Get a bunch of students, mostly freshmen, away from home for the first time. Stick them all in a dorm, many of them are armed with a checking account and checks, a credit card, a student ID card, their driver license and Social Security card. It’s a recipe for ID theft.

Realizing that, many colleges and universities, with the help of their banking partners, have incorporated ID theft prevention techniques into their financial wellness seminars.

“We’ve done these seminars for years–how to manage credit, how to make a budget and now we have created ID theft prevention as an extension to financial wellness,” said Whitney Bright, vice president of campus cards for U.S. Bank. “The seminar is popular, not only with students but faculty and staff.”

Campus identity theft seminars popular with both students and staff

That’s a sentiment echoed by Randy Hedge, director of university dining and Reeve Dining at University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. “When the university, with the help of U.S. Bank, held our ID theft program it was absolutely overflowing and at least 60-70 percent of those present were faculty and staff.”

He said it was obvious “people are very sensitive to the ID theft problem. It was an excellent program and U.S. Bank had several of their staff there that day.”

When the university signed with U.S. Bank about three years ago, “they told us they wanted to do as many educational programs as we were interested in having them do. The ID theft topic was presented in their proposal as educational programs they would be happy to present. We will plan to have more programs like this.” ID theft will be just one of programs, “but probably something we’ll do every year along with Banking 101,” he added.

He learned “a dozen different ideas that people should remember not to do. I know one in particular is you shouldn’t use your mailbox on the street to mail your bills.”

“This is another thing we talk about,” said Ms. Bright. “If you’re paying a bill, put it directly into the post office box instead of a college box. It’s very easy to get account numbers off those documents.”

U.S. Bank can either incorporate ID theft into its other seminars or run it stand-alone. “It depends on who the audience is–students, faculty and staff–and how much time we have,” said Ms. Bright.

Seminar topics include protecting your Social Security number, phishing and, of course, what it means. Seminar participants are also bombarded with tips, such as shredding documents (particularly bank statements when you’re done with them), not responding to emails and the fact that “banks will never ask you to verify your pin numbers,” she added.

Of particular use for students living in a dorm are to secure or lock up any extra checks you’re not using. The same measure should be taken for any credit or debit cards that are not in your wallets. “Why tempt someone?” asked Ms. Bright.

Credit card offers are other sources of ID theft. “Hopefully they (students) are throwing most of those away,” she added.

Getting rid of a credit card? Don’t just throw it away, cut it in several pieces and deposit them in different trashcans. “These are all things we talk about,” said Ms. Bright.

She also suggests paying bills online rather than with a paper check. Internet payment sites are more secure, as designated by the “https” at the beginning of the address rather than the normal “http.”

And always go directly to the bank’s Web site. “Start from a fresh Web site and don’t link off another site or off another email. “I have my U.S. Bank site in my favorites so I know it’s going to the right site.”

Another tip: “Don’t carry your Social Security card around with you and don’t have it printed on your check. Most schools today have moved away from having a Social Security number tied to the ID card.”

Higher One educates cardholders online

Sean Glass, Higher One’s chief marketing officer, said the number one protection against ID theft is knowledge, “know what to watch for.

Higher One, said Mr. Glass, primarily provides ID theft information online. For example, the Web site of one of Higher One’s clients, the University of Houston, includes “a box that you can click on to learn how to protect yourself.”

“Most students are pretty savvy (but) preventing ID theft involves understanding how criminals work.”

One of the biggest threats, of course, is phishing, attempting, usually via email, to get the recipient to click on a link that looks like it came from the bank. A related scam involves “attempts to get information through social engineering. You get a phone call from someone saying their attempting to clean up their records.” In essence, such calls are attempts to get any ID information that can help the scam artists steal identities. Social Security numbers are key, but they may also ask for dates of birth, mother’s maiden name, etc.

“We tell our customers that if you get an email that doesn’t look like it came from us, don’t click on the information.”

Since Higher One is an Internet-based financial services provider, it’s important that students, faculty and staff be careful when dealing with any emails from the company. “Don’t assume it comes from us. Go to the URL on the back of your card to log in.”

He said Higher One has not “had many people reporting cases of ID theft.” Regardless, most banks and Higher One follow a zero liability policy “and we’ll work with the student to get his money back in any event.”

But ID theft, he says, isn’t as important as protecting your documents, primarily credit cards. “The number one way a card gets stolen is when it’s skimmed.” That usually happens when your credit card is out of your sight for a few minutes, such as when you’re paying for a meal at a restaurant. The waiter could capture that credit card number and later use it or sell the number. “That’s why you have zero liability from credit card companies,” said Mr. Glass.

“The number one thing is awareness. When something doesn’t seem quite right, it probably isn’t,” he added.

Interactive programs key to Wells Fargo’s student education

Wells Fargo’s Julia S. Tunis, assistant vice president, corporate communications, says the bank uses its web site not only for financial management training but other areas as well, including ID theft.

The bank’s Hands on Banking program (www.handsonbanking.org) “is a free, fun, interactive money management program that teaches the money skills needed for all stages of life. (It covers) ID theft, fraud, phishing/online scams and protecting your credit. In addition, we have published articles in the Student Wells Wire online newsletter about protecting yourself about identity theft.”

She said that Wells Fargo, for all customers, has online content about ID theft at www.wellsfargo.com/privacy_security/fraud/operate/idtheft.

It was just announced that one of the longest standing, leading campus card providers – General Meters Corp. – has been sold to Heartland Payment Systems, a leading merchant payment processor. Heartland is a newcomer to the campus card world launching its first installation of a campus card offering early this fall at Slippery Rock University. The project was notable for making use of contactless payments via tags that affix to student cellphones.

Heartland does have other campus connections, however. It serves as the payments processor for a reported 300 institutions, and the company acquired reader manufacturer Debitek about two years ago. Stay tuned … more details will follow as the CR80News editorial team can reach key players.

HEARTLAND PAYMENT SYSTEMS ACQUIRES GENERAL METERS CORPORATION

Acquisition Allows Heartland to Offer Universities Complete Payment and Campus Card Solution

Princeton, NJ—October 22, 2007— Heartland Payment Systems, a leading provider of credit/debit/prepaid card processing, payroll and payment services, today announced it has acquired General Meters Corporation, a developer and provider of one-card systems for college and university campuses. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in 1979, General Meters has grown into a leading provider of campus card solutions for universities and colleges nationwide. Its University One-Card System™ unites a range of functionalities – including security access, on-campus dining and vending, employee record keeping and copier/printer/fax control – onto one ID card for students, faculty and staff.

Adding yet a different kind of functionality to campus one-card systems, this fall, Heartland launched the first university contactless payment system in North America at Slippery Rock University in Slippery Rock, PA. Using either an ID card or a cell phone, students, faculty and staff can make payments at on-campus locations as well as participating off-campus merchants.

“The combination of Heartland’s contactless payments application with General Meters’ University One-Card System will create the next-generation of one-card systems,” says Bob Carr, chairman and chief executive officer of Heartland Payment Systems. “The resultant all-inclusive campus ID and payment system will offer an efficient, cost-effective opportunity for colleges and universities across the country.”

General Meters’ more than 150 clients will be amongst the first to be able to implement this solution.

“Adding Heartland’s technology to the platform our clients already use will take these schools into the future,” notes Leon Gottlieb, founder and chief executive officer of General Meters. “The integration of contactless payments to the existing functionality of our one-card system will not only foster additional convenience and operational efficiencies for these schools, it will also give surrounding off-campus merchants the ability to increase their revenue by accepting university card payments.”

“We look forward to working with our new university clients gained through this acquisition – as well as colleges and universities nationwide – to bring state-of-the-art one-card solutions that improve student service and generate administrative cost savings,” Carr concludes.

