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FEATURE

Card Technology Today September 2008

So what is personalisation? Fundamentally it is the way in which a card is either personal-ised to link an individual to a card or the way in which details are displayed on a card to enable the cardholder to gain access to a serv-ice and/or a function when using that card.

Changing face of the plastic cardThe plastic card is not a new phenomenon – it has been around for many years – how-ever its functions, variations and usages have increased substantially over the years. Now the plastic card comes in many guises, from a basic membership card to access control to a financial payment card. With such major uses of the card impacting our everyday lives, this has meant the way in which we now use them and the perception we have of them has increased significantly. Cards have given us a lifestyle change, providing us with freedom and convenience. We now take it for granted that we are able to get cash out of a machine, thus negating the need to actually go into a bank, or to order items over the Internet using a card as an eCommerce payment method.

Until recently the major card technology used was the magnetic stripe, which enabled either alphanumeric or just numeric data characters to be encoded onto one of the three tracks, which personalised the card to the cardholder, thus allowing that person to undertake certain functions when using the card. The magnetic stripe, however, is restricted in terms of the amount of data that can be held and is easy to duplicate by fraudsters and it was becoming apparent that the security function of a signature was

often neglected, as the signature was often not verified. Also, this is something that can’t be checked when using the card when the person is not present, i.e. telephone ordering and online transactions. So we have seen in the UK (and many other countries) the introduction of the EMV-based card.

The use of alternative technologies such as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) has again provided a new method of personalisa-tion and provided particular market sectors, such as public sector and corporate, with a quicker and more secure method for access control, as well as providing the opportunity for contactless payment cards in the retail banking which offer a faster, more convenient and again secure way of undertaking a pay-ment transaction.

Consumer demandThese technological changes – EMV, RFID or contactless cards – have been driven, par-ticularly in the financial and retail banking world, by the consumer’s ever demanding need for faster, more convenient, more secure and reliable payment options. In addition to this, card issuers and scheme operators within the retail-banking world are look-ing to gain maximum footfall through the checkouts with an easy and quick method to pay, especially for low value items, whilst still maintaining a secure card and method of payment. Lower operational costs are also a driving factor for the retailer and issuer.

The use of cards for access control has seen an increase in use over recent years. In the past, such usage was generally confined to environments where a high level of security was needed, such as high secure workplaces for governmental or police agencies. However

access control is now being implemented in numerous work places. Obviously security is a key element for access control and such technological advancements only enhance the card use.

A card for every occasionTherefore with the acceptance of card use, especially as a monetary device, various industry sectors have taken on board the changes and created cards that provide con-sumers with other uses which benefit both the card issuer and consumer. Technological advancements have impacted the card use and in doing so cards can hold more information and can therefore provide multiple functions, i.e. payment, access control and formal ID all in one card. This has made the card a valu-able tool and therefore the need to add per-sonalisation to the cards has increased.

The need for personalisation and with it greater security is not only for card to user identification purposes, but with their increased functionality and ‘value’ their appeal to fraudsters is also on the increase. Think what they could do with somebody else’s card? It is due to this that technologi-cal changes and increased personalised and secure print features are becoming a necessity within card design and manufacture.

Visible and invisible personalisationPersonalisation is the complete card identifi-cation, and that is not necessarily just what is visible on the card face, but held either on the magnetic stripe, barcode, chip or within the RFID antenna. While it is true that a card can be personalised simply by adding a name or number to the card face, this is generally most appropriate for a simple membership card, or a one-off usage card. However, when moving into areas where a card is used for official identification, or to provide a payment transaction or access control purposes, personalisation is required at a higher level. Secure print plays a signifi-cant part in the forming of the card design to prevent card cloning and ensuring brand protection – nobody wants their card to be compromised.

With this in mind, many industry sec-tors have their own specific requirements or have had certain guidelines put in place. Retail banking for example is subject to rigid regulatory criteria, with card design having to confirm to ISO and EMV stand-ards. They have also understood for many

Personalisation – adding the value to cardsWhether a card is needed by a consumer to pay for their shopping or for an organisation such as a college or business to provide access to their premises, personalising that card to the particular user is an important part of adding value and ensuring its correct use. Recent technology advances have helped make the personalisation of individual cards much more realisable, both in terms of their physical print characteristics and also the encoded information they contain, pro-viding greater security and value to both card holder and card provider.

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FEATURE

September 2008 Card Technology Today

years that banking and financial cards need to have unique design features incorporated to make the copying of their cards as dif-ficult as possible. For that reason secure print features, which include Guilloche and Fine line, UV print, Microtext together with optically variable devices such as holograms, have become normal criteria, in conjunction with encrypted information on the magnetic stripe or chip and card holder details print-ed to the face of the card.

