Card, mobile credential, payment and security
Robot delivery is a hot topic in campus dining of late, with companies like Starship Technologies rolling out large deployments on campuses across the country. These solutions are still young, and the proof of concepts continue to roll in, but the early signs indicate that there's a seat at the table for these delivery robots.
Now, a startup company founded by two robotics experts at the University of Michigan is attempting to break into the recently expanding arena of robot delivery with a new delivery robot concept. According to a report from Restaurant Hospitality, the small roster of restaurants already participating in a trial with tech startup, Refraction, say it's more cost-efficient and reliable than third-party delivery operators.
Refraction has launched its autonomous delivery robot, the REV-1, and wis delivering food orders from four independent restaurants within in a 2.5-mile radius of Ann Arbor, home of the University of Michigan.
The start up is just six months old, and is backed by eLab Ventures and Trucks Venture Capital. The resulting delivery robot is a lightweight vehicle intended for restaurants in need of a reliable and cost-effective last-mile delivery solution. Standing nearly four feet tall and weighing 80 pounds, the REV-1 employs a three-wheel construction and can travel up to 15 mph on roads or bike lanes and is designed to make curbside deliveries.
Four Ann Arbor restaurants are involved in the trial run of the REV-1 robot, with each of the restaurants receiving direct orders from users who signed up to participate in the trial. The orders come through a tablet and are prepared and placed inside REV-1’s insulated compartment by restaurant employees.
Users can place orders after signing up for the trial. Once the robot arrives at the curb, the customer will receive a unique code sent to their smartphone. The user enters the code on a keypad on the robot, and can then retrieve their order. The compartment can fit up to five food delivery bags. Multiple stops are not be a part of the trial program, however, and the robots will only make deliveries to one user at a time.
Lehigh University recently released a new campus mobile app designed to keep the campus community informed about events, activities and safety information.
According to an official university release, the Lehigh University Mobile App replaces the existing LehighU Live offering, and is the first step in a larger rollout of new features designed to help the Lehigh community better navigate life on campus.
Features of the new Lehigh University Mobile App include campus bus tracking, an interactive campus map and directory, Lehigh Dining services information, and up-to-date access to emergency contact information, school news, event calendars and social media links.
The new app is the result of a collaborative effort between Lehigh's Library and Technology Services (LTS) and University Communications and Public Affairs. The app is also a collaborative effort with Ellucian and will integrate the company's expanding student services suite.
Merging the new campus mobile app -- previously a custom-developed offering -- with Ellucian’s software is expected to enable the Lehigh community to benefit from future Ellucian rollouts and features.
“What’s nice about this new app is that it integrates directly with Banner,” says Erica Gluszynski, senior database analyst for the enterprise systems department of Lehigh Technology Services. “As Ellucian develops new functionality within the mobile app, it will eventually become available in the Lehigh app. So in the future, you are going to be able to view grades or see your course schedule through the app.”
Ellucian will also cover ongoing app maintenance efforts.
“They are going to take care of the servers, as well as the application upgrades,” Gluszynski says. “This is going to give us the opportunity to fully take advantage of the features the Ellucian app has to offer, enabling us with the ability to add more relevant content and options for users.”
With regards to campus security, the new app will serve as a key information source and will act as a compliment to Lehigh's existing personal safety app HawkWatch. That separation was a purposeful choice by campus administrators, as HawkWatch includes a number of options designed for emergency situations that can put students in direct contact with campus police dispatchers.
“We didn’t want to clog up the emergency app with news and all this other stuff, which lessens the value and ease of use of an emergency app,” says Ashley Ryan, manager of web and mobile services in Lehigh Technology Services.
The Lehigh University Mobile App is now the third university mobile application at Lehigh, joining the HawkWatch and Lehigh University Tour offerings.
By Jeff Koziol, business development manager, campus software partner at Allegion
You’ve heard about the mobile movement that’s expected to surge in popularity on higher education campuses across the country. Many have raved about the seamless user experience and the enhanced credential security, but how do you know if mobile is the right solution for your campus? And when is it time to consider the transition?
