Datacard Group
Encyclopedia
Datacard Group is one of the largest global providers of secure identification and card issuance solutions. Its customers, including banks, service bureaus, government agencies, corporations and other organizations, issue over 10 million cards every day. The company was founded in 1969 by Willis K. Drake and has locations around the world including Asia
, Europe
, the Middle East
and Africa
and the Americas
. Headquartered in Minnetonka, Minnesota
, Datacard Group serves customers in over 150 countries, employs more than 1,300 people worldwide and generates annual revenues of more than $400 million.
, an early manufacturer of computer peripheral equipment. Founder Willis K. Drake recognized an opportunity created by a rise in credit card commerce, which relied on slow and labor intensive card production and processing. His expertise in computing and printing technology told him that it was possible to mass produce
machine readable cards. However, the idea didn't fit with Dataproducts' circumstances at that time, so DataCard Corporation was formed to bring Drake's idea to fruition.
Drake and Datacard Group engineers partnered with strategists and engineers from the world's leading financial institutions and retail
organizations to create the first ever high speed credit card
personalization system. It was capable of creating up to 1500 personalized, embossed cards per hour and helped revolutionize credit card commerce
.
Datacard Group also pioneered digital photo ID technology by installing the world’s first digital photo ID system in 1991 and brought the first desktop card printer
to market the same year.
. The company announced that the acquisition would help it "expand its role from smart card
personalization tools to multi-application smart card software".
In early 2001, the company acquired Darmstadt
, Germany-based Contec GmbH, that designs and develops laser engraving
systems used to produce highly secure identification cards and passports. Contec had been working closely with Datacard Group since 1997, designing its "stand-alone laser engraving systems" which have since been used for numerous government projects including the Dutch passport
and Slovenian
National ID.
In 2003, the company officially acquired French smart-card company Gilles Leroux that manufactured embedded chips, often used in cell phones worldwide. Gilles Leroux went bankrupt in 2002 and Datacard had been running all operations until a French court finally ruled that Datacard had the right to buy Gilles Leroux's assets.
In early 2006, Datacard Group acquired Ga-Vehren Engineering, a St. Louis-based company that manufactured flexible, high-speed print and package-finishing machinery used for plastic card delivery, direct mail and commercial printing. Datacard announced that the acquisition would increase its ability to take advantage of growth opportunities in telecommunications, loyalty programs, gift cards, direct mail, commercial printing, and print and package finishing.
Later in 2006, the company acquired Card Personalization Systems Technology (CPST), a company that provided high-speed inkjet systems to create cards in the gift, loyalty and telecommunications markets. Datacard again made an announcement that the acquisition would allow the company to round out its existing print and packaging systems for end-to-end solutions.
In 2010, Datacard Group acquired Dynamic Card Solutions (DCS), a Denver-based company that provided instant issuance and PIN selection solutions for banks, credit unions and retailers that issue contactless, magnetic stripe and EMV® compliant cards. The company announced that the acquisition would expand the Datacard portfolio of end-to-end instant issuance solutions for banks, credit unions and retailers and position the company for growth in a global market.
, Ukraine
, and Spain and the majority of all financial institutions, some of which include Bank of America
, American Express
, First National Bank of Omaha
, Mountain America Credit Union
, Liberty Bank
, Commonwealth Bank, Desert Schools Federal Credit Union
, Greenbank
and Service Credit Union
. Datacard also serves customers in other markets including corporate security, education, retail and healthcare.
Datacard technology was chosen to personalize and deliver the US passport card, an alternative to the passport book for US citizens traveling to by land and sea to and from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean. The highly secure card program uses long-range radio frequency identification (RFID), laser engraved personalization, and other layered security technologies. As of March 2010, more than 2,700,000 Passport Cards had been issued to U.S. citizens.
The Republic of Guatemala employed Datacard Group to deliver an "automated state-of-the-art card personalization solution" which the responded to by providing them with highly secure electronic identity cards. The e-ID cards will be issued to more than 11 million people over 8 years.
