CR80News Spring 2014

CR80News ID TECHNOLOGIES IN EDUCATION SPRING 2014 - ISSUE 16

CARD PROGRAMS AWAIT FEDS’ NEXT MOVE • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? •

banking partnerships and financial aid delivery under scrutiny

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CONTENTS

32

INDEX OF ADVERTISERS

42

17 Blackboard

26

www.blackboard.com/transact

43 The CBORD Group www.cbord.com

5

ColorID

www.ColorID.com

7

Datacard Group

www.datacard.com/cr80

21 Heartland Campus Solutions www.heartlandcampussolutions.com

44 HID Global www.hidglobal.com/welcomed-cr80

37 NACCU www.naccu.org/2014

CONTENTS 4 Who is responsible for financial literacy?

New regs could hurt students more than help

24

6 ID Shorts News and posts from the web

26 The future of campus card servers On-campus, hosted or in the cloud?

10 Card programs await feds’ next move Banking partnerships and financial aid delivery under scrutiny

31 SALTO Systems www.salto.us

2

Santander Universities

www.santanderbank.com/smartcard

27 SARGENT info.intelligentopenings.com/campus

35 ScholarChip www.scholarchip.com

19 U.S. Bank www.usbank.com/campus/contour-card

13 Wells Fargo www.wellsfargo.com

11 Industry generally supportive of the GAO Report 14 Higher One in the cross hairs?

16 Annual CR80News campus card banking survey Banking partnerships grow in shadow of uncertainty 22 New player enters campus banking game Santander brings international experience to U.S.

Fifty buildings one physical access system Academy of Art in San Francisco takes campus card city-wide

30 Card office customer service: No traffic can mean job well done 32 Making a case for wireless access control 36 Residence hall security takes center stage 38 Slashing costs from the card issuance process 41 Mobile everything in 2014!

42 New tech improves campus emergency response

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ABOUT

CR80News EXECUTIVE EDITOR & PUBLISHER Chris Corum, chris@AVISIAN.com EDITOR Zack Martin, zack@AVISIAN.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR Andrew Hudson, andrew@AVISIAN.com CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Liset Cruz, Gina Jordan, Ross Mathis, Will Rodger ART DIRECTOR Ryan Kline ADVERTISING SALES Chris Corum, chris@AVISIAN.com Sales Department, advertise@AVISIAN.com

SUBSCRIPTIONS CR80News is free to qualified professionals in the U.S. For those who do not qualify for a free subscription, the annual rate is US$29 ($59 outside the U.S.). Visit http://store.avisian.com for subscription information. No subscription agency is authorized to solicit or take orders for subscriptions. Postmaster: Send address changes to AVISIAN Inc., 315 E. Georgia Street, Tallahassee, Florida 32301.

ABOUT CR80News CR80News is published twice a year by AVISIAN Inc., 315 E. Georgia Street, Tallahassee, Florida 32301. Chris Corum, President and CEO. Circulation records are maintained at AVISIAN Inc., 315 E. Georgia Street, Tallahassee, Florida 32301.

Copyright 2014 by AVISIAN Inc. All material contained herein is protected by copyright laws and owned by AVISIAN Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. The inclusion or exclusion of any does not mean that the publisher advocates or rejects its use. While considerable care is taken in the production of this and all issues, no responsibility can be accepted for any errors or omissions, unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, artwork, etc.

AVISIAN Inc. is not liable for the content or representations in submitted advertisements or for transcription or reproduction errors.

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Submissions for positions on our editorial advisory board will be accepted by email only. Please send your qualifications to info@ AVISIAN.com

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Who is responsible for financial literacy?

New regs could hurt students more than help ANDREW HUDSON, ASSOCIATE EDITOR, AVISIAN PUBLICATIONS

When you consider the myriad of money problems that a person can suffer in life, the root often comes down to simple financial literacy.

College students represent the future of industry, government and commerce alike. So it would make sense for students to possess strong financial literacy as a component of their future contribution to a world they seek to change. Unfortunately this isn’t always the case.