Three unique schools of different sizes, geographies and security needs share insights about their decisions to transition from magnetic stripe cards to mobile student ID cards. The University of San Francisco, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and the University of Vermont all share their experiences, the value they expect to receive and advice for their peers.
Mark McKenna, Director of the CATcard Service Center at the University of Vermont:
“We were motivated by our own CATcard team to move away from the mag stripe credential. We had been pursuing the contactless chip technology readers for the past year after some misuse of our mag stripe cards. Around that time, the student IDs in Apple Wallet became a possibility. Our new readers were NFC-ready, so it was a no brainer for us. We wanted to go with that added security, and the user convenience was a super bonus.”
Jason Rossi, Director of campus card and security systems at the University of San Francisco:
“We have a comprehensive campus card program just like many universities do, and we like our campus card program. But every campus card program comes with one necessary evil, and that’s the friction of producing cards and getting them to people. There’s a lot of administrative resources involved in that. The mobile credential gives us all of the benefits that we have in our campus card program but removes that one bit of friction.”
Mike Henderson, VolCard technology supervisor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville:
“Students had been requesting a smart phone solution for years. The card office had also been pushing for the solution as it is more secure and will reduce their work load, especially in the fall. We utilized a top down approach and got buy-in from our senior vice chancellor, Chris Cimino. Once we had that support, everything else fell into place.”
McKenna, University of Vermont:
“We worked with CBORD and Apple for three or four months to make the changes required in the CBORD CS Gold system, ironing out the different technology pieces that needed to be put in place. We ran beta testing with about 20 people around campus for another couple months. At that stage in the game, we were feeling confident that everything was working well. We had already moved most of our stuff away from the mag stripe, so it was just validating that the Apple credential worked at the locations that we already converted. We did a lot of beta testing up front and it was probably one of the smoothest beta tests I’ve ever done in 20 years of being in the card industry.”
Informational material for the mobile credential initiative at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Rossi, University of San Francisco:
“There were two parts to it: Number one was getting the requisite software in place. Number two was installing new hardware where we didn’t have contactless already or upgrading the firmware on existing contactless hardware. It was technically easy, but due to the volume we were dealing with, it was complex. It was routine to go to several hundreds of readers and do firmware updates, but there were still a lot of them out there to touch.”
Henderson, University of Tennessee, Knoxville:
“As we transitioned from iClass to MIFARE DESFire EV1, we had to replace over 4,000 readers across campus. This change was necessary so the mobile credential and new DESFire card could be accepted by the readers. As the first CBORD school to go live with the Apple solution, we had to work through all of the stopgaps along the way.”
McKenna, University of Vermont
“We have received nothing but positive feedback from our student population, and even our faculty and staff. The students love it for the dining services. They always have their phone with them, so it makes it very easy for them to do their meal transactions or get in and out of their res hall.
"Since launching in mid-October, we have almost 3,000 participants with the program. We have well over 250,000 transactions, with 15% of transactions conducted using a student ID in Apple Wallet.”
Since launching in mid-October, we have almost 3,000 participants with the program. We have well over 250,000 transactions, with 15% of transactions conducted using a student ID in Apple Wallet.”
Henderson, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
“Students are embracing it! Since launching on October 14, we have over 6,600 unique credentials and 500,000 transactions from those patrons.”
McKenna, University of Vermont:
“We anticipate our orientation this summer will look a little bit different. In past years, we always requested the photos upfront, printed the IDs and did a distribution. We’re trying to reengineer our orientation process for the summer so that if a student submits a photo, we should be able to ask if they have the iPhone. Students with iPhones have the option of putting it in Apple Wallet. We may still require having at least an ID badge on campus. But instead of printing a $5 chip card, I can print a 50-cent piece of plastic with a student photo on the front.”
Rossi, University of San Francisco:
“It’s a paradigm shift because we’re changing the entire delivery of the campus card experience into something that’s self-serve. Even if students submitted their photo in advance and we printed it in advance, there were still distribution locations. It’s really changing that process to a bring-your-own-credential model. They login through single sign-on just like they do with every other bit of business on campus. Now the card is simply another one of those online services.”
