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PUBLISHED
19 April 2022
MODIFIED
19 April 2022

From Traditional to Cloud-Based Card Management: What to expect?

Now that the ID card we use daily has evolved further than ever, ID Card Management has become one of the greatest struggles for the organization of all industries. It involves access control technologies, cashless payment systems, and more. Most businesses worldwide have multiple groups of users and profiles with different access rights. Many of them have combined multiple applications to cope with this situation. For example, they have the students’ registrations systems, HR Systems, ERP systems, and so on, which require them to update each database manually.

Despite the rise of cloud-based applications in recent years, not many of them can offer a complete solution to help businesses overcome these challenges. The card management journey entails several factors, including credential enrollment and management, card production and issuance, and more. Thus, there are many hesitations from the users about what they can do for their organizations. As a leading global provider of ID card solutions, CardExchange, Inc. has successfully introduced a cloud-based solution that covers the entire process. We will answer your uncertainties and demonstrate what such a solution can offer you and your organizations in this blog.

From Traditional to Cloud-based Solution

With traditional, we are referring to desktop applications that assist the team responsible for ID management. These applications are usually ID card production software, which is effective for the ID card production process. For example, they allow you to design, encode, print your ID cards. Some of them offer the users advanced databases that they use for multiple purposes, including using these databases as HR databases. Then why should we move on to a cloud solution, you ask? It depends on what your preferences are and the needs of your organization.

A card production application mainly involves producing the cards, getting the data from a database, designing, encoding, and printing them. It is a small part of the card journey in any environment like a university or a corporate. It is only a part of the card issuance process. In specific, the application is responsible for the physical layout of the cards, handling the photo capture from a local webcam, signatures, or importing data from another source, and so on. 

Meanwhile, cloud-based solutions can provide much more accessibility when it extends to multiple platforms, multiple devices. It is about managing the enrollment process. For example, what do you need to do to bring in somebody's data? What is the process you go through to get information about the person? What steps does that cardholder need to take to provide information? And so on. Whereas with card production software, you need to import or capture a photograph of the cardholder on the spot, you can do much more with the card management solution. 

Imagine that your users get a self-service portal where they upload their information, including their photos. You can obtain the data remotely, automatically crop it to size, and compare it to the image on an ID document like a passport. It increases the level of security and convenience for the verification process. With the cloud-based solution, the credential management system is connected to the card production application, giving you control over that production management cycle and your data. 

In short, card management becomes the central hub of everything you do to do with your card issuance, and the cloud-based solution is in the center. You no longer need to print a card, enroll it in another system, then go to another system to update it manually. You only have to issue the card through the credential management system, and it automatically tells all those connected systems that you have printed this card, this is the card number, and it is ready to be activated which can be done by the user via our self-service portal, CardExchange® Stand. You will have card lifecycle tracking where everything that happens with the card is traceable. The issuer will get all the information about the card production and everything that happened. These capabilities are essential for an effective and seamless card management system within your organization. 

Cloud-based ID Management: CardExchange® Cloud Suite

The mentioned functionalities are only to give you an overview of how the cloud-based solution can help your organizations overcome the struggles of ID management.

CardExchange, Inc. has introduced a cloud-based solution that not only solves your challenges but also advances your card management schemes. It is a subscription-based Software as a Service (SaaS) solution with currently four Microsoft Azure hosting locations, North America, Europe, UK, in Australia, which is scalable to any company worldwide.

A complete suite 

CardExchange® Cloud Suite consists of five main compelling products and services. Each of them resembles an independent solution for your organization. However, every Cloud Suite subscription starts with the CardExchange® Controller.

  • CardExchange® Controller

CardExchange® Controller is the essence of the cloud-based card management system. It is the operator portal, where the administrators manage cardholder information. This credential management system works great by itself, but it can bring your card management strategy to the next level when combined with other products in the suite. For example, the profiles of the cardholders in the Controller can define the physical card layout in CardExchange® Press. Another example is that your end-users can edit their information, upload photo, manage card statuses in the CardExchange® Stand, which reports directly to the CardExchange® Controller. CMS.

  • CardExchange® Admin Center

Every CardExchange® Controller subscription comes with the Admin Center, where you can customize all the products within the suite. It is where you do all the configurations, from branding, address settings, fields, emails, business rules, and absolutely everything that needs to be configured for your system.

  • CardExchange® Stand

CardExchange® Stand is your end-user’s self-service portal. It is where the individual cardholder will go to edit information, including upload photos, view their card status, activate their card. All this information is then reported to CardExchange® Controller in real-time. CardExchange® Stand also acts as a digital ID. There is a lot of additional cost to issuing a plastic ID card, including all the logistics of a printed plastic card issuance process. If you think of the education sector, students do not usually forget to bring their mobile phones to university, but they do forget their ID cards.

  • CardExchange® Press

CardExchange® Press is a desktop application for professional ID card production. When you design the card, the Press directly connects to the printer for printing and encoding. The card data is linked from the cloud database to CardExchange® Press. After the operator prints the card, the information about the printed card is pushed back up to the cloud.

  • CardExchange® Bridge

Another service we have within the suite is CardExchange® Bridge, which are all about database connections. It involves the connectors that bring data into the cloud and send data back out again to other systems. It offers you three methods of connecting your existing databases to the Cloud Suite, which are:

  • Window-based service that runs on schedule to synchronize your data
  • REST API to connect your databases
  • The Bridge Connectors which are developed specifically for your organization.
  • CardExchange® Secure

Finally, we have Secure, which is our single sign-on option. CardExchange® Secure is the service to integrate your SSO providers. 

Compliant

In terms of compliance, it is GDPR compliant for the EU. The CardExchange® Cloud Suite has a lot of management tools for purging data, deleting records, and making sure everything stays compliant. It is WC AG compliant, which is about accessibility. As well, CardExchange® Cloud Suite is ISO27001 compliant. 

Conclusion

The migration of the applications to the cloud has opened various opportunities for organizations worldwide, regardless of size and industry. CardExchange® Cloud Suite with advanced applications can deliver a seamless ID card management process with more scalability, accessibility, and security for your organization. Even though the blog has given an overview of what you can expect from this solution, these advantages are only a few in many. We recommend watching our recent webinar where we discussed this transition from a traditional application to a cloud-based solution to advance your organization's Card Management process. In addition, many organizations like yours have joined us for a Q&A session. Get the recording here to experience the whole CardExchange® Cloud Suite!

 

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