Order blank smartcards

To order blank smartcards you will need an account with the Oberthur portal.

Smartcards should be ordered by local Registration Authority managers and/or their nominated Registration Authority agents. Only managers can request smartcards and card readers, but they can nominate a Registration Authority administrator to have an Oberthur smartcard ordering account once they have one themselves.

If you are a Registration Authority manager and you do not have an Oberthur portal account, or you need an account for one of your Registration Authority colleagues, send a request to the Service Management Cell 1 Team with the following details

• name
• email address
• role (RM or RA)
• organisation name
• ODS code
• smartcard UUID

1. Login process

Open the portal and login using your valid user name and password when the following login screen appears.

If you've forgotten your password or need to reset it

You can reset your password by clicking on the reset your password hyperlink. 

Enter your user name and click submit.

You will be sent an email (to the address linked to your smartcard order account) with a link to reset your password. 

Your new password will need to be more than 8 characters long and have at least 3 of the following

• upper case letter
• lower case letter
• number
• special character

Your password and user name should be different.

Your password will have a expire after 30 days and you will need to reset it again. 

If you enter an incorrect password more than 5 times as part of one login your account will be locked and you will need to contact our consumables team to have your password reset. 

If you need to reset your password through the consumables team they will reset your password and send you a confirmation email which will include a temporary password and a link to the Smart Order web link (directly from the portal).

You will then be asked to enter the temporary password you have been sent in the login page and a new password. 

2. Once you have logged in successfully you will see the submission order form.

The registration manager should complete the submission ordering form in fuill. 

Organisations will regularly need to order supplies of smartcards for common business reasons, such as:

• new starters
• replacements for lost or damaged cards
• junior doctor intakes
• the introduction of new series cards

It's vital that smartcard availability is monitored closely, and that cards are not stockpiled.

BAU orders must meet the following criteria, or they will be rejected or put on hold:

• We operate a 2 monthly ordering cycle for BAU orders. Record the approval date of your last order and create a reminder for 2 months’ time to check whether you need to place a new order. If you have used fewer smartcards than forecasted, delay your order.
• We'll check your 2 monthly turnover based upon card usage figures from previous orders and your organisation’s Completed Requests Report.
• Orders placed in line with the 2 monthly cycle will be processed on the same day. You should receive deliveries within approximately 48 hours. This means there is no need to stockpile smartcards.
• We do approve orders one week earlier than scheduled if you need smartcards earlier than expected. We do not require any supporting business justification for a slightly early order.
• If you do need to place an order more than a week earlier than planned, you must indicate this by adding “EARLY ORDER” to the free text box on the order form. Provide as many details as you can about the reason for the early order. You must also send a supporting email to the RA Hardware mailbox ([email protected]) and include a Completed Requests Report. When we receive the report, we'll review the details and update your monthly card usage. If we approve your request we'll provide a new ordering schedule and 2 monthly approved card volume if necessary.
• If you place an early order 1-3 weeks earlier than scheduled, and record it as a BAU order but do not provide any reason for ordering early, the order will be recorded but remain ‘waiting for approval’ on the portal. We will not contact you about this order and we'll approve and dispatch the order on the scheduled approval date.
• If you place an early order over 3 weeks earlier than scheduled, and record it as a BAU order but do not provide any reason for ordering early, the order will be rejected.
• Quantities of smartcards issued are based on an organisation’s usage and not the number of locations, printers, numbers of staff etc. Therefore, if the numbers of locations you have are more than the number of boxes of smartcards approved every 2 months, you need to distribute the smartcards between sites locally.
• Smartcards are issued in boxes of 200.
• We may adjust orders to manage our stock levels, or where we need to increase or decrease the volume requested on the order form. We may also update the delivery address if required.
• The ordering portal does not send automatic notifications of approvals, rejections or amendments to your orders.

Tracking smartcard orders

All orders can be tracked when the ‘Smartcard tracking reference’ is added to the portal by our supplier’s dispatch warehouse, when the package is collected by their courier. You can use the tracking reference with the tracking website. You can also view a proof of delivery (using the delivery postcode) to confirm who has accepted delivery of the cards.

When a large number of smartcards are required outside usual business as usual practices we may charge a nominal fee.  We assess this on a case by case basis and its dependent on stock levels and delivery requirements. If you order is required outside business as usual use the business justification section to provide more information for example if you need a large number of cards for a new electronic patient record system roll out.

Where possible also include the following information

• the exact number of new users (and therefore cards required)
• rollout plans ( how many new users do you intend to set up on a monthly basis until all users have a new card)
• cards required for testing and training