Card, mobile credential, payment and security
TouchNet + Heartland has revealed the availability of its new OneCard VIP offering – a hosted, vertically integrated platform for campus-wide payments and permissions.
A comprehensive, hosted system, OneCard VIP is the company’s cloud-based campus ID software. At a high level, OneCard VIP allows a campus to have TouchNet host the campus’ OneCard system in the TouchNet Secure Datacenter. The company is already in the process of deploying new installations of the system.
“OneCard VIP is leading the way in the transformation of campus ID systems from physical, plastic cards to digital, mobile credentials,” says Ron Farmer, President Global Payments Campus Solutions. “Over 80% of students today use a smartphone - this solution offers innovative technology to these students to enhance their campus experience.”
For campus administrators, the new OneCard VIP system enables real-time integration, transaction automation and centralized operations. The solution manages physical access, meal plans, event ticketing, student attendance tracking, and campus ID validation.
Running in the cloud, OneCard VIP is an enterprise-grade credentialing system that supports a broad range of functionality including student ID credentialing and verification, library access, time and attendance, event check in, declining balance payments with online deposits, real-time alerts and flexible configurations.
OneCard VIP also lays the groundwork for a campus to take its campus cards mobile. “It can provide students with a mobile application that will virtualize their student IDs, allowing them to use their smartphones for purchases, event check in, and to open doors in place of plastic cards,” says Fred Emery, Director of OneCard Sales at TouchNet. “Students can manage their card accounts from their mobile devices and receive additional campus information, while administrative applications enable smartphones and tablets to serve as transaction terminals.”
Campuses can also choose to further build upon the system with optional application suites. For example, the OneCard Dining Solution delivers a full-function dining and meal plan option to campuses. It can individualize dining options by student, including daily, weekly, or open meal plans – for example 14 meals per week, 120 meals per semester, or a per-day dollar allotment – and configurable meal time ranges and locations. This module also includes declining balance payments and POS operations.
Another application suite, OneCard Access Control, enables campuses to restrict access to residence halls, classrooms, labs, and other secure areas to only authorized personnel. It supports a variety of options for door locks and access methods and also includes a Master Security Monitor to serve as a campus’ central dispatch station.
Through an established Partner Ready Program, OneCard VIP can link disparate systems from third-party vendors – be they print management, bookstore, parking, etc. – through one central, secure and PCI-compliant payments and permissions system. OneCard VIP joins TouchNet’s U.Commerce financial technology platform – now licensed to over 800 colleges and universities – to further bolster the company’s unified commerce and credentialing solutions for higher education.
Barcodes will soon be a thing of the past at the University of Notre Dame, where beginning this summer the Irish1Card Office will start issuing new contactless cards. The new, multi-technology credentials will retain the magnetic stripe that Notre Dame has long utilized and will for the first time feature chip technology.
The story for Notre Dame's Irish1Card is the same for many campuses: mag stripe has remained the de facto card technology for decades for it’s reliability and lower price tag. The caveat, however, is that mag stripe lacks the robust security features that more advanced credentials now provide. In fact, the primary aim for the new Irish1Card as it transitions from mag stripe to chip technology is to introduce greater levels of security.
To aid in the transition, the Irish1Card Office has published a dedicated FAQ page to provide students and other campus community members with all the need-to-know information. Per the Irish1Card website the move to contactless is expected to:
Beginning in June, all cards issued by Notre Dame's campus card office will feature both a contactless chip and a magnetic stripe. A common method for campuses that choose to upgrade card technologies, this approach enables the cardholder community to adjust to the new contactless technology in stages as opposed to right away. Campus Dining facilities and select campus residence halls will be among the first campus locations to implement the new contactless features.
Going forward, the new Irish1Cards will retain a magnetic stripe until all campus readers are completely transitioned to contactless technology. The full campus-wide upgrade is estimated to take 3-5 years at which point the mag stripe will be phased out completely.
The new Irish1Card design.
By late summer the Irish1Card Office will begin the re-carding initiative to replace student, faculty, staff, spouse and affiliate cards. The re-carding is set to take place in stages with new and returning students among the first to receive the new contactless cards. Faculty and staff will be able to obtain the new credential beginning in September after the initial student rush has ended.
