Card, mobile credential, payment and security
Jason Ouellette, Vice President of Innovation and Technical Partnerships for ELATEC and Chairman of the Board for the Physical Security Interoperability Alliance (PSIA), discusses the Alliance’s latest specification called Public Key Open Credential (PKOC).
“PSIA is dedicated to bringing open standards and specifications to solve complex problems for access control,” he says, noting that the group has long recognized the industry challenge of siloed, non-interoperable credential systems.
Ouellette stresses the importance of interoperability. He outlines how PKOC improves on typical credential technologies by shifting from symmetric to asymmetric encryption.
With asymmetric encryption, there is no key. Thus, there's no argument of who owns it or how to secure it.
Symmetric systems rely on shared secrets between reader and credential manufacturers, creating vulnerabilities and key ownership challenges. In contrast, PKOC’s asymmetric model uses hashing rather than shared keys. He says this provides a much higher degree of security and eliminates debates over key ownership or control.
Ouellette emphasizes PKOC’s role in easing transitions for institutions with large installed infrastructures. He highlights the difficulty many organizations face when considering wholesale reader replacement or campus-wide credential reprovisioning.
“Using something like PKOC enables the ability to migrate slowly over time in a way that you can afford,” he explains.
PKOC-enabled devices support multiple technologies, allowing old credentials to function with new readers and vice-versa until the migration is complete. This staged approach reduces disruption while ultimately leading to a fully modernized, more secure system.
Although PKOC is still emerging – with only about three years since inception and its first commercial deployment occurring this year – Ouellette encourages stakeholders to explore PSIA’s educational resources, including a detailed Q&A available on the Alliance’s website.
To watch the full interview, click the image at the top of this page.
TRANSCRIPT
In this episode of CampusIDNews Chats, we spoke with Jason Ouellette, Vice President of Innovation and Technical Partnerships for ELATEC, who also serves as Chairman of the Board for the Physical Security Interoperability Alliance. He discussed the Alliance’s new Public Key Open Credential (PKOC) standard, which provides interoperability to both mobile and smart card credentials.
Here’s what he said:
I'm Jason Ouellette and I'm the Vice President of Innovation and Technical Partnerships for ELATEC, but I also serve as Chairman of the Board for the Physical Security Interoperability Alliance, a consortium of companies aimed at trying to bring open standards and specifications to solve complex problems for access control and specifically credentials today.
So PSIA or the Physical Security Interoperability Alliance has been around for over 15 years. It is made up of a lot of players that are in either physical access control, credentials, locks, identity management, integrators – so a community that has understood the challenge of not having an interoperable solution for using credentials.
We've come together to one common table to try to solve this problem, which is where Public Key Open Credential (PKOC) comes from.
The alliance previously brought out the Physical Logical Interoperability Access Standard or PLAI, which is commercialized today, and now our second specification that's been released is the Public Key Open Credential.
So one of the first questions people really come to is what are the benefits of interoperability? Why is this important? Why should I care?
The challenge is we're living in a world where typically my credential works with my reader, and what that causes is the problem of being able to get one credential that can work across an entire ecosystem.
So interoperability is about solving that problem, bringing down the complexity and being able to use one credential for everything.
Public Key Open Credential is a higher degree of security over what most credentials offer today, with the difference really being symmetric versus asymmetric encryption.
What that comes down to is symmetric encryption is based on a shared secret, meaning there's a key that must be shared with reader and credential manufacturers in order for them to work together.
Asymmetric has none of this.
It uses a hash to verify the source that sends it, but there is no shared secret, making this a much higher degree of security around the use of a credential.
As an add-on to talking about the difference between asymmetric and symmetric, with asymmetric, there is no key.
Thus, there's no argument of who owns it or how to secure it.
Now we get to the point of just being able to focus on how do we enroll it, because we've already solved the fact that there is no key or ownership issues to worry about creating a proprietary solution.