Each year, the CR80News Banking Survey examines the partnerships that exist between college campuses and financial institutions. These partnerships are designed to provide students with free or low-cost banking options, assuming they follow the same rules imposed on other consumers.

But what happens when a student doesn’t follow the rules or doesn’t know the rules to begin with? Who should shoulder the responsibility of ensuring that students understand their account, or the nature of a bank account in general? The student? University? Bank? Government?

A case can be made for each.

When I left home for college at 18, things changed. I took on additional responsibility, and more importantly, was forced to figure things out for myself. That’s what college is all about, learning, taking initiative and actively seeking answers.

Under this logic, students should want to understand the inner workings of their campus account. After all, college students – even fresh-faced 18-year-olds – are intelligent people. Despite their intelligence, extra attention to detail may be necessary for certain students, particularly if their parents don’t possess a level of financial literacy either.

When a university signs a contract with a bank, the resulting partnership provides students with convenient access to a brand that they may know nothing about. A case can be made, then, that the university owes its students some explanation of the service it intends to provide.

The onus of financial literacy could also fall to the bank, albeit for a different reason.

Banks are well aware that students are their future clients. Campus partnerships give banks an opportunity to forge relationships with future professionals at an early age, building trust and a relationship that will hopefully last a financial lifetime.

It would make sense for banks to protect this delicate relationship by nurturing students’ financial understanding from the beginning. Fostering this knowledge and understanding early on would certainly be worth the effort if it results in a long-standing commitment on the part of the student.

Then there’s Uncle Sam. As you will see in this issue, there are entities in the nation’s Capitol that believe the onus of financial literacy – or at least the protection from the consequences of a lack thereof – falls to the government. In February,

PERSPECTIVE

the Department of Education started the process of creating new regulations that will govern these accounts.

The Education Department and Congress would be ill advised to impose further regulation on these relationships as banks are liable to walk away from campuses altogether, leaving students with fewer opportunities to learn the banking process.

Herein lies the worst-case scenario. Overbearing regulations would hurt students the most, eliminating the opportunity for them to learn the financial ropes early with the support of their campus and a reputable financial partner. Without access to reputable banking services, students may be forced to check cashing stores where fees eclipse anything offered by reputable providers.

Worse still, regulations would only postpone the inevitable as students would still need a bank account in the near term. But when they walk in off the street, they’re not going to get the same

level of care that a campus banking partnership can, should and in most cases does provide.

The powers that be in the Capitol will do well to not throw the baby out with bath water. There is a thin line between punitive and productive, and in the end, further regulation may not provide the answer Washington seeks. More likely, it will hurt the very students it is trying to protect.

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ID SHORTS HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE WEB

CHADRON STATE COLLEGE ADOPTS HEARTLAND ONECARD

CBORD INTRODUCES NEW HOSTED ACCESS CONTROL SOLUTION

Chadron State College is implementing a new EagleCard system using contactless technology and Heartland Campus Solutions’ OneCard platform.

The Chadron, Nebraska campus conducted a vendor evaluation process, complete with product demonstrations before awarding the contract to Heartland.

According to campus officials, a site visit to the University of Colorado served as validation that the Heartland solution was the correct choice. They were able to observe students, faculty and staff using their smart card or personal smart phone as a form of ID for campus dining, building access, library material checkout, event entrance, print and copy control and vending.

The first phase of the EagleCard rollout focuses on the installation of keyless entry systems to the exterior doors of the residence halls, student activity center and other highly trafficked student buildings. A new point of sale system for dining services is also included in phase one. Phase two will see exterior readers installed at the remainder of campus buildings as well as the installation of a box office module and copy/print management system.

The CBORD Group announced the launch of Avail, a new Software-as-a-Solution access control system.

Specifically designed for security, ease of use and cost savings, Avail offers robust security measures while reducing expense and complexity for the university. An ideal fit for small and mid-sized a c c e s s control implementations, Avail is designed to simplify access management by eliminating the need for software installations or server maintenance.

