Campus card transaction and identity solutions provider, ColorID, is hosting a two-part webinar series to explore the products and solutions available to campuses. The webinars will examine some of the cost savings options available, vendor independence, as well as discuss mobile and contactless technology adoption.

The two-part webinar series will detail secure cloud-based card issuance, as well as how to maximize card office efficiency and streamline card production. Attendees will also learn that that moving from card issuance to a more robust, identity management solution can deliver new levels of efficiency and utility.

Part I:

Reviewing Your Card Issuance and Identity Management Options
Tuesday, December 7th from 1:00-2:00 pm EST

Part II:

Understanding All Your Mobile Credential Options
Thursday, December 9th from 1:00-2:00 pm EST

"Card issuance is about collecting information and using it to print and encode cards," says Mark Degan, Director of Corporate Marketing at ColorID. "Identity management, on the other hand, can include card issuance, but go much further by centrally managing all the pertinent information for each cardholder, from introduction to the system through their eventual departure."

As Degan explains, new identity management solutions can handle a number of tasks beyond card issuance.

"Account creation; role and profile assignment; creation of many types of credentials including mobile; provisioning and de-provisioning credentials in other systems with their associated permissions; robust reporting for all activities within the system for cardholders and administrators. These are all possible with newer identity management solutions."

It's this flexibility and more robust capability that makes identity management a valid consideration for campuses as part of their technology roadmap.

"As cloud services, identity management solutions can be cost effective and easily deployed, often providing cost savings as they reduce manual processes and improve communication across campus systems," says Degan. "A new generation of cloud-based solutions that are purpose-built for identity management offer a range of specific features beyond what many campuses have available to them at present, through their one-card systems, home-built systems, or a combination of both."

The webinars will also discuss advanced contactless card technologies, how they fit with the mobile credentials available today, and how to create a mobile test site on campus.

"BLE mobile credentials from a range of providers, available for both Android and Apple devices, have improved dramatically over the last 8 years and work very well," Degan says. "Secure communication has been solved for Bluetooth and the apps can run in the background on mobile devices."

When it comes to the latest contactless cards, Degan says that HID Seos and DESFire EV3 are available and still reasonably priced. "Inline reading and encoding of contactless cards (in the printer) is also gaining popularity, as supporting software and hardware is being developed for an expanding range of technologies," he says.

Regardless of where campus attendees are in their credential environment -- whether legacy technology, contactless or mobile -- Degan hopes to provide valuable takeaways from the webinar event.

"Going mobile doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing proposition," says Degan. "Partial roll-outs for specific groups or buildings on campus are realistic and achievable on limited budgets."

"Having an identity management solution at the center of campus IT architecture will give the institution 'vendor independence,' and provide more control over which systems you can connect to, when, and without having to ask for approvals for integrations from legacy system providers."