One of the things that we always have to face, and really doesn't matter what vertical or industry you're coming from, is that there tends to be whatever's in place today, and the idea of having to rip and replace all the readers or reprovision all of the students and faculty is overwhelming and very costly.
Using something like PKOC and PKOC-enabled devices that are multiple technology for the reader and credentials, which also can support multiple technology, now enables the ability to migrate slowly over time in a way that you can afford. But at the same time not creating a pain point for the people who are using the credentials.
Old credentials get through new readers and new credentials get through old readers just alike until the migration is complete, at which point you can now turn off all the older weaker technology and you end up in a more secure place.
So PKOC is really new. It's only been around right now for about three years since its initial inception.
This year we are in our first commercial deployment, so when you think about standards and specifications that's really fast, but it's probably too early to be reaching out and asking for a quote.
It's still largely an education process and figuring out how and what's the best move for you.
So on the Physical Security Interoperability Alliance website under the Secure Credential Initiative is a white paper or a Q&A paper that addresses almost any question you could have about what PKOC is.
I certainly recommend that you pick that up. It's everything from one-page answers to the deeper dive of everything you wanted to know and more.
The wait is over. We finally know who will lead Transact + CBORD ... and what we will call the merged company. Greg Brown, a seasoned SaaS leader who served as prior CEO for Udemy and Reflektive, will take the reins on January 5. Illumia will be the new name following an official brand reveal at the company’s annual conference in March.
According to the press release, “Brown is a veteran SaaS leader with more than 25 years of experience guiding technology companies through hypergrowth and major strategic milestones.”
Illumia sits at the intersection of mission-critical operations and meaningful human experiences – dining halls, campus access, patient care, tuition payments; moments that shape how people feel about the brands they're part of.
Most recently as CEO of Udemy he grew the company into a $750M+ enterprise learning platform, integrating generative AI across its learning products. Previously, he was CEO of Reflektive and held senior leadership roles at Blackhawk Network, Achievers, and WebEx.
"Illumia sits at the intersection of mission-critical operations and meaningful human experiences – dining halls, campus access, patient care, tuition payments; moments that shape how people feel about the brands they're part of," says Brown. "My career has been built on helping software and payments organizations deliver for their customers through technology, and Illumia is a unique opportunity to do both at scale.”
Harold Flynn, Group Executive at Roper Technologies, served as interim CEO for Transact + CBORD.
On the appointment of Brown, he says, "Greg’s deep commitment to customer success, combined with his track record of scaling SaaS businesses and driving operational excellence, makes him the ideal leader for this next chapter."
Describing the launch of the new brand, the release states, “the businesses [Transact and CBORD] now share a unified identity bringing formerly separate platforms and teams under a single, shared innovation strategy.”
In an "Introducing Illumia FAQ” on the Transact website, there were several questions of interest to Transact or CBORD transaction system clients. Examples include:
Stay tuned as we learn more and get to know more about Greg and his plans for Illumia. And I apologize in advance for our team struggling to stop saying “Transact, CBORD, or Transact + CBORD,” (we still slip up and say Blackboard now and then).
Promoting campus card services doesn’t require a formal marketing team – just strategic use of existing tools, strong campus partnerships, and a focus on simple, repeatable workflows. Insights from NACCU members Courtney Petrizzi (University of Alabama), Jennifer Banfield (University of Florida), and Jessica Peterson (South Dakota State University) show how card offices can launch and grow services effectively with minimal resources.
The three presented their ideas in a popular round table session at the NACCU 2025 Annual Conference and later turned that live session into a webinar. An abridged version was also released on NACCU’s Positive IDentity blog.
A few low-cost tools can power an entire promotional strategy. Canva – free or paid –enables anyone to create high-quality graphics, signage, and quick videos. A mobile phone serves as camera and editing station, making content creation accessible. Be sure to add UTM tracking to every link and take advantage of QR codes with UTMs so you can monitor engagement and refine messaging based on measurable results.
Add UTM tracking to every link and QR code so you can monitor engagement and refine messaging based on measurable results.