About Heartland Payment Systems
Heartland Payment Systems, Inc., a NYSE company trading under the symbol HPY, delivers credit/debit/prepaid card processing, payroll and payment solutions to more than 150,000 small and mid-sized businesses nationwide.

Heartland is the founding supporter of The Merchant Bill of Rights, a public advocacy initiative that educates merchants about fair credit and debit card processing practices. For more information, visit www.heartlandpaymentsystems.com and www.MerchantBillOfRights.com.

Forward-looking Statements
This press release may contain statements of a forward-looking nature which represent our management’s beliefs and assumptions concerning future events. Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions and are based on information currently available to us. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements due to many factors. Information concerning these factors is contained in the Company’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including but not limited to, the Company’s registration statement on Form 10- K, or Form 10-Q as applicable. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this release.

Contact
Nancy Gross
Heartland Payment Systems
888-798-3131 ext. 2202
[email protected]

or

Kristen Forbriger
Gregory FCA Communications
610-642-8253 ext. 167
[email protected]

When shopping for an ID card printer, you’re liable at the outset to be hit with two choices: direct-to-card or reverse image transfer? Making an informed choice depends on what kind and how many cards you’re trying to print.

Direct-to-card (DTC) printing is the most common technology used in desktop ID systems to print images directly onto the surface of a plastic card. It does this by heating a special print ribbon beneath a thermal printhead, resulting in the transfer of color from the ribbon to a blank card.

With reverse image technology, the printer first prints images onto a special film that is then fused into the surface of a blank card through heat and pressure. Because the graphics and text are printed on the underside of the film, the image is “sandwiched” between the film and the card. This process produces excellent print quality, is durable, and provides the ability to print with a wide variety of card technologies and on many card types.

Both of these printing technologies share two printing methods: dye-sublimation and resin thermal transfer.

Dye-sublimation is the process used to print smooth, continuous-tones that bear photographic-like realism. This process uses a dye-based ribbon that is partitioned by a number of consecutive color panels. The panels are grouped in a repeating series of colors–cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK)–along the length of the ribbon. During printing, a printhead containing hundreds of thermal elements heats the dyes on the ribbon that vaporize and diffuse into the surface of either the card or the film. A separate pass is made for each of the different color panels. By combining the colors and varying the heat used to transfer them, the printer is able to produce up to 16.7 million colors.

Resin thermal transfer uses a single-color ribbon to print sharp black text and crisp barcodes that can be read by both infrared and visible-light scanners. This process uses the same thermal printhead as dye-sublimation; however solid dots of color are transferred rather than a combination of colors.

When you’re printing contact or contactless smart cards, the “printing technology of choice” is reverse transfer, says Fargo’s Steve Blake, vice president of product marketing.

Why? Smart cards have embedded chips. “Anything with electronics embedded in the card doesn’t always end up with a flat surface. A dye sub process … creates some issues (with print quality). By printing to reverse transfer film instead of the card surface itself, you have none of those problems. It’s very forgiving with electronic cards,” said Mr. Blake.

The dye sub process is also known as direct-to-card printing. As Mr. Blake explained it: the ribbon comes in direct contact with the card. “If you have a contact chip in a smart card, that chip is supposed to be flush to the card, but that’s not always the case. There might be a little ridge or bump and if the printhead contacts the chip on the card, it can blow a pixel out (on the printhead).” Then you have the costly problem of a damaged printhead that, in many cases, costs about half (or more) of the printer’s original purchase price to replace.

What’s more, a DTC printer can leave blotchy white spaces around the chip. You therefore end up with a bad card that you “have to throw away. That might be a $4 card so you’re damaging an expensive inventory item,” he said.

Reverse imaging technology, “really doesn’t care whether the card is smooth or not because the printhead is contacting the ribbon which contacts the film. The film is then attached to the card in a single pass through the printer,” said Mr. Blake. “The film can produce a much better image, the colors are truer, you have a higher resolution and a crisper, cleaner, truer look. It resembles a preprinted card that you get from a card manufacturing plant.”

Reverse imaging also makes it easier to produce secure cards equipped with a hologram. “Historically, holograms had to be put on by a lamination module attached to the printer,” explained Mr. Blake.

But reverse transfer film can be produced with an embedded holographic image. “You don’t need a laminator module. This is wonderful news for the middle and entry level (organization).”

“With smart card growth, people are telling us more and more that they want that high definition printing technology, but at an affordable price,” Mr. Blake said. Reverse image has become the technology of choice for both its superior image quality and its ability to print high-quality images on contact and contactless smart cards. In most cases, these printers cost more than their direct-to-card counterparts, though many printer professionals suggest that reductions in the total cost of ownership outweighs the additional upfront costs.

By Andy Williams, Contributing Editor

Providing campuses with the ability to instantly notify their students in the event of a disaster or emergency was on most campus card vendor’s to-do lists. But the Virginia Tech incident quickly moved what had been a mid-tier suggestion all the way to the top.

The deadliest shooting in U.S. history occurred April 16, 2007 when Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and wounded 25 others before killing himself on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. Since then, colleges around the country have been investigating ways that students, faculty and staff could have been notified quicker.

Tasked with the need to develop a system that can get emergency messages out quickly, campus card and other technology providers have been investigating what’s available and what needs to be done.

Since a cell phone today is like a third appendage to most students, the most obvious solution is an instant messaging service that would notify students within seconds of a possible disaster or “gunman on campus” type of scenario. Easier said then done, however. Not only do you need every student’s cell phone number, whatever system you use has to be compatible with numerous mobile phone carriers–not just the AT&Ts or Verizons, but the smaller ones as well.

“This is one of those projects we had on the list to do,” said Niles Dally, vice president, sales and marketing, for NuVision Networks’ One Card System. “We’ve been looking at it (emergency notification) at various times but with the advent of Virginia Tech, we pretty much decided this is something we really needed to implement immediately. It’s now in our testing facilities in Lebanon, PA.”

“Pages, cell phones, emails and other systems are all being investigated,” said Jeff Zander, vice president of campus card provider General Meters. “We’re looking at the capability of sending pages to alphanumeric pagers, any device they (colleges and students) want to register.”

“You would have been hard-pressed to find a college with any organized, documented notification system in place before April 16,” Read Winkelman, national sales manager, colleges and universities for Ithaca, NY-based The CBORD Group, which serves Virginia Tech, commented.

CBORD had a number of planned enhancements pushed to the front burner after the Virginia Tech shooting. “We had the concept for it brewing a couple of years ago but other things came to the forefront. We react accordingly to the requests we get from our customers and we only had one actual comment about this in the past. After Virginia Tech, we got a few more,” said Mr. Winkelman.

“It’s a tall order which requires a tremendous amount of buy-in from administrators, parents, and especially students,” adds Mr. Winkelman. “What we have been focusing on is a dialogue with customers, and looking at existing and potential access control and electronic security products, cameras, etc.”

Text messaging powers instant alert networks

Perhaps the most obvious choice for rapid student notification is cell phone-based instant messaging.

“The single biggest challenge for something like a text-based message for cell phones,” said Mr. Winkelman, “is getting the cell phone numbers. Institutions need to encourage students to provide this information and for parents to get on board. It will probably never be 100%, but you’ll see that more and more students will supply their emails and cell phone numbers.”

That’s the problem with any text messaging service. Should students have the option of providing their cell phone numbers, or should they be required? “I would urge the university to make it mandatory,” said Mr. Zander. “It shows that this institution will do everything in its power to make sure students are safe. We’re not using it for marketing or promotions. It’s a threat alert system and won’t be used for any other purpose. It should be the university policy. The student should not be able to opt out.”