The re-carding will also give students and faculty the option to update their ID photo. Cameras will be deployed at the issuance locations, and for cardholders whose photo on file is more than 5 years old, a new photo will be required.
There will be no charge to exchange the old ID card for the new Irish1Card, but for those who do not have their current card to exchange, a $20 replacement fee will be assessed.
The updated Irish1Card will also boast a new aesthetic design for which the university was awarded NACCU's Best Card Design Award at the recent Annual Conference in Orlando, Fla. The new Irish1Card design includes the university's academic mark in gold foil, along with a tactile impression of the university seal.
Of the many considerations facing card offices today, one of the constants is the move to a more advanced card technology and whether it's the right decision for your campus.
The key to navigating the contactless conundrum is to seek out information and ask the right questions. In a new, live webinar with Blackboard Transact the University of North Carolina at Charlotte will discuss their move to a contactless credential and how it's changed the way the campus has approached the "one card" concept.
The webinar -- scheduled for Tuesday, April 25, 2017 at 1:00 PM Eastern -- will discuss the benefits UNC-Charlotte has experienced since migrating to contactless card technology and how the campus now uses the contactless card across all campus functions including parking, dining and transit.
Representing UNC-Charlotte on the webinar will be Gabe Gerber and Anthony Smucler, who will discuss how the 49er ID card has been transformed into a valid transit pass for local buses and light rail. The pair will also detail the campus' proactive and unique approach to UNC-Charlotte's campus wide re-carding, and how the university uses NFC technology at parking structures as a failsafe for the campus' new license plate recognition system.
The webinar will also feature a live question and answer session directly following the presentation. Key webinar takeaways include:
If your campus is considering the move to a contactless credential, or if you simply want more information regarding contactless card technology, the UNC-Charlotte Goes Contactless webinar will be a great resource.
The University of Georgia Auxiliary Services is set to implement a new system starting next semester that will effectively kill the use of Bulldog Bucks for purchases made at off-campus merchants.
According to UGA Auxiliary Services, all local merchants currently participating in the off-campus program will no longer accept Bulldog Bucks effective May 31. The move will see the Bulldog Bucks program revert to an exclusively on-campus program.
Bulldog Bucks is UGA's debit-like card account that enables student ID cardholders to deposit funds and make purchases via the campus card. The program began in 2004 at a time when standard debit card use wasn't as pervasive. Now, however, the program is being classed as surplus to requirements by campus administrators.
According to an official university release, "the cost for providing off-campus services has continued to rise, creating a deficit for every dollar used in those locations." Moreover, use of Bulldog Bucks has declined alongside the proliferation of bank-issued debit and credit cards among students.
The primary change to Bulldog Bucks will be the removal of off-campus use. Students can, however, continue to use Bulldog Bucks as a payment method at participating on-campus locations for dining, vending and purchases at the UGA bookstore. UGACard holders will also retain the ability to deposit money onto their Bulldog Bucks account and monitor activity via the Bulldog Bucks website and through kiosks located on campus.
As reported by student publication The Red & Black, UGA spends an estimated $200,000 per year for the system that runs Bulldog Bucks. The university also pays a percentage fee in order for off-campus merchants to accept the UGACard as a form of payment.
Per the Red & Black report, the university receives 97 cents on the dollar for purchases made via Bulldog Bucks. At that rate, Auxiliary Services estimates that it loses as much as $300,000 each year under the current system.
“We’ve already talked with our off-campus merchants, and because of the program and the way it is, it’s not self-sustaining,” said Robert Holden, associate vice president of Auxiliary Services, in a Red & Black interview. “When we’re working with off-campus merchants, it’s actually costing the university money to provide that. We’re making it so it’ll be financially sustainable.”
Another reason for moving away from the off-campus program portion of Bulldog Bucks is that it's put pressure on UGA Auxiliary Services to remain compliant with key policies laid out by the University System of Georgia's Board of Regents. In particular, auxiliary budgets must operate on a self-supported basis and according to university officials the Bulldog Bucks system -- which falls under UGA Auxiliary Services -- does not comply with this policy.
The original model for the Bulldog Bucks system had the university charging merchants 15% to accept the UGACard as a form of payment, but in reality UGA has charged merchants around three to five percent, Holden said.
“The off-campus merchant program, whereas it may have been at one point a really great idea, the way that it ended up working out, the costs are too great,” Holden added. “We can’t cover the costs because we already start out in a deficit situation.”