In an effort to prevent fraud and counterfeiting, the Republic of Guinea-Bissau sought out Datacard's services to create national ID cards with multi-layered security and issue them with the Datacard® SP75 card printer. Guinea-Bissau plans to issue over one million of these national ID cards over five years.
Liberty Bank
, the oldest mutual bank
in Connecticut
that serves over 190,000 customers, implemented an instant issuance strategy using Datacard® CardWizard® instant issuance software and PIN
selection technology.
The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia
upgraded its drivers' licenses to include a radio frequency identification technology (RFID) chip embedded in the EDL (Enhanced Driver's License) to help facilitate traveler processing at the U.S. borders by implementing IBM Canada and Datacard Group technologies.
The Commonwealth of Virginia used the Datacard® Advocate™ precinct management system to improve efficiency, security and auditability of voter check-in, eliminating the need for traditional paper poll books which had remained largely unchanged since early 1800s. Voter Registrar, David Andrews, authorized a trial run during the Virginia Dual Party primary
in June 2005.
According to Cynthia Patterson, Vice President of Card Issuance Technology, Bank of America
improved productivity in its card shop by 45% after implementing Datacard® Syntera® Manufacturing Efficiency Software at two sites, replacing existing OS/2 operating systems
. "We have definitely increased the speed of card processing by at least 45 percent," Patterson said. "It is easy to combine multiple smaller jobs into one long job and flow it through the system. We can reject one card and remake it immediately without going back to the drawing board."
The company was named amongst Business Journal's Top 100 Private Companies list in 2010.
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
and Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
. Headquartered in Minnetonka, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, Datacard Group serves customers in over 150 countries, employs more than 1,300 people worldwide and generates annual revenues of more than $400 million.
Company history
Datacard Group spun off from Dataproducts CorporationDataproducts
Dataproducts Corporation was an early manufacturer of computer peripheral equipment.Initially known as Data Products, the company was founded by Erwin Tomash in 1962 in order to take controlling interest of Telex's Data Systems Division. The division was behind on a contract to deliver disk files...
, an early manufacturer of computer peripheral equipment. Founder Willis K. Drake recognized an opportunity created by a rise in credit card commerce, which relied on slow and labor intensive card production and processing. His expertise in computing and printing technology told him that it was possible to mass produce
Mass production
Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines...
machine readable cards. However, the idea didn't fit with Dataproducts' circumstances at that time, so DataCard Corporation was formed to bring Drake's idea to fruition.
Drake and Datacard Group engineers partnered with strategists and engineers from the world's leading financial institutions and retail
Retail
Retail consists of the sale of physical goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be...
organizations to create the first ever high speed credit card
Credit card
A credit card is a small plastic card issued to users as a system of payment. It allows its holder to buy goods and services based on the holder's promise to pay for these goods and services...
personalization system. It was capable of creating up to 1500 personalized, embossed cards per hour and helped revolutionize credit card commerce
Credit card
A credit card is a small plastic card issued to users as a system of payment. It allows its holder to buy goods and services based on the holder's promise to pay for these goods and services...
.
Datacard Group also pioneered digital photo ID technology by installing the world’s first digital photo ID system in 1991 and brought the first desktop card printer
Card printer
Card printers, often also called plastic-card printers, are electronic desktop printers with single card feeders which print and personalize plastic cards. In this respect they differ from, for example, label printers which have a continuous supply feed. Card dimensions are usually 85.60 ×...
to market the same year.
Products and acquisitions
Datacard Group develops, markets, and supports secure identification and card personalization systems and software for a variety of applications including government identification and financial cards. The company provides card issuers and service bureaus around the world with fully integrated systems for a variety of financial, identification, transportation, telecommunications, gift card and loyalty applications.Acquisitions
In mid-2000, Datacard acquired Platform Seven from NatWest Bank, a part of the Royal Bank of ScotlandRoyal Bank of Scotland
The Royal Bank of Scotland Group is a British banking and insurance holding company in which the UK Government holds an 84% stake. This stake is held and managed through UK Financial Investments Limited, whose voting rights are limited to 75% in order for the bank to retain its listing on the...