Digital signage can be an essential asset. By mapping screen locations and knowing who manages each display, card offices can push simple, clear 16:9 slides in consistent two-week cycles tied to high-impact moments like orientation, move-in, and fee deadlines. Scheduled social posts through Meta Business Suite ensure communication continues even during peak workload periods.
Campus partners can dramatically extend a card office’s reach. Dining, Housing, Bookstore, and Student Government often welcome plug-and-play graphics and shortform content they can drop directly into newsletters and social stories. Students are powerful creative collaborators. Leverage them and their mobile phones for videos and images that resonate. A one-hour session with a mascot or ambassador can generate reusable assets for years.
Small giveaways – funded by off-campus merchants who trade donated items for social shout-outs – help boost followers and engagement without affecting the card office budget.
Tracking performance is essential for proving value and securing future resources. QR scan data, UTM parameters, and a simple results log reveal which screens, posts, or campaigns drive action.
The authors provide examples of three turnkey campaigns – mobile credential tips, orientation photo submission, and commemorative cards – each with defined goals, assets, partners, and metrics. They also include a one-week starter plan with a roadmap of simple steps you can take to begin promoting your services without a dedicated marketing staff.
To explore these great assets and find a link to the webinar, check out the full article at NACCU’s Positive Identity Blog.
In this episode of CampusIDNews Chats, David Stallsmith, Director of Product Management at ColorID, discusses the company’s CardExchange Cloud solution. He says it is transforming credential management in higher education and other markets.
The platform is designed to manage the full identity lifecycle – from initial creation to termination. This includes issuing and replacing cards, printing IDs, supporting mobile credentials, and managing permissions as users’ roles evolve.
By decoupling identity management from other large operational systems, campuses gain more freedom and control while allowing all existing systems to continue functioning as they do today.
He explains that many institutions currently rely on their one-card system or physical access control system to handle identity management, but these platforms often offer limited flexibility, particularly when sharing data with downstream systems. CardExchange Cloud addresses this by moving identity lifecycle functions out of those legacy systems and placing them into an independent, cloud-based “meta layer.”
This architecture allows the platform to receive data from a trusted source of record and then integrate seamlessly with multiple systems, including one-card and access control solutions. By decoupling identity management from other large operational systems, Stallsmith says, campuses gain more freedom and control while allowing all existing systems to continue functioning as they do today. The result is a more flexible, connected, and efficient credential management environment.
To listen to the full interview, click the image at the top of this page.
TRANSCRIPT
Hi, I'm David Stallsmith, the Director of Product Management at ColorID.
We are at NACU 2025 in beautiful Henderson, Nevada in the desert and it looks on the banks of a lake like we're in a Mediterranean village here.
We've been showing CardExchange Cloud here to many people. There's a very high level of interest in this cloud product that's built to manage the identity life cycle of a credential from inception till termination and everything in between. Replacing cards, printing cards, mobile credentials, all of these things that relate to who a person is on campus, what they can do, what they have permission to do and then the ability to manage that as changes are made throughout the life cycle.
We're getting a lot of interest in this because CardExchange Cloud allows people to take the identity management creation life cycle out of whatever system it's been in.
In higher ed, this is often the one card system. Sometimes it's the physical access control system.
In other markets, it's definitely the physical access control system where it would only give you limited ability to manage these credentials, especially share that data with other systems downstream.
By lifting it out of this other much larger process, it can sit in its own meta layer, receive data from a source of record and then connect to other systems downstream, including the one card system and the access control system.
So everything else gets to keep on doing what it's doing, but this gives you freedom with your own separate, independent and yet well-connected platform to be able to manage credentials.
If you'd like to learn more about CardExchange Cloud, ColorID is now the proud owner of this fine software product and you can contact us at ColorID.
We're not hard to find, colorid.com.
