This followed a recent Trade Mission to Moscow, for which Universal Smart Cards was one of a handful UK companies selected to attend the trip through their membership of the International Trade Club with East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce. The trip was co-organised by easyJet to coincide with their inaugural flight from Gatwick to Moscow, making easyJet the second UK airline to fly to Russia’s capital. Building on this, easyJet has now launched a direct flight from Manchester to Moscow, enabling North West businesses convenient access to one of the world’s key emerging markets.

Universal Smart Cards is keen to work with the Winter 2014 Games in Sochi on their ticketing and access control systems thanks to their experience of supplying technology to the London Olympics.  Paul May, Business Manager at USC said “During the trade mission I learned about the support available to help British businesses and have had subsequent meetings with North West UK Trade and Investment. We identified three viable target market areas for our products and have commissioned some further market research to help develop the opportunities. I've even enrolled on an evening class in Russian to help break the ice in future business meetings. So the easyJet Manchester flight will prove really useful and much easier than travelling to Moscow via London.”

Pictured: (Back Row, Centre) Paul May, Business Manager, Universal Smart Cards Limited & Ruth Spratt, Head of Sales UK, easyJet

New laws could be introduced later this year to crack down on companies who supply printing equipment to identity fraudsters.  The UK suffer £2.7 billion costs each year to indentity crime. Lord Taylor of Holbeach, Minister for Criminal Information said “Identity crime affects us all. Whether it is a cloned credit card or fraudulant passport, organised gangs use specialist equipment to extort money and identities from millions of innocent people each year.”

The proposed new laws aim to erradiate misuse of printing equipment which is being sold to fraudsters for producing counterfeits of credit cards and government issued documents including passports and driving licences.

Universal Smart Cards are long standing members of the industry-wide voluntary code of conduct developed by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and industry representatives as part of Project Genesius. Universal support the Metropolitan Police’s initiative to prevent the sales of equipment for illegal purposes.

Deyrick Allen, Sales & Marketing Manager said “There are a high number of unscrupulous individuals who try to buy equipment to forge credit cards and identity documents. We get two to three requests a week from across the globe for equipment but they are clearly not legitimate. New laws would enable the police and prosecutors to stop criminals making a quick buck out of forged documents.”

For further information please see this short film produced by the Home Office. For Video click here

Pictured (left to right): Lord Taylor of Holbeach, Minister for Criminal Information, Deyrick Allen, Universal Smart Cards Limited & Gary McManus, Project Genesius, Metropolitan Police

Universal Smart Cards will be looking for potential partners, resellers and agents who require smart card solutions for their customers. ID, ticketing and payment applications are high on the agenda, particularly with the upcoming 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Currently, Russia ranks as the UK’s 24^th largest export market. In 2011 UK exports to Russia increased by 30% totalling £2.67 billion. Furthermore, over the last 12 years, UK-Russia trade has been growing at an average of 18.5% year on year, with an annual rate of 9.5% forecasted in the next 10 years.

Paul May, Business Development Manager says “This trade mission will enable Universal Smart Cards to gain a superb insight into the Russian business environment. We are extremely keen to formulate a market entry strategy and grow our overseas business.”

Universal Smart Cards is a market leader in the implementation of smart cards and associated technology including NFC. As a result, Paul is very keen to test the NFC technology on his smartphone on the Moscow underground.

Pictured: Paul May, Business Manager, Universal Smart Cards Limited

We are pleased to share what our clients think of us:

• 91% of our clients say our Account Manager’s product knowledge is either excellent or good
• 83% of our clients say the lead times we quote are either excellent or good
• 82% of our clients rate our pricing as either excellent or good

In addition, our clients said:

“Always friendly and helpful and the products are of a great quality with speedy deliveries”

“The pricing is unbeatable and the product is exceptional”

“Friendly staff and good customer service”

“Engendering customer loyalty”

“Helpful knowledgeable contacts”

Introducing the Zebra ZXP Series 3 card printer. This compact printer weighing only 5.53kg is ideal for almost any enviroment.

In addition, it’s easy-to-use features including LCD display for operating prompts, makes it easy to install and little training time is required.

The Zebra ZXP Series 3 prints cards both single and double sided, in monochrome and colour, and is available with a variety of connectivety options for easy integration with existing network systems. An excellent card printer for ID cards, event badges and membership cards.

The Zebra ZXP Series 8 is the latest card printer for larger scale deployment of printed cards. Ideal for Government-issued driver’s licences, national ID and voter registration cards, through to printed gift, loyalty and membership cards. This high performance card printer benefits from leading-edge software technology for organisations with demanding application integration and management requirements.