He said a General Meters’ campus “can have an unlimited number of contacts for the individual. If the student is hearing impaired, you could send the message to the parent who could then contact the student.”

At a few CBORD campuses, presidents have already contacted parents to encourage them to have their sons and daughters share their cell phone numbers with the university. This, said Mr. Winkelman, would fall under the heading of: “We’d like to have a way to contact your students in an emergency situation.”

Mr. Winkelman said CBORD isn’t “promoting a school-wide messaging service at this time. You’d see the message on a POS terminal, etc., but it wouldn’t go to your cell phone. We are currently exploring options for text messaging on cell phones.”

Mr. Zander said General Meters “currently offers a number of automated features to broadcast select responses or other time sensitive security information. This includes alphanumeric pagers, cell phones, email, and a myriad of text messaging options.”

Messaging is available to all students at a General Meters-supported school, via the General Meters OneCard, but an expansion is planned “to allow multiple cell phones, emails, or text messaging. From a central system, a security officer could key in the code and send it one time and it would run through the database and hit all these people. We hope to have this completed in 2007. The ability to alert security personnel is available today. We’re going to take it to the next level and staff would physically type the information that will be sent out to the students,” he added.

He explained that when a student sets up a General Meters account, his information is fed into a database that can then automate delivery to his cell phone, email, etc. From that the college can also broadcast to a number of devices including a fax machine. Any device that can receive a communication, even a landline telephone, is eligible, he said.

He calls this an automated threat alert response, automating the alert or indication of a possible breach of security. “Let’s get everyone the notice. Or at least everyone who signs up.”

The system will include pull-down menus covering all the wireless providers, Verizon, Cingular (now AT&T), etc. “Let them select their carrier because not all text messaging systems are the same,” he added.

“The client (the college) should be able to determine how to alert its students, whether by group, text message, cell phone,” he said. A sample message could read: “Lock-down, security breach, assailant unknown, please stay in your room.”

“It should be sent by a security officer but anyone with access to a keyboard could do it … but we’re reserving it to security officers only. It could be sent to every device registered to that student. For example, all card holders could receive a message instructing them to remain in their dorm rooms,” he added. “We would have to have the cell phone or pager number or the email address.”

NuVision’s emergency notification system will be piggy-backed onto the company’s existing One Card System known as iAMECS Advanced.

NuVision’s messaging system uses the iAMECS Advanced SQL Server databases to provide the right messages to the appropriate individuals. “iAMECS is installed at the college, not at a remote location,” said Mr. Dally. “This is important because it’s under the control of the college. Someone there doesn’t have to call an off-campus location to get the messages out to students. ”

He said the new service will provide messages in three tiers.

“Tier 1 is an emergency message, which would be a major incident on campus,” said Mr. Dally. “Based on that, you can send text and email messages to select groups of people, for example a specific dormitory. Or you could text message the RA (resident assistant) to get people out. Or you could text message all people in the dorm, telling them to get out. You can break down messages anyway you want. Notification is virtually instant. It all can be handled on campus. No one needs to email a third party. It’s based on demographics in the database, which has almost always been populated by the Student Information System (Banner, Peoplesoft, Datatel, etc). ”

Tier 2 would be priority, not necessarily an emergency message, like the area is subject to severe thunderstorms or, the school is closed today, he added. “Tier 3 would be a general broadcast, like there’s a rally for the football team.”

He said there’s no message limit. Minimal fees will be assessed per cardholder per year. “We’re hoping to have a beta this fall in one or two colleges. It then will be available to all clients after that. We will need to have cell phone numbers of cardholders. Those numbers need to be in the database.”

It will have a web interface that allows students to manage their accounts. “We call it the Campus Center. There will be a page that allows cardholders to enter their cell phone numbers. We have the communication protocols for all the different systems. That’s what the beta is for … to find out if there are any systems out there we don’t know about,” said Mr. Dally.

“We also have to know the cell phone carrier. The Campus Center will have a page to allow the cardholder to inform us of that info or inform us of their changes when they change carriers. Any marketing campaign (offering special discounts and the like) can be used and if you tie this in you’ll have more people sign up,” he added.

He said the system can be installed “in a couple of days. We can do video training if necessary. This is all part of the beta testing.”

He said some colleges have similar systems, but they’re hosted off campus. “The beauty of our system is that anyone can handle it. We know it’s going to work, electronically, mechanically, but logistically, that’s the crux of the thing. How do we get it set up? How do we set up the notices?”

Another problem is “what message do we send out? If we say there’s an armed individual and you should exit the building, where do you exit to? Or maybe there’s an armed individual last seen at … It needs to be something fast. And the only way is to have it hosted on campus.”

Campus lockdowns

There’s another way to secure the campus: don’t let anyone in or out except emergency personnel.

CBORD offers two major campus card technology platforms: CS Gold® and Odyssey PCS™. While Odyssey PCS did not originally have any door access functionality built into it, the system interfaced with other technologies. According to Mr. Winkelman, “when we acquired CS Gold (from Diebold) we integrated its CS Access™ component with Odyssey PCS. This and other security features have had major areas of focus for the last couple of years.”

Since then, CBORD has been working on “an enhanced lock-down capability for online locks that can be handled from one source, such as a computer terminal in the security office,” said Mr. Winkelman. There would also be an emergency capability for offline locks that could be activated with the swipe of a card. But in this instance college personnel, such as a security guard, would have to physically visit each door to lock it.

POS notification

Another method campus card providers are exploring is utilizing online terminals to get the word out. “Universities have terminals all over campus–vending machine readers, POS readers, etc.–that make it easy to display certain patron messages at the time of purchase,” said Mr. Winkelman. “We can create an emergency message to display at the beginning of the message (on the transaction slip) that is delivered at the time of sale. We can also set the emergency message to display when terminals are idle. So when the readers aren’t in use, the message can continually flash across terminal screens,” he added.

This could be used in the event of inclement weather, natural disasters, or criminal activity – it could be a tornado warning or a message to check the campus web site. “You would get that message when you pay for a tray of food, for example. The message would come at the end of the transaction or, when you buy a Pepsi from the vending machine,” added Mr. Winkelman.

But this should not be the sole means of getting the word out to students. It is one mechanism used to augment schools’ other notification engines,” he stressed.

Like CBORD, General Meters has proposals in the works that would revolve around POS devices. Mr. Zander said the company is “currently investigating a number of other technologies that will provide automated threat response messaging enhancements. As an example, this would include sending a message to certain card readers and/or POS devices. When a card is swiped it would say there is a security concern and that the cashier (and student) should go to a certain location,” he added.

Or it could be as simple as alerting a student this his chemistry book is waiting for him at the bookstore. “You can send messaging of any nature to anyone who has a card. A text message could be dropped onto a directory that could be sent to every student. If you don’t carry a cell phone, you might have a pager or email. Ideally, you would want to use at least two or three methodologies. That way, we could double up to assure that the message gets delivered.”

What to do in the event of…

CBORD is continuing to talk to its customers about what they’d like to see, said Mr. Winkelman. “We’ve done webinars to get some feedback from our clients. We’ll also be having sessions at our user group conference on disaster preparedness or other emergency situations that might arise on campus, whether weather-or people-related. There are many bases to cover and questions to ask. For example, if the campus loses power, what happens to security? And if you need to have a lock-down, how do you control it?”

One of the latest webinars CBORD held with its customers was to let them know about new security features of CS Access, including the enhanced lock-down application, an emergency access plan category, messaging on CBORD terminal devices with displays (vending readers, POS devices, some types of door readers), and integration of housing assignments and access plan assignments. “The terminal messaging is just one of the features we are rolling out as part of an effort to improve our already robust integrated security solutions,” added Mr. Winkelman.

