A subsidiary of ASSA ABLOY, HID Global is a global leader in providing access and ID management solutions for the delivery of secure identity. Dr. Selva Selvaratnam, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at HID Global, outlines their main capabilities and the key developments in their embedded products business and their NFC business. HID Global’s history can be traced back to 1991, when it was formed as Hughes Identification Devices, a subsidiary of Hughes Aircraft. The name change to HID Corporation took place four years later when it was taken over by Palomar Technological Companies. In 1996, HID Corporation acquired Sensor Engineering from Echlin, Inc., adding Wiegand technology to its portfolio. Perhaps the most important milestone in company history so far took place in 2000, however, when it was acquired by ASSA ABLOY AB, the Swedish-based global leader in ‘door opening solutions’. The name change to HID Global took place in 2006. Under the wings of ASSA ABLOY, HID Global continued to expand, both organically and through acquisitions. The latter included Fargo Electronics, in 2006, and Integrated Engineering, in 2007. These acquisitions significantly widened and deepened the HID Global portfolio, combining various brands, and including both hardware and software products, including access control readers and cards, secure card solutions, digital identity and photo card management software solutions, custom card manufacturing services, electronic cylinders and secure card issuance solutions. HID Global was integrated into the ASSA ABLOY Identification Technology Group (ITG) in 2008. Dr. Selvaratnam joined HID Global in 2004 when his company was acquired by them. Since then, he says, the group has worked towards becoming a global leader in secure identity. “What I’ve always liked about HID Global is that it’s a dynamic company with a clear vision. When I first joined, it was refreshing for me to see how customer-focused this company is. Rather than push their technology onto people, they look at customer needs first. It’s an approach that I feel at home with.” Interesting from a product strategy perspective is that HID Global follows the ASSA ABLOY business strategy in that brands are typically maintained following acquisition. Founded in 1994, ASSA ABLOY has made over 150 acquisitions in its history. The company continues its proactive acquisition strategy as the security market remains fragmented, and in many parts of the world dominated by local players. So there’s still plenty of consolidation potential, including the authentication and access control space, as Dr. Selvaratnam confirms. “It’s interesting that ASSA ABLOY acquired HID Global at a time when electronic authentication wasn’t widely adopted, but they had this vision of their world of locks converging with electronic identification in the future, and that’s exactly what is happening now. Electronic locks are integrated into total access solutions, with increasing synergy between ASSA ABLOY’s mechanical locks business and HID Global.” Dr. Selvaratnam adds that HID showed a very strong intake of orders in both access control and identification technology so far this year. The company commercialises both branded and embedded products. “The embedded business is growing, and extending our reach. We want to serve our customers along the value chain, covering the whole spectrum of electronic access control and identification with a synergistic product range, and embedded products are key in that.” Interesting to note in that regard is that HID Global is very transparent in its dealings with third parties. “Given the importance of our embedded business, it is vital that we actively empower developers to easily adopt our technology solutions,” Dr. Selvaratnam comments. So HID Global decided to enhance the level of support it provides to its customers in the embedded space. To coincide with the release of the latest version of the identiCLASS™ reader platform for e-government, the company also launched its first dedicated developer tool kit. The ‘plug and play’ tool kit provides a link to a secure, online developer portal with access to all the relevant technical resources, tools and documentation developers require, from product certification and application notes to upto- date product guides. The tool kit has been developed in consultation with a number of the company’s longstanding partners and benchmarked against leading developer programs across other industries. “We have received some great feedback from customers who have already trialled the tool kit,” says Dr. Selvaratnam. “Our plan is to make the tool kit available for all HID Global embedded products in the future and to continue to build the platform by introducing more tools, such as moderated developer forums and a searchable knowledge management database.” The identiCLASS reader platform for e-government is also targeted at making things easier for HID Global customers. The globally certified e-government solution includes a reader core and reader board for design-in, turnkey e-ID solutions. Built to meet the demands of OEM partners, system integrators and manufacturers of e-ID authentication systems, the HID Global identiCLASS platform reader boards and