Document and card security today is far more complicated than a list of features or materials. To meet modern fraud threats, card issuers – from governments to campuses – need to design documents with comprehensive approaches to protect against attacks along multiple fraud vectors. With foresight and planning, issuers can link and layer the right design, personalization modalities, and security elements to maximize security.
Not so long ago, staying ahead of counterfeiters was as easy as opting for a newer card design and employing a secure printing technology. That was typically enough to keep credentials secure and fakes easy to spot.
“A few years ago, a spoof was good enough,” says John O’Rourke, Director, Product Management for IDEMIA Identity & Security, N.A. “Counterfeiters would use a blank piece of PVC and an ink jet printer to create a card with a similar appearance, but today, that is not what we are fighting.”
Modern counterfeiters are sophisticated, well-financed enterprises with access to industrial card production equipment, advanced materials and techniques. A host of counterfeit ID vendors operate globally, and with such sophisticated operations, the legitimate secure credential vendor community must continue to innovate to stay ahead of fraudsters. And they must do this while still providing secure credentials at price points that are still affordable.
Today, the primary threat comes from a robust offshore counterfeiting industry, protected by the veil of Bitcoin and motivated by the vast potential market of underage drinkers in the US.
By some estimates, the market for fake identification cards is in excess of $100 million in the United States alone. And, while a small percentage of the market for fraudulent credentials consists of hardened criminals, the vast majority of all fake ID purchases are being used as “drinking licenses” by underage people.
Secure card design must combine the right layout, materials, personalization, and security features to guard against alteration and simulation attacks.
The law enforcement problem is that while underage drinking is an issue, it tends to fall below the radar when compared to other more serious criminal uses for fake IDs — “think identity theft and much worse,” explains O’Rourke. These uses of counterfeit IDs greatly concern federal investigators, whose jobs are made harder by the increasing sophistication of the fakes.
The large number of underage drinkers creates something of a subsidy for the highly criminal end of the spectrum. According to US census data, roughly 20 million people are between 16 and 20 years old, and that number stays relatively steady from year-to-year.
Where underage drinkers of the past may have turned to a back-alley establishment with a printer and a laminating machine, today the market has shifted online. And we aren’t even talking about the dark web here.
A simple Google search will yield a menu of commercial providers — many using highly advanced materials and equipment. And, because the transactions are largely done through Bitcoin, they are anonymous and untraceable — not to mention untaxed.
The large, stable demand for fake IDs has attracted a number of online counterfeit providers that are motivated by the highly profitable market. Counterfeit suppliers now compete based on price as well as the quality of fakes offered. For less than $100, a nearly perfect replica credential is available for virtually any jurisdiction, replicating sophisticated security features, intact holograms and even scannable barcodes and magnetic stripes.
The valid secure credential vendor community offers fraud-resistant card substrates to mitigate counterfeiters. Whether it is PVC composite, Teslin, polycarbonate or polyester, there are advocates out there who claim their card material is the counterfeit killer.
Unfortunately, while some substrates are better than others, any card material can be counterfeited. PVC composite is the traditional “sandbox” that fraudsters like to play in, but all materials are available to a fraudster willing to pay the price.
“The most important thing is to approach the credential knowing that no single design element and no single card material will make the card secure,” says O’Rourke. “Multiple layers of fraud deterrence are the only effective approach to building secure credentials.”
Modern counterfeiters are sophisticated, well-financed enterprises with access to industrial card production equipment, advanced materials and techniques
In the past, securing the credential was all about making an unalterable document — something that was highly tamper resistant. But card technology advanced with solid body card substrates and personalization embedded within the document. This made tampering with real credentials more difficult.
So fraudsters shifted tactics.
Now, the vast majority of the counterfeits simulate document material and features, rather than altering original documents. This opened the door to mass production of fake IDs as it is no longer necessary to have an original document to modify.
Secure card design must combine the right layout, materials, personalization modalities, and security features to balance the security protection against alteration and simulation attacks. This must also be weighed against the business needs of card life in the field, location of personalization equipment, and, of course, cost.