McKenna, University of Vermont:
“I think there will be less sharing of credentials. People are pretty willing to forfeit their piece of plastic to somebody else to let them get in their res hall or use their meal plan. Letting someone take your thousand-dollar phone or Apple Watch will probably not happen – or it will at least reduce the number of times that happens. When you elect to turn on your Apple credential, we deactivate the chip in the physical card so that it can’t be passed onto somebody else.”
"The biggest benefit we are seeing so far is that students and staff are far less likely to lose their phone or watch. This is also going to allow us in the future to get rid of the mag stripe and barcode from the plastic cards."
Rossi, University of San Francisco:
“We do see this as a way to secure the credential since it is protected by multi-factor authentication, whereas a card is not. The security component was a factor in our decision to use mobile student IDs.”
Henderson, University of Tennessee, Knoxville:
“We feel the mobile credential is very secure. The biggest benefit we are seeing so far is that students and staff are far less likely to lose their phone or watch. Another thing that this is going to allow us to do in the future is get rid of the mag stripe and barcode from the plastic cards.”
McKenna, University of Vermont:
“People love the convenience of it. A lot of people signed up right off the bat. We turned on the website and sent out emails around 8:00 a.m. When I was in dining services, a student told me he had already signed up and used some of the features – that was at 8:05 a.m.”
Rossi, University of San Francisco:
“It’s still new, but we had 100 testers for months prior to the launch. All of the feedback has been positive.”
Henderson, University of Tennessee, Knoxville:
“All of the feedback has been positive. Students and staff are embracing the new technology.”
McKenna, University of Vermont:
“If you’re on mag stripe, you have to move someplace. The contactless technology is definitely the direction to go. If you have not been moving away from mag stripe and getting ready for mobile credentials, don’t get blown away by the sticker shock. Part of that is just to get rid of the mag stripe technology, which needs to be done anyways.”
"When getting ready for mobile credentials, don’t get blown away by the sticker shock. Part of that is just to get rid of the mag stripe technology, which needs to be done anyways.”
Rossi, University of San Francisco:
“No two universities look the same. Organizationally, we are very different from each other. Ask pointed questions and see if it will fit your business needs. It may not be for everyone, but it certainly is a fit for USF and our business needs.
For example, we have campuses throughout California. Our year-zero launch has been in our law school, school of education and branch campuses. These groups are extraordinarily difficult to get cards to because their courses could be hundreds of miles away.
The old process to get cards to these locations required students to upload their photo online, and then everything smart stopped there. From that point, a person in San Francisco printed the card on a commercial printer, put it into a FedEx envelope and mailed off to someone else in California. Then it was collected by another person, given to a professor, and then picked up by the student. Talk about friction! Our year-zero launch has the biggest impact operationally and on the student experience. Now the student can self-provision.
"It’s really about looking at one’s own operations and pain points and finding the best tool to address it. For us it’s by far a mobile credential.”
It’s really about looking at one’s own operations and pain points and finding the best tool to address it. For us it’s by far a mobile credential.”
Henderson, University of Tennessee, Knoxville:
“Jump on in. The early adopters have overcome the majority of the start-up issues, so the path is paved for a smooth conversion for any other schools.”
Allegion is excited to help universities across the country achieve frictionless student experiences via contactless student IDs in Apple Wallet. Contact Allegion today to learn more about the company's mobile solutions or speak with an expert about the mobile movement on your campus.
A recent announcement from North Carolina's State Board of Elections reported that student credentials from all UNC campuses would be eligible forms of voter identification for state elections. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has now weighed in on the inclusion of the UNC One Card in the initiative.
Per an official university release, UNC One Cards and other photo IDs issued by UNC System institutions will be acceptable forms of identification for 2020 elections in North Carolina. The university has now expressed its full support and outlined the process it undertook to meet state requirements.
UNC Chapel Hill's original attempt in March to bring UNC One Cards in line with state voter ID requirements was denied by the State Board of Elections because "the university’s process allowed for individual ID card photo upload." That law was rewritten to instead allow a university staff member to obtain and verify the photo without having to take the actual photograph.
The current UNC One Card process now complies with the revised state requirements, which led to the university's November 26 approval by the State Board of Elections.
Starting next year, UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty and staff may opt to use their UNC One Card as a voter ID. Beginning in 2021, however, UNC One Cards will need to be stamped with an expiration date if they are to be used as a voter ID.