According to the university, Bulldog Bucks will continue to be used exclusively on campus alongside program restructuring to limit future losses.
At the annual National Association of Campus Card Users (NACCU) conference, Bill Norwood was presented with the inaugural award for Lifetime Achievement in the Campus Card Industry.
He spent the first half of his career with Florida State University leading the campus' information technology and computing departments. Norwood launched the pioneering FSUCard program helping to create the framework for the campus card industry and the card model that institutions nationwide would later adopt.
For three decades he assisted many, if not most, of the card programs across the country through his work with the FSUCard, the university's Card Application Technology Center, CyberMark and later Heartland Payment Systems.
Norwood is responsible for a number of firsts in the campus card industry – from ISO numbers and color images on cards, to bank partnerships and financial aid delivery to student IDs. He was one of the five original founders of NACCU, and he enjoyed a long career that spanned both the university and vendor sides of the industry before retiring in early 2017.
For his many contributions, incredible spirit and personal friendship, the CR80News team is extremely proud to honor Norwood with this inaugural award. Hereafter, the award will be presented and named in his honor as The Bill Norwood Lifetime Achievement Award.
Check out the video from the award presentation for more highlights of Bill Norwood’s career.
Card offices are navigating a challenging era on campus. Cultural changes brought on, at least in part, by technology are creating a dichotomy of sorts when it comes to campus card services.
We seem to be going in two opposing directions simultaneously. As explored in this issue, there are card-supported services that may no longer need the plastic credential or may be primed to leapfrog it altogether. But at the same time, new and novel student services continue to emerge, opening new doors for the student ID.
This dichotomy leaves some fearing that we’re racing against obsolescence, while others see opportunity in expanding future roles.
In the cover story, we delve into campus laundry, how it’s priced, and crucially, how institutions are executing laundry transactions. Now commonplace, campus laundry operations are moving into the realm of mobile apps and web portals, morphing the age-old chore into something akin to a concierge service.
Some institutions are abandoning card-based laundry while others are leveraging Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capabilities via the mobile device to circumvent the use of a traditional card.
Other services, however, are creating new inroads for the campus card as evidenced by our feature on reusable take-out containers. With institutions now throwing their support behind “green” initiatives to reduce waste and carbon footprints, solutions like those profiled at the University of California, Merced and Virginia Tech are prime candidates for campus card integration.
Enabling students to use their campus card for utilities that directly address hot-button issues – like supporting the environment – only further establishes the ID card as an integral tool for the modern student. Beyond the feel-good factor, cards are helping institutions to achieve real cost savings and improving the student experience.
Let’s be clear, there’s nothing wrong with new technologies and ways of doing things. But being on the “bleeding edge” doesn’t have to mean integrating the latest technologies. It could be as simple as progressively implementing new functions to the existing campus card.
As the campus continues to evolve it will be key for card offices to identify new opportunities for the campus card but also be willing to let go of services that no longer make sense.
To best serve our institutions in the future we will need balance, strategically choosing the campus card in some instances and boldly exploring alternatives in others.
Santander Bank has partnered with universities in Poland as part of the bank's Santander Universities branch to issue as many as 100,000 student smart cards, combining academic and payment functions on campus.
The issued smart cards are part of the Santander Universities program with which Poland's Bank Zachodni WBK wants to promote the idea of entrepreneurship among students and increase their mobility. The bank is working with five campuses in the country as part of the initiative.
The new smart card serves not only as students' identification while on campus, but also enables them to access free parking, reserve books and other materials from the campus library, and reserve time slots for exams. The cards are also being combined with a discount program that, among other offers, is tied in with Apple stores and Spotify.
Since 2013, Santander Universities has regularly organized meetings of the International University Smart Card Congress. The Congress serves as a platform for the exchange of knowledge and cooperation between universities and the private sector. This past March saw, for the first time, a Congress event organized and hosted in Poland at the Warsaw School of Economics.
Santander Universities, meanwhile, is focused on implementing innovative technologies to support learning and better prepare students for the requirements of the world market. It is believed that Polish universities can benefit from Bank Zachodni WBK's expertise and offer more services to students, faculty and staff based on the bank's technologies.
