shock waves throughout Europe,” he said. “Adding to that were the failures of several pilot projects in Europe.”

Other sources suggest less reactionary and more pragmatic reasons for Europe’s lag behind the U.S. in campus card implementations. While the desire for administrative efficiencies are common in both regions, key differences traditionally included the U.S. need for financial aid distribution, the more profit-oriented auxiliary service sector in U.S. colleges, and the extreme degree of competition for students that has always existed between institutions in the U.S. Beyond that the sheer size of institutions in the U.S. (e.g. state systems with 60+ schools and 1 million-plus students, individual schools with more than 100,000 students) led to a more lucrative business opportunity for vendors.

But all that seems to be changing as Europe moves more rapidly to campus card solutions. Evidence of this, according to Mr. McKenna, can be found in the growing ECCA membership. Currently at 40 institutions, it is expected “to double in the next few months,” he said. “We’re still in the very early stages.”

He said many university campuses across Europe are starting to introduce campus cards. “They’re becoming an important key at campuses.”

Many, he said, are using magnetic stripe and/or contactless cards linked to a back-end office database. “In Europe there are not many systems where money is stored on the chip. There is no big driver behind that at the moment,” said Mr. McKenna. “The way (European) campuses are wired up, the back office seems suitable to a campus environment.”

Waterford’s WITcard, (www.wit.ie/witcard) serves 10,000 students and is, according to Mr. McKenna, one of the biggest installations in Europe. “Across the UK there are a number of card systems, but there are only two or three applications on each card.”

There was also a tendency among colleges, he added, to go with mag stripe, “but in recent times, Mifare (Philips’ contactless technology) seems to be the technology of choice. We’re using that,” he said of Waterford’s card. Vending, building access, and e-purse, are among the card’s applications. “The latest application is our web revalue where you can load from any bank directly onto our card,” said Mr. McKenna.

Another application, pay-for-print, “is a huge profit center for us,” he added. “Students do a lot of printing off the web. About seven to eight years ago, printing was 25% and copying was 75 % (of total reprographics volume). That has almost reversed itself. There is a huge demand for printing. That’s where a campus card system can generate a profit.”

“All of our card services are managed by auxiliary services. It’s more profitable. I feel we have a very good model unique to us and many of our institutions.”

Bike sharing programs at university campuses aren’t exactly new. And the one that students at MIT in Boston have been operating for two years isn’t high tech despite its university being synonymous with cutting edge developments.

But the goal of these students is to take the program high tech, eventually linking it to MIT’s card program. While the program is called TechBikes, a more accurate term, according to one of its co-founders, Danny Shen, is “a no-tech communal bike” program … at least for now.

“It’s a work in progress,” added Atif Quadir, one of the program’s other co-founders who was a graduate student and an adviser to freshmen in 2003 when the subject of a bike share program came up.

The bike share program brought Mr. Shen, Mr. Quadir, and other students together in 2003 to form a club operated solely by MIT students.

The birth of TechBikes …

“The inspiration was the larger issue of conservation of resources,” said Mr. Quadir. “But the main reason, was that while there are a lot of forms of transportation around MIT – shuttles, the MTA, etc. – there was a gap in transportation services for on-demand and off-campus travel. We have a pretty long campus, about 1.5 to 2 miles, so we felt there was a specific transportation niche that wasn’t being filled.”

A long-term goal is to attach the bike program to the MIT ID card – which is used, like many campus cards, to check out library books and to gain access to dorms and offices. That could encourage greater use of the program, said Mr. Quadir.

Currently, a student goes to the front desk of MIT’s east campus dorm and a staffer signs the student in and loans him a bike. The student pays a nominal deposit that is refundable when the bike is returned. Students must return the bike in a day.

The bike share project is based on the Zip Car program, a national franchise that rents cars by the hour. But the comparison stops there, because Zip Car costs money and it is the goal of MIT’s bike share program to keep it free. Of course that means the club has to seek out sponsors or other grant money.

“We’re applying to get some money from the dorm itself; to buy maintenance materials; we’re also applying to the Deans for money and we’ve submitted an application to the Undergraduate Association, a group of students,” said Mr. Shen, an MIT senior. “We’re seeing if we can get some help from MIT’s transportation department, which covers shuttle buses.”

Said Mr. Shen: “The next step is to introduce some elements of technology and we’re working right now to set up a hub at the athletic center. We have about 20 users right now; we have two to three bikes depending on repairs.”

As to student response to the program, Mr. Shen notes, “we have had some pretty positive responses. It costs them nothing to use the bike. They can email to determine availability. They can rent it for a day.”

The bikes won’t win any beauty contests. “We didn’t want them to be too shiny,” said Mr. Shen, “otherwise they’ll get stolen. He estimates it will take 100 bikes to cover the entire MIT campus. “We figure we’ll need eight to ten hubs, with each hub equipped with four to ten bikes.”

Next steps in the bike share program …

If the first version, the one in use now, is the “no-tech version,” the next iteration could be euphemistically referred to as the “some-tech” version, said Mr. Shen. This is what he’s working on now and involves a computer system in which people are registered. Students will be able to check availability and the club can track rental status and usage. “With that we can get card swipes working with a computer-based system,” said Mr. Shen.

The next version, what Mr. Shen calls the “full-on system,” will be an automated bike checkout station. “Giving you an idea of when that will happen is tough. I know I won’t be around, but we have juniors coming up we can pass the torch down to,” said Mr. Shen.

As to integrating the system with the MIT ID card: “We’ve talked to the card office, generally about what is needed to get their system integrated. And while we know the card office can give us a system that authenticates who the user is, we don’t know if it will tell us if the user is okay and we don’t know whether the registered users end up on our system or theirs.”

He said another possibility, if their system isn’t ideal, is “to set up our own card system. We could register people based on whatever card they have – credit card, MIT card, and issue our own cards.”

The MIT card office weighs in …

Dan Michaud, MIT’s campus card manager, said it would be possible to link TechBikes with the university’s card system. “It depends on what they want to do. Right now we do the Zip Cars, which is handled through the parking office. We have a program where you can create a Zip Car account. Anybody who has an account can be given access to the garage and be able to rent one of the cars, but this is more of a function of our parking and transportation, and the Zip Car account is linked to the person’s credit card.”

Mr. Michaud said there are actually two separate parts that the students should consider: “The financial transaction process and access control.” As to the latter, “the easy way is to put the bike in a room with a card reader.”

Another possibility is to attach a card reader, controlling a solenoid device, to the bike rack. Metal pins would go through the wheel “and if we can get a solenoid to retract those pins, then the system is doable. But you’re creating something that isn’t available now.”

He said students should also be able to go to a web site and type in their id number to check the availability of the bike. The transaction could then be handled through MIT’s TechCash system which debits the student’s account.”

Bottom line, according to Mr. Michaud: TechBikes is feasible. “It’s all eminently doable. You just have to line up the right people.”