All cards issued beginning in July 2020 will have 10-year expiration dates. Current UNC One Card holders who want to use the campus card at the voting booth will need to get a new card that has been stamped with the expiration date.
UNC Chapel Hill Interim Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz provided the following statement:
“I’m pleased to share that the North Carolina State Board of Elections approved our request to allow students, faculty and staff to use their UNC One Cards as voting ID in future elections. Carolina is committed to supporting access for our students and employees to exercise their constitutional right to vote.”
Interim UNC System President William Roper also expressed his support:
“I am pleased that student and employee identification cards at each of our 17 institutions have now been approved by the N.C. State Board of Elections. This approval will allow any voting-eligible employee or student to exercise their civic duty. We wish to thank all of those who worked hard for months behind the scenes to make this happen.”
The University of Texas at Dallas has reached an agreement with Starship Technologies that will see the company's delivery robots deployed on the Dallas campus.
According to UT Dallas Dining Services, the university's food service provider, Chartwells, partnered with Starship Technologies to bring 30 robots to the UT Dallas campus with the program officially launching on December 3.
The service is available to students, staff and faculty that download the Starship Deliveries app from either the Apple or Google Play stores. All orders placed for robot delivery will carry a $1.99 delivery fee.
At the start of the program, UT Dallas has included 10 dining locations from which Starship delivery orders can be placed. That initial roster includes both franchise locations like Papa John’s, Panda Express, Firehouse Subs, Einstein Bros. Bagels, and Halal Shack, along with a host of on-campus university run dining locations. UT Dallas plans to add more retail venues to the app in the future.
Hours of operation for the delivery robots will vary by participating venues, and users will be able to view which venues are open and available for deliveries at that time from the app.
The Starship Deliveries app currently accepts debit/credit transactions only, but UT Dallas already has plans in place to accept Meal Money -- UT Dallas' declining balance funds available on the Comet Card student ID.
To place an order for robot delivery, users select their delivery location by dropping a pin on the campus map inside the Starship Deliveries app. Once an order is placed, the app will update the user of the robot’s location in real time by enabling them to follow the robot's trek across campus.
Once the robot arrives to the designated delivery location, the app sends an alert to the user providing them with a prompt to unlock the robot via the app.
UT Dallas is the latest university to join the growing roster of campuses to deploy Starship Technologies' delivery robots. For more on the delivery robots, check out our previous coverage.
In Part 2 of a contribution to NACCU's "It's all about the Data" video series, Emily Messa, Associate VP for Administration at the University of Houston, discusses ways to implement policy and privacy in campus card data analytics.
In the video, Messa discusses the potential impact of external regulations, why it's important for campus administrators to remain mindful of these impacts, and the importance of proactive conversations around internal policies and procedures.
The campus identification and transaction industry’s professional association, NACCU, takes great pride in its ability to educate members and the entire higher education community. That’s the idea behind the association’s “It’s All About the Data” video series.
The series features subject matter experts from the NACCU member community talking about key topics and discussions surrounding campus card data, and how to best use that resource for the betterment of both the university and its students.
The videos are presented by NACCU and produced by NACCU and CR80News. The full series can be viewed at NACCU.org.
The North Carolina State Board of Elections released a new list of student ID cards that will now be accepted as valid forms of voter identification in state elections. The new list now includes all University of North Carolina system campuses along with other institutions that had previously submitted their campus cards for approval but were denied.
According to a report from Chapelboro, cardholders at this latest group of campus will be able to use their student ID cards for the state’s voter ID mandate that begins in 2020 with the March primary.
The State Board of Elections issued the official list of approved campus cards that brings the remaining 12 of 17 UNC campuses in line with state voter identification guidelines. The campus cards on this latest list had been rejected at the initial March deadline after a board leader decided the credentials fell short of security standards as laid out by the law implementing the photo ID mandate.
The list adds the following institutions:
The State Board of Elections allowed a grace period so that universities with rejected cards could reapply in time for the 2020 elections. With previous approvals throughout the year, the comprehensive list will now recognize 150 forms of photo ID in time for next year's elections.
