Card, mobile credential, payment and security
Xavier University has become the latest campus to partner with Transact to provision a mobile credential to its campus community. The university's new Xavier One Pass app enables students to access their All Cards -- Xavier's student ID -- from their smartphones and smartwatches.
As reported by Xavier Newswire, the NFC mobile credential initiative is a collaboration between Xavier Auxiliary Services and Transact. To get started, students first visit the Auxiliary Services page on the Xavier website to download the Transact eAccounts app. Once downloaded, users are prompted to sign-in with their Xavier account to then add a virtual version of the Xavier All Card to their mobile wallets.
Xavier's mobile credential enables students and employees to use a digital version of their All Card on their iOS, Apple Watch and Android devices. Students can use the mobile ID to access both X-Cash and Dining Dollars -- the university's declining balance and flex accounts.
Students can also use their mobile credentials to access campus buildings such as residence halls, libraries and dining commons, as well as make secure payments and transactions at campus retail stores.
“The mobile ID creates security, convenience and a seamless user experience for those using it,” says Bill Moran, senior director of Auxiliary Services at Xavier.
University officials hope the move to mobile will make previously card-based interactions more secure, and remove the need for students to take out a physical ID card or present their ID to complete a payment or action. The program also aims to minimize the chance of students or staff losing their physical All Cards.
“We probably make 1,000 replacement All Cards in a year,” says Moran. “With this technology, we don’t see that many people losing their phones. We think that this is going to benefit people in that they’re not going to have to keep track of a physical ID.”
Over the next two years, Xavier Auxiliary Services hopes to eliminate printing and issuing physical ID cards for university students and staff by switching entirely to the mobile credential format.
In preparing for its move to mobile credential, Xavier replaced more than 2,000 card readers across campus with contactless, NFC-capable readers — in total, an estimated $2 million investment.
The mobile ID is now available to use in most locations across the Xavier campus, including the All for One shops, the Pizza ATM, Burger 513, Currito, Fujisan, campus dining commons, the campus mail center, campus library and student concessions in the university's basketball arena.
