When it Comes to Tracking Continuing Education, It's All in the (Smart)Cards for Maine

When the Maine Real Estate Information System Inc. (MREIS) chose to upgrade their mechanical lockboxes to electronic technology earlier this year, this forward-thinking board not only chose SentriLock for its Lockbox solution, but also for the companys patented use of smart card technology.

MREIS was confident SentriLock's SentriCard® technology would not only serve as its members' electronic lockbox "key," but it had another innovative use in mind.

In fact, beginning in January, 2008, the Maine Association of REALTORS®, the parent corporation of MREIS, will be the nation's first Association or Board in the country to track continuing education electronically using the SentriCard® smart card technology.

"We knew the SentriLock system was the best available in the marketplace," said Ken Duke, CEO of MREIS. "But we also needed a mechanism in place that could track the continuing education credits for the members and we were very confident once we saw SentriLock's SentriCard® system that we'd be able also use the card to track information on which courses our members had taken," said Duke.

"A lot of members have a problem with tracking their continuing education requirement and we just happened to be the first to figure out a way to use smart card technology to solve this problem," said Duke, who has served more than 30 years in the real estate industry, the last 11 as an MLS executive.

"We knew the Supra system didn't have the capability or mechanism for reading data, so the SentriCard® was an easy choice for not only opening lockboxes, but it adapted to our database and will serve as a great solution to tracking continuing education."

How simple is the MREIS solution for the association's 5,800 members?

"Our intention was that our members would already be carrying a key card for the lockbox access. With the SentriCard® they will have one identification card and prior to entering a class, they'll simply insert the card into a reader and automatically be signed into their course and everything will be electronically tracked."

The SentriCard® is an ISO 7816 compliant smart card. Unlike their credit card counterparts, smart cards utilize an embedded chip that contains the security data for the lockbox system. This chip is immune to magnetic fields and employs tamper detection logic and circuitry. These high-security devices use 128 bit encryption technology, ensuring the cards cannot be copied or altered by unauthorized means.