Business profile
million cards renewals, mailed direct to concessionaires while managing its normal daily requests with no additional hours worked, no increase in staff levels and no slip in SLA demonstrates that the investment paid off,’ said Neal. Euclid also initiated a ‘first line’ ITSO HOPS to serve its bank of Automated Perso Posts, rather in the way that ITSO Services previously provided a centralised HOPS solution prior to devolvement to the upper tier authorities in 2010. Operating a first line HOPS means that potential delays in ISAM messaging are prevented, thereby avoiding impact on production yield levels. The encoding messages are then distributed to the relevant scheme HOPS through HOPS to HOPS messaging. Neal said: ‘This solution is beneficial to scheme owners because they need not provide the bureau with ISAMS for their card encoding. Instead, their diversified keys are issued to Euclid which adds them to its own ‘super ISAMS. Scheme owners save significant costs on outlaying, or managing, their own ISAMS.’ Euclid’s capital outlay is delivering payback and the company has proven that the production of 100,000 ITSO cards daily is achievable. According to Neal, this fact has ‘significant ramification for the larger smart ticketing schemes, especially with the added interest in commercial schemes across both bus and rail transport’.
‘This daily yield can be managed by just a handful of experienced operators – a stark contrast to the more traditional solution of using slow, desktop technology with its typical output of one card a minute where such increased volume requirement demands up-sizing of both the printer estate and staff headcount. Euclid, through the use of automation, coupled with the obvious
technical advantages of Integra®, is providing its customers with advantages in quality, price and SLA.’
The smartcard future
One key area of development for Euclid with transport cards is in respect to the card base materials. The ENCTS passes, in common with financial and most other plastic cards, are produced in polyvinyl chloride (pvc), mandated by DfT and necessary for those bureaux working with desktop overprinting systems. However, financial cards’ life expectancy is around two to three years whereas concessionary travel passes (and many commercial variants) are issued with five years validity. Such lifespan can be achieved with owner care but with the high use of this type of card, often
greater than with financial cards, the five- year life expectancy pushes the material limits. Whilst Integra® offers significant advantages over surface printed cards, the base material remains PVC. While more durable materials are available, each must be tested for print adherence and bond across the multiple layers, factors which comprise the card and its longevity.
The challenge of providing a cost- efficient solution to the issue of longevity is one that Euclid’s materials technologists are keen to analyse within its laboratory test facilities in order to deliver the smart card solution of the 21st century. •
Tel: 023 92 266 333
www.euclid.ltd.uk
September 2013 Page 133
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