​ANNOUNCEMENT – Acquisition strengthens ColorID and CardExchange's position as a global provider of identification solutions. 

​Cornelius, North Carolina, U.S.A., February 18, 2025 --- ColorID, a leading provider of identity solutions and secure credential technologies announced today that they acquired the CardExchange Group, which includes CardExchange Solutions, LLC (California, USA), ExchangeIT, B.V. (Netherlands), and CardExchange Solutions UNIPESSOAL, LDA (Portugal).
 
“By working with the CardExchange team and selling their products for years, we have firsthand experience of how their solutions can catapult a user to the next level of functionality while providing a strong hedge against future technology changes,” said Gary Smith, ColorID President, and Co-Owner.” We are pleased to announce that Marcel Oosterhof will run the CardExchange business as an independent business unit of ColorID while ColorID continues to be an integrator of multiple software and hardware solutions in selected vertical markets.
​
CardExchange Group President Marcel Oosterhof expressed his enthusiasm for the partnership, stating, “Joining forces with ColorID represents a tremendous opportunity to strengthen our product offerings that we will continue to sell through our world-class distribution channel.”
 
Executive Vice President and Co-Owner of ColorID, Danny Smith, shared, “We are excited to welcome CardExchange into the ColorID family. With the growth of mobile credentials and the drive for open application-rich enterprise platforms, we believe the industry is at a major inflection point, and the CardExchange Group’s product portfolio is perfectly suited to offer our customers a flexible platform that will allow them to adapt to the rapidly changing identification landscape at a pace and direction that meets their specific needs.” 

Phoenix, AZ – May 14, 2018 – Coastal Carolina University’s CINO card received the 2018 NACCU Best Card Design Award during the 25th Annual NACCU Conference in Reno on April 25, 2018. Scott Gallimore accepted the award from ColorID’s Danny Smith.
​
The NACCU Best Card Design Award, sponsored by ColorID, is presented to the institution who is first selected as one of five finalists by the Awards Committee based on a grading matrix, then receives the most votes from NACCU members prior to and during the NACCU Annual Conference. 

The CINO card was redesigned four years ago, then updated in Summer 2017 to include an expiration date. The purpose of the initial redesign was to update the card’s graphics to make it coherent with the university’s branding.

NACCU congratulates Coastal Carolina University as the recipient of the 2018 NACCU Best Card Design Award.

About NACCU
NACCU provides members access to a network of campus identification and transaction system resources to integrate and streamline campus operations, and enhance the student experience. NACCU’s mission is to advance the position of higher education transaction and identity systems through professional development and leadership opportunities for its members to stay current in an ever-changing environment.

Learn more at www.naccu.org. 

Check out ColorID's 2016 fall trade show calendar, we hope to see you in person!  If you'd like to inquire about any of these shows, just click on the images below to learn more.

• SSSHC & NC & SC Chapters of IAHSS - August 28th - 31th, Mrytle Beach, SC
• ASIS - September 12th – 14th, Orlando, FL
• NACAS – October 9th – 12th, Indianopolis, IN
• Healthcare Human HR of MN – October 26th – 28th, Redwing MN
• Blackboard Southeast Region Users Group – November 7th – 9th, Charlotte NC

​ColorID is announcing a game-changing, campus identity management solution.  If you are involved with identity management at your organization (Card Office, IT, PACS, Auxiliary, Public Safety, etc.) you will want to see the below brief explainer video. 

About ColorID, LLC
Over the past 17 years, ColorID has become a highly recommended supplier of solutions for security, identification, access control, biometrics and support services.  Though primarily focused on specific North American markets, ColorID also provides these solutions to organizations around the world. The company’s highly knowledgeable and customer-focused sales and product management teams help customers select the best products and services from well-known and innovative manufacturers to meet their requirements. Also, the company’s engineering team provides exceptional support for the life of those products. Contact ColorID at 704-987-2238 or toll free in Canada and the US at 888-682-6567. Visit ColorID on the web at: www.colorid.com or email ColorID at [email protected].

Thank you to all our higher education customers who made this event a great success!  This year we were proud to host our 11th consecutive event at the Great American Music Hall while attending the NACCU conference in San Francisco.  We cannot wait to see everyone again next year in Orlando!  

​Enjoy the below video and please feel free to forward on so we can continue to grow our attendance  

About ColorID, LLC
Over the past 17 years, ColorID has become a highly recommended supplier of solutions for security, identification, access control, biometrics and transaction management.  Though primarily focused on specific North American markets, ColorID also provides these solutions to organizations around the world. The company’s highly knowledgeable and customer-focused sales and product management teams help customers select the best products and services from well-known and innovative manufacturers to meet their requirements. Also, the company’s engineering team provides exceptional support for the life of those products. Contact ColorID at 704-987-2238 or toll free in Canada and the US at 888-682-6567. Visit ColorID on the web at: www.colorid.com or email ColorID at [email protected].

Time for change
The campus wanted to move from a mag stripe only credential to a card with both mag stripe and a contactless chip. “The primary reasons for issuing new IDs is to provide increased security and improved functionality,” explains Diane Brueggemann, technical services manager at the University of Cincinnati.

