The «EDAPS» consortium has created in Ukraine a unique complex for the personalization of banking cards and identification documents. What advantages does this system give to domestic and foreign clients of the consortium?
Here it is important to say what the uniqueness of the «EDAPS» consortium consists of. The enterprises that are part of it fully cover the needs in highly intellectual products. Large corporations develop their own production mainly only in one of the segments of the protected printing market. I assert this with full responsibility, since our specialists attend all significant international conferences, congresses, exhibitions, etc. We seriously study the world market and are always aware of its events.
The consortium offers documents on a plastic basis, on a paper basis, and in the form of passport booklets, as well as all possible types of protective elements for them, information systems, equipment, etc. And the creation of all these high-technology products is ensured exclusively by our production capacities. The Personalization Bureau and the information system created on its base – are one of the links in the entire complex of services provided by the consortium.
The economic benefits for our clients consist of the fact that in the person of the «EDAPS» consortium they receive a system integrator not only from the point of view of formal contractual relations. We provide the client with cohesive technological teams that are promptly capable of developing any technological solution. In practice, this looks the following way. The products of the enterprise «Znak» (production of plastic cards and document blanks) are tested by the Personalization Bureau of the company «Polli-Service». In turn, at «Znak», for example, the products of the specialized enterprise «Holography» – the application of a protective hologram to a plastic card – are tested. Examples can be very different. The main thing is that our enterprises create a closed technological cycle and ensure a high and stable result for the customer.
The Personalization Bureau was created in 2008. Was this idea conceived already at the stage of the creation of the «EDAPS» consortium?
The idea has been discussed since 2002. We were pushed to this by the global experience of outsourcing services that are not core for banks. At that time in Ukraine outsourcing was not sufficiently in demand. But we understood that there would definitely be high demand for this service. The question consisted only of when it was economically expedient to enter the market with the Personalization Bureau. We were always ready for the launch of the project, constantly analyzed the technical and technological processes of work of such a production complex, attended specialized seminars and conferences.
I consider that we entered the market with the offer on the outsourcing of personalization of banking cards absolutely on time. The volumes of the Ukrainian market of payment cards were growing rapidly, and by 2008 large banks were ready to present to us for personalization payment cards in millions of copies. To create a small bureau was economically uninteresting.
And to what extent is this service developed in the world?
The thing is that in our business model of work with customers we use that world experience of the industry that has long and firmly established itself in the European Union, USA, and other countries. This outsourcing model is used by serious banking and state organizations throughout the world. All leading European and American banks order the personalization of payment cards at specialized enterprises – personalization bureaus, centers, etc. Among the customers of outsourcing services I will give as an example such largest Swiss banks as UBS and CreditSuisse.
They fully entrust private companies with the maintenance of information systems and databases. This allows banks, regardless of the change of the political situation, to fully preserve information during the circulation of payment cards.
How do international payment systems, in particular VISA and MasterCard, assess this process?
The main thing for payment systems – is the observance of all safety norms. MasterCard Worldwide and VISA International that you mentioned put forward very strict requirements for the certification of such enterprises for physical and information security.
In the process of creating the Personalization Bureau, auditors of these payment systems came to us many times. At the same time, in none of their documents is it written how exactly the requirements presented should be fulfilled. If we had taken to the fulfillment of all the stages of the task at once, we would probably not have managed it. At first, the system of construction of the Bureau building itself was developed in order to comply with the requirements for physical security. Then we proceeded to the fulfillment of a more complex task – the building of information security.
Therefore, the Personalization Bureau has all the necessary certificates and licenses for the conducting of activity. Moreover, in 2010 the «Polli-Service» company certified the information security management system of the Bureau for compliance with the international standard ISO/IEC 27001:2005. Certification under this standard confirms the company's ability to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information. This is an indicator of the high reputation and reliability of the company. The ISO/IEC 27001:2005 standard – is one of the most in demand in Europe and Asia, and de facto became the main standard in the building of information security management systems. Currently, more than three thousand companies are certified under it.
In Ukraine, «Polli-Service» became the first company that implemented this standard for the industry of banking cards and personalization of documents. This allows the «EDAPS» consortium to offer world-level service in the financial sector and in international projects in the production of identification documents.
In what large international projects of the «EDAPS» consortium does the Personalization Bureau participate?
Currently, the Personalization Bureau participates in two large international projects of the consortium: the production of passports of jewelry products of De Beers and electronic passports of employees of INTERPOL.
