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Datacard Group (established 1969) is one of the largest global providers of secure identification (ID) and card issuance solutions. Its customers, that include banks, private, health-care and government organizations, issue over 7 million cards every day. The company was founded in 1969 by Willis K. Drake and has locations around the world including Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa and the Americas. Headquartered in Minnetonka, Minnesota, Datacard Group employs more than 1,300 people worldwide and generates annual revenues of approximately $400 million while serving customers in over 200 countries.

Company history
Spun off Dataproducts Corporation, an early manufacturer of computer peripheral equipment, founder Willis K. Drake recognized an opportunity created by a rise in credit card commerce, which relied on slow and labor intensive card production and processing. His expertise in computing and printing technology told him that it was possible to mass produce machine readable cards. However, the idea didn't fit with Dataproducts' circumstances at that time, so Datacard Corporation was formed to bring Drake's idea to fruition.

Drake and Datacard Group engineers partnered with strategists and engineers from the world's leading financial institutions and retail organizations to create the first high speed credit card personalization system in the world that was capable of creating up to 1500 personalized, embossed cards per hour and helped revolutionize credit card commerce.

Datacard Group also pioneered digital photo ID technology by installing the world’s first digital photo ID system in 1991 and brought the first desktop card printer to market the same year.

Products and acquisitions
Datacard Group develops, markets, and supports secure identification and card personalization systems and software for a variety of applications including government identification and financial cards. The company provides card issuers and service bureaus around the world with fully integrated systems for a variety of financial, identification, transportation, telecommunications and loyalty applications, integrating biometric technology to create customized solutions for both government and private sector clients.

Acquisitions
In mid-2000, Datacard acquired Platform Seven from NatWest Bank, a part of the Royal Bank of Scotland. The company announced that the acquisition would help it "expand its role from smart card personalization tools to multi-application smart card software".

In early 2001, the company acquired Darmstadt, Germany-based Contec GmbH, that designs and develops laser engraving systems used to produce highly secure identification cards and passports. Contec had been working closely with Datacard Group since 1997, designing its "stand-alone laser engraving systems" which have since been used for numerous government projects including the Dutch passport and Slovenian National ID.

In 2003, the company officially acquired French smart-card company Gilles Leroux that manufactured embedded chips, often used in cell phones worldwide. Gilles Leroux went bankrupt in 2002 and Datacard had been running all operations until a French court finally ruled that Datacard had the right to buy Gilles Leroux's assets.

In early 2006, Datacard Group acquired Ga-Vehren Engineering, a St. Louis-based company that manufactured flexible, high-speed print and package-finishing machinery used for plastic card delivery, direct mail and commercial printing. Datacard announced that the acquisition would increase its ability to take advantage of growth opportunities in telecommunications, loyalty programs, gift cards, direct mail, commercial printing, and print and package finishing.

Later in 2006, the company acquired Card Personalization Systems Technology (CPST), a company that provided high-speed inkjet systems to create cards in the gift, loyalty and telecommunications markets. Datacard again made an announcement that the acquisition would allow the company to round out its existing print and packaging systems for end-to-end solutions.

Clients and important achievements
Datacard Group's clients include government organizations such as the governments of Singapore, Ukraine , and Spain among others and many world-class financial institutions including Bank of America, American Express, First National Bank, Mountain America Credit Union, Liberty Bank, Commonwealth Bank, Desert Schools Federal Credit Union, Greenbank, Service Credit Union and various health care organizations.

The Albanian government called upon Datacard Group to modernize and increase the security of Albanian national ID and Passport issuance and migrate to newer technologies that would enable them to store biometrics in machine-readable technology.

The Republic of Guatemala employed Datacard Group to deliver an "automated state-of-the-art card personalization solution" which the responded to by providing them with highly secure electronic identity cards. The e-ID cards will be issued to more than 11 million people over 8 years.

In an effort to prevent fraud and counterfeiting, the Republic of Guinea-Bissau sought out Datacard's services to create national ID cards with multi-layered security and issue them with the Datacard® SP75 card printer. Guinea-Bissau plans to issue over one million of these national ID cards over five years.

Datacard provided the Malaysian government with a Government Multipurpose Card (GMPC) that supports multiple government and payment applications and provides a convenient platform for future applications.

Liberty Bank, the oldest mutual bank in Connecticut that serves over 190,000 customers, implemented an instant issuance strategy using Datacard® CardWizard® instant issuance software and PIN selection technology.

The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia upgraded its drivers' licenses to include a radio frequency identification technology (RFID) chip embedded in the EDL (Enhanced Driver's License) to help facilitate traveler processing at the U.S. borders by implementing IBM Canada and Datacard Group technologies.

The Commonwealth of Virginia used the Datacard® Advocate™ precinct management system to improve efficiency, security and auditability of voter check-in, eliminating the need for traditional paper poll books which had remained largely unchanged since early 1800s. Voter Registrar, David Andrews, authorized a trial run during the Virginia Dual Party primary in June 2005.

According to Cynthia Patterson, Vice President of Card Issuance Technology, Bank of America improved productivity in its card shop by 45% after implementing Datacard® Syntera® Manufacturing Efficiency Software at two sites, replacing existing OS/2 operating systems. "We have definitely increased the speed of card processing by at least 45 percent," Patterson said. "It is easy to combine multiple smaller jobs into one long job and flow it through the system. We can reject one card and remake it immediately without going back to the drawing board."

The company was named amongst Business Journal's Top 100 Private Companies list in 2010.