HID® Helps The University Of Auckland Build A New Sustainable And Efficient ID Card Printing Program

Founded in 1883, the University of Auckland is New Zealand’s largest university with more than 6,115 academic and professional staff members and 40,000 students. It conducts teaching and learning within eight faculties, two large-scale research institutes, and other institutes and centres across seven campuses.

Ranked as the top university in the country overall and for graduate employability, Auckland is also ranked among the top 50 universities in the world in 12 subjects. It is the country’s largest research organization, with more than 13,000 staff and postgraduate students involved in fundamental and applied research generating about $230 million in annual research revenue.

The University of Auckland ranked 12th in the 2023 Global Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings, which measure how universities worldwide are performing against the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is also ranked first in Oceania and fifth in the world for sustainability in the 2024 QS World University Sustainability Rankings.

CHALLENGE

Auckland’s identification card printing and management was problematic for a university that places a high priority on social and environmental sustainability. Plagued with problematic hardware and inefficient printers, its ID card system generated significant card waste with a failure rate of approximately 10%.

Printers were complicated and printing ID cards was frustratingly slow for staff and students — a problem exacerbated by high turnover among the card staff, which was made up primarily of students, resulting in a lack of knowledge and experience using the system. Creating and uploading new card templates, which was a frequent occurrence, was also problematic.

Printer maintenance and inventory control were also challenging, thanks in part to the distance between the card office and the three self-service hubs and help desks where cards could be printed and/or replaced. With no remote visibility into the card management system, correcting any issues required someone to travel between sites, adding to delays and increasing frustration levels.

“We were working with a system that was quite particular, quite slow, and quite frustrating, with hardware and a setup that was not as efficient as it could be. All of that compounded into a less-than-ideal experience for students and a really frustrating time for frontline staff,” said Ankita Askar, Campus Card Team Lead, Campus Life, University of Auckland.

SOLUTION

Auckland reached out to HID partner, ColorID, who oversaw the universities’ identity management platform, to help identify a solution that would reduce waste, speed up the card creation process, and eliminate the time delays and frustrations. ColorID, a trusted and certified HID® FARGO® Connect™ delivery partner with an exceptional record of implementation and service worldwide, was the answer for the university.

HID FARGO Connect brings together hardware, software, consumables, and services, simplifying the operation and support of the entire ID card issuance office. It centralizes all the elements of a secure card issuance program into a single integrated system with greater visibility, control and security at a reduced cost.

The HDP6600 printer generates secure and durable, high-definition ID cards at high speeds. An eco-friendly and reliable solution, the printer is designed to meet the needs of cost- and efficiency-conscious organizations by producing cards at unprecedented speeds and cutting high-volume lamination material costs by up to 40%.

“With HID FARGO Connect, things are faster. The printers are punching out 200 cards in a day … And there are efficiencies in terms of using our teams’ time more effectively. But the overall wraparound benefit is that the combination of all these things is making the experience better for students,” says Brendan Mosely - Director — Campus Life University of Auckland

RESULT S

In the first year since implementing the user-friendly all-in-one HID FARGO Connect and HDP6600 printers, the University of Auckland printed 18,000 ID cards, and expects to print as many as 20,000 each subsequent year. A process that once took up to 10 minutes to print a single ID card is now complete in less than 2 minutes, allowing up to 200 cards to be printed per day — an amount that previously took up to 4 days.

The FARGO system is easy to learn and requires minimal staff training. Greater efficiency, ease of use, and higher reliability means less downtime and happier customers and frontline staff, which now has more time to spend on other core responsibilities.

Along with the ability to send print jobs from remote locations and manage credentialing by email and phone, FARGO solutions require less support and when issues do arise, they can be managed from the main office — no more traveling between hubs. Greater visibility means easier inventory monitoring and greater accountability — and an all-around better experience for students.

Wastage and failure rates of 3 cards out of every 30 have declined significantly, resulting in an annual savings of $7,000-$8,000.

“With HID FARGO Connect, things are faster. The printers are punching out 200 cards in a day. It’s a relief, because we do often get a lot of stress when we have students and staff standing in queues for hours just to be told ‘sorry, the printer is broken’ or ‘the systems are loading.’ And there are efficiencies in terms of using our teams’ time more effectively. But the overall wraparound benefit is that the combination of all these things is making the experience better for students,” said Mosely.

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