He said customer feedback to the webinar “was very positive,” but emphasized that these were sessions CBORD already had in the planning stages and were not a reaction to the Virginia Tech situation.

After the Virginia Tech shootings, Mr. Winkelman said CBORD “quietly provided our contacts there as much assistance as they needed. Anything we could do to help. After it happened there really wasn’t a lot for us to do other than some database queries they needed us to make that weren’t standard reports. So we built some custom reports for them. They did have a lock-down procedure. The doors were controlled by CS Gold.”

As is obvious, a perfect text notification system probably isn’t available yet. One system not mentioned is old-school technology … word of mouth. “If you have five people standing there and three cell phones go off simultaneously, you’ll never get everyone but those two without cell phones will still get the message,” said NuVision’s Mr. Dally.

“Generally, though, those without cell phones will receive emails,” he added. Another suggestion, he said, has been to implement a reverse 911 system, “where students actually get a phone call (on their landline). The problem is there is no methodology that one instrument can dial out to multiple phones instantly. You would need to have a bank of phones dialing out,” he said.

It seems there is no perfect solution to instant student notification, and even if there was it is unlikely to stop a tragic event from occurring. The goal can only be to minimize the extent of the damage through rapid communication.

German printer manufacturer Digital Identification Solutions has added a series of new products and a major new security initiative to its line of card printers. In addition to 10 new products, the secuirty additions include three important changes: Security Erase to eliminate the remnant data from the black panel of the printer ribbon, IPSEC for encrypted data transfer in the network, and UV printing for invisible security printing.

New Security Features Available with the EDIsecure® XID 5xxie Retransfer Printer Family

Stuttgart, Germany, 18 September 2007 – Digital Identification Solutions AG (A0JELZ), a worldwide leader of identification solutions, has announced a number of new security features for the EDIsecure® XID 5xxie Printer Series, unveiled during the company’s most comprehensive product launch program since its foundation, involving a total of 10 new products.

The German-based Digital Identification Solutions Group has set up the new EDIsecure® XID 5xxie Printer Series with a variety of security features, helping to secure the customer’s application and cards from counterfeiting and to avoid misuse of personal information. All printers are equipped with the new security features Security Erase and IPSEC, the two models XID 580ie and XID 590ie possess in addition a revolutionary dye-sublimation UV ink ribbon for printing invisible information on demand, as well as creating monochrome photographs with a special dithering technology, which provides for high quality black & white images, e.g. on the rear side of a card.

Security Erase of printed black data on used supplies helps to protect from misuse of printed personal information. Immediately after card printing all remaining information on the K-Panel of the ink ribbon is erased, so that the personal information cannot be reconstructed out of the used supply. The printed information is not readable any more from the K-Panel. This feature increases the security enormously, especially in environments without secure disposal of used supplies.

IPSEC allows encrypted data transfer through the network. IPSEC (IP security) is a suite of protocols for securing network and internet protocol communications by authenticating and encrypting each IP packet in a data stream. A big advantage of IPSEC is that security arrangements can be handled without requiring changes to individual user computers. It also includes protocols for cryptographic key establishment.

The new security feature UV Dye-Sublimation Ink enables the utilization of “on demand pictorial printing” of invisible photographs, logos, emblems, symbols, coats of arms and even variable text. This revolutionary UV printing technology allows finest tone scale reproduction for personalization of invisible photographs of highest quality. The printed UV information is not visible to the naked eye, but can be verified easily by using a UV light source. It is therefore a fantastic and attractive security feature for corporate and government clients.

The monochrome dithering process allows customers to print high quality black & white photographs even on the rear side of a card, without the need to use another set of YMC color fields. Therefore the security of a card can be increased in on the rear side without increasing the printing costs.

The group will introduce the new program to the public at more than 17 international trade fairs, exhibitions, VIP events and web-casts within the next 3 months, therefore reaching all customers around the globe. Further details about the security features available with the new EDIsecure® XID 5xxie Retransfer Printer Family are available on the company’s website www.digital-identification.com.

About Digital Identification Solutions

The Digital Identification Solutions Group is a global provider of advanced identification solutions with a worldwide installed base of more than 5,000 systems. In September 2007 the Group has introduced the latest EDIsecure® XID 5xxie Retransfer Printer generation successfully into the world market. The company has sales, marketing and support operations in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Mexico and the United States. Together with its vast network of certified partners, Digital Identification Solutions is in a position to deliver state-of-the-art solutions virtually anywhere in the world. The company combines cutting-edge technology, extensive industry know-how and an impressive array of references in the private and public sector.

For further information please visit www.digital-identification.com

Leading payments processor, Heartland Payment Systems, joins the ranks of campus card providers


By Andy Williams, Contributing Editor

Contactless technology is coming to the 8,600-student strong Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania. But it won’t be a card. It’s coming via cell phone, thanks to a small tag not much bigger than a postage stamp.

When Slippery Rock’s students arrive for classes this fall, they’ll be greeted with a new campus card and an accompanying 13.56MHz contactless token designed to stick to the back of any cell phone.

Both tag and card are being delivered by Heartland Payment Systems, the sixth largest payment processor in the world. It has been processing Slippery Rock’s credit and debit card transactions for the past 10 years, so it seemed a natural fit when the university decided it wanted to introduce a new technology for the college’s campus card. Dr. Robert Smith, the university’s president, wanted to involve the cell phone in the new program because of its ubiquity among students.

Barry Welsch, manager of IT priorities for Heartland and the project manager for the Slippery Rock implementation, is also vice chairman of the SRU Foundation Board. He recalled that one day Dr. Smith, “wrote me a letter asking if I knew of any products that could make their current on-campus Rock Dollars program (the university’s declining balance program) more robust” while enabling off-campus merchants to accept the card.

As Dr. Smith explained later: “We want to leapfrog the current technology and go to the cutting edge, and we want to add value to our student’s experience at Slippery Rock. We believe this is the future and want to be educators of our students in the management of this technology…to take a responsible role in helping them learn to manage it.”

Once the scope of the initiative was developed and deliverables were identified, the university solicited competitive bids from a variety of potential vendors. With its advanced technology and visionary approach to the future of campus payments, Heartland earned the right to be Slippery Rock’s exclusive provider of this service.

Dr. Smith added: “We needed a partner who was courageous enough to bring it to the U.S. and work with us on the introduction of this application. We knew we couldn’t do this by ourselves, and frankly, there wasn’t anyone we could have more confidence in than Heartland to do this for us.”

Mr. Welsch consulted with Heartland’s chairman and CEO, Bob Carr, and the two decided Dr. Smith’s request was very feasible. “He (Dr. Smith) wanted to leap past the current mag stripe technology … and give students exposure to new technology they will be seeing when they leave the university. He also wanted to raise the image of the institution,” said Mr. Welsch.

“It was Mr. Carr who suggested contactless,” said Mr. Welsch. “We talked about using the cell phone as the access device because it’s the most commonly carried item by far.”

A student focus group drove that point home. “We asked the students several questions: ‘How many of you have at least one dollar in change in your pocket?’ Only four of about 50 in that group had at least a dollar,” recalled Mr. Welsch. “About 75% had their student ID cards. But every single student, except one, had a cell phone. And that student had lost his the day before. It was very clear to us that a cell phone goes with a student everywhere. Mr. Carr told me later that students know they’ve lost their cell phones four times quicker than if they’ve lost a wallet.”

To make this happen, the most obvious choice would have been near field communication, a technology developed several years ago by chip makers NXP and Sony that gives cell phones RFID capability, allowing them to be read by contactless readers. But the technology is still new, and not yet widely available in the U.S. So Heartland went the next best step: producing contactless-enabled tags that can be affixed to the student’s cell phone.