Physical security expertise from CBORD helps universities to conserve resources in managing common system admin functions like adding doors, creating custom reports and monitoring system health.

Administrators can monitor and respond to security incidents anytime, anywhere and from any secure web browser.

Avail leverages CBORD’s CS Access, which is already in use on hundreds of campuses around the world. Avail is also compatible with the latest credentials, readers and mobile solutions.

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KINGSBOROUGH COMMUNITY COLLEGE GOES CONTACTLESS City University of New York (CUNY) institution, Kingsborough Community College, wanted a single identification card to unify its various campus services. The college selected ScholarChip to provide a contactless MIFARE card that enables multiple applications on the same piece of plastic.

ScholarChip also installed its IDManager Card Issuance Stations on Kingsborough’s campus to facilitate issuance of the contactless photo ID cards.

These mobile stations enable high-volume output and can expedite the photo capture process for students and staff via the Web and on both Apple and Android mobile devices. Using IDManager, Kingsborough was able to issue more than 25,000

ID SHORTS

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Spring 2014

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ID SHORTS

cards to its students and staff in a single week.

Using the company’s centralized Cloudbased system, ScholarChip provides more than seven distinct contactless card-based services. Among other functions, Kingsborough plans to use the card for bus attendance tracking, parking control, and integration with its building access turnstiles.

ASU USES CONTACTLESS CARD READERS TO SECURELY CORRAL BICYCLES Bicycles are a staple of campus transportation for students the world over, but se-

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curely storing them around campus can sometimes be a tall order. Bikes are under constant threat of vandalism or theft, to the point that simply chain locking them to a bike stand no longer offers the necessary level of security.

To combat this issue, Arizona State developed an inventive solution introducing bike lockers that are accessible only with a student ID card. A joint effort between Parking and Transit Services and with funding from ASU’s student government, ASU installed its first secured bike corral.

Students currently can use the corral at no cost.

The corral can house roughly 70 bicycles, and can only be opened by a student who

presents an ASU ID to the HID iCLASS SE card reader at the corral’s entrance. To use the corral, ASU students must first register their bicycles with the ASU Police Department.

Students still must provide their own locks to secure their bicycles once inside the corral.

It is intended for cyclists who need to store their bikes for extended periods of time – which makes sense as using the bike corral takes more time than a standard bike lock. That extra time, however, equates into extra security.

The first bicycle corral opened on ASU’s Tempe campus in November, and in the time since, interest in the corral has grown,

ID SHORTS

reports the Downtown Devil newspaper.

While the Tempe PD reports fewer bike thefts in the downtown area near the corral, it is unknown whether the corral has been a primary factor.

The addition of a card reader at the gate of each corral adds level of accountability in the event a bike is stolen. It is easy enough to track the card reader transactions at the door, and if nothing else, narrow down the search for the perpetrator.

UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII ELIMINATES ID VALIDATION STAMPS WITH E-ACCOUNTS No more waiting in line for student ID validation stickers at the Hawaii University’s Mānoa campus. Students will soon be able to validate their IDs electronically at the same time they pay off their student account balance.

By validating the student credential online, students will no longer need to report to a physical location on campus to get the proper validation stamps on their ID, as these privileges will be automatically tethered to the cardholder’s account. This feature comes as part of a larger, eAccounts phase of the Manoa One Card project with vendor partner Blackboard Transact.

Students who get the current validation sticker can also use their ID as a transit pass for the city’s bus system.

In the next year, the Shanghai project is expected to include more than 200 venues.

DIGITAL IDS ENABLE STUDENT ACCESS TO AFTER-HOURS LEARNING

A data breach at the University of Maryland has left personal information vulnerable for anyone issued a campus ID at the College Park and Shady Grove campuses since 1998. This potentially impacts more than 309,000 students, faculty and staff accounts, according to university officials.

The compromised data includes name, Social Security number, date of birth and university ID number. Officials insist that no additional financial, academic or health information was taken.