What's more, the Zebra ZXP Series 8 differs from traditional direct-to-card printers by operating a dual-sided image transfer process which applies film to both sides of the card in a single pass, drastically reducing print times.

In additon, this superb retransfer printer has the ability to print on non-PVC cards and cards with uneven surfaces. This innovative Zebra card printer achieves print speeds that far exceed any other retransfer printer on the market.

For product brochures or our range of Zebra card printer models and Zebra consumables please click here

Universal presented their products and services to a local audience, enlightening them on the smart card industry and how smart cards are used and adopted worldwide. The event was a success thanks to the local community and companies involved.

Plans are already being prepared for next year’s event.

Pictured (left to right): Paul May, Deyrick Allen, Amanda Hatton, Vicky Nuttall, Alasdair Nutt
Universal Smart Cards Limited, Northern Regional Office

This innovative printer has been awarded Energy Star certification and complies with the reduced energy consumption guidelines from the ErP European Directive.

What’s more, this sharp, edge to edge card printer has been designed for ease of use for the operator. It benefits from printing single-sided cards in both monochrome and colour, with the added flexibility to encode technology cards.

For further information regarding the Evolis Zenius please click here to find the product brochure and our range of models and encoding options.

Warehouse Assistant, Paul Nolan and Bureau Assistant, Iva Hanacova will both be actively involved with quality checking, ensuring Universal continue to supply the best quality products to clients.

The older version of the Mifare Desfire card, dating back from 2002 which was only available as a 4k byte card, has been updated. The new Mifare DesFire Ev1 versions reflect a number of enhancements. Some of our clients may already be aware of these, as the new EV1 products have been available from us for a few years now. With three memory sizes, each product offers great flexibility to meet different contactless application needs.

To view our range of Mifare Desfire cards please click here, alternatively please contact us for assistance.

Paul joins Universal following a successful career in commercial roles, specialising in high value technology solutions for public sector, private sector, national and local government organisations.  Paul is married to Sarah and they have 2 children. A keen sports fan, Paul has one smart card that he is very happy to carry in his wallet, his football seasoncard.

Universal also welcomes new Sales Support Administrator, Vicky Nuttall. 

Vicky's role will involve supporting clients, suppliers and account managers. Vicky is keen to develop professionally and is currently undertaking two A-levels and an NVQ in Customer Service in her spare time.

Deyrick Allen, Sales Manager said "We are delighted to welcome Paul and Vicky to the northern Sales & Marketing office. Universal Smart Cards continue to offer clients an increasing range of products and solutions.  Paul and Vicky will support clients ensuring they remain first priority and receive a first class service."

Universal Smart Cards has been in business for 10 years this month and the last two quarters have been record breaking both in terms of turnover and the number of smart cards they have produced. Universal produces smart cards from their manufacturing unit and sends them to clients as close as St Albans and as far away as New Zealand!

Its Head Quarters at Devonshire Business Park in Borehamwood is managed by Directors Chris Allen and Michael Smith. "When Universal started it was literally run from a back bedroom! We now have a 10,500 square foot manufacturing unit, purpose built HQ and a Northern Sales division in Lancashire. The business really is booming and we've recently recruited a marketing assistant and a new senior sales person" said Chris.

Like all modern businesses technology plays a massive part in the running of Universal and upcoming investments include an all new ecommerce website, integration of SAGE 200 across the business and new communications hardware.

Universal, now operating from Unit 9 Devonshire Business Park, Borehamwood benefit from improved onsite distribution facilities, enabling them to hold more stock and continue to offer clients quick turnaround times on a diverse range of products.

Universal welcome Faye Raworth appointed as Sales Administrator. Faye comes to Universal with a superb background in administration and will be offering support to clients, suppliers and account managers.

Office Manager, Sophie Reeves said "We are extremely pleased to have Faye on board, her additional support is essential as we continue to deliver a professional service to our clients and management team"

Universal Smart Cards phase one expansion was the opening of the Northern office last year in Rossendale, Lancashire, and the appointment of Alasdair Nutt, Sales Consultant working alongside the established Deyrick Allen, Sales Manager.

Phase two has seen the recruitment of Marketing Assistant Amanda Hatton who will be working in conjunction with Marketing Consultant Morgan Rothwell.

Amanda has come to Universal Smart Cards with a background of marketing in the commercial property industry. Amanda graduated in 2007 with BA (Hons) in Business Management and will be based at the Northern office.