Why tags? Heartland and SRU got some reinforcement for this decision from the same focus group. “Another thing quite interesting we learned,” said Mr. Welsch, “is that students said when they visit with family members and friends and someone pulls out a credit card branded with a university name rather than a vanilla Visa card, they felt envious. Students were really excited about the fact that students from other universities won’t have this. President Smith loved this idea.”

How does it work?

So, students, faculty and staff this fall – about 10,000 of them in all– will be receiving a half inch wide by 1.5 inches long contactless token with a strong adhesive backing they can attach to their cell phones. It then works like any contactless card, meaning that it can communicate with the reader without physically touching it. The readers have lights that indicate whether the tag is being read or not.

“We tested it on the outside of the phone, and you can scan within an inch and a half. When inside the phone, you need to be about an inch closer,” said Mr. Welsch. He suggested that some students may want to remove the phone’s battery cover and insert the tag there.

If a student changes phones, he can remove the tag and reattach it to the new phone. If the tag won’t come off, the student can apply for a new tag.

The tag “has a very durable exterior. It can’t be scratched, and it seldom will show signs of wear,” he added.

Heartland is also issuing new student ID cards since the company will, for the first time, be processing the student Rock Dollar accounts. Before, Heartland processed only the traditional credit and debit charges students and parents use to pay tuition, room/ board and buy books, Mr. Welsch said. “We’ve not had anything to do with Rock Dollars. It’s something the university has maintained on campus with proprietary readers and terminals.”

The Heartland-issued ID cards, however, are still equipped with mag stripes rather than contactless chips. Dual technologies mean making sure the university has readers that can handle both. “Everything we’re building – the laundry, vending machines, merchant-attended POS terminals – all will have readers that can read the contactless token” as well as the mag stripe cards,” Mr. Welsch continued.

“As far as we can tell, this dual technology is unique. It’s the first application in a higher education institution in the U.S. to go this way.”

Once the new cards are issued, Heartland will transfer the old Rock Dollar balances to new accounts. In this manner, students can seamlessly migrate from their prior cards to the new system without losing deposited funds or having to maintain two accounts.

“On Track Innovations (OTI) is supplying the tags, and we manufacture the readers through our micro-payments division,” said Mr. Welsch. That division includes longtime campus card reader manufacturer Debitek, a company Heartland purchased in 2005. “Heartland has re-engineered the (Debitek) technology,” added Mr. Welsch, “bringing it up to state-of-the-art.”

Taking Rock Dollars off campus

The second phase of the project is recruiting merchants off campus to accept Rock Dollars. Initial reaction has been positive, reported Mr. Welsch, stressing it’s a winning combination for both the university and the merchants. The university doesn’t have to process merchant accounts or cut them checks, and merchants get paid daily.

To no one’s surprise, the first merchants to sign up were restaurants. “We’re also looking at supermarkets, retail clothing stores, a shuttle service and nail salons,” said Mr. Welsch.

Before, merchants were paid monthly. There were no off-campus merchants, but still, the on-campus bookstore and foodservice providers had to wait for their money. “Under our system, we process the transactions nightly and generate an ACH deposit to them the next day, exactly the same time as credit card (payments),” he said. Merchants can purchase or rent terminals, starting at $25 a month. The transaction fee varies depending on the amount of the purchase, but averages about 1.5%, plus 25 cents per transaction.

“We do not use proprietary terminals,” noted Mr. Welsch. “The merchants like that. They only need one terminal to accept credit, debit or Rock Dollars.”

Dr. Smith said the most “perplexing problem” has been the university’s insistence to provide greater protection for the students by requiring a PIN when they use their contactless tokens. That’s not something merchants usually expect from someone paying with a debit card, specifically at restaurants. “This is creating a challenge,” added Dr. Smith.

For on-campus use, that’s not an issue since all vendors have a PIN pad. But some off-campus merchants don’t currently have a PIN pad. Mr. Welsch said Heartland hopes to have this problem alleviated shortly. Heartland’s readers/terminals all have PIN pads, but, said Mr. Welsch, there are also other packages available that include PIN pads merchants can use. Bottom line: If a merchant wants the student’s business, he/she will need to be able to accept a PIN as part of the transaction.

For smaller transactions, such as those performed at vending machines, no PIN is required.

Managing your account on the web

Another advantage to Heartland’s program is that students can go to a web site to check their balances or their transaction history, said Mr. Welsch. The web site option is new. Before Heartland’s involvement, students could only utilize a reader to find out their balances.

Students who lose their cards or tag-enabled phones can visit the same web site to get their accounts frozen until a new card and tag can be issued. They can also contact Slippery Rock’s card office and receive support through a toll-free number. “The web provides 24/7 access for cardholders and doesn’t limit students to having to visit the administrative office during normal business hours to have a freeze put on their accounts,” said Mr. Welsch.

“One of the other great features isn’t so much contactless but the whole web-enabling structure,” added Dr. Smith. “The individual can review his/her account and charges – as well as reload the card from the web or via phone. It’s more than just a chip. The whole concept is somewhat revolutionary for us.”

All accounts are maintained in an FDIC-insured bank, Mr. Welsch emphasized.

Changing the way financial aid is delivered to students

Another big change is the way students receive financial aid. “Nearly two-thirds of Slippery Rock’s students are the first generation (in their family) to go to college, so financial aid plays a big part,” said Mr. Welsch. “When financial aid comes in now, the university will take out tuition and room and board and distribute the excess to students.”

In the past, this excess was distributed by check, but now that money can be direct deposited into the student’s Rock Dollars accounts. “We’ve gotten quite a few calls from students already excited about the new system,” said Mr. Welsch. “All that’s been released has been the financial aid form with a new check box allowing for the money to be direct deposited.”

Additionally, on- and off-campus paychecks can be deposited directly into the same account.

Giving something back

Another feature involves charitable giving. Remember that 1.5% transaction fee merchants have to pay to accept the student’s Rock Dollar card or contactless token? Heartland doesn’t profit from it. The money goes back to the students or the charity of their choice.

“We are rebating back to the students through the Give Something Back Network,” said Mr. Welsch. Students will be able to go online and select their favorite charity to have this money donated to or they can have it credited to their own account.

“That’s another important feature about our system that the university liked. Universities struggle to get their students to give something back down the road when they become successful. Slippery Rock is trying to build that thinking in their students. The Slippery Rock Foundation will be listed as the first charity they can donate to. Students will at least see the concept of giving back.”

A new player in the campus card market?

Mr. Welsch hopes Slippery Rock is just the beginning for Heartland in the campus card business. “We’re looking at doing this at other universities. It will be a product offering under our campus card product line” in the company’s micro-payments division. The company, which is traded on the New York Stock Exchange, provides credit/debit/prepaid card processing, payroll and payment services to 150,000 merchants – including restaurants, hotels, and retailers – and 300 colleges throughout the U.S.

What will determine whether Slippery Rock University’s card program is successful or not?
“We’re going to judge it by the number of merchants we sign up. Obviously we also want to sell them credit/debit, and payroll processing – as well as remote check deposit services,” said Mr. Welsch. “We will judge the success of this project on the merchant participation and the future of selling or renting additional readers to the university.”

Dr. Smith likes what he’s seen so far. In fact, he has been a guinea pig, of sorts. “They gave me one (a contactless tag), and I’ve gone around using it. Since it was Heartland’s money on an experimental card, I had a great time,” he laughed.

“We’re going to see where this goes,” he added, “but from a branding standpoint, we couldn’t be more thrilled. Heartland is out there encouraging all these retail establishments to accept these Rock Dollars, and the merchants are signing up. That means they’re looking for a Slippery Rock patron.”

He said the contactless tag concept has also created “quite an international buzz. This kind of reputation for us is, to borrow the MasterCard line, ‘priceless.’”

