“The photo is a barrier you have to clear before you can produce the ID card.”
In Dresden, Plasticard-ZFT manufactures and personalizes ID cards for European customers. Every project is driven by card production, but it is often slowed down by the photo. Today, Photo Collect is integrated into the workflow as an automated step.
“The photo is a barrier”: how Plasticard ZFT overcomes it with Photo Collect
René Blankenhagel, Commercial Managing Director of Plasticard ZFT in Dresden, explains why the photo is often the bottleneck in card projects. For corporate customers with many locations and remote work, each person uploads their own photo by smartphone; Photo Collect checks quality and format and delivers the photos automatically to card production.
A card producer waiting for a picture
For more than 30 years, Plasticard-ZFT has worked as a full-service provider for the manufacture, personalization and fulfillment of cards. In-house development department focused on RFID technologies, access control and identity solutions, certified to ISO 27001.
As Commercial Managing Director, René Blankenhagel looks at every ID card project through the lens of production. And he outlines a pattern that runs through many projects: “With us, a project like this is always driven by card production. Basically, the photo is a kind of barrier you have to clear before you can create the ID card.”
Card, chip, printing and shipping can be planned. The photo cannot. Without the images, production comes to a standstill, no matter how well the rest of the process is organized.
Corporate customers: dispersed, working from home, hard to reach
The hurdle is particularly evident with large customers. “For corporate customers, it is often a challenge that employees are spread across several locations. Employees work from home. It is a challenge to bring many people together in one place at the same time.”
A traditional photo appointment requires exactly that: everyone in the same place at the same time. With Photo Collect, this requirement no longer applies. Each person receives a personal link and can upload their photo themselves, simply by smartphone, with no app and no login. On-site capture is also possible: via kiosk, app or QR code.
The integration: one workflow from the first phase to the last
“Photo Collect is integrated into our workflow in an automated way. We now have a super easy way to control this entire workflow from start to finish. It all runs automatically.”
Photo Collect handles every image-related step between the invitation and card printing: AI validation of sharpness, lighting, head position and background, quality control, cropping and background replacement. Plasticard-ZFT processes a print-ready, ICAO- and ISO-compliant photo that goes straight into personalization. Photo procurement is no longer a separate sub-project, but one step in the production process.
The moment at the trade fair
In personal conversations, René Blankenhagel sees again and again how well this goes down with customers. At a trade fair, he presented Photo Collect to a customer with whom Plasticard-ZFT has been discussing an integration for some time: “The customer already knew Photo Collect, but had the product demonstrated again and is very enthusiastic about it.”
For him, this is not an isolated case: “We keep seeing this key moment when we demonstrate how easy Photo Collect is to use and that the quality of such a photo is really good, even though it doesn’t require a big organizational setup.”
What this means for other card manufacturers
Photo Collect does not replace an existing process. Plasticard-ZFT handles card manufacturing, personalization and fulfillment. Only the step that previously lay outside its own control was connected: obtaining the photo.
For card manufacturers, this means projects no longer start with a photo campaign, but go straight to production. The client does not need to organize appointments at several locations. During the sales conversation, a hurdle turns into an argument that can be demonstrated live in a few minutes.
Card producers, personalization service providers and access control system integrators benefit most when corporate customers implement access control systems for workforces with many locations or people working from home.
How the process works
Independent of the customer: workflow, check criteria, and integration for this use case.
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