Morgan Rothwell, Marketing Director at D&M Creative Ltd is a CIM marketing professional who holds an MSc in Marketing with over 10 years experience in practical marketing.

"We are extremely pleased to have Amanda and Morgan on board to drive the marketing strategy for the company" said Deyrick Allen, Sales Manager

Amanda can be contacted on 01706 260342 or by email amandahatton@usmartcards.com

Universal Smart Cards is opening a Northern office and has appointed Alasdair Nutt as Sales Consultant working alongside the established Deyrick Allen, Sales Manager.

The new Northern office is located in the Rossendale area of Lancashire from where Deyrick and Alasdair will service the needs of the company's Northern-based clients. 

Alasdair has come to USC with a solid background of sales within the travel and leisure industry enabling him to use his experience within this growing smart card sector. 

Deyrick, who is in his second spell with Universal Smart Cards, returned to the company last year to strengthen its business interests in the North where he has resided for the last 10 years. 

USC's phase one expansion is the opening of the Northern office and appointment of Alasdair.  Phase two will see the recruitment of a marketing executive for the group in the near future. 

The Northern office will hold a contingency stock of main smart card types and act as a satellite office to back-up the head office which is in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. 

"This demonstrates our continued growth and commitment to continually supporting all our customers," said Director Michael Smith commenting on the latest expansion and future plans. 

The Northern office can be contacted on 01706 260342 and by emailing deyrickallen@usmartcards.com or alasdairnutt@usmartcards.com

MIFARE Plus has also proven successful in independent security reviews conducted by leading cryptography experts from the Ruhr-Universitat in Germany and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium which executed a thorough security and privacy assessment of the architecture of MIFARE Plus. 

On hearing that MIFARE Plus has achieved the highest possible level of trust and privacy for secure transactions in contactless smart card applications, Universal Smart Cards declared it was ‘extremely pleased'. 

USC acknowledges that the security features of MIFARE Plus have been independently validated by three different institutions following extensive testing.  

MIFARE Plus technology features 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and supports migration from existing MIFARE Classic implementations. 

The contactless microcontroller IC offers an upgrade path for system integrators and operators wishing to implement additional layers of security to their automatic fare collection, access management and micro-payment installations. 

USC say the independent third party validation of MIFARE Plus offers customers a high degree of certainty that the technology is providing advanced security.  The Common Criteria certification validates correct implementation of the promised security features, evaluates attack resistance and allows systems integrators to assess the security quality of similar products. 

A security expert at the Federal Office for Information Security in Germany said that for newly built contactless smart card installations they ‘strongly recommend' Common Criteria certified products, preferably those based on AES encryption.

A spokesman for Ruhr-Universitat said that despite extensive and careful analysis they had not identified any security weakness with practical relevance. 

He said Ruhr-Universitat considered the MIFARE Plus architecture to be secure if all security mechanisms were activated as recommended in the MIFARE Plus documentation. 

And a spokesman for Katholieke Universiteit Leuven said they believed that the MIFARE Plus architecture was a solid design based on a detailed analysis of the security, privacy and feasibility requirements. 

He said the solutions proposed took into account the severe constraints offered by the contactless environment.  In spite of those constraints, the MIFARE Plus architecture allowed applications to be deployed in areas such as access control and transportation and offered a level of security and privacy that was state of the art. 

USC add that MIFARE Plus chips comprise a number of additional privacy features which, when used optimally in the infrastructure, provide a system that prevents individuals from being identified and tracked by others. 

Migration planning is made easier as MIFARE Plus supports the pre-issuance of new cards, co-existence of current and new cards, and software-based infrastructure upgrades. 

Universal Smart Card directors Michael Smith and Chris Allen say they are ‘delighted' with the results of their eighth year in business. 

"When considering we are experiencing the longest and deepest recession in history our performance during that period has been phenomenal," said Michael. 

He said the success had been achieved largely through winning significant new smart card contracts in the UK as well as on a more global basis. 

Said fellow director Chris:  "One of our strengths is our ability to retain existing clients whilst at the same time adding significant new contracts. We work closely with clients on a daily basis and in our last financial year took the key decision to hold much higher levels of stock which has turned out to be a wise move. 

"We have also been able to reduce our lead times when pre-printing cards using the offset and silkscreen method which gives the best possible print quality without clients having to wait too long for their order." 

Universal Smart Cards, who are based at Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, is forecasting continued growth in their financial year as the UK comes out of recession. 

For further information contact Universal Smart Cards on 0845 230 0078 or email sales@usmartcards.com

Deyrick, 39, has returned to Universal Smart Cards which he first joined in 2003.  He is responsible for sales of smart cards and solutions into UK-based accounts.