The counterfeit ID industry has grown rapidly as an ever-increasing demand combines with the anonymity of the web and crypto currency. Easy access to raw materials and advanced printing equipment enables modern counterfeiters to simulate IDs from virtually any jurisdiction.
The physical card materials can no longer stand alone as the primary security feature.
The key is to issue cards that can be made as secure as possible in the environment required, and at a price point that works — and to make sure that the credentials are employing as many deterrence factors as possible to keep ahead of the rapidly evolving counterfeit industry.
A new secure credential paradigm is needed that extends beyond a list of physical materials and basic security features. This new paradigm must encompass multi-modal personalization, an array of security features, the right materials and a linked and layered design to counter multiple sophisticated fraud vectors.
Josh Bodnar, Director of BuckID at Ohio State University, shares his experience transitioning the university from Transact’s legacy access control system to LenelS2 NetBox.
“A lot of schools are facing the fact that Transact's legacy hardware is going end-of-life and end-of-support, so most of us are looking at what's next,” Bodnar explains.
Creative approaches are allowing Ohio State to extend the life of its existing hardware, save on replacement costs, and phase upgrades strategically.
Ohio State's migration leverages Mercury panels while reusing existing Transact readers, allowing the university to maintain flexibility and reduce costs. “Now is a good time for us to go to Mercury – it is a more open – and if anything changes in the future, we've got a lot of possibilities,” he says.
The project focuses on both upgrades and new installations.
Existing Allegion offline locks that read the magnetic stripe are being retrofitted with new radios and tap heads. This takes an insecure mag stripe offline reader and converts it to an online, wireless contactless reader.
Bodnar highlights the practical benefits of this approach saying it allows Ohio State to extend the life of its existing hardware, save on replacement costs, and phase upgrades strategically.
“We were very fortunate that Transact, Lenel, and Allegion all came to the table to help us figure out how can we get into a new access control system, upgrade what we've got, and make it as painless as we can,” he says.
He also describes these upgrades as an essential step in the path to mobile credentials.
To watch the full interview, click the image at the top of this page.
TRANSCRIPT
I'm Josh Bodnar and I am the Director of BuckID at Ohio State. I've been there six years now. We have multiple access control systems on campus, and I manage one of them.
In student life – which is where Buck ID sits, the residence halls, the rec centers, the student union – those are all in our access control system.
Historically, we used Transact’s legacy door access platform, but we're currently in the middle of a large project to move over to LenelS2 NetBox.
A lot of schools are facing the fact that Transact's legacy hardware is going end-of-life and end-of-support, so most of us are looking at what's next.
We decided to move to Mercury panels. We're reusing the existing Transact readers, at least the newer tap ones. They do have the capability of being OSDP, so we're reusing those readers on our hardwired installations where we have them.
The nice thing is it's becoming a little more open, so in the future, we have the choice of HID’s wired readers, Allegion’s wired readers, and the Transact wired readers that are still out there, in addition to Lenel’s Blue Diamond readers.
So at this point, where it's historically on our old system, we only really have the choice of using Transact proprietary door readers, now we've kind of got that whole ecosystem available to us.
So right now, we're using a lot of what we have just from a cost savings perspective, but it's nice that we've got that all available to us now.
We also like that, you know, now is a good time for us to go to Mercury. The idea is, you know, Mercury is a little more open. If anything changes in the future, we've got a lot of possibilities.
And then Lenel S2 was the right partner for us on the access control side, because they have the ability for us to reuse some of those older Transact panels. So, I don't have to upgrade all my panels in the field right now. I've got a little time.
Now, anything that's in the support, obviously, I don't want to leave it out there past the end of the support date, but I've got another year, year and a half before that comes up. It gives us some flexibility.
So we were very fortunate.
Transact, Lenel, and Allegion all came to the table to help us figure out how can we get Ohio State into a new access control system, upgrade what we've got, and make it as painless as we can.