If you want your incoming freshmen and other new students to learn how to use their new campus card, manuals and brochures won’t cut it anymore. Today’s students don’t bother with them. The next choice is perhaps a workshop during orientation. But that will be crammed with students with other things on their minds: What classes will I get? Where’s the cafeteria? Plus, if they have a question about the campus card, it might be difficult to ask in a room full of his peers. There’s a third option: Create a hands-on style webinar that students and their parents can access at their leisure.

Such a program has been pretty successful at San Diego State University and its creator, Paul Carlisle, SDSU’s card program administrator, says he’s gotten quite a few inquiries about it.

“When we were marketing simply an ID card without services attached to it, we did it (education) conventionally through orientation or open house week,” said Mr. Carlisle. “Orientation takes place just before the fall semester; and we found that was really too late because we had to compete for time” with everything else that goes on during orientation. “They’re here for just 12 hours and they’re bombarded with all sorts of information.”

There was another problem: Some parents couldn’t speak English and had to rely on translators during orientation.

So Mr. Carlisle and his card office developed an online orientation webinar geared to introducing to the student and parent the SDSUCard program.

“We wanted students and parents to be able to access this information anytime they chose,” said Mr. Carlisle. “We also added Spanish, primarily for parents.”

The webinar was up and running this April, but the first major test won’t come until the fall when SDSU’s 33,000 students return to school. However, if early results (from summer classes) are any indication, he has a winner. “It was my idea and I came up with it when I was looking at other webinar type pieces … I thought it might be very good with what we’re doing here,” he said.

It shows students how to use the card “and how to interact with the card, specifically with US Bank (the college’s banking partner). It will take students directly to the bank site to demonstrate the web transfer of funds to their on-campus checking account, how to actually get the card” and everything else the student needs to know about his new ID card, said Mr. Carlisle.

The card can be used as an ATM card off campus and as an on campus debit card. It is also used for what Mr. Carlisle calls “entitlements. You swipe the card at various locations for whatever rights you have, checking out a book, taking tests, meal plans.”

He presented the webinar idea at meetings of the National Association of Campus Card Users (NACCU) and at user meetings of the college’s campus card provider, CBORD. “The lights went on with a lot of folks at these meetings,” said Mr. Carlisle.

Benefits of a web-based, updateable education program

“It’s so easy to manage. We can put together a DVD but if you have changes the next day, then the DVD is no longer current,” he said. With the webinar running on a web site controlled by SDSU, “we can centrally manage any changes. That makes sense to a lot of people.”

The 110-year-old college didn’t have to go outside to get the web site designed and developed. “We had one graphic publications expert and we did it all in-house,” he said.

He said the university sent out about 8,000 letters initially, showing students how to access the web site that will walk them through use of their campus cards.

If other universities want to utilize his ideas, “we’re willing to let them use our design however they want. If they have questions, they can call us and we’d be happy to help them,” he added.

He has one caveat for those thinking of doing something like this. “Make sure it’s ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant so anyone is able to use it.”

To meet ADA rules, he has both audio and text versions available. “This is where you expend a lot of effort,” he said. “You need to determine the needs of your students. You need to have colors that are easy to see. The script and audio has to match the text exactly. All of this is where the most expense lies.”

In the meantime, new students will be pouring into SDSU and Mr. Carlisle will see first hand whether the college’s self-training webinar on campus card use was successful.

It took six months to develop the webinar, which can be viewed at: http://sdsucard.sdsu.edu/webinar/webinarsdsucardservices.html.

Identification, NFC, contactless and Japan will all be major focal points during the 22nd edition of CARTES, coming your way Nov. 15-17 in Paris at the Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre near Roissy Charles de Gaulle international airport.

One of the major changes this year, according to CARTES Communication Director Hélène Tsounguy, is the coming of age of CARTES’ IDentification, which has been somewhat of a CARTES stepchild since its introduction in 2005. Then, it was an area dedicated to secure technologies. This year, it “takes its independence as a true exhibition near CARTES,” she said.

The international show, which got its start in 1985 as the International Plastic Card Forum, is expected to draw more than 20,000 visitors this year, an increase over last year’s 19,576 visitors. The word, cartes, she said, “simply means both ‘smart cards’ and ‘chips’ in French.”

When CARTES was first created, it was just “some little stands (booths),” at a local hotel, explained Ms. Tsounguy. But as the smart card market has grown, so has CARTES. “As the event became bigger and bigger, it moved from a hotel to a convention center in Paris, then to another one just near Paris,” and finally to its current location, she added. This year there will be some 480 exhibit booths.

With CARTES’ focus this year on security and contactless technologies, it makes sense that IDentification should have its own…well, identity. “Benefiting from a separate promotion, IDentification will have its own exhibition and will bring together all others in physical and logical access control, network security, strong authentication, cryptography, biometrics, secure documents, and so on,” said Ms. Tsounguy.

Why attend?

“As a professional in this market, you can’t miss CARTES & IDentification because it is the biggest show in the world where you can meet all the players of the industry,” she adds. “You can also listen to the CEOs of the leading companies during the opening ‘World Card Summit,’ and meet key speakers from all over the world. It is a unique opportunity to discover innovations,” she said. “CARTES & IDentification is now the world leading event in digital security, smart cards and identification. The success of our event is that we always try to adapt and to follow a fast growing market.”

NFC featured at the new TechZone

One of the latest innovations is NFC (near field communication). With the focus also on the newest in contactless technology, “we are organizing a new area (at CARTES) called ‘Mobile Transactions TechZone’ in partnership with the NFC Forum,” she said. “NFC technology will be in the spotlight with demonstrations of applications in everyday life, educational presentations of new products using contactless and prototypes.”

Country focus: Japan

Each year, CARTES recognizes a country it considers leading the way in innovation or smart card strategies. Last year, Canada was tapped for its countrywide EMV migration that was just gearing up. This year, CARTES returns to Asia, spotlighting Japan. “This country is a true technology lab and a forerunner concerning biometrics, multi-applications, payment by mobile phone and contactless technologies,” said Ms. Tsounguy. “Japan is opening the way to tomorrow’s applications and new consumer behaviors.”

Some 113 million smart cards were sold in Japan in 2005 equaling 40 billion yen or about 265 million euros. Japan, too, is undergoing an EMV migration and is expected to have 340 million smart cards in use by 2010.

Sesames Awards

There’s another reason CARTES is so popular in the industry: Its annual Sesames Awards. Founded in 1996, the contest rewards the best innovations and applications in the marketplace and gives the recognized companies bragging rights. This year’s applicants set a new record, 211 companies, which will vie for awards in 10 categories: hardware, software, identification, IT security, transportation, banking/finance/retail, health care, mobile, e-transaction, and loyalty.

Planning your schedule

In all, there will be 19 conferences and 200 speakers. While many of the speakers and subject matter haven’t yet been finalized (as of mid-July) here, then, is a capsule overview of the areas that will be covered at the 2007 CARTES and IDentification.

Tuesday November 13, 2007

World Card Summit -10:00 am -4:30 pm
This event, which marks CARTES’ official opening, will feature leaders in the smart card and identification industry presenting their most recent technological advances. The morning will be dedicated to the activity and role of the smart card and the afternoon to the identification sector.

Bank Identification - 9:30 am -5:30 pm
A number of technologies and products are being implemented to make the banking environment safer. What’s the current status and what does the future hold in this area?

Biometrics in everyday life - 9:30 am -5:30 pm
Often combined with security, biometrics actually extends to many sectors. In the past it was mainly used for access control, but now biometrics can be found in the payment industry as well.

Card Basics - 9:30 am -5:30 pm
As the title suggests, it’s an overview of smart cards.