State and federal law enforcement authorities are investigating the breach and the University of Maryland has formed its own internal group to investigate.

The breach was discovered within four hours of the initial attack. The hacker was able to bypass several layers of advanced security en route to copying the user account information, leaving little more than a trace, says Brian Ullman, assistant vice president of marketing and communications at the school.

Ullman says that they cannot at this time determine the exact number of accounts affected, but that the attacker did not delete or corrupt files. In response, the university is offering one year of free credit monitoring to those affected.

Starting this spring, an estimated 1.4 million students from local primary, middle and high schools in Shanghai will be outfitted with new electronic student ID cards. The cards will be used to record attendance and learning experiences that students partake in outside of the standard classroom environment.

The cards will enable free or reduced admission to 60 of the city’s science and history museums, sports arenas and cultural venues. The initiative, which includes activities planned and organized by the venues themselves, is intended to enhance students’ after-school activities.

The list of local educational venues includes the Shanghai Civil Defense Museum, the Shanghai Earthquake Science Museum and the Shanghai Traditional Chinese Medicine Museum. Schools have the freedom to organize group trips or allow students to arrange individual visits based to the student’s own interests.

While at the various educational venues, the students’ performance in tasks conducted on site will be recorded on the ID cards themselves for evaluation at a later date.

The electronic student ID cards are expected to offer school officials a technological alternative to recording student learning experiences outside school, with the hopes that schools can better evaluate students on more than just test scores.

BREACH TARGETS UNIV. OF MARYLAND ID CARD DATA

Explore online for up-to-the-minute news and insight on identity and security technologies for the campus and university market. Articles, podcasts and videos are added daily at CR80News.com

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CARD PROGRAMS AWAIT FEDS’ NEXT MOVE • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? • ? •

banking partnerships and financial aid delivery under scrutiny ZACK MARTIN, EDITOR, AVISIAN PUBLICATIONS

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In February 2014, the General Accountability Office released a report on debit and prepaid card programs on college campuses, urging the U.S. Congress and Department of Education to take action.

Campus banking relationships have been under fire for two years since the Public Research Interest Group (PIRG) released a critical report claiming that the programs take advantage of students.

The GAO report examines the fees that the programs charge students, ATM accessibility and the programs’ transparency – or lack thereof.

Industry experts were not surprised by the report’s recommendations, and most

reaction has been largely positive citing the GAO report as a significant improvement over the highly judgmental, and many say flawed, PIRG report.

Still an issue, however, is the problem or confusion differentiating student banking and financial aid dispersal. While the accounts used are sometimes the same, frequently they are not. The majority of federal official’s concerns revolve around student access to federal financial aid dollars and have – or at least should have – little do with a student bank account, whether tied to the campus ID card or not.

The GAO has two recommendations for the Department of Education. First, it

should specify what constitutes convenient access to ATMs or bank branch offices for students receiving federal student aid funds. Second, it should develop requirements for schools and card providers to present neutral information to students about their options for receiving federal student aid funds.

The Education Department agreed with GAO’s recommendations, claiming it will address these issues via its current Negotiated Rulemaking process.

In February, the Department selected a committee and initiated the process to consider regulations addressing campus banking and financial aid dispersal.

In a separate recommendation, the GAO suggests that Congress should require financial firms that provide debit and prepaid card services to colleges to file their agreements for public review.

DEFINING THE ISSUES According to the report, at least 852 schools – or 11% of the U.S.’s 7600 colleges and universities – had agreements to provide debit or prepaid card services to their students as of July 2013, with most offering students the ability to receive federal student aid and other payments on a card. Though just 11% of all institutions, the list includes many of the largest in the

Industry generally supportive of the GAO Report It’s been a rough couple of years for the campus banking and financial aid dispersal markets. While the report from the Public Interest Research Group two-years ago was roundly dismissed, reaction to the General Accountability Office report has been positive.

