NACCU New Member Highlight: Universal Smart Cards
NACCU New Member Highlight:
Universal Smart Cards
In this latest installment of our New Member Highlight, we catch up with Graham Gillot from new NACCU member Universal Smart Cards.
Talk about the history of your company.
Universal Smart Cards was founded over 20 years ago and has grown into a leading global provider of smart card solutions. We specialize in manufacturing, printing, and encoding RFID and contact chip cards, with offices in US and UK. We provide universities with high-quality, cost-effective credentials without supply chain delays as we specialize in card production and encoding.
What does your company do?
Universal Smart Cards is a card manufacturer, producing cards entirely in-house—from chip-to-antenna bonding, to making inlays, to printing and encoding. We work directly with universities to deliver competitive pricing, full customization, and control over the final product. In addition, we also manufacture all RFID & NFC form factors including wristbands and fobs, and supply printers, readers, writers, and consumables at wholesale pricing to our customers—everything a card office could need, from one trusted source.
What products and services do you provide specifically to campus card operations?
We offer competitive pricing on all types of university cards, including:
• HID (iClass, SEOS, Crescendo, etc)
• Prox (all types)
• DESFire (custom, Leaf, Allegion, etc)
• Magstripe
• and multi-technology combination cards (Hi Frequency 13.56MHz + Low Frequency 125kHz).
We offer full Key Management including generation of keys for LEAF DESFire credentials, Allegion custom keys, and client specific custom keys, giving schools complete control over their security. In addition, we provide wholesale pricing on printers, readers, writers, consumables, and other essentials—exclusively for our card-purchasing customers—backed by fast, responsive service to help universities manage peak times like enrollment.
Is there a new product or service you want to tell us about?
Universal Smart Cards can generate university-owned custom keys for LEAF, Allegion or DESFire credentials, giving schools full control and preventing vendor lock-in.
We also provide multi-technology credential cards, allowing campuses to integrate multiple systems and transition to new technologies at their own pace, without costly system overhauls. For example, many universities want to use HID iClass, SEOS etc for certain systems but also require their own custom Desfire for other independent systems.
What are you hoping to gain from your NACCU membership?
We joined NACCU to connect with and support campus card professionals, share expertise on secure credentialing, and provide universities with more cost-effective, customizable solutions. Our goal is to help schools plan long-term credentialing strategies, reduce costs, and take full control of their technology.
Learn more about Universal Smart Cards here.