Washington state legislators are being joined by some University of Washington students to promote the addition of crisis hotlines to student ID cards issued by institutions in the state. Spearheaded by a proposed bill in the Washington state House of Representatives, first introduced last spring, the policy would see the contact information for resources like suicide hotlines printed on the backs of campus cards.
As reported by the University of Washington's student publication, The Daily, printing crisis hotlines on the backs of student ID cards will hopefully provide an outlet for those grappling with mental health issues on college campuses. The list of contact numbers would likely include the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, as well as state and local crisis hotlines.
Washington's HB 1735 focuses on behavioral health and encourages ID cards issued by state universities, community and technical colleges, to provide contact information for mental health services. The bill, which is yet to be passed into law, would require all new student identification cards issued to include information about suicide hotlines, emergency numbers, and behavioral health counseling services initially beginning with the 2019-20 academic year.
“I’m a little bit scratching my head about why the UW and other schools aren’t doing it without a legislative mandate,” says Rep. Gerry Pollet (D-46), who helped to pen HB 1735. “This is, I think, a no-brainer. It dramatically increases the use of crisis lines and we know it’s a tool that will save lives."
The state of Washington has already seen two of its most recognizable institutions implement the crisis hotline change to student ID cards. Gonzaga University's ZAGCARD has already implemented the change. A private university, Gonzaga isn't a state-funded institution, and is therefore not technically required to comply with the state mandate but university officials saw fit to support the measure nonetheless.
Washington State University has also implemented crisis hotlines to its CougarCards, printing the contact information for student wellness services unique to each of its campuses, along with after-hours crisis lines, Alternatives to Violence hotlines, Safe Rides, the Crisis Text Line and WSU campus police.
The University of Connecticut is issuing new campus cards, after making the decision to recard its entire population over the summer. CR80News recently caught up with UConn and ColorID, who assisted on the project, to talk about the new Husky One Card and the recarding process.
“In a nutshell, we chose to recard for security,” says Stephanie Kernozicky, Director of One Card Office at the University of Connecticut. “We wanted to ensure all cards and access points are appropriately secure.”
Kerzonicky and the Husky One Card team opted to do a full recard of the university, including regional campuses, all at once. “We started with employees two weeks before the students because there were fewer of them, and as it was during the summer, more employees than students were on campus,” she explains.
“We are currently at over 80% student card pickup rate and I greatly attribute that to the fact that our new Recreation Facility was opened this Fall when students returned, and they required the students have their new card to enter,” adds Kerzonicky. “It was great timing.”
UConn students arrive at the handout event to receive their new Husky One Cards.
UConn chose to issue a tri-technology card, leveraging magstripe, proximity, and HID Seos to cover the transition period. “As soon as possible, we will drop the proximity chip,” says Kernozicky. “The initial batch from the recard project were all pre-printed, but all cards after that are being printed in-house using retransfer printers and HID’s FARGO Connect.”
The previous ID environment at UConn is the reason for packing so many technologies into a single credential.
"In a nutshell, we chose to recard for security. We wanted to ensure all cards and access points are appropriately secure."
“We used to only issue magstripe cards to most cardholders, unless they needed a proximity card. As time went on, more and more people requested this,” explains Kernozicky. “Therefore, with the new card, everyone already has all credentials and technologies, so we don’t have to worry about swapping out cards.”
UConn’s recarding was a sizeable project. At the time of publication, UConn will have issued more than 33,300 of the new Husky One Cards to students, faculty and staff.
To assist with the recarding, UConn worked with identification technology solutions provider, ColorID. The company offers a full range of recarding services from pre-printing and card production, through to quality control and distribution with custom card packaging and sorting.
UConn leveraged the full recarding support and services of ColorID as it embarked on its campus-wide recarding event.
“UConn choose ColorID for the full recard project, from suppling the base HID SEOS cards, to the printing/encoding work, through to fulfillment and delivery,” says Mark Degan, director of corporate marketing at ColorID. “We provided UConn with 41,000 cards, of which 31,367 were encoded and delivered by ColorID.”
ColorID provided UConn with timelines, budgetary estimates, and costing for:
One of the first steps was to present UConn with a full list of all available technologies, services, and support options for a multi-campus recard, says Degan. “We talked about printing and programming of cards locally or off-site, as well as card distribution details.”
