Photo ID cards, or “photo ID badges,” appear to be ubiquitous. Very often we don’t even give a thought to where they come from. When asked, the best response you might get is “the HR department”. But someone actually took the time to format and print that ID card, and in many cases ensure that it was properly encoded to open doors or log onto secure networks. The person making that card may have spent a half an hour or more, if he/she was using a typical in-house printer. That is typically the case if the badge were produced in-house by a clerk in the HR department.
But if the card had been produced by a web-based on-line service, like that offered by instantcard.net, the operator spent hardly any time at all. Using a highly automated process, the vast majority of the work is done by computerized systems, and the “person” responsible for the card may have only spent a minute or two. As is typical of outsourced services that specialize in making previously manual process more efficient, this approach allows a higher quality product to be produced at a much lower cost.
