To power its new campus transaction solution, the University of Houston system selected campus card provider Atrium and point-of-sale provider Agilysys. The new system serves each of the Houston system’s four separate campuses.

"Atrium and Agilysys help us run our hospitality, food and beverage, and retail operations on our campuses more efficiently and effectively, which delights our staff and customers and helps us gain healthier margins," says Esmeralda Valdez, executive director of University Services, University of Houston.

mobile credentials, mobile ordering, and self-serve kiosks are key to the future of their Cougar Card program

The Agilysys POS solutions include fixed, mobile and tablet options that can be deployed on-premise or in the cloud. The new tablets are already helping to streamline university events such as shows at the Performing Arts Center.

CampusIDNews caught up with David McQuillin, Atrium’s VP Sales and Co-Founder. Here is a bit of what he told us about the UH project.

CampusIDNews: What functionality is supported from the Atrium offering?

McQuillin: Atrium provided the following for the UH Main, UH Downtown, UH Clear Lake and UH Victoria campuses:

• Meal Plan and declining balance management online or via mobile devices
• Activities tracking
• Integration to student information and resident management systems
• Integration to access control systems
• New Agilysys point-of-sale
• New HID Fargo Connect card production including new printers and MIFARE cards
• Photo upload
• Online meal plan purchasing and billing
• Connections to Follett Bookstore POS, Pharos print/copy, Chartwells Boost Mobile Ordering, Grubhub Mobile Ordering, Starship robots, and vending

CampusIDNews: When did you start the rollout and how has it gone to this point?

McQuillin: We started in December 2022 and went live March 2023 during spring break, making it one of the largest projects Atrium has completed in such a tight timeframe. The project has been viewed as a major success by UH personnel as well as their food service provider Chartwells.

CampusIDNews: Why is the project significant for Atrium?

McQuillin: It showcases our ability to provide a frictionless mobile-first student experience. Once again, it proves that clients can entrust us with successfully executing a complex campus card project in a compressed time period while leveraging their investments in existing systems. And, of course, it provides another large campus reference in Texas in addition to University of North Texas.

CampusIDNews: Can you tell us about the mobile ID component of program?

McQuillin: We integrated with the UH Go mobile app to provide a mobile barcode ID that students, faculty, and staff can use for dining and retail. UH had this capability prior to Atrium replacing their legacy campus card system. The Mobile Barcode ID has been well received by students.

UH tells us is that the student campus card experience was improved because prior to Atrium students had to use multiple web portals and apps. With Atrium they have one app to navigate. Additionally, the burden of admin for UH was reduced by automating data flows and business processes.