“We largely support the GAO’s findings and appreciate the goal of bringing transparency and choice to financial aid recipients,” says Jeff Staples, vice president of market development at Blackboad Transact.

“Students deserve an option that delivers the credit balance most quickly, and with the lowest fee impact possible while still delivering the access that the student needs. Choice is incredibly important, but it can be very difficult for students to understand how typical consumer banking options may impact them. While ACH should be an option and is with BlackboardPay, ACH disbursements can result in the

student paying dramatically higher fees to access their financial aid credit balances,” Staples says.

Heartland Campus Solutions ECSI praises the report and its research. “Our prepaid card fees are the lowest of any of the card providers, banks, credit unions and other financial institutions the GAO surveyed,” said a Heartland spokesperson. “Also, unlike other providers, Heartland’s CHOICE process lets students easily choose to have their refund placed on a prepaid card, transferred to a bank account or sent to them by check. And our contracts with our campus customers are completely transparent, with no fees paid to them that could impact their neutrality.”

Wells Fargo also values the GAO’s work on the report, according to a bank spokesperson. “We appreciate that the GAO reached out to learn more about our campus banking programs. The Wells Fargo Campus Card

program is currently offered at 37 institutions across the country, providing students with the option of a convenient, ‘all in one’ campus ID card that is linked to a Wells Fargo checking account. Schools do not mandate the use of Wells Fargo accounts or services – students, faculty, and staff must opt-in to link their school ID cards to their Wells Fargo consumer deposit accounts.

“Wells Fargo also offers a separate student disbursement services program, which is currently used by two schools. This program relieves schools of tasks like processing and mailing checks. Students simply sign on to a secure bank-hosted web site to choose how they will receive funds from their schools: via direct deposit – to Wells Fargo or to any other domestic financial institution – or as a check. Check receipt is the default setting and accordingly, students who do not choose an option will automatically receive refunds via a check.”

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U.S., with a combined 10 million students in attendance or 40% of the total student population.

Exactly how many students choose to enroll in these programs, however, remains unknown. The GAO found a range of adoption rates and was unable to put a number to the total participation.

“For example, the largest provider reported that overall, 43% of students receiving financial aid payments at its client schools opened debit accounts.

However, the adoption rate varied considerably by school. For example, 20% of participating students at one school with which we spoke opted to open accounts, compared with 75% at another school,” the report states.

While there has been a sense that these cards have high fees, the GAO report found that most were not higher, or in some cases were actually lower, than those associated with a selection of basic or student checking accounts at national banks. Generally, college card accounts did not have monthly maintenance fees, while the basic checking accounts often did.

College card fees for outof-network ATM use, wire transfers and overdrafts were generally comparable with those of banks’ basic and student checking ac-

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Spring 2014

“Approximately onethird of all PIN transactions are for less than $15, according to the Federal Reserve, which can make a $0.50 fee a significant cost relative to the amount of the transaction,” the GAO report states. “While students can avoid the fee by authorizing their purchase using a signature rather than a PIN, the signature option involves using a keypad option labeled ‘credit,’ which may be confusing because the card is a debit

Title IV, the regulation governing federal financial aid, requires that schools ensure “convenient access” to fee-free ATMs or bank branches for students receiving federal student aid payments. The Department of Education, however, has not specified what constitutes this level of access leaving vagaries that can be exploited.

Providers surveyed by the GAO don’t charge fees when cash is taken out of ATMs from their own net-

COMPARISON OF ACCOUNT FEES BY PROVIDER TYPE (SEPT. 2013) FEE

COLLEGE CARDS

Monthly maintenance Out-of-network ATM transactions

FEES

14

counts. However, fees charged by credit unions were typically the same or lower than college cards. In addition, the report notes that college card fees are likely lower than other alternatives, for example check-cashing services.

