The core of all Certificate Lifecycle Manager (CLM) management activities. The profile template provides a single administrative unit that includes all information necessary to manage the multiple certificates that might be required by a user community throughout the certificate’s lifecycle. A profile template also includes information regarding the final location of those certificates, which can be software-based (that is, stored on the local computer) or hardware-based (stored on a smart card). A profile template cannot include both software-based and smart card-based certificates.