The SIM’s future - 9:30 am -5:30 pm
The versatility of the SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) chip is one of the main drivers in the cell phone market today. This section will look at the SIM’s future in terms of capacity, security and innovation.

RFID: the solutions - 9:30 am -5:30 pm
Regarded as an effective means to manage the supply chain while tracking a product’s movement, this section will cover this mature technology, including testimonials while looking at the various achievements this technology has accomplished.

Wednesday November 14, 2007

Cards & Payments 2007 - 9:30 am -5:30 pm
Whether by contactless or by mobile phone, the payment environment is in the middle of a significant evolution. What’s ahead? How will the banking world take to these new payment methods?

Multi-applications - 9:30 am -5:30 pm
Combining several applications on one card allows the cardholder to manage his preferred applications in his everyday life. This will investigate some of the many projects currently underway.

Digital Identity - 9:30 am -12:30 pm
Whether at the state level with an electronic ID card or at the corporate level with in-house identity management, or even individually with e-commerce, digital identities are now an integral part of our lives. Yet issues regarding security and proper ID management remain.

Card Security - 2:00 pm -5:30 pm
How secure is the card? How can it be improved? Does the appearance of new types of fraud jeopardize card security? And, importantly, how can cards be hardened against these new types of fraud?

Personalization: Services with added value - 9:30 am -5:30 pm
A true technological tool, the card is an efficient marketing instrument that can be used to target a specific population. Is this a phenomenon with limited use, or a real market with great potential?

Theft Identity - 9:30 am -5:30 pm
Logins and passwords are the most common tools to authenticate and validate a person’s identity. Despite these precautions many are stolen. What measures should be taken to limit this fraud? Do we all need the same level of security? And what about protecting the data embedded in mobile phones?

Java Card - 9:30 am -5:30 pm
The Java Card technology is in its tenth year of development. Primarily used as an interface, the Java Card technology has been able to combine simplicity and ease of use with effective security. What’s next with the new versions?

Mobility - 2:00 pm -5:30 pm
This market has had to adapt to the new mobility requirements for people constantly on the go who are using different communications tools … Blackberry anyone? Or iPhone? This has led to the merger of several technologies. But how are they working together, particularly in the payment or transport sectors?

Thursday November 15, 2007

Cards & Payments 2007 - 9:30 am -5:00 pm
A wide-ranging economic environment is being built in the European banking world: the SEPA (Single Euro Payment Area). Many ideas are circulating on this issue. What is to be expected from the SEPA? In which new areas will the card be used? And who are the new actors in this redefined banking landscape?

Loyalty and Gift Cards - 9:30 am -5:00 pm
The loyalty and gift card market is in full development. Ideas and market opportunities are numerous for those who wish to target specific persons and areas.

Electronic Documents - 9:30 am -5:00 pm
Electronic administration is undergoing significant development. In addition, the activity in the e-passport sector continues to grow. With specific application examples, this day-long session will provide an overview of what’s available now and what’s coming.

POS & Kiosks - 9:30 am -5:00 pm
Payment terminals have adapted to different market evolutions (contactless, biometrics, etc.). Due to their effectiveness and ease of use, consumers are using them more. Now, multi-function kiosks that promote integration are cropping up. What will we be able to do with these new devices and how secure will they be?

NFC and Contactless - 9:30 am -5:00 pm
Thanks to near field communication, contactless technology has gained more popularity. What development opportunities are available and which sectors will benefit the most from NFC? More importantly, when will its international deployment take place?

For the latest and most up-to-date CARTES’ program visit www.cartes.com.

NACCU is accepting proposals for next year’s Annual Conference presentations. If you are interested in speaking at the 15th anniversary event in Las Vegas April 6-9, start your planning now.

Educational tracks include Beginners, Business, Marketing and Innovations, Technology, Security, and Gold (for corporate members only).

According to NACCU, “Proposals should include a working title and an outline of your presentation. Complete presentations will be due in February. The Early Bird conference registration fee will be waived for each institutional member chosen to present.”

Submit your proposal online at http://www.naccu.org/2008/presenters.htm

After growing company to major market leader, Mr. Lane announces retirement

By Andy Williams, Contributing Editor

When Bruce Lane signed on with campus card system provider CBORD 22 years ago, it was still a small company. As he explains it, he was “employee No. 14.” But today, CBORD has some 475 employees and serves hundreds of colleges and universities, primarily in the U.S. and Canada, but also in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

He had a lot to do with that growth, but now the 53-year-old Lane is planning to call it quits by the end of this year, retiring, at least from CBORD, but not from business life.

“Bruce was the first manager I hired at CBORD,” recalls John Alexander, the company’s founder and chairman. “Before Bruce, we were just a gang of techies. He brought a real sales focus to the card systems business, and brought a real enthusiasm for entrepreneurial behavior within this organization.”

“I’m a little sad to see him go,” added Tim Tighe, CBORD president, “because he took the company from a small upstart company to a leading provider in the college card systems world.”

Mr. Lane jokes that he was hired as vice president and “for 20 years or so I was the person at CBORD the longest who never got a promotion!”

Discussing Mr. Lane’s life is difficult without talking about the company that has occupied nearly half of it.

CBORD has been around since 1975, but Mr. Lane, CBORD’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, did not join until ten years later when, as he explained it, “John (Alexander) was trying to grow the business and needed some help. John had been an MBA student at Cornell, working his way through school. He had written a program to manage the school‛s food production and inventory control and later bought the rights to it, creating CBORD,” said Mr. Lane.

What does CBORD stand for? As the company defines it on its web page: “We’re proud of our company name, but it’s not an acronym or an abbreviation. The letters have no hidden meaning…”

“There are lots of stories about what it stands for,” said Mr. Lane. But the company had 200 bucks and it had to come up with a name and that‛s what we got for $200, he jokes. “We wanted to pick a name that sounded like something but had a nonsense spelling so we wouldn’t have to do a trademark search. In fact, it took us 20 years to get around to trade marking the name.”

A circuitous path to CBORD

Mr. Lane took a rather circuitous route to Ithaca, NY, CBORD’s home. He had earned his Masters in international relations from Johns Hopkins.

Why international relations? “When I was in high school I went to Argentina as an exchange student so I had a second language under my belt. It just seemed like a natural progression. I got through Johns Hopkins’ program. I think I was qualified to be secretary of state but that job was already taken,” he laughed. “When I was done, it was my wife’s turn to get her degree.”

She was seeking her PhD at the University of Wisconsin and that’s where the Lanes ended up. Mr. Lane got a job running the state’s international programs primarily promoting the export of Wisconsin products and attracting foreign investment to the state. “The hardest work I’ve ever done is working for the government. It’s challenging work, but fun,” he said.

He said he worked for the governor’s office in two capacities: growing agricultural and manufactured exports and attracting foreign investments. “I then decided to go off on my own and do export development and I got involved with running an export business in Milwaukee.”

By the time he was 30 he had run manufacturing and service companies while traveling all over the world.

“When we moved to Ithaca, my wife had completed her PhD. I was at the point of selling a packaging business. My original idea when I moved to Ithaca (home of Cornell University) was to find professors with great ideas, but with no idea of how to market them.”

Later, “a friend introduced me to John who needed someone to write a business plan. I had experience running different types of companies, but I wasn’t a computer guy. I usually ask my kids when I need computer help. My skill set was in business organization and management…and some selling skills. It was just sort of general growing-the-business skills,” he added.

“John has always been the idea guy and Tim’s and my role would be to beat on them. He would churn out ideas and we would decide what we could turn into hits. It’s been an excellent partnership.” Mr. Tighe actually joined CBORD a year after Mr. Lane.

