This article was accepted into the corpus but its outbound wikilinks were never NER-processed — typical at the deepest BFS hop or when the run's entity cap was reached. No expansion funnel to show.
| Credential Solutions | |
|---|---|
| Name | Credential Solutions |
| Type | Private |
| Industry | Identity verification; Credential management |
| Founded | 1990s |
| Headquarters | United States |
| Products | Background screening; Badge printing; Credential issuance |
| Employees | 200–500 |
Credential Solutions
Credential Solutions is a private company specializing in identity credential issuance, access control, and background screening services for institutions and corporations. It operates in sectors that include higher education, healthcare, corporate campuses, and government contractors, providing hardware, software, and managed services for identity lifecycle management. The firm integrates physical badge production with digital verification systems and compliance workflows.
Credential Solutions provides end-to-end credentialing including badge design, card issuance, printing hardware, secure materials, and verification services. Its offerings intersect with established HID Global suppliers, Zebra Technologies hardware ecosystems, Entrust Corporation software suites, and standards from organizations such as ISO and NIST. The company positions itself among integrators working alongside Johnson Controls access control installers, Tyco International resellers, and campus solutions from CBORD and Transact Technologies.
Founded in the 1990s amid expansion of proximity card systems and digital identity projects, the company grew as institutions sought consolidated badge services. Early partnerships aligned it with credential printers from Evolis and encoding modules compatible with MIFARE and HID Prox technologies. In the 2000s it expanded into background checks and identity proofing, drawing on practices used by Thomson Reuters background screening groups and outsourcing models from Allegis Group. Throughout the 2010s it adapted to mobile credential trends popularized by initiatives from Apple and Google and standards developed by the FIDO Alliance.
Credential Solutions' portfolio typically includes physical card printing, secure badge materials, on-site issuance kiosks, managed issuance programs, and applicant screening services. It offers integrations with campus card systems like Cardinal Card implementations and payment platforms similar to Blackboard Transact and CASHNet. For workforce vetting, it provides criminal background checks, employment verifications, and drug screening workflows akin to services from HireRight and Sterling. The company also supplies consumables compatible with printers from Magicard and Zebra and accessory solutions used by facilities managed by Aramark and Compass Group.
Technologies used include smartcard encoding for DESFire and MIFARE Classic, proximity and contactless readers compliant with ISO/IEC 14443 and ISO/IEC 15693, and mobile credential provisioning aligned with Bluetooth Low Energy and NFC standards. It implements identity proofing processes incorporating document verification techniques comparable to products from Onfido and biometric modalities similar to systems from NEC Corporation and Morpho (Safran) (now parts of Idemia). Workflow automation leverages enterprise integrations that mirror Microsoft Azure identity services, Okta-style single sign-on, and Salesforce CRM connectors.
The company adheres to compliance frameworks and audit practices influenced by NIST SP 800-63 guidelines, FIPS standards for cryptography, and data protection regimes like HIPAA when processing healthcare credentials. Security measures include secure element encoding, secure printing techniques derived from banknote and passport production practiced by suppliers such as Giesecke+Devrient, and chain-of-custody procedures modeled after protocols used in Background screening industries. It often undergoes third-party assessments paralleling certifications from SOC 2 auditors and aligns policies with privacy guidance from regulators such as the Federal Trade Commission.
Primary clients include universities, hospitals, corporate campuses, and contractors supporting Department of Defense facilities and GSA-contracted sites. The company competes with badge issuance and credentialing divisions of firms like Allegion and Johnson Controls and works alongside campus service providers such as Aramark and Chartwells. Internationally, it engages partners across supply chains similar to Securitas AB security integrators and collaborates with systems integrators serving customers comparable to Boeing and General Electric.
Critiques of the credentialing industry that implicate providers include concerns over data privacy, retention policies, and accuracy of background checks raised in reports by organizations like ACLU and investigations referencing practices scrutinized in cases involving Gig economy employers and screening vendors. Specific controversies that affect vendors generally revolve around false positives in criminal records, compliance with state "Ban the Box" laws such as initiatives in California and New York, and risks from credential cloning highlighted in research from Defcon and academics at institutions like MIT. Vendors in the sector face regulatory scrutiny and periodic litigation over data breaches reminiscent of incidents affecting Equifax and Experian.
Category:Identity management companies