HID SHOWCASES THEIR LATEST INNOVATION AT GITEX GLOBAL 2025

Exclusive Interview with Steve Swenson – Senior Director, Product and Marketing, Secure Issuance, HID FARGO

What are the key innovations HID is showcasing this year at GITEX Global, and how do they reflect the company’s vision for a better, more secure, and connected digital ecosystem?

Okay, sure, great question. So here at the show today, we’re showcasing a line of HID FARGO printers. FARGO is a strong and storied brand for HID in the desktop issuance space. We are specifically showing our full line of retransfer and DTC printers. One printer in particular that we’re showcasing is our new HDP5000e, which is a refresh of a long and storied product for the Fargo brand.

The HDP5000e has a number of important updates to strengthen overall performance, improve output and processing power, and reinforce reliability ensuring the product can stand up to the rigor of our customers’ needs. It also includes usability enhancements to streamline the issuance and card creation process, and strong end-to-end security with AES encryption and resin scramble technology to protect leftover data after cards are created.

We’re also talking about our HID FARGO Connect technology, which is a cloud-based software that allows organizations with complex issuance processes to remotely manage devices, create credentials from one location, and print them at another. This is particularly important for enterprise and healthcare customers with distributed operations.

It’s an exciting time for the HID FARGO business. We’re doing a lot to strengthen the product line and build on our reputation. You mentioned how this connects to HID’s broader vision when we look at issuance processes, they can be quite complex. Customers want high quality visual credentials with secure encoding and durability. Our strategy with the HID FARGO line is to create robust end-to-end solutions that streamline issuance and help organizations operate efficiently.

HID serves a wide range of sectors—from finance to hospitality to transportation. How do you tailor your solutions to meet the unique identity and access management needs of such diverse industries?

Great question. One of the most fundamental things we do as a business is to study and understand the different needs of those sectors. We create a range of solutions—high-end retransfer printers for speed, quality, and resolution, and DTC products for lighter applications. All of our products are modular, allowing customers to configure them according to their specific issuance and organizational requirements.

We complement that with high-quality consumables such as ribbons, overlaminates, and visual security features, as well as software for both desktop and cloud-based issuance. Another key part of our approach is our partner network. HID FARGO doesn’t sell directly to end customers because we understand that every customer has unique needs. Our partners work closely with end users to understand their requirements and collaborate with HID to deliver custom solutions. This combination of modular products, software, and local expertise ensures each customer gets exactly what they need.

In sectors such as hospitality and retail, convenience is key. How is HID leveraging digital identity, mobile access, and cloud-based issuance to create smoother and more secure guest experiences?

Great question. Going back to understanding the end user, we study every aspect of the issuance process. Creating an ID credential can be complex, so we focus on making it simple from setup to configuration. The HID FARGO business invests in strong out-of-box experiences, easy instructions, and partner support to help customers get up and running quickly.

For card design and creation, we provide intuitive software solutions, whether on premise or cloud based. For customers managing large fleets of printers, our cloud solutions allow them to monitor device status, print to multiple locations, and design credentials centrally. We also invest heavily in technical support both directly and through our partners to minimize downtime and quickly resolve any issues.

The Middle East is witnessing diverse growth in digital infrastructure and smart technologies. What is HID’s priority for its 2025 vision and beyond?

It goes back to what we just discussed bringing all these components together to help organizations create secure, durable, and visually robust credentials efficiently. Organizations don’t exist to create credentials, but they all need them to manage access and identity.

Our goal is to take the power of HID’s technology and turn it into simple, easy to understand, and customizable solutions for each user, supported by a strong partner network that provides a complete solution. If we can do that, we’re truly harnessing the full power of HID to meet the most important issuance needs of our customers.