Card personalisation in actionThe recently launched English National Concessionary Travel (ENCT) scheme – which allows free off-peak travel in England for pensioners and disabled persons – is also subject to a standardised card format utilising ITSO card encoding. Each card is also printed with the data and photo ID of the holder creating a highly personalised card both in terms of the encoding and the printed variable information.

Legislation also drives card personalisa-tion, for example in the UK the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) illustrates a need to assist such persons and therefore many public sector organisations now stipulate the need for Braille embossing on a card to meet with the compliance of the Disability Discrimination Act. The provision of Braille not only personalises the card to a greater extent but also provides an additional ele-ment of security, with only a limited number of suppliers able to provide this requirement.

The Education sector, although not gov-erned by strict guidelines or a stipulated requirement, also need their student cards to be highly personalised, largely in the form of printed photo ID, identification number and name, together with encoded informa-tion. Historically, members of this market sector have printed their own cards on site using desktop card printers, which has met their basic needs to issue cards quickly and effectively.

A typical basic ID card design however is often very simple – easy to produce and visually functional. The flipside is that the benefits and simplicity of basic cards also make them easy to forge. As a result, many organisations are beginning to question how secure they really are.

Brand integrityThe risks are not limited to obvious threats such as unauthorised site entry, theft or

injury to employees. People assume a person-alised card is legitimate because of its very existence. As a result, the brand integrity of an organisation can be severely compromised if its ID cards are counterfeited and misused. Fake student IDs used to obtain a conces-sionary discount or, more seriously, bogus meter readers gaining entry to people’s homes are examples where identities have been mis-used.

The onus is therefore on companies to beat the counterfeiters by taking their own card solutions to the next level. One obvious way is to make security features integral to the card design. Customers can now benefit from the state of the art solutions originally developed for high-risk applications such as passports or bank notes. These security tech-nologies make copying and counterfeiting a card much more difficult and can be readily incorporated into the card to provide an extra level of protection. This can make the differ-ence between a secure personalised card solu-tion and a merely cosmetic one.

OutsourcingWith so much on offer in terms of person-alisation, organisations are finding it increas-ingly useful to outsource card production requirements to specialist suppliers of per-sonalised card solutions, particularly when the costly investment and practicalities of arranging an in-house card production system are taken into consideration. Large employ-ers often have sites and facilities spread out over a wide geographical area where person-nel have to travel long distances to have their photo taken. Colleges or hospitals can also have a large number of people enrolling at a specific time, and card production can be a time-consuming and challenging logistical practice. The related expense of purchasing a suitable system of hardware and software, and the work hours required to train staff, are costs that must also be factored in.

In a managed solution, all that is required is for variable data to be sent to the card manufacturing facility, who then take charge of the complete card production process. Possible methods of data transfer might include direct access via secure server, or using a web-based online ordering portal. It should go without saying that customers must check that the card manufacturer has strict data management policy to prevent loss or potential malicious use.

Personalisation can therefore come in many forms. As previously indicated, in many industry sectors, specific requirements or guidelines have already been put in place. As

each sector’s cards have greater capabilities they are adapting their cards to suit the envi-ronment they are being used in.

Personalisation can also have positive impact on ways in which cards can be used and sold. For example the retail industry requires and uses cards for a number of purposes: store cards, loyalty cards, gift cards (which are now com-monplace and have replaced the conventional paper gift voucher in many cases) and promo-tional cards. Each has its own niche objective and use as well as targeted audience. Retail always wants and needs to have something that stands out from the crowd. Personalisation that extends to a unique message written on the card that would suit the customers’ lifestyle choices and interests, in accordance with the card being used, would be a fantastic offering for the likes of a gift card and as a promotional card.

A unique message on a gift card would add that personal touch and add value to the card and differentiate that gift card from others in the market. Often people think gift cards are not very personal, but they can be the ideal gift in some cases, particularly when families and friends are living a distance apart or there is a generation gap between sender and recipient. So if you could then order and send the gift card personalised with the recipient’s name, as well as with a personal message from the sender, wouldn’t that make all the difference? Such a feature could also be offered with digitally printed gift cards, opening up a whole new gift-ing opportunity.

A card is also an ideal format for promotions and can be made even more effective when sent directly with the person’s name or scripting a specifically targeted message. Such flexible per-sonalisation can be obtained with digital print. This printing process offers the ability that every card can be personalised with a different message, name, number or code, and with the short run capabilities for the likes of a one off gift card or a small run promotion or test mar-keting idea digital print is the ideal process. All personalisation print is performed at the time of manufacture, locking in the print, making for a more secure and more durable card. It also negates the need for additional printed person-alisation processing, saving time and money.

The card has really come a long way, in the way it is used, perceived, what it can do and the services we can obtain with it. As these trends continue, personalisation will remain a top pri-ority, as the card will remain an invaluable tool in today’s society and cardholders will demand that they are as secure as possible.

This feature was provided by Simon Wildash, head of

Marketing at Payne Security. For more information visit

Web: www.payne-security.com