Are You Sick and Tired of High Priced Access Cards?
If you are involved with your Access Card program then it is no surprise that costs are increasing every year.
With that in mind we have provided a list of 3 tips that you can implement today to start lowering your costs and to get more from your Security Budget!
Tip #1 - Is your ID Card Printer Maintained Properly?
I was meeting with a Hospital Security Manager a couple of months ago and he showed me a garbage bag that was filled with hundreds of rejected HID Cards. When I did the math there was Thousands of Dollars worth of cards that were wasted. Upon further inspection of some of the cards the main reason for the printed card being rejected was due to imperfections or spots appearing on the face of the person.
Solution: This is an easy one! Ensure that your card printer is cleaned regularly. Check to make sure that you have a proper cleaning kit for your printer. Your cleaning kit should have the following so that you are maintaining your printer properly.
- Alcohol Soaked Cleaning Cards- These are used for deep cleaning of the printer rollers in the main feed path of your card printer.
- Adhesive Cleaning Cards- These adhesive cards should be part of your regular cleaning cycles, usually done before loading up a new printer ribbon. Check with your owners manual!
- Printhead cleaning swabs.
Tip #2- Brand Name or Compatible Cards?
When it comes to Ketchup on my Burger I prefer Heinz over the No Name Brand. With that being said I’m not eating my ID card!
Solution: HID Global is the main player in the Access Card game but did you know that if you are using “Proximity” as your card technology then there are other options! There are many “HID Compatible” card manufacturers out there that are providing the same if not better quality than HID at a much lower cost. Some manufacturers can even provide Proprietary formats such as Keyscan, Kantech and Lenel in their product line.
If your using Proximity Cards then check out this link to get a Free Test Card to try out! https://groovebadges.com/pages/contact
Tip #3- Are you Protecting your Access Card Investment?
Back to the story of the Hospital Manager I met with the garbage bag full of wasted access cards. When digging through the bag of cards another common issue I saw was durability issues. Many of the cards were cracked, bent and had worn surfaces that were not readable.
Solution: Protect your Access Card with a Rigid Plastic Badge Holder! You have many light weight and streamlined options to choose from. The goal here is to make sure that all the work and costs (labour, card stock and printer supplies) that went into printing the badge last as long as possible. Here is a link with some popular options. Again, get Free Test Samples first to try out to make sure that the style you pick is a good fit! https://groovebadges.com/collections/rigid-badge-holders
