User:Saralarsen/sandbox
| File:Datacard Group logo.svg | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Agriculture |
| Founded | 1969 |
| Founder | Willis K. Drake |
| Headquarters | Minnetonka, Minnesota, US |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Todd Wilkinson (CEO) |
| Products | High-volume card issuance systems and software, card printers and encoders, identification software, passport systems |
Number of employees | 1,300 (2011) |
| Website | www.datacard.com |
DataCard Corporation doing business as Datacard Group, is a global provider of secure identification and card personalization solutions.[1]
Headquartered in Minnetonka, Minnesota USA, Datacard Group employs more than 1,300 people worldwide and generates annual revenues of
approximately $400 million.[2] Datacard Group sells and supports its products and provides services worldwide through a network of direct sales organizations, dealers, distributors and value-added resellers.[3]
Company history
Datacard spun off of Dataproducts Corporation in 1969. Founder and marketer Willis K. Drake recognized an amazing opportunity in the plastic brought on by revolutions in retailing and banking. At that time, card production and processing was slow and labor intensive. His expertise in computing and printing technology told him that it was possible to make machine readable cards in a mass production environment. But the idea didn't fit with
Dataproducts circumstances at that time, so DataCard Corporation was formed to bring this idea to fruition. [4]
Datacard engineers partnered with strategists and engineers from the world’s leading financial institutions and retail organizations to create the world’s
first high speed credit card personalization system. This system was capable of creating up to 1500 personalized embossed cards per hour and helped revolutionize credit card commerce.[5]
Later, Datacard Group also pioneered digital photo ID technology. The company installed the world’s first digital photo ID system in 1991[6] and brought the
first desktop card printer to market. [7]
Products
Today, 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. Datacard Group provides card issuers and service bureaus around the world with fully integrated
systems for a variety of financial, identification, transportation, telecommunications and loyalty applications. Some examples of Datacard Group's offerings
are:
Patents
References
- ^ Corporate Website, Datacard Group
- ^ Company Profile, Datacard Group
- ^ Minnesota Computing Companies, Charles Babbage Institute
- ^ Willis K. Drake, OH 46. Oral history interview by James Baker Ross, 3 February 1983, Minnetonka, Minnesota. Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
- ^ Commerce Transformed, Datacard Group
- ^ Charles Babbage Institute, Datacard Group
- ^ Instant Card Issuance, Datacard Group