Card Management
Card Management
In modern companies, the employee ID card has long been more than just a piece of plastic with a photo. It serves as a universal form of identification—both physically and digitally.
A Card Management System (CMS) centrally manages these identities and connects them to a wide variety of corporate systems.
Typical Functions:
- Access control to buildings and security areas
- Authentication on IT systems and terminals
- Payment function in canteens and vending machines
- Follow-me printing on printers
- Time tracking and attendance management
The challenge is that each card represents a security-relevant identity. These identities must be clearly assigned, centrally managed, and effectively protected from misuse. Only in this way can permissions be reliably granted, changes implemented immediately, and lost ID cards blocked in a controlled manner.
Without a trusted public key infrastructure, the basis for tamper-proof identity verification is lacking. Only cryptographically secured certificates make the employee ID card a reliable digital key.
We help companies seamlessly integrate and securely operate card management systems into their PKI architecture and existing processes – from issuing to disabling lost ID cards.
Use Case: Central card management for employee ID cards
For a large industrial company, we have taken over the Technical Project Management for the migration of the card management system to Nexus SmartID IDM.
The employee ID card was a central security and process medium in the company and was used simultaneously in several systems:
- Access control systems throughout the entire company premises
- Cashless payment in the canteen
- Follow-me printing on multifunction printers
- Key carrier for authentication, signature and encryption certificates
Challenge
The existing system had grown historically and consisted of many coupled subsystems.
The migration therefore had to take place without interrupting operations while simultaneously meeting higher security requirements
- Uniform identities across multiple systems
- secure issuance, renewal and blocking processes
- Clear role and authorization concept: Integration into existing infrastructure and HR processes
- Scalability for multiple locations and thousands of internal and external employees
The synchronization of identities between physical access control, canteen and HR systems was particularly critical.
Implementation
As part of the technical project management, we have managed the Architecture, integrations, and security concepts.
The PKI forms an essential anchor of trust:
In addition to visual personalization, each employee ID card receives a unique, cryptographically secured identity that can be used across systems.
The cards therefore function simultaneously as:
- physical key (door opening)
- Payment medium
- Authentication token
Core Services:
- Connection of existing CA systems
- Integration of access control, canteen and HR systems
- Definition of secure issuance and blocking processes for employee ID cards
- Creation of an auditable role and authorization concept
- Coordination of manufacturers, integrators and IT departments
- Ensuring uninterrupted parallel operation during migration
The Result:
A central, highly available CMS with trusted digital identities:
- an ID card for a wide range of applications
- Immediately effective authorization changes
- Secure blocking of lost cards
- reduced administrative costs
- a future-proof basis for further authentication and security applications
This gave the company a unified identity platform that combines physical security and IT security.