I'm not going to say it's a painless process, because it's not. But with all those partners involved, they've helped us to make it less painful.
One of the big parts of this project we're doing right now, we had eight buildings that we constructed all at once about 10 to 15 years ago – our North Residential District.
At the time, we put in Allegion’s offline locks, the 8250 series.
As part of this project, we're actually going to take those existing locks, that existing investment, and just upgrade it.
We're able to take the back cover off, put a radio on it, take the old mag head off, put a tap head on it. And now those locks we've had for 12 years now are like a whole new system. They're going to be online. They're going to be tapped as we get ready for mobile.
So that's a big part of what we're doing right now, is trying to position ourselves where mobile could be possible.
I'm very jealous of all my friends and colleagues who have made it there. It's going to take me another couple years, but this is a big step in that direction.
And the ability to just upgrade that stuff.
So in places where we have existing hardware, if we can upgrade it, maybe flash new firmware to it, keep it, leverage that existing investment. 100% of the time, that's what I'm going to do.
When we're looking at new installations, some of it will be, you know, what's availability? We all remember what happened during COVID.
Supply chains, some manufacturers, you know, there were times where HID was back, six to eight weeks minimum, and sometimes months, and then, you know, it would change, and then it's Allegion six to eight months back.
I tend to be agnostic. I have great relationships with all the partners in the space. I think we're very fortunate and higher ed that we have such good partnerships with all the suppliers that are out there.
It's just, who's got what I need right now and what's pricing? The rest of it is what's the application.
If we're building new construction, we're looking at exterior doors or high traffic interior doors, 100% of the time, I'm going to hardwire that. I don't want to have to deal with batteries if I don't have to.
All that can be done as part of a project. 100% of the time, I'm going to go that direction.
It's easier for us. You're not getting into batteries. You don't have to deal with wireless signals and all of that.
But the flip side of that is if we're in a retrofit situation, maybe we're doing a couple of doors, interior doors and office suite, and t's really cost prohibitive to do the whole full line where you're not getting into a door, getting into a frame.
In those cases, that's where we're really looking at wireless locks because they bring that cost way down. If it's a brass key or a wireless lock, I'm going to push us towards the wireless lock in those retrofit situations.
People laugh at me if I say, “it's going to be about $10,000 to put full online access control.” They're like, well, that's funny. No, not going to happen.
A wireless lock can cut that cost in a quarter maybe, maybe a little less depending on if you've got infrastructure in place already.
I'm starting to look at some of the new biometric stuff that's out there. We don't have a huge biometric presence right now. We've got some on our athletic facilities, but it's a lot older biometrics, a lot of fingerprint readers.
I’m really excited about some of the facial recognition. Or facial authentication, I learned that there's a difference there.
I love that facial authentication technology where you can take the ID photo so you're not having to capture a biometric template. You can take a photo you already have and then have the reader recognize the person and build the template on the fly.
I'm really interested in some of that. I'm not sure kind of where we use it yet. Very interested in seeing if our athletic department's open to that. They're kind of on their own system with their own biometrics right now.
I'd love to get them kind of more integrated with the rest of campus, especially if I can tell them, you can get rid of all this biometric profile capture that you're doing now. I've got the photo; facial authentication readers are available. Is this something where we could work together and maybe take them to the next level?
So kind of excited about that.
And then I'm really excited to try and get us in a place where mobile can be possible for us. I mean, the last 10 years, that's kind of been the thing. That's what everyone's working towards.
We've got a lot of legacy stuff and we're starting to finally make some real strides into getting to where we've got the readers that can get us there.
The NACCU Annual Conference is known for its exceptional educational content. Key to that is participation from higher education leaders willing to share their knowledge with peers from other institutions. The deadline to submit presentation proposals is coming soon, closing on Monday, December 8, 2025.