In principle, the scheme looks the following way. Around the clock, from authorized points of collection and transfer of information to the central server through protected communication channels, information for the personalization of the document is received. On the basis of the received data, documents are issued, which are then sent throughout the world depending on the project and the task set by the customer.
In other words, large companies and authoritative organizations entrust the Ukrainian «EDAPS» consortium with projects that include work with confidential information.
The consortium takes active part in all international conferences of the industry of protected printing and the production of identification documents. What accents were made on them in 2010?
In this connection, I consider it necessary to note the VI International Symposium of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which took place on November 1-4, 2010 in Montreal (Canada). This is one of the key events of the industry, which is dedicated to travel documents, the application of biometrics, and safety standards. Representatives of state bodies, international organizations, and companies take part in the symposium. Ukraine was traditionally represented at it by the «EDAPS» consortium.
At the symposium, the issue of strengthening the safety of citizens' travel was discussed – this is about preventing any attempts of illegal crossing of the border with forged documents.
Firstly, a model of comprehensive security was presented within the framework of cooperation of ICAO and INTERPOL on the unification of databases of state law enforcement structures and the International Criminal Police Organization. This is about the implementation of the INTERPOL database of lost and stolen passports into the border control systems of one or another state. As the General Secretary of the international police Ronald Noble recently informed the media, in 2010 INTERPOL, according to requests regarding the legality of the use of passports, identified 46 thousand cases of use of lost or forged passports.
Secondly, at the ICAO symposium the necessity of improving national demographic automated registries in every country was discussed. Experts of ICAO and state bodies of many countries propose to mandatorily include in them the dates of birth and death of a citizen. This is necessary for strengthening the state's control over the issuance of all types of documents, including primary ones, which are submitted during the issuance of foreign passports. After all, if initially the internal passport or the birth certificate of a person are falsified, then on their basis genuine foreign passports may be issued to criminal elements.
Automated registries of the population will allow maximally excluding such cases. True, in Ukraine such a registry has not yet been created. The Verkhovna Rada adopted the corresponding bill in the first reading four years ago. The bill has still not been adopted. And in vain. For example, in Kenya with a population of 38 million people such a registry (with the use of biometric technologies) has been created and is being constantly populated. This project in Kenya is being implemented by the «EDAPS» consortium. By the way, in the tender for the creation of the software and hardware complex Integrated Population Registration System – IPRS (the official name of the project – Ed.), «EDAPS» bypassed 25 large world companies.
Did ICAO at the last symposium give separate recommendations regarding travel documents?
Both yes and no. The thing is that this Organization has already described in detail in its official documents the main recommendations regarding the issue of machine-readable passports, including electronic ones. Nevertheless, the identification documents developed by the consortium ICAO recognized as exemplary. Our delegation was pleasantly surprised by the fact that electronic passports and ID cards of INTERPOL employees were placed on the cover of the official ICAO journal issued for the symposium. This project received serious support from representatives of this authoritative international organization.
And in October 2010 in Barcelona at the equally authoritative International Conference on Protected Printing INTERGRAF, the «EDAPS» consortium completely surprised the world market. We presented two new products: own operating equipment for laser engraving and electronic personalization of identification documents and a protective holographic overlay with a demetallized element (a holographic film used for application to ID cards – Ed.). The equipment completely caused a slight shock among representatives of the industry. After all, companies that produce a similar product in the world are few. Thanks to this, the consortium brought Ukraine into the world elite club of producers of equipment for the personalization of identification documents. Our stand in Barcelona was visited by representatives of all producers of equipment. They, being professionals of the industry, did not even hide their surprise at the fact that the consortium managed to develop such complex equipment in a short time.
The «EDAPS» consortium already in 2006, long before the adoption of the Action Plan on the cancellation of visas between the European Union and Ukraine, developed and presented electronic (biometric) foreign passports. Did you already at that time assume what requirements the EU would put forward to our country?
«EDAPS» – is a strategically thinking consortium of enterprises. We know absolutely exactly what requirements for the protection of documents the world community will put forward both in a year and in five years. The consortium's specialists do not just track modern trends, we constantly invest in science, in the development of innovative technologies.
91 countries are already transitioning to biometric passports. And since Ukraine strives for European integration, it will have to fulfill the requirements of the European Union. In turn, the «EDAPS» consortium confirms full technical readiness in the shortest terms to implement in our state documents of a new generation.
I emphasize that this is about a consortium of Ukrainian enterprises that are registered in Ukraine, and not in offshore zones. These are enterprises that during eleven years have transferred to the budget of Ukraine about UAH 1.6 billion of taxes and stably fill the budget of their country.
Source: Fraza