For Cincinnati, a university with a large population, challenges included logistics and staffing for mass card distribution events. “We were able to overcome these challenges because we included all major stakeholders  –  including student government representatives  –  on the recarding committee,” says Brueggemann.

The university wanted a more secure contactless technology card to upgrade physical access readers and integrate with the local Cincinnati METRO system, says Tim Nyblom, director of the education group at ColorID. “Their overarching goal was to find a single card that could accomplish all of this.”
​
The new cards include DESFire EV1 contactless chips that facilitate access throughout the campus’ network of HID readers and Blackboard access control and point-of-sale readers, says Nyblom. 

Team effort
Cincinnati enlisted the help of ColorID to provide cardstock and assist in the issuance process for the university’s 45,000 active cardholders.

ColorID worked with HID Global to provide pre-printed contactless cards that were pre-encoded with custom transit credentials to meet the SPX Genfare specifications for the SORTA system, explains Todd Brooks, director of product management at ColorID.

The ColorID service bureau personalized the initial 45,000 cards adding cardholder photos and personal information. Before shipping to campus, the mag stripes were encoded and two applications were programmed into the DESFire EV1 Chip. Cards were sorted and then shipped per preset preferences established to ease onsite distribution.

The full recarding process took about three and a half months and concluded in the fall of 2015, explains Nyblom. “There were many months of additional planning, testing and creating samples that took place well before the recarding project could begin,” he explains.

“The 45,000 cards preprinted by ColorID consisted of registered students, active faculty, staff and affiliates,” says Brueggemann. To ease the distribution burden, the university held two separate distribution events – one for faculty and staff credentials and a second for students.

In total, the university ordered 65,000 cards from ColorID, with 45,000 being used for the initial recarding project. “The remaining 20,000 cards are Cincy’s base, pre-printed cardstock that will be kept on campus for normal card office distribution,” explains Nyblom.

Following the initial distribution event, all cards are now produced on demand in the card office. For these cards, only the back portion is pre-printed while the front is personalized at the point of issuance. “Cincy chose a reverse-transfer printer, which allows them to print a very high quality card, similar to how a pre-printed card may look,” explains Brooks.

Troubleshooting
Projects the size of Cincinnati’s are rarely without their challenges, but with a comprehensive plan and the support of an experienced vendor, the challenges can be managed.

“The biggest challenge was correctly encoding the transit portion of the cards,” says Brooks. “We spent several months working with all parties involved – including the university, the card manufacturer, the transit equipment manufacturer and the transit authority – to make sure the encoding was done correctly.”

Another challenge was getting all of the credentials on to the card. “Applications have specific methods for encoding credentials on a chip and they may not coincide. You have to determine which applications can be pre-encoded versus encoded in the printer or at the desktop,” explains Brooks. “Since Cincy is issuing randomized ISO numbers, pre-encoding was not a viable option. We pre-encoded the transit portion and then added the access control and the Blackboard application data at the desktop.” The final hurdle came in the form of working with older systems and processes. Cincinnati had multiple legacy access control systems so an individual’s images, biometric templates and ID numbers from the previous cards were held as records in different systems, explains Brooks. This created the need to encode the legacy access application using a desktop encoder.

Many hands, light work
“From a secure suite at our headquarters in North Carolina, our service bureau is equipped to personalize ID cards for projects large and small,” explains Brooks. “We are experienced with a wide range of card technologies, back end systems, hardware and software.” At Cincinnati, the company facilitated and managed a great deal of the recarding project. “Their expertise and experience was essential to making this project a success,” says Brueggemann.

About ColorID, LLC
Over the past 17 years, ColorID has become a highly recommended supplier of solutions for security, identification, access control, biometrics and transaction management.  Though primarily focused on specific North American markets, ColorID also provides these solutions to organizations around the world. The company’s highly knowledgeable and customer-focused sales and product management teams help customers select the best products and services from well-known and innovative manufacturers to meet their requirements. Also, the company’s engineering team provides exceptional support for the life of those products. Contact ColorID at 704-987-2238 or toll free in Canada and the US at 888-682-6567. Visit ColorID on the web at: www.colorid.com or email ColorID at [email protected].

Check out ColorID's 2016 spring trade show calendar, we hope to see you in person!  If you'd like to inquire about any of these shows, just click on the images below to learn more.

• ​Connect:ID March 14-16, Washington DC
• Virginia CBORD Users Group March 16-17, Richmond VA
• NIRSA (Collgiate Recreation) April 3-5, Kissimee FL
• ISC West April 5-8, Las Vegas NV
• NACCU (Nat'l Assc of Campus Card Users) April 16-19, San Francisco CA
• NSAA (National Ski Area Association) May 18-20, Nashville TN
• IAHSS (International Assc for Healthcare Security & Safety) May 22-25, Charlotte NC
• ECCA (European Campus Card Assc) May 22-24, Wroclaw Poland

Check out the below article which is about when EMV banking cards will be installed and running at gas pumps throughout the country.  Click on the image below to learn more!

One of our advanced technology manufacturers for credentials and readers submitted an article to CR80News regarding the move to smart cards and what factors into this transition for organizations.  Check it out below by clicking on the image.

What goes on the back of a University ID card?  Here is a quick overview of what you should consider and who you need to involve when making that decision at your institution, click the below image to learn more.