Datacard Group

Entrust Corp., formerly Datacard Group,[5][6][7] provides financial institutions, national governments, corporate enterprises and other organizations with technologies to establish trusted identities and conduct highly secure transactions.[8][9] Examples of the company's diverse offerings include software and hardware used to issue financial cards, produce e-passports; authenticate users looking to access secure networks or conduct financial transactions; provide trusted certificates for websites, mobile credentials, and connected devices; and hardware security modules and software for secure encryption and key management solutions.[8][10] The privately held company is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota and employs more than 2,500 people globally.[6][8]

Entrust Corp.
FormerlyDatacard Group
TypePrivate[1][2]
IndustryManufacturing and Service
Founded1969
FounderWillis K. Drake
HeadquartersShakopee, Minnesota, US
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Todd Wilkinson (CEO)[3]
ProductsHigh-volume card issuance systems and software, card printers and encoders, identification software, passport systems
Number of employees
2,500+ (2020)[4]
Websitewww.entrust.com

Company history

The company was established in 1969[11] as Data Card Addressograph after Willis K. Drake acquired a Minnesota based firm that produced credit card imprinters. Data Card focused on the needs of the underserved financial card market. Company founder Willis K. Drake led a team of engineers that invented machines that enabled highly secure and productive personalization of credit cards beyond the simple imprinters that Addressograph had offered.[12][13] Datacard Group's high-volume card issuance systems allowed banks and retailers to personalize 1,500 cards per hour with great precision and security. Until the company launched its technologies, the process was slow and riddled with quality problems.[14][15]

Under new ownership in the early 1990s, the company refined core technologies and expanded into additional markets, including government and enterprise. Shortly after the new owners purchased the company and took it private, development efforts were re-energized and core technologies quickly expanded beyond basic card embossing and magnetic stripe encoding. New inline card personalization technologies included color printing that rivaled lithographic output and encoding of both contact and contactless smart cards.[16][17]

Development efforts led to multiple new offerings, including the world's first digital photo ID card system and desktop card printer in 1994. Until the launch of this new technology, governments, corporations and other security-minded enterprises primarily used cut-and-paste processes that involved laminating color photographs and paper identification cards. The digital systems brought new levels of security and economy to the identification process.[18]

Through the 1990s and early 2000s, Data Card Corporation steadily grew revenues by expanding beyond hardware to include software and customized developments introducing driver's licenses, national IDs, traditional passports and e-passports (which elevated document security by incorporating biometrics, laser engraving, digital imaging, data encryption and other technologies). Significant revenue gains were also driven by continued leadership in the financial card market. Through the 1990s, 2000s and today, a vast majority of the world's credit, debit and prepaid cards are personalized using high-volume and desktop issuance systems.[16][18][19]

The company's products include high-volume central card issuance systems, including desktop printers, software and supplies.[8] Other hardware products including high-value systems for issuing passports and creating customized mail packages for cards and other personalized credentials.[15] Software offerings include products for issuing and managing financial cards, EMV smart cards, ID cards, passports, national IDs, student IDs and other credentials.[20][21]

A rapidly growing portion of the company's portfolio is focused on instant issuance of credit, debit and prepaid cards. Banks, retailers, credit unions and other organizations issuing cards used for financial transactions are rapidly deploying systems used to issue cards on-demand in branch or store locations.[22] These instant issuance systems are often used for issuing emergency replacements when cards are lost, stolen or compromised by breaches. Most often, they complement centralized operations that focus on mass issuance aspects of a card program.[18][23]

The company also derives strong revenues from supplies and service. Supply offerings include overlays embedded with a variety of advanced technologies, including optical variable devices (OVDs), holographic images and various advanced materials that improve both the security and longevity of cards, passport booklets and other credentials.[24][25] The company's service organization supports customers in 150 countries with a portfolio of both consultative professional services and technical support, which is available online, on-call or onsite.[26] Service experts are often located onsite at large customer installations and develop highly collaborative relationships with in-house operations teams.[27]

In 2013 the company acquired Entrust, and expanded its portfolio to include Entrust PKI, certificate solutions and software authentication platforms that strengthen security in a wide range of identity and transaction ecosystems.[8][21] The company was renamed Entrust Datacard in 2014.[28] The company acquired nCipher Security, a developer of hardware security modules (HSMs) from Thales in 2019.

