• A Card Management System is a hub for applications that need to create content on the card
• It ensures data provisioning to these apps by connecting to a user identity repository (e.g. enterprise LDAP server)
• It maintains a database of smart card allowing the organization to manage them with user-friendly workflows

Managing the card content

• Card creation
  • Technical initialization
  • Provisioning (querying the user identity repository)
  • Creation of initial content (creating content on the card, querying applications and importing application-created content on the card)
• Card content update
  • Creation of new additional content
  • Deletion of old content
• Card content renewal
  • Creation of new content to replace content that is going to expire
  • Deletion of old content
• Recovery of escrowed data to a card
• Managing PIN-related actions

• PIN update
  • Enforcing a PIN policy
• PIN unlock
  • Allowing to unlock smart cards without having to manipulate SOPIN codes
  • Managing card loss or theft

• Card revocation
  • Notification to applications that created content on the card
• A Card Management System manages well-defined events in the lifecycle of the card
• The presence of the Card Management System on a workstation is not mandatory to use the cards it manages
  • Only the middleware (and the smart card reader drivers) are mandatory