This year’s conference will take place April 19-22, 2025, just across the river from Cincinnati, Ohio in Covington, Kentucky. Consider presenting an individual session or leading a group or panel discussion. Options include:
Submitting a proposal is quick and easy. Using the online form, you provide some basic details and a brief session description (up to 100 words). You will also be asked to provide several sample questions you will use to engage the audience, as well as two things they will learn from the presentation.
You will specify the ideal audience for your presentation – beginner, intermediate), or advanced – and select up to three areas topic areas:
Each presenter must be a NACCU institutional or corporate member. If you are not a current member, this is an ideal reason to join.
Speakers will be notified regarding their proposal’s acceptance on January 6, 2025.
To learn more or submit your proposal, click here.
In this episode of CampusIDNews Chats, Dave McQuillin, co-founder and VP of Sales and Marketing for Atrium Campus, shares how new technologies are reshaping campus dining and retail operations.
McQuillin says colleges are turning to semi-autonomous and fully autonomous solutions to meet evolving student needs and overcome staffing shortages. “Students these days really expect to have great food options available 24-7 because that’s how they live,” he explains. Traditional hours no longer meet expectations, and it’s increasingly difficult to staff late-night or off-hour locations.
At UGA, Atrium worked with AiFi to deliver a fully autonomous retail store that doubled sales and reduced shrinkage from high double digits to less than 2%.
Atrium’s partner ecosystem includes semi-autonomous solutions like Mashgin, which uses AI and computer vision to scan items instantly. “You grab what you want, you put it on a tray, you hit pay, and it uses AI algorithms and cameras to ring that check up very quickly,” McQuillin says. Average transaction times are just 12.5 seconds—significantly faster than manual self-checkout—and shrinkage is reduced.
Atrium also supports fully autonomous retail, integrating with technologies like Zippin and AiFi. The University of Georgia’s AiFi store, for example, “doubled sales, reduced shrinkage from high double digits to less than 2%, and students are super happy,” McQuillin reports.
To watch the full interview, click the image at the top of this page.
TRANSCRIPT
Atrium is an a la carte, cloud-native campus card program that supports mobile credentials, meal plan management, and the full suite of one-card offerings.
One of the trends we're definitely seeing in higher ed is a shift to semi-autonomous and fully-autonomous dining in retail.
Why is that important?
Students these days really expect to have great food options available 24-7 because that's how they live.
Locations that are just staffed from 8 to 5 p.m. just don't cut it. Staffing shortages also have been a driver for this. It's increasingly hard to find staff that will work the hours that are required. But more than anything, it's about improving the student experience.
Some of the solutions that we have been bringing to market through our partner program include Mashgin, which is a semi-autonomous solution.
You grab what you want, you put it on a tray, you hit pay, and it uses AI algorithms and cameras to ring that check up very quickly.
In fact, Mashgin talks about an average transaction time of 12 and a half seconds, much faster than self-barcoding items.
The other advantage of that technology is it reduces shrinkage. A lot of universities are struggling with this when they have unattended self-serve checkouts, which rely on the integrity of the students to barcode every item.
In addition to Mashgin, we have integrated with services like Farmer's Fridge, Just Baked, Costa Coffee, Vicky the AI-powered vending machine, and Robo Burger. It seems like almost every other week there's a new robot-driven vending machine that's coming to market, and we are able to onboard those services very, very quickly.
Now, the other category in that area is fully autonomous.
Our first foray into that was to integrate with Zippin at Towson University. In addition to Towson, we have UNLV that also has a Zippin store.
But true to our roots, we want to give clients lots of options, so we just recently integrated with AiFi, which is another leader in the fully autonomous store space. We had a very successful opening of the AiFi store at University of Georgia.
They report that sales doubled, shrinkage dropped from high double digits to less than 2%, and students are super happy.
They're so happy with the results that they've already released a PO to Atrium to open a second AiFi, fully-autonomous store in their student center.
As we've discussed, there's a lot of change in the air.
Clients are looking at end-of-life with their campus card system, or their point of sale, or their access control.
They're looking to elevate the student experience.
