Security issues are everywhere, creating plenty of opportunity for distributors to provide solutions.
Security is the buzzword these days, and the heightened concern can translate into increased opportunity for distributors willing to go beyond the usual.
"Security features are one of the fastest-growing aspects of the printing industry," said Doug Drendell, marketing director for ProDocumentSolutions, Paso Robles, Calif. He named the educational, medical and financial markets as having "tremendous" need for secure documents. For instance, ProDocumentSolutions has more than 25 foreign governments as customers for such things as checks, vital statistics records and school transcripts.
A new state law in California will require all new prescription pads to incorporate security features as of January 2005, he noted. Distributors will need to partner with a certified supplier. Prescriptions for Category 1 and 2 drugs must be written on the new secure pads, with all prescriptions eventually phased in.
Drivers licenses, voter registration cards, medical insurance cards, and concert and event tickets are all good potential markets.
Company founder George Phillips, who developed nearly all of ProDocumentSolutions' patented security features, has offered advice to the Homeland Security Council, Drendell noted. "Our core products are the same as what everyone else has," he said, "but the security features set them apart."
With practically daily headlines on some kind of corporate fraud, Drendell said that distributors should emphasize to customers that security features should be used on internal documents, as well as those publicly circulated. "The security features needed will depend on the usage—a payroll check would require more features than a gift certificate because more fingers touch the check," he counseled.
And, for those businesses reluctant to embrace or expand security for their documents, Drendell recommended obtaining testimony from peers who've suffered losses. "We set up seminars for the distributor and have industry end-users come in. Once one person says they've had a problem, people open up. By the end, the distributor is taking orders," he said.
Advanced Features
Advances in the industry have made it increasingly difficult to use a scanner or even a sophisticated copier to authentically reproduce a stolen document. For instance, ProDocumentSolutions' NaNocopy is a series of small dots of extremely tiny script. TouchSafe and ThermoSafe are heat-sensitive papers that tellers and cashiers can verify immediately. Holographs are popular and can be customized with a logo. The NoDupIt feature on the signature line disappears on a copied document.
"But, any security feature is only as good as the person checking it," Drendell noted. In some circumstances, particularly when large numbers of documents need to be verified, features that require a scanner can be used.
In addition to those features that can be added to the paper, the papers themselves can offer security. These include everything from built-in fibers to chemical stain-reactive and true watermarks and toner grips.
Security is necessary on more than just documents. Employees in many buildings, government and private, have long worn photo ID badges. Now, employers are adding features to create more secure access, and those new products are being eyed for future applications in secure payments and mass transit, said Jake Jacobs, vice president of sales at Arthur Blank & Company, a Boston-based supplier of plastic cards. Student IDs and drivers licenses, frequent fraud targets, were among the first to migrate from paper to plastic to foil copying.
As with paper products, security features for plastic cards can include the actual substrate, as well as elements layered on top. For instance, colored core material, invisible inks and those seen only under black lights are used. Fingerprint receptacles, film laminates with holograms and color-shifting inks, and layered silhouettes on photos are also available. "Features can be simple or very, very secure," Jacobs said. The military might use access cards with invisible inks, graphics, laminates and biometric readings, including iris scans and facial recognition.
A 2-D bar code or a computer chip can be used instead of a magnetic stripe to contain up to 32K of data. "Down the road, they'll probably have as much storage capacity as today's laptop," Jacobs predicted. Naturally, such security doesn't come cheap. "These cards could be from $2.00 to $25.00 apiece, depending on sophistication and technology," he said.
In terms of technology, much ink has been spilled over the past decade on smart cards, but Jacobs felt that RFID (radio frequency identification) offered more potential for the distributor. "The smart card has its place, primarily in the international sector. Domestically, not much has happened. RFID has applications that make it attractive."
RFID readers may be stationed to read cards anywhere from six inches to 25 feet or more away and are already in use in highway toll lanes and at corporate headquarters, military bases, port and petrochemical facilities, and Canadian border crossings.
Mass transit systems in Houston and Washington, D.C., are looking at RFID, and retailers such as McDonald's, Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts are testing handheld units to speed order taking and payment for frequent customers, much like Mobil Oil's Speedpass, Jacobs said.
Wal-Mart's RFID initiative for its supply chain is a huge motivation for suppliers to adopt the technology and provides a good opportunity for distributors to "get their feet wet," Jacobs noted. He feels that once the technology is proven in the supply chain universe, the access and payment markets will open up. "I'm not sure that RFID has demonstrated an overwhelming benefit to the end-user yet," he said. Retail payment applications involve "a lot of planning, infrastructure and technology, from point-of-service devices to back-end integration in the stores," he said.
Establish Partnerships
Optical and even wireless scanners are also on the market, but Jacobs warned that distributors can't go it alone; they need to establish partnerships with systems integrators. "You can't walk into human resources and ask how many RFID cards a company needs; trying to sell from the card end backwards is very difficult," he said.
But, as with other products requiring software and hardware solutions, distributors and systems integrators can leverage each other's relationships to increase sales. "The industry is at the beginning stages and is still looking for universal standards. It's not much different than where magnetic stripe cards were a few years ago," he said.
Distributors should become educated about the industry and form the necessary alliances so that they'll be ready when the demand takes off. "If distributors don't get into it now, five years from now, they'll probably wish they had," Jacobs said.
For more information, visit the following Web sites:
www.aimglobal.org — the global trade association for automated data capture and information management systems
www.secureidnews.com
www.fraudnews.com
www.abagnale.com — the site of Frank W. Abagnale, former counterfeiter and FBI security document consultant
By Janet R. Gross