As part of its services, ColorID also visited UConn in person to discuss important issuance details. “We talked over vital things like card technology and compatibility, supply chain and distribution channels, and site requirements for the recarding,” explains Degan.
HID programmed the SEOS & Prox chips, while ColorID read the card data to create a cross reference list for UConn, printed all the variable information, and contracted with a third-party vendor for packaging and fulfillment.
For the UConn project, the new Husky One Cards were to be fixed to carrier slips and placed in individual envelopes before being shipped to the university unsealed so that personnel on campus could conduct a handout event.
That distribution process would entail UConn verifying the cards by removing the carrier slip with the card from the envelope, removing the card and scanning it to ensure it was properly encoded. The cards were then reaffixed to the carrier slip and envelope, before ultimately being given to the student.
“We were pretty adamant we needed the mailer envelopes because we wanted the option to send any employee cards to their internal mailing address if they couldn’t pick up in person,” says Kerzonicky. “We also wanted cardholders to know why we were doing the re-card and what to expect from their new card.”
“We worked with CBORD to be able to swipe the cards through a mobile reader on-site, which would activate the new card and deactivate the old one,” adds Kerzonicky.
UConn's newly printed and delivered Husky One Cards.
ColorID contracts with a secure facility that handles Visa and other major credit cards for this type of fulfillment process. The finished product resembles that of a new credit card that arrives in the mail.
“This project was certainly not our largest recarding job, however it was a heavier lift due to the added fulfillment steps,” says Degan. “Typically the cards would go straight to the customer after the recard, but UConn’s project was unique because the cards needed to be placed in individual envelopes and organized based on unique cardholder classifications and identifiers.”
On the ColorID side of the operation, cards were printed and sorted in a specific order before being sent to be packaged.
Custom carrier slip to which Husky One Cards were adhered.
“To keep things in order we print a sequential identifier number on the back of the card so that when carrier paper is being printed everything stays in order,” Degan explains. “The packaging facility also prints the envelopes with a similar set of identifiers like home address, they then apply cards to carrier paper via glue, trifold it and then put them into envelopes.”
“We offer the option to also include postage and send the cards directly to students, but UConn planned to physically hand the cards to students and manually verify each credential,” says Degan. “They really went the extra mile to add that measure of control to the process.”
"ColorID played a significant role. They worked with us to pre-print and personalize almost all our cards, including proper encoding and credential assignment."
ColorID routinely offers packaging with carrier slips and envelopes, but it’s a small group of clients that ultimately spring for this option. “It’s ideal for campuses that may not want to get really hands on,” says Degan. “It’s also not a terribly expensive add on at around $0.50 per card.”
Despite being a full campus recarding event, Degan says that the entire project with UConn went off without a hitch. A testament to both the team at ColorID and the UConn One Card Office.
“The deadlines were tight on this project, and it was imperative that our recarding was in perfect order to make things run smoothly with the fulfillment center,” says Degan. “But we worked through all those challenges directly with out partners at UConn, and because of that collaboration and attention to detail, everything came together perfectly.”
“ColorID played a significant role in that they worked with us to pre-print, with personalization, almost all our cards. This included proper encoding and credential assignment,” says Kerzonicky. “There is no way we would have been able to do a full university recard if we tried to print all those cards in our One Card Office.”
After launching on campuses just over one year ago, the Transact Mobile Credential has since quickly cemented itself as the next major advancement in campus identity. The numbers after a year in the field also prove that students are adopting the mobile credential in droves.
To discuss the developments in Mobile Credential over the past year, Transact will host a free webinar Monday December 9 from 1:00 - 2:00 PM EST detailing both high-level statistics, and some in-depth experiences from one of its launch campuses.
In the "Transact Mobile Credential: One Year Post Launch" webinar hear from Transact’s Dan Gretz as he provides an overview of Mobile Credential by discussing the benefits of the solution, the impact Mobile Credential has had on the student experience, and some key statistics since launch.
“As the first campus card provider to support mobile credentials on both the Apple and Android platforms, our first year deploying schools has been a big success,” says Dan Gretz, Senior Director at Transact and leader of Transact’s Innovation Practice. “The level of interest we’ve seen from customers continues to grow.”
