WASHINGTON, Jun 11, 2004 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/–XTec Incorporated announced today that it has teamed with Prime Contractor BearingPoint, Inc. and Oberthur Card Systems (OCS) to serve as the central production center for the General Services Administration’s centralized Smart Card Personalization and Issuance Program for a common, nationwide identification token.

GSA is the centralized federal procurement, property management and policy agency employing 11,000 associates. It acquires, on behalf of federal agencies, office space, equipment, telecommunications, information technology, supplies, and services for over one million workers in over 8,000 government- owned and leased buildings in 2,000 communities. GSA’s Public Buildings Service (PBS) serves as the federal landlord responsible for the design, construction, management, maintenance, operation, alteration, renovation, preservation, repair, improvement and control of federally owned and leased buildings. PBS has also been assigned the responsibility to establish and implement the use of a nationwide common GSA Identification Card for use by all GSA associates, contractors and tenants, in GSA-owned and leased facilities, as part of the Federal Government Smart Card initiative.

XTec’s current contract is for the initial issuance and personalization of 18,000 Smart Cards for GSA associates and contractors nationwide.

XTec, a leader in secure, interoperable authentication and verification systems, provided the AuthentX™ Credential Management System™, Visitor Control, Verification and Authentication stations, and Datakey 330G Smart Cards. Oberthur Card Systems, one of the worldwide leaders in the card industry, and the world’s #1 card provider for Visa(R) and MasterCard(R), will provide the personalization and card encoding functions.

The AuthentX™ Credential Management System is leading the market in credential management and authentication systems. This state-of-the-art enterprise system has the ability to issue and manage smart cards in a distributed or centralized card production capacity. AuthentX™ products were chosen for their ability to manage large-scale programs, and for its cost-effectiveness. The AuthentX System is also being deployed for the Maritime Administration’s MAC program, the State Department Smart Card program, and the Navy’s ENABLER project.

In addition to providing the card personalization and encoding, Oberthur also added several security features to the cards, including micro and UV printing, among others. The cards are being personalized at Oberthur’s Chantilly, Virginia facilities, though the company can instantly shift production to other sites as needed.

“We are excited to support GSA, one of the first agencies to benefit from the cost savings and added security provided by the Centralized Issuance model,” said Kevin Kozlowski, Vice President, Government Initiatives at XTec. “Once again, GSA is leading by example by being the first Agency to issue smart cards compliant with the GSC-IS and the PAIIWG High Security Profile.”

The new identification cards provided by Datakey, Inc. will also be interoperable with smart cards issued by other federal agencies, such as the State Department and the Transportation Security Agency, in addition to being the secure identification token used for physical access control to GSA facilities across the country.