modules are CE and FCC modular approved, allowing developers to significantly reduce the time required for certification of their finished solutions. With identiCLASS, a HID Global company statement reads, developers benefit from a single embedded device with multiple features that offers a flexible interface to all contactless and contact credentials, including options to support multiple applications. The open identiCLASS platform encompasses all popular smart cards, including MIFARE, DESFire, and iCLASS, as well as drivers for Windows, Windows CE, Linux and Mac operating systems to address diverse organizational requirements in government markets. “In e-government there’s a myriad of certifications and requirements that need to be met,” Dr. Selvaratnam explains. “That’s a tough challenge for system integrators and OEMs. With identiCLASS, we’re making the development and integration process a lot easier. The adaptive design of the identiCLASS platform allows manufacturers to integrate quickly and easily into virtually any smart card or contactless reader application, while its global certifications streamline the compliance review process for a drastic reduction in the integrator’s development time and cost.” Dr. Selvaratnam adds that they’ll also launch a new cashless payment platform this year with the same objective of making integration easier. He also says this year is looking good for HID Global. “The economic downturn hasn’t slowed down investment in this space; you could even argue that security is now more important than ever.”He also sees a lot of movement in the NFC space. Short for Near Field Communication, NFC is a short-range high frequency wireless communication technology which enables the exchange of data between devices. An NFC device can communicate with smart cards, readers, and other NFC devices, which makes it relatively easy to integrate into existing contactless infrastructures already in place, in public transport systems for example. NFC is primarily aimed at usage in mobile phones. HID Global announced earlier this year that it plans to introduce its high-end corporate ID application on NFC phones using chips from Inside Contactless. The two companies first partnered in 2001. Dr. Selvaratnam envisages that the mobile phone will increasingly be used as an identification tool, giving users access to their offices, homes and hotel rooms, while service providers could communicate with them over the mobile network. Related applications could enable users to access computers and networks, check out office equipment or library materials, and pay for meals at campus cafeterias as well as print documents. “I think the idea of a multifunctional contact smart card is outdated,” he adds. “In countries like the US, the multifunctional contact smart card was never widely adopted, and they’re actually skipping a step, moving straight to contactless. The mobile phone is an ideal device for contactless authentication, especially since you can add multiple applications and integrate all kinds of functionality, such as security access control.” This is where HID Global’s parent company comes in: ASSA ABLOY has expressed interest in putting contactless hotel- and other residential keys on NFC phones. Dr. Selvaratnam again emphasises that they want to open up the market. “I expect that embedded products will become increasingly important for HID Global overall. Ideally, we want to become known as the preferred integration partner for secure access and authentication solutions worldwide.” HID Global at a glance Headquartered in Irvine, California, HID Global has over 1,500 employees worldwide and operates international offices that support more than 100 countries. HID Global is an ASSA ABLOY Group brand. Brands include: iCLASS® read/write contactless smart card technology, OMNIKEY ready-to-use PC smart card reader devices and advanced smart card terminals for special markets like e-health and national ID; the FlexSmart® family of contactless smart card products provides; SmartID™ MIFARE and DESFire customized contactless access control readers and cards; Sokymat RFID system components; HID Prox proximity cards and readers for physical access control; Indala Prox proximity readers featuring FlexSecur® security coding; the multiCLASS multi-technology card reader; SmartTrans multi-technology card readers; Asure ID® award-winning photo identification software featuring the iDIRECTOR™ technology platform, allowing multiple applications to be loaded onto a smart card via a single, seamless process; Fargo ID card printers, software, systems and materials used in access control systems, time and attendance tracking, asset protection and other applications; the HID EDGE IP Access Solution including a full line of flexible and configurable IP-enabled access control processor and host interface solutions, including the award-winning Edge Solo (a cost-effective, stand-alone, single-door access control solution); EdgeReader™ (with integrated iCLASS® reader) and EdgePlus™ (allowing connection to any Wiegand or most clock and data readers); VertX CS access control. HID additionally provides embedded solutions that enable development partners to produce innovative products and applications. top - home