On September 14, 2020, the company announced that it has re-branded from Entrust Datacard to Entrust[29] and changed its legal entity name to Entrust Corporation.[30]

Acquisitions

The Entrust transaction in December 2013 represents the largest acquisition in the company's history. While a majority of the company's financial and portfolio growth has been organic, there have been several acquisitions in the company's 46-year history.[31]

In 2000, Datacard Group acquired Platform Seven (P7), the smart card technology arm of National Westminster Bank.[32] In 2010, the company also acquired Dynamic Card Systems (DCS) of Denver, Colorado. In addition to engineering and sales teams, the DCS acquisition included the card issuance software, CardWizard.[33] Other acquisitions in recent years have expanded the company's core capabilities surrounding trusted identity and secure transactions including Safelayer and Trustis.

In June 2019 it acquired general-purpose Hardware Security Module vendor nCipher from Thales Group.[34] In January 2021, Entrust acquired HyTrust, Inc., a provider of virtualized and multi-cloud data encryption, key management, and cloud security posture management solutions.[35]

Senior leadership

Todd Wilkinson has served as Datacard Group (and now Entrust) president and CEO since June 2008. Previously, he had been the company's CFO for nearly three years and had worked in a number of executive positions at General Electric.[36] Kurt Ishaug is the company's CFO and Lisa Tibbits is general counsel.[37]

References
  1. Company Profile, Datacard Group
  2. "Company Profile". Retrieved 17 September 2011.
  3. Wyant, Carissa (June 26, 2008). "Datacard names new CEO". Business Journal. Retrieved 28 August 2011.
  4. "Business Wire". November 4, 2014.
  5. "Business Wire". December 17, 2013.
  6. "StarTribune". December 17, 2013.
  7. "Security Document World". April 4, 2014.
  8. "Company Website". Entrust Datacard. November 2014. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  9. "Secure ID News". November 18, 2014.
  10. "Security Info Watch". February 23, 2014.
  11. "Company Website, Profile page". Entrust Datacard Corporate. 2014.
  12. "Roots in Innovation". Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved March 2015. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  13. Ross, James (3 February 1983). "An Interview with Willis K. Drake, OH 46" (PDF). University of Minnesota.
  14. "CR80 News". New Datacard Group printer add-on allows for expanded card printing options. 17 September 2007.
  15. "Commerce Transformed". Archived from the original on 2011-06-12.
  16. "Inline modularity". Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved March 2015. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  17. "Trusted Partner". Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved March 2015. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  18. "Instant Card Issuance". Archived from the original on 2011-02-14. Retrieved March 2015. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  19. "Leading the way". Retrieved March 2015. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  20. "Market News". Datacard Group Named Leader in ABI Research’s “Government and Healthcare ID: Smart Card and Legacy Credentials” Competitive Assessment. 4 August 2014.
  21. "InformationWeek". Entrust Datacard Bridges Digital Identity From Physical to Mobile. 11 November 2014. Retrieved March 2015. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  22. "PYMNTS.com". "Trusted Identity" – On Demand. 17 February 2015.
  23. "InformationWeek". Instant Issuance: A Game-Changer for Banks. 11 April 2013. Retrieved March 2015. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  24. "Security Document World". Entrust Datacard adds DuraShield overlay to secure product line. 20 November 2014.
  25. "CR80 News". Holograms on campus cards. 20 February 2015.
  26. "Business Wire". Datacard Group Expands its SD Series Desktop Card Printing Platform. 3 November 2014. Retrieved March 2015. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  27. "Company Site — Global Services". Archived from the original on 2015-03-16. Retrieved March 2015. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  28. "Entrust Datacard reveals new brand, partnerships and products". SecureIDNews. Retrieved 2021-01-19.
  29. "Shakopee-based Entrust rebrands to emphasize its growing data security business". Star Tribune. Retrieved 2020-09-14.
  30. "Entrust name and identity reflect the critical need for trust at the heart of the digital transformation – and the centrality of Entrust's innovation to secure a rapidly changing world". www.entrust.com. Retrieved 2020-09-14.
  31. "Datacard Group and Entrust Announce New Company Name and Corporate Brand Identity". Business Wire. November 4, 2014. Retrieved March 2015. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  32. "Datacard buys Platform Seven". Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. 26 March 2000. Retrieved March 2015. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  33. "Datacard Group Acquires Dynamic Card Solutions and CardWizard® Software". Business Wire. 30 September 2010. Retrieved March 2015. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  34. "Entrust Datacard completes purchase of market-leading general-purpose hardware security business, nCipher Security, from Thales". Minneapolis: Entrust Datacard. June 7, 2019.
  35. "Entrust acquires HyTrust to offer identity, encryption and security policy control for cloud environments". Help Net Security. 2021-01-14. Retrieved 2021-01-19.
  36. Wyant, Carissa (June 26, 2008). "Datacard names new CEO". Retrieved March 2015. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  37. "Entrust Datacard Leadership". Nov 2014. Retrieved Mar 2015. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
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