He has returned after a year's sabbatical working as a primary school teacher and brings first-hand knowledge of the educational market which is one of Universal Smart Cards' key segments. 

Deyrick, who has an MSC in Information Technology for Manufacturing and a BA (Hons) Business Studies 2:1, spent nine years in corporate sales with Hewlett-Packard and gained IT security experience with the Diagonal Security division of the Morse Group. 

He is now operating for Universal Smart Cards out of Rossendale, Lancashire, where he lives with his wife and four children. 

Of his return to Universal Smart Cards, Michael Smith, who is a director, said:  "In his previous roles Deyrick gained an excellent grounding in the smart card solutions environment. 

"He presented the business case for our new website and branding and project managed its installation and delivery.  He also assists the directors at a strategic level enabling the delivery of sales strategies and advice on business matters and recruitment."

Deyrick can be contacted on 01706 260342 and email deyrickallen@usmartcards.com

The head office of Universal Smarts Cards is in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, where they can be contacted on 0845 230 0078.

The biometric technology using the smart card is the latest development of 4c Security Solutions, formerly BQT, in close relationship with Universal Smart Cards. 

The biometric system allows a fingerprint stored on the smart card to match the live scan of the person using the biometric reader at the point of access to a building. 

BQT write a biometric template on the card which permits access if the template and fingerprint match.  BQT also supply an alternative facial recognition. 

By using the biometric and card as one, which in the case of BQT and Universal Smart Cards is a Mifare Desfire card, checks can be carried out locally and more quickly than the alternative of a biometric check on the server.

Said Peter Gaymor, Managing Director of BQT:  "Applications have extended from Mifare Classic to Mifare Desfire cards due to the incredible excitement offered by triple Des encryption using the Desfire card.

"This has opened up high profile sites including military applications throughout the Middle East.  The use of the technology to provide access solutions in other high rise buildings, such as offices and shopping malls, has also helped to extend BQT and Universal Smart Cards into a growing number of major global markets."

Universal Smart Cards has been supplying BQT for the last eight years and during that time the access solutions company, based in Twickenham, has gone from strength to strength, more latterly with Mifare RFID cards.

"Both Universal Smart Cards and ourselves have grown alongside each other in a relatively short space of time," said Peter Gaymor.  "We enjoy a special - and successful - commercial relationship with Universal Smart Cards who know our business inside out and support our requirements on a global scale. 

"We work closely together to supply the market with the best possible security products and eight years on both Universal Smart Cards and BQT are bucking the current recessionary trend and actually moving forward in major global markets.  The Mifare Desfire card is a great product for us."

BQT, with overseas offices in Dubai, Australia and USA, has established itself as a leading supplier of access security solutions for the control market.  Most of the solutions systems are based on contactless Mifare technology smart cards.

For BQT, Universal Smart Cards has a large stockholding of smart cards which they can ship next day.  The card types range from Mifare 1k, Mifare 4k, the new Mifare Plus range and now the very latest Mifare Desfire EV1 range - believed to be the most advanced contactless smart card in the world today.

"Quality manufacture of the cards and shipping on time are two points that are taken very seriously at BQT - a great amount of time and effort has been put in place by Universal and ourselves to support these issues.

"This is what we value and regard as the best possible customer service," said Peter Gaymor, adding:  "Delivery and card quality have to be consistent at all times."

He went on:  "Universal Smart Cards has helped us through the technology curve whenever we have migrated to newer products in the market.  This involves so much technical support and assistance as well as sourcing samples and keeping us up to speed with developments from NXP.

"When they are under pressure to focus on shipping, we have found that Universal Smart Cards make it so much easier in taking this particular problem away from us.

"Stocks are always readily available and I don't have to worry about keeping high levels of stock which is a cash flow drain.  Universal Smart Cards is a one-stop shop for stock.

"They care about our business which is why we have stuck with them through thick and thin - and particularly through a gruelling recession which isn't over yet.  They keep us in regular contact with what is happening in the smart card marketplace and on our behalf they frequently ship direct to our Sydney office in Australia.

"The Mifare RFID cards which Universal Smart Cards supply have evolved to the extent that for certain customers they are able to be embedded into a smart card with the gold contact chip into the Mifare contactless card.

"This therefore enables two technologies, both contact and contactless, to work in tandem on one card, providing multi-application cards for our prime markets which are cashless vending, ID, pc log-on and car parking photo copying," he added.

For further information on the range of smart cards available contact Universal Smartcards on 08452 300 078 or through the web at www.usmartcards.com