One area where college card fees can exceed those of traditional bank accounts is for purchases made using a PIN. Two college card providers – Higher One and Citibank, which together represent about 60% of the

LARGE BANKS, GENERAL CHECKING ACCOUNTS

CREDIT UNIONS

$0

Standard account: $6-$12 Student account: $0-$5

$0

$2-$3

$2-$2.50

$1

PIN transactions

$0-$0.50

$0

$0

Overdraft

$29-$36

$34-$36

$25

Outgoing wire transfer

$25-$30

$24-$30

$15

Source: GAO analysis of provider information.

market – charge $0.50 for transactions that use PINs rather than signatures.

None of the basic or student accounts reviewed charged a transaction fee for using the account’s debit card.

Higher One and Citibank receive higher interchange fees when students use signature debit rather than PIN-debit, hence the $.50 charge. Higher One has 57% of the market and Citi 3%.

card and not a credit card.

In addition, some merchants make selecting the credit option more difficult, because debit transactions offer them more favorable interchange fees.”

ATM AVAILABILITY The GAO looked at the availability of ATMs where students can make fee-free withdrawals.

work, but the availability of these locations varies from provider to provider and campus to campus.

Providers have charged fees up to $3.00 for withdrawals from out-ofnetwork ATMs, with the majority charging $2.50.

Additionally, the ATM operators may impose a surcharge of their own, which typically runs about $2.00.

The GAO reviewed nine schools and the ATM situa-

PERSPECTIVE

Make the most of your Campus Card program On the mobile this gets even cooler. Using a device’s embedded GPS, risk-based systems can pinpoint a user’s physical location and then assign identity verification techniques based on the potential risk.

Embedded hardware modules are also going to be key. These encrypted chips on mobile devices and computers will store digital certificates that can be used to authenticate access and perform transactions. Think smart card without the credit card format.

In the future I would like to authenticate with a biometric to my phone and have that serve as identification to specific apps on the device. Next I could pair my handset to my laptop and have two extra factors of authentication – something I have and something I am -- for access to web sites and services. I would still enter a username and password but it wouldn’t need to be complex and unmemorable.

And while this is what I physically “do” to gain access, there would be risk-based analytics running in the background to triple and quadruple check a variety of behaviors and information to ensure my identity at the start and throughout an interaction.

We are closer to this secure, frictionless future than we have ever been. Enterprises know that passwords alone aren’t enough and that complex passwords are even worse. The technologies that will strengthen security are increasingly in the hands – or handsets -- of consumers. It’s just a matter of enabling them.

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¡ Provide optional banking access with on and off campus convenience for your campus community ¡ Choose from card program options that work for your campus community’s needs ¡ Enhance financial education with access to online and mobile tools, plus onsite seminars on many topics

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ha Alicia abl sParedes d al agLaramy ci s, D —D 770-543-8317 aciliti s, a d h high s cu i y g a as alig wi h FICAM la salicia.laramy@wellsfargo.com physical acc ss. Ou s luti c aliz s id titi s, su s c plia c , a d p id s c ti u us isk ass ss wi h u ha i g ip a d plac xisti g s cu i y i as uc u whil p idi g PIV, CAC, PIV-I alidati pl y s a d c ac s, ID au h ticati , a d physical acc ss audi abili y. Wi h h SAFE s luti , s cu i y a s ca w si pli y h c l pl y s, isi s, d s a d h hi d-pa y id titi s ac ss a gl bal ga izati su ach id ti y has h igh acc ss, h igh a as, h igh l g h ti . © 2014 Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. All rights reserved. Member FDIC.

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tion. One large school had 16 in-network ATMs on one campus, while a smaller school had only one. Five of the providers also had contracts with ATM networks other than their own to provide additional fee-free access to students.

“However, at least one of these providers - Higher One - only provides students access to its broader fee-free ATM network if they open an account with a monthly maintenance fee, potentially reducing any

savings realized through the improved ATM access,” states the report.

FEE DISCLOSURE While fee schedules generally were not higher than those of basic or student checking accounts, little information is available on the frequency with which students incur ATM, PIN and other fees. Additionally, the total amount of college card fees paid by students is unknown.