What we would like is to have a conversation with those clients. Give us a call. Give us an opportunity to talk with you. I think you'll find that Atrium could be a very good fit for your campus.
VandyCart is Vanderbilt Campus Dining’s new mobile grocery ordering program designed to give students a fast, convenient way to buy groceries on campus.
Using the Transact Mobile Ordering app and Vanderbilt’s single sign-on, students can choose from more than 150 products and place an order for pickup at several convenient on-campus locations. Products include fresh produce, frozen food, and common kitchen staples.
The service provides flexibility for students to use their meal plan for items they can use to eat or prepare meals at home.
They can spend up to three meal swipes per transaction. Each swipe is valued at $12. They can also use Commodore Cash, Meal Money, or a debit/credit card. Students are limited to six meal swipes per week through VandyCart.
VandyCart is a great example of how an institution can expand the use of things they already have in place – dining facilities and mobile ordering tech – to add new services for students.
Other common non-food convenience store items are also available, but meal swipes cannot be used for these purchases. In this case, Commodore Cash, Meal Money, and debit/credit cards are accepted.
Orders can be picked up during four specific two-hour time windows each day. The windows are 9-11 am, 1-3 pm, 5-7 pm, and 9-11 pm. Students select their pickup window and must arrive during that timeframe. If they do not, their groceries are removed to make room for the next round of orders.
Pickup is offered at four campus locations, including Vanderbilt’s three Muchie Mart grab-and-go markets and its Rand Dining Center.
VandyCart is also making it easier for students to order a healthy meal when they’re sick and not able to visit their dining hall. Campus Dining’s popular Get Well Meals program is now available via VandyCart on the Transact Mobile Ordering app.
Students can order a nourishing meal that can be picked up by a friend or roommate.
Each Get Well Meal kit is designed with health in mind. Breakfast includes Oatmeal, fruit, Gatorade, and a protein bar. Lunch and Dinner feature Soup (vegan or non-vegan), fruit, Gatorade, and a protein bar.
VandyCart is already seeing an average of 400 orders per week and serving 200 unique users per week.
Orders can be paid for using a meal swipe, Commodore Cash, Meal Money, or debit/credit cards. Orders can be picked up at one of four dining locations.
VandyCart is a great example of how an institution can expand the use of things they already have in place to add new services for students.
Through creative utilization of existing kitchens for food prep, dining halls for pickup, and c-stores for basic items, the service required no additional facilities. By adding this new feature to the institution’s already deployed Transact Mobile Ordering app, additional tech investment was not required.
Grocery pickup provides a new service to boost the student experience, and it provides added value to the meal plan offering.
Though new, it is already showing promise.
According to an article in the Vanderbilt Hustler, Campus Dining reports that VandyCart is seeing an average of 400 orders per week and serving 200 unique users per week.
Genius, a unified Point-of-Sale solution from Global Payments, is now available for colleges and universities through TouchNet, A Global Payments company. Genius helps drive commerce and simplify back-end processes for higher education by integrating with existing campus systems, centralizing payment operations, and delivering real-time transaction data.
Data protection is a central component of the Genius solution. The system uses end-to-end encryption (E2EE) to protect payment information and maintain compliance with PCI standards.
With Genius, institutions can accept campus card tenders, credit and debit cards, mobile wallets, and gift cards, both in store and on the go.
For campus dining, the solution supports mobile and kiosk ordering, digital menus, and meal plan management. This allows institutions to efficiently manage the spectrum of different transaction types expected by modern students
Global Payments recently expanded the Genius POS solution specifically for the higher education market. The solution provides a unified payment experience across campus facilities, including bookstores, dining services, recreation centers, and student organizations.
For campus retail and food service environments, key benefits include:
By integrating with student information and financial systems, Genius allows institutions to coordinate payments across departments while maintaining consistent reporting and security standards. Introducing a unified Point-of-Sale solution for higher education is designed to consolidate previously fragmented systems, reduce reliance on cash, and improve payment efficiency across campus.