. The company announced that the acquisition would help it "expand its role from smart card
Smart card
A smart card, chip card, or integrated circuit card , is any pocket-sized card with embedded integrated circuits. A smart card or microprocessor cards contain volatile memory and microprocessor components. The card is made of plastic, generally polyvinyl chloride, but sometimes acrylonitrile...
personalization tools to multi-application smart card software".
In early 2001, the company acquired Darmstadt
Darmstadt
Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...
, Germany-based Contec GmbH, that designs and develops laser engraving
Laser engraving
Laser engraving, or laser marking, is the practice of using lasers to engrave or mark an object. The technique does not involve the use of inks, nor does it involve tool bits which contact the engraving surface and wear out...
systems used to produce highly secure identification cards and passports. Contec had been working closely with Datacard Group since 1997, designing its "stand-alone laser engraving systems" which have since been used for numerous government projects including the Dutch passport
Dutch passport
A Dutch passport is issued to citizens of the Kingdom of the Netherlands for the purpose of international travel. As the Netherlands only distinguish one category of citizen , for all countries in the Kingdom, passports are the same for all four countries...
and Slovenian
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
National ID.
In 2003, the company officially acquired French smart-card company Gilles Leroux that manufactured embedded chips, often used in cell phones worldwide. Gilles Leroux went bankrupt in 2002 and Datacard had been running all operations until a French court finally ruled that Datacard had the right to buy Gilles Leroux's assets.
In early 2006, Datacard Group acquired Ga-Vehren Engineering, a St. Louis-based company that manufactured flexible, high-speed print and package-finishing machinery used for plastic card delivery, direct mail and commercial printing. Datacard announced that the acquisition would increase its ability to take advantage of growth opportunities in telecommunications, loyalty programs, gift cards, direct mail, commercial printing, and print and package finishing.
Later in 2006, the company acquired Card Personalization Systems Technology (CPST), a company that provided high-speed inkjet systems to create cards in the gift, loyalty and telecommunications markets. Datacard again made an announcement that the acquisition would allow the company to round out its existing print and packaging systems for end-to-end solutions.
In 2010, Datacard Group acquired Dynamic Card Solutions (DCS), a Denver-based company that provided instant issuance and PIN selection solutions for banks, credit unions and retailers that issue contactless, magnetic stripe and EMV® compliant cards. The company announced that the acquisition would expand the Datacard portfolio of end-to-end instant issuance solutions for banks, credit unions and retailers and position the company for growth in a global market.
Clients and important achievements
Datacard Group's customers include government organizations in more than 95 countries including the governments of SingaporeGovernment of Singapore
The Government of Singapore is defined by the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore to mean the Executive branch of government, which is made up of the President and the Cabinet of Singapore. Although the President acts in his personal discretion in the exercise of certain functions as a check...
, Ukraine
Government of Ukraine
Government of Ukraine is often associated with the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. However it should be considered that Ukraine is a country under a semi-presidential system with separate legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government...
, and Spain and the majority of all financial institutions, some of which include Bank of America
Bank of America
Bank of America Corporation, an American multinational banking and financial services corporation, is the second largest bank holding company in the United States by assets, and the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by market capitalization. The bank is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina...
, American Express
American Express
American Express Company or AmEx, is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Three World Financial Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is best...
, First National Bank of Omaha
First National Bank of Omaha
First National Bank Omaha is a subsidiary of First National of Nebraska. It is recognized as the largest privately held bank in the country with $17 billion in managed assets and 5,000 employees...
, Mountain America Credit Union
Mountain America Credit Union
Mountain America Credit Union is a federally chartered credit union headquartered in West Jordan, Utah, regulated under the authority of the National Credit Union Administration . Mountain America is Utah's second largest credit union...
, Liberty Bank
Liberty Bank
Liberty Bank is headquartered in the heart of downtown Middletown, Connecticut, but is located throughout Middlesex County and at shoreline locations...
