West Nottinghamshire College (West Notts) is a provider of Post 16 education in the Mansfield area of Nottinghamshire. The college is widely recognised as one of the most successful colleges within the country and attracts more than 20,000 students each year.

In their OFSTED inspection in 2008, the college was awarded top marks in each area, leading to them receiving outstanding status, one of only a handful of colleges in the UK and the only one in the East Midlands.

In addition to this, they have achieved Beacon status from the Learning and Skills Improvement Service as well as being awarded Best Company accreditation as a first class employer. This exceptional level of achievement and recognition means that the college's working practices are often pointed out as an example of good practice to other learning establishments.

Payne Security has a longstanding relationship with West Notts, having supplied their ID accessories for several years. Traditionally West Notts used card printers and blank cards supplied by Payne Security, for production on site, using existing staff from reception, guidance and other areas to take time from their normal role to help in the production of cards.

While West Notts' enrolment has always been thoroughly planned and well executed, "Our biggest headache in the enrolment process has always been the production of cards" states Ricky Coxon, Business Systems Manager. "Card production was the area that always went wrong" he adds, which led West Notts to look for a better solution to improve the process.

When West Notts started issuing cards to students, the first approach was to produce cards during the enrolment process, which required ten members of staff to be present to take photos and details for each student, enter them into the card production software and print out the cards. This procedure was extremely slow, requiring multiple printers and a large number of staff to perform it, taking them away from other duties.

Recognising that this was not the most efficient method of producing the cards, West Notts decided to move card production to a back office operation, allowing cards to be produced in batches, rather than individually. Although this meant there was less need for staff involvement and fewer card printers needed, it generally took approximately two weeks to produce all of the cards, with people working eight hours per day. "We had to implement a rota system to stop the staff going mad from looking at a card printer for eight hours a day!" says Ricky. In addition to this, it meant that students did not have their ID cards for the first few days at the college, meaning they could not immediately be identified as students and potentially missed out on student offers as they were unable to prove their status.

Initially West Notts approached Payne Security with the intention of buying faster, higher-specification card printers, in the hope that this would speed up the production process. This would have required capital expenditure of many thousands of pounds, for equipment that would, for the majority of the year, be lying idle. Payne Security looked at the request and realised that what was needed was not a new printer, but a better way of producing cards, which led them to introduce West Notts to their complete card production service.

With Payne Security's card management service, West Notts simply needs to supply the cardholder's photo and personal data online, via a secure server, to Payne Security's card production facility in Banbury. There, the cards are produced using a state of the art industrial digital press, offering exceptional reproduction and card quality at high speeds. Crucially, all graphics and variable data are 'locked in' to the core of the card as part of the manufacturing process, which not only adds extra durability to the finished card but also provides greater security as none of the information can be scratched off the card surface.

Payne Security supplies West Notts with four different ID card designs, depending upon the status of the student. Working with Payne Security's experienced design studio, they were able to produce high quality, eye-catching, secure card designs which look highly professional and contain all relevant information.
Payne Security now produces the majority of new ID cards for West Notts, with a handful of cards still being produced on site for emergency issuance. Taking the burden of card production from West Notts staff has allowed them to get on with their normal jobs, which is particularly important during the enrolment process. Students who are new to the college and are in need of help and advice can be seen immediately by front line staff who would otherwise be busy printing cards.

As part of the card design there is an integrated barcode which can be scanned to verify the card and holders details. West Notts has noticed that the cards produced using Payne Security's card management service work much better and don't have the intermittent scanning problems they experienced previously from the desktop printed cards. The superior quality of the Payne Security printed cards ensures the barcodes scan first time, every time.

For its HE students, West Notts has used Payne Security's mail fulfilment service to send the cards directly to the home address of the student, as they felt that this "looked more professional" and allowed them to send out letters and leaflets at the same time.

To date, West Notts has ordered in excess of four thousand cards from Payne Security and the results have left everybody pleased with the decision to use Payne Security's card management service. "The service from Payne Security is great" says Ricky Coxon. "The system is straightforward and easy to use and we're extremely happy with the results".

Download the West Notts College case study