InterCard is a smart card system integrator based in Villingen-Schwenningen and market leader in the field of multipurpose card systems for educational establishments in Germany. Currently, more than a million students use an InterCard smart card called UniCard, a kind of electronic student ID card. Since its IPO in 2005, the company has enjoyed continuous growth. To ensure in-house processes keep pace with this growth, the Gosheim-based Steinbeis TQU Innovation Center has been helping the company adapt internal systems.
Describing the initial situation, InterCard CEO Gerson Riesle says, “Our growth, the rising number of employees and intensive time investments in research and development, made it absolutely crucial to optimize our in-house processes and introduce professionally certified quality management.” It was clear that redefining internal structures would need the support of an experienced partner, which InterCard found in the form of the TQU Innovation Center.
The need to update structures and launch a certified process and quality management system arose in a number of areas. This was because InterCard had embarked on a product and innovation drive which entailed overhauling the entire product portfolio. On top of this, a project called “InterCard goes mobile” will allow future InterCard users to select which medium they prefer to access system functions. InterCard will be the first company to offer smartphone apps for multifunctional card solutions in the academic environment. With the right programs, students, lecturers and staff will be able to carry out functions like approve documents for printing, make payments, or view bank statements on their smartphone to make bookings through a virtual account on a smart chip. The growing number of development projects and the need to outsource individual tasks to third-party developers, meant that quality management was now a must. The customer base had also expanded and as the company entered new application areas it had become necessary to update internal procedures. An initial assessment of the situation, which was carried out as part of the project, was positive: “The measures already introduced, especially by optimizing processes in procurement, resulted in a reduction in material costs to 37.8% in the first half of 2011. They used to hover constantly at around 40%,” states Christoph Seyfried, director of the TQU Innovation Center.
Certification is also an integral part of the strategy to expand OEM business with producers of printers and photocopiers, a third aspect central to overhauling company procedures. The aim is to install InterCard solutions directly on or inside end-customer equipment, i.e. individual photocopiers and printers. “To be noticed in this business environment and stand any chance, you need recognized certification as the larger companies already stipulate this in their own rules for business partners,” explains Gerson Riesle.
Since data protection is of paramount importance, InterCard formally involved the Office of Data Protection in the certification process. “The protection of privacy is a key success factor for the future of any business model which is based on networking, the Internet or other modern forms of communication,” believes Christoph Seyfried. “Users of our systems need to be sure that we adhere to the very strictest data protection standards before they invest their trust in us. This is crucial for these kinds of applications,” adds Riesle.
Having successfully optimized processes and having launched quality management measures, the project team, comprised of Steinbeis and InterCard experts, is positive about the outcome: “The project cost us a lot of energy and it certainly wasn’t always easy for employees to leave the trodden path, but the results speak for themselves.” InterCard now has more punch in terms of organization and keeping costs under control, yet it’s still able to improve service and quality. The task now is to maintain and build on the newly established standard with a continuous improvement process.
Christoph Seyfried
Transfer Center TQU Innovation Center (Gosheim)
su0106@stw.de
Tanja Riedlinger
InterCard AG Informationssysteme (Villingen-Schwenningen)
t.riedlinger@intercard.org