, Commonwealth Bank, Desert Schools Federal Credit Union
Desert Schools Federal Credit Union
Desert Schools Federal Credit Union is a federally insured & chartered, $3 billion, 356,092 member, natural person, credit union operating from about 50 service centers in central Arizona...
, Greenbank
Greenbank
Greenbank is a Liverpool City Council Ward in Liverpool Riverside Parliamentary constituency. It was formed for the 2004 municipal elections encorporating most of the former Arundel ward and parts of the former Aigburth and Picton wards.-Councillors:...
and Service Credit Union
Service Credit Union
Service Credit Union is the largest credit union in New Hampshire. It was founded in 1957 as Portsmouth Air Force Base Credit Union, to serve military and civilian employees at Pease Air Force Base; in 1968, it expanded its services to West Germany, opening a branch office for American personnel...
. Datacard also serves customers in other markets including corporate security, education, retail and healthcare.
Datacard technology was chosen to personalize and deliver the US passport card, an alternative to the passport book for US citizens traveling to by land and sea to and from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean. The highly secure card program uses long-range radio frequency identification (RFID), laser engraved personalization, and other layered security technologies. As of March 2010, more than 2,700,000 Passport Cards had been issued to U.S. citizens.
The Republic of Guatemala employed Datacard Group to deliver an "automated state-of-the-art card personalization solution" which the responded to by providing them with highly secure electronic identity cards. The e-ID cards will be issued to more than 11 million people over 8 years.
In an effort to prevent fraud and counterfeiting, the Republic of Guinea-Bissau sought out Datacard's services to create national ID cards with multi-layered security and issue them with the Datacard® SP75 card printer. Guinea-Bissau plans to issue over one million of these national ID cards over five years.
Liberty Bank
Liberty Bank
Liberty Bank is headquartered in the heart of downtown Middletown, Connecticut, but is located throughout Middlesex County and at shoreline locations...
, the oldest mutual bank
Mutual bank
Mutual bank or mutual banking may refer to*Mutual savings bank*Cooperative banking*Mutualism...
in Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
that serves over 190,000 customers, implemented an instant issuance strategy using Datacard® CardWizard® instant issuance software and PIN
PIN
PIN may be an abbreviation for:* Personal identification number, a password used to access an automated teller machine or other secured system** Blackberry PIN, an eight character hexadecimal identification number assigned to a BlackBerry device...
selection technology.
The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia
Insurance Corporation of British Columbia
The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia is a provincial crown corporation in British Columbia created in 1973 by the NDP government of British Columbia. The original purpose of ICBC was to provide universal public auto insurance in British Columbia...
upgraded its drivers' licenses to include a radio frequency identification technology (RFID) chip embedded in the EDL (Enhanced Driver's License) to help facilitate traveler processing at the U.S. borders by implementing IBM Canada and Datacard Group technologies.
The Commonwealth of Virginia used the Datacard® Advocate™ precinct management system to improve efficiency, security and auditability of voter check-in, eliminating the need for traditional paper poll books which had remained largely unchanged since early 1800s. Voter Registrar, David Andrews, authorized a trial run during the Virginia Dual Party primary
Primary election
A primary election is an election in which party members or voters select candidates for a subsequent election. Primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the next general election....
in June 2005.
According to Cynthia Patterson, Vice President of Card Issuance Technology, Bank of America
Bank of America
Bank of America Corporation, an American multinational banking and financial services corporation, is the second largest bank holding company in the United States by assets, and the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by market capitalization. The bank is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina...
improved productivity in its card shop by 45% after implementing Datacard® Syntera® Manufacturing Efficiency Software at two sites, replacing existing OS/2 operating systems
OS/2
OS/2 is a computer operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively. The name stands for "Operating System/2," because it was introduced as part of the same generation change release as IBM's "Personal System/2 " line of second-generation personal...
. "We have definitely increased the speed of card processing by at least 45 percent," Patterson said. "It is easy to combine multiple smaller jobs into one long job and flow it through the system. We can reject one card and remake it immediately without going back to the drawing board."
The company was named amongst Business Journal's Top 100 Private Companies list in 2010.