Building the company into a major market player

“We brought in people with the kind of skills that are needed as CBORD becomes a larger company. We’ve grown CBORD from a small company to a medium sized one and now we want to move to that next level,” he added.

Still privately held, CBORD has grown both through its sales efforts and its acquisitions. For example, about two years ago it purchased Diebold’s Card Systems Division, inheriting the company’s card system and the colleges that were utilizing it. In 2005, the company purchased Student Advantage, a student discount membership business and this year acquired Off-Campus Advantage, a provider of outsourced off-campus card programs.

The Diebold purchase was what pushed CBORD to the next level, adding significantly to the company’s business. “That was a lot of hard work for our whole team,” he recalled. “We had been talking periodically with Diebold; we would touch bases with them and when they got to the point that their campus card business didn’t fit into their ATM business, they finally said, ‘lets talk.’ ”

Diebold added about 200 clients to CBORD’s customer base. The $38 million transaction involving Diebold’s access control and security expertise also addressed a gap in CBORD’s product line – the lack of an access control offering. In addition, Diebold’s CS Gold was optimized for large institutions while “Odyssey (CBORD’s card system) has a sweet spot among smaller and medium sized schools,” said Mr. Lane a few months after the purchase.

“I enjoyed greatly growing the CBORD campus card user base to the largest in the industry,” he said. “We have outgrown our own office building and have expanded to an office building next door. We have facilities in Waco, Texas, a help desk in Canton, Ohio, a training facility in Farmington, New York, a manufacturing facility in Cypress, California, and a sales and support office in Sydney, Australia,” he said. The company now totals 475 people.

He said CBORD’s card systems originally focused on the college world, but “we’ve had good success at extending it into the corporate world. We now service a lot of big name company clients like Gannett, Daimler Chrysler, New York Life, Kaiser Permanente, and Mass General, where employees use their badges to purchase goods and services in the company cafeterias and stores. The corporate world and healthcare world are where the college world was 15 years ago using card systems,” he said.

“Bruce built up our Card Systems Division from a fledgling competitor to the dominant market leader, and most of the work was done using internally generated capital, no IPOs, no financing,” said Mr. Alexander. “His attention to the details of his business, and his respect for our clients combined to make us into a terrific business partner for our many clients in several markets.”

An overriding customer service mentality

Mr. Lane also considers himself “a very competitive person.” He’ll get no argument from Mr. Alexander. “Bruce would never, ever, give up on a sales prospect. It was not a question of ‘if’, it was merely a question of ‘when’,” he said.

Added Mr. Tighe: “Bruce lives every day with a customer service mentality which has helped this company grow. He has a very strong sense of customer service. We think we have customer loyalty because we do a great job of providing customer service. Bruce has been one of the critical individuals to make sure that happened.”

Yet, with the growth CBORD has undergone and the new products it has introduced during Mr. Lane’s tenure, none of these make his list of accomplishments. “The thing that makes me feel the best is to look around at all the people that have been employed by CBORD, as compared to 20 years ago,” he said. “I look at the economic engine that CBORD has become for so many families. It’s very exciting to see that we’ve created an organization that’s been very stable and has provided a livelihood for a lot of people.”

One of the things he’s going to miss is the “even keel relationship we have with so many college folks. While it’s a hard business (in which) to make money, and we are providing colleges with mission critical systems for handling student funds, our customer service focus at CBORD has yielded us a customer base that knows us for working hard to meet their needs,” he said.

“It’s pretty rare that we come up with a great idea,” he added. “Usually schools say to us that ‘it would be nice if your system did this or that’ and we’d scurry back to Ithaca and figure out how to do it. That innovation always will come from the customer side. And the companies trying to jam it down the university’s throat will continue to have a rough ride.”

One of those ideas that has taken off came from students, not the university itself. Now called Webfood®, “it first came to John’s attention” in 2001, said Mr. Lane. “It was developed by Cornell students who had created an online food ordering system, because they were tired of waiting in line to order and receive their food. We worked with them over a span of about a year and a half and bought the company in 2003. Four of the five Webfood founders are now CBORD employees. That business has grown very well and is used by restaurant chains, corporations, hospitals and universities.”

Looking to the future …

With retirement looming, what are his plans? “When I started working on my ideas to retire, Tim and I began assembling a really good coterie of senior managers,” said Mr. Lane. “The plan is well in place” for business as usual after he steps down. Max Steinhardt is CBORD’s new Senior Vice President of Operations and Randy Eckels has now been with the company for over a year as Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Rick Libby is at the helm of Student Advantage and Shawn McCarthy has joined CBORD as Managing Director of Off-Campus Advantage. “This is a team of very seasoned managers with skills that CBORD needed to grow further,” Mr. Lane explained.

As to life after CBORD, “I’m sure I will find other things to do, I’m just not sure they’ll be in the college and university world,” said Mr. Lane. “We own some real estate, a couple of buildings, I’d like to develop. I’ve had a good time at CBORD but I figured this was a good time to do something different.”

And then, there’s always ice cream. “My wife (Heather) and I own an ice cream company and we have a couple of other projects that we plan to get involved with,” he said.

It’s called Purity Ice Cream and the Lanes bought it in 1998. “It is a fun company with a great product, but not much in the way of financial viability, although it has gotten a lot better with my wife’s hard work,” said Mr. Lane. “We ceased our own manufacturing last year and now have our own unique recipes produced by a larger dairy in Syracuse. Purity is distributed in Central New York. My wife, Heather is the president and I change the light bulbs and cut the lawn.”

“I take a little responsibility (and a little credit) for Bruce’s most important life decisions,” commented Mr. Alexander. “My wife, Elaine, introduced Bruce to his bride Heather, while Heather was working with us in our restaurant (my night job). Bruce and Heather are a real entrepreneurial team–and my wife and I have enjoyed working with them over several decades.”

Most importantly, thanks to a second marriage, he has two young children, ages six and eight, that he intends to enjoy. He also has two other kids, ages 24 and 17 from a previous marriage.

Added Mr. Tighe: “I’m excited for him that he’s getting to this stage in his life and very excited about the business he helped build at CBORD, particularly the people he helped recruit.”

Maybe he’ll also establish a travel agency. His time at CBORD, he said, has allowed him to accumulate a lot of frequent traveler miles. “Alaska is the only state I haven’t been to,” he said. “If there’s one thing I can figure out, it’s how to salvage a trip.”

Regrets? Mr. Lane doesn’t have many. “One night, I’m emailing a colleague at 2 a.m. and we were complaining about how there aren’t more hours in the day. But I don’t have a lot of regrets. CBORD has been a great place to work and it continues to be a great place. Right now, we’re a hiring machine and it’s just a wonderful thing to see a company grow like this.”

What has helped it grow, Mr. Lane believes, is its understanding of the industry it’s trying to serve. “What I’ve seen over the years are times when big companies came lurching into the campus card business,” he said. “They all thought the business was simply grabbing hold of the students and shaking a lot of money out of them and that the campus card business was a great way to get students to buy other products. Today, they’re all gone. The college market moves slowly and it doesn’t adopt new technologies really quickly. Colleges like to use techniques that are proven, and students are more sophisticated than these companies gave them credit for.”

He compares CBORD’s university clients to a three-legged stool representing “parents, students and administrators. If a new product or service doesn’t fit the needs of all three constituencies, then it’s not going anywhere.”

That’s what some of the larger companies that have now left the industry didn’t see. “The marketplace needs to understand that when we implement a campus card system, our focus is on keeping that card safe, convenient, and easy to use. Any other services that tie into it are great, but they are secondary,” he said.

Perhaps this recognition will be another of Mr. Lane’s many legacies left to the campus card world. If anyone has dedicated his life’s work to making campus cards secure, convenient, and easy to use, he’s the man.