The new smart card initiative in Poland is a part of the global project implemented by Group Santander, the main shareholder of Bank Zachodni WBK within Santander Universities.
Hidden below Northeastern University in Boston is a network of tunnels that serve as a passageway for students traversing between key buildings on campus. Unlike the famous tunnels in other cities, these don’t hold catacombs and no Phantom lurks within. Instead Northeastern’s tunnels house one of the world's leading deployments of advanced contactless lockers.
On winter days or rainy evenings, the 16,000 square-foot underground network is particularly appreciated by students. It links 11 major locations above ground, including academic buildings, residence halls, gyms and libraries.
As a part of a facelift that included new energy efficient lighting and colorful directional signage to facilitate travel, the popular – and sometimes hard to obtain – student lockers were upgraded and expanded.
The networked contactless lockers from Gantner Technologies are used around the world at athletic clubs and spas, ski resorts, corporate centers and universities. And in the summer of 2016, Gantner added another university to its user base with the installation of more than 1,200 new lockers at Northeastern.
All 1,286 of the tunnel’s lockers are larger than their predecessors – now 3 foot by 2 foot. Each locker is marked with a letter and number code, identifying its location within the tunnel system.
Students rent the lockers through the university’s myNEU portal and use their student ID – the Husky Card – as the contactless key for locking and unlocking. The lockers are rented on a per-semester basis, and thanks to the Gantner locker management software no staff interaction is required to sign up for or operate a locker.
At the myNEU student portal, all available lockers can be viewed. The student selects the locker of their choice, and the locker is linked to the unique ID number of the individual’s Husky Card. For the remainder of the semester, only that contactless card can provide access to the locker.
The Gantner locking system guarantees the safety of belongings by delivering networked alarms to maintenance and security staff if vandalism is detected. The software also provides locker usage reports, remote locker control and occupancy monitoring.
The latest stop on the CR80News Card Office Tour series takes us to Lynchburg, Virginia and the campus of Liberty University.
Boasting one of the largest student populations in the country at 110,000 -- many of whom are distance learners -- the office at Liberty has quite the issuance job on its hands. In the video walk through the Liberty University ID & Campus Services' office layout, hear about the systems and hardware in place, and see how students on campus are using their Flames Pass.
Liberty joins a growing roster of campuses to participate in the Card Office Tour series, and CR80News would love for your campus to be the next tour destination! To participate simply send in a video showing your campus card office and its layout, your office’s location on campus, and a short discussion about some of the strengths and challenges your operation faces.
Video submissions don’t have to be high-budget productions, either! Simply take out your smartphone and film (in landscape) a short — no longer than five minutes — informal walkthrough of your office.
In addition to fun facts and information, some other things to discuss could include:
Regardless of your videography skills, your submission will be a great addition to the series and can provide CR80News readers with a rare opportunity to view other card offices and hear from their campus peers. To submit a video entry or for additional information regarding participation, simply send an email to [email protected].
Today at the National Association of Campus Card Users meeting, CBORD and HID Global announced a new secure issuance service called HID Fargo Connect.
In essence it is a SaaS or outsourced alternative to traditional ID card production. Pulling student data from CBORD’s Odyssey PCS or CS Gold system, the solution prints over the web to Fargo printers located on campus and/or at HID’s service bureau.
According to Lance Johnson, Segment Marketing Manager, HID Global, this does a few key things to ease financial and labor strains on campus card programs. It eliminates the need for a PC to control the printers as this control is handled instead over the web. It also eliminates the need for card issuance software as both card design and production is managed via a SaaS solution.
Multiple printers can also be controlled and managed in a print farm style for large volume on site issuance. As well, large batches can be sent to the HID service bureau and cards will be mailed back to campus when complete.
Much of the control of required components from both the CBORD and HID Fargo sides is handled via mobile and tablets, enabling flexibility in photo capture, card printing and management.
According to Johnson, the solution will be available as via a monthly service fee, encompassing all card stock and consumables, printer replacements, maintenance and even service bureau printing. He says the fees will be very comparable to those spent for traditional issuance environments.
There is one test site now running at MIT, but CBORD and HID are currently looking for additional test sites to rollout this year. Campuses must be CBORD users in the US to apply.
CR80News will cover the project in more detail as information becomes available. Learn more at Hidglobal.com/fargo-connect