Using a mobile device for everyday transactions is a concept that’s native to the modern college student, and the transition to a mobile credential has reflected that.
"When we talk to students, it's clearly a game-changer for them. Intuitively, they understand the benefits to having a mobile credential, and not only do they want it, they expect to have it."
“When we talk to students, it’s clearly a game-changer for them. Intuitively, they understand the benefits to having a mobile credential, and not only do they want it, they expect to have it,” says Gretz.
Also presenting on the webinar will be the University of Alabama’s Jeanine Brooks. As director of the Action Card office, Brooks has worked very closely with Transact during Alabama’s move to Mobile Credential and has seen the benefits of the solution first hand.
In the webinar, Brooks will share the Action Card Office’s experiences and results at the one-year mark with the solution. Brooks will also discuss plans and ambitions for year two with Mobile Credential, as Alabama continues to evolve its “Mobile First” campus strategy.
Alabama currently only has iOS activated for Mobile Credential
One of the initial launch campuses, the University of Alabama has been one of the most fruitful testing grounds for the Transact Mobile Credential.
“The first surprise with the Mobile Credential came on launch day when we realized how smoothly every facet of the program operated,” says Jeanine Brooks, director of the Action Card at the University of Alabama. “It was such a comprehensive campus infrastructure change on how to access critical campus services and events.”
Spearheaded by the Action Card office, Alabama provided its students population with communications and online training videos to help ease the launch process. “Our customers started immediately accessing and provisioning in the thousands,” recalls Brooks. “We had less than 10 customer service calls to the office on launch day.”
“We estimated roughly 15,000 devices would be provisioned in year one, partly because we launched mid-semester instead of the traditional summer orientation or start of Fall term,” adds Brooks. “But within the first year we had over 22,000 devices provisioned, and we’re currently over 23,000 devices to date.”
To hear the full Mobile Credential story at Alabama, register and attend the FREE "Transact Mobile Credential: One Year Post Launch" webinar on Monday, December 9 at 1:00 EST.
The day-to-day operations also reflect the effectiveness of Mobile Credential. In Alabama’s case, that included bringing increased efficiency to some tricky areas on campus.
"A major benefit of Mobile Credential is transaction speed and line reductions at our high-volume locations like dining hall lunch periods and athletic event access,” says Brooks. “Students were often searching bookbags and pockets for their physical card, but they would always have their phone in their hand.”
It’s been a busy year since the Transact Mobile Credential first arrived on campus, and the future looks promising.
“The ability for new students to provision their credential before arriving on campus is huge,” says Gretz. “As an example, entering the current school year, Duke University had 70% of its incoming freshmen provision their mobile credential before ever arriving on campus.”
"A major benefit of Mobile Credential is transaction speed and line reductions at our high-volume locations like dining hall lunch periods and athletic event access."
On the technology front, Mobile Credential has met student expectations, but it’s also provided the level of security and efficiency that campus administrators can rely on.
“The moment students step foot on campus for move-in day their credential is live and they’re able to immediately access all the campus services and buildings based on their account privileges,” says Gretz. “Compare that to the expense and administrative burden of printing and issuing physical cards, and it’s clear that Mobile Credential is a win not only for students but for administrators as well.”
For the University of Alabama, Mobile Credential is now a part of the fabric of student life. In fact, families are made aware of the technology before their students ever crack open the first book.
"For the Action Card office, Mobile Credential has brought an enhanced respect, awareness and visibility for our program’s reach and capabilities across campus."
“During orientations, we’re now seeing parents encourage their students to add the mobile card,” says Brooks. “They view the university as providing a higher level of transaction security and convenience, understanding that plastic cards are easier to lose and students generally have their phone with them.”
The launch of Mobile Credential at Alabama was one driven by the student experience, but the campus card office has also benefitted.
“For the Action Card office, Mobile Credential has brought an enhanced respect, awareness and visibility for our program’s reach and capabilities across campus,” says Brooks. “The project created opportunities for Action Card to enhance and create new partnerships and program champions across campus as we worked together to create a transformative customer service experience.”
