ColorID routinely hosts sessions on campuses in North America, as well as in Europe, New Zealand and Australia, giving highly technical presentations on what’s state of the art and trending in the industry. The company also maintains a dedicated page on its website for Identity Roadmap materials, tips and related content.

“We’ll talk through what the campus has deployed presently, and lay out the correct migration path based on existing technologies and budget requirements,” says Brooks. “From that stakeholder meeting, we can help to develop the makings of a Roadmap to clearly define decision making.”

Typically the company will pull in decision makers from every department on that touches the credential – auxiliaries, dining, housing, IT, physical security and of course the card office. “We also try to include business owners from higher up the university hierarchy, director of auxiliaries or student affairs, to act as a sponsor that can draw all of these groups together,” Brooks adds.

We talk through what a campus has deployed presently, and lay out the correct migration path based on existing technologies and budget requirements.

Beyond hardware and technology restraints, people can act as blockers to migration, as well. It could be a lack of awareness of new technology, or a desire to hold onto legacy processes and technologies, but nevertheless a single mentality can hold an entire campus back from embracing new technology.

“We’ve seen it all over the map. For as long as we’ve done stakeholder meetings, we’ve experienced human blockers,” Brooks says. “The stakeholder meetings help because they remove the ability to hide. Everyone is brought up to speed at the same time and makes decisions collectively.”

It can be difficult for any university, but particularly larger institutions, to gather all relevant stakeholders to make a unified decision. But planning an Identity Roadmap as a collective unit will pay dividends down the line.

“It’s very common for an IT department to have a roadmap, dining to have a roadmap, auxiliaries, and so on. It’s very rare for a campus to have an idea of where they’re headed from a global identity standpoint,” says Brooks. “Many haven’t done the group work and strategic meetings. We have seen a few campuses on that path, but most are very siloed.”

Much of that disjointed mentality comes down to the fact that many departments run separate businesses within the university.

“They have their own profit and loss, their own budgets and they’re really only worried about themselves at that point,” says Brooks. “But that’s the power of the Roadmap, it brings these decision makers together so that they don’t fall victim to the identity pitfalls.”

The above article is the second in a series detailing the Campus Identity Roadmap. For more on what the Roadmap is and how your campus can begin to formulate one, see part one in the series with ColorID’s Executive Vice President, Danny Smith.