The financial service providers the GAO spoke with were unwilling or unable to provide details or breakout their fee revenue.

“Although the Department of Education encourages schools to disclose an annual breakdown of the average yearly costs incurred by their students for using their college cards, none of the schools with which we spoke tracked such costs. According to FDIC staff, some students have complained of paying ag-

gregate fees ranging from hundreds of dollars to more than $1,000, but it is unknown whether such fee amounts are typical.”

REVENUE SHARING There are also questions surrounding the royalties that providers may pay institutions for striking a banking relationship. The report states that revenue sharing is on the decline, but schools may receive a fixed sum or a fee depend-

Higher One in the cross hairs?

While many companies were mentioned in the General Accountability Office report on campus banking programs, Higher One gets special treatment.

The company does have 57% of the market but also seems to be specifically called out for what have been deemed questionable practices for financial aid dispersal around some of the fees charged. The report makes note of the August 2012 FDIC settlement for alleged unfair and deceptive practices related to how Higher One charged fees for its student debit card account program.

The settlement required Higher One to change its practices for charging fees and pay restitution of about $11 million to approximately 60,000 students. The FDIC also imposed civil penalties of $110,000 on Higher One. Neither Higher One nor The Bancorp Bank, Higher One’s banking partner, admitted to a violation of law in settling the charges.

In addition, Higher One announced in November 2013 that it reached an agreement in principle to settle a class action lawsuit for $15 million. The company and two of its business partners were named as defendants, with students alleging that Higher One misled students by marketing its debit card as universities’ preferred

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method for making financial aid and other payments, improperly steered them into depositing funds into Higher One accounts and charged excessive and inadequately disclosed ATM and PIN fees.

Higher One and the defendants denied that marketing of the account was deceptive and contended that fees were fully disclosed and agreed to by the plaintiffs.

The PIN-debit fee – charged by Higher One and also by Citibank – has been the most controversial when it comes to the financial aid dispersal accounts. Both institutions charge students $.50 when they make a transaction using a PIN instead of a signature, and the GAO report found that no other basic or student accounts charged such a fee.

The fee is charged because the PINenabled transactions result in lower returns for Higher One and Citibank. On all but small dollar value purchases, the merchant pays less for PIN than signature debit transactions.

Part of the problem, however, is that merchants know this too and some steer customers toward PIN debit. These merchants want to make it more difficult for signature-based transactions because

they are charged a higher interchange rate versus PIN-debit.

The availability of ATMs was also a concern for the GAO when it came to Higher One. With the basic, free account students have access to one or more free ATMs on campus, but if they want access to a larger network they have to pay a monthly fee, which can reduce any savings they may obtain via access to a larger ATM network.

The company is on favorable ground when it comes to revenue sharing with its campus clients. Higher One discontinued revenue-sharing and incentives to new customers in November 2007 and has sought to terminate such provisions in existing agreements. As of March 2013, about 5% of Higher One’s card contracts with schools contained revenue-sharing provisions, which in 2012 paid an average of $12,000 per school, the company said.

“We actually think the GAO report presents the first research-based look at services provided to schools and students in a credible, fact-based way where the U.S. PIRG study and past media accounts absolutely missed the mark,” says a Higher One spokeswoman.

ing on the number of card accounts or the number of card transactions students make. Schools can receive other financial benefits from college card providers, such as rent for ATMs on campus, general marketing assistance for the school ID card program or savings on the administrative costs of disbursing financial aid.

Three of the providers that the GAO spoke with did not have revenue-sharing agreements with any institutions. But in the review of nine schools, three had agreements with card providers that included revenue sharing based in part on transaction activity or the number of students who open card accounts.

One school received $13,000 in 2012, based on $10 for each student who activated the college debit card. Another school received $137,000 in payments from the card provider in 2012, based on a formula that included the total balance of student card accounts and the volume of card transactions. That fee was partially offset by the $30,000 the school paid the provider for services.

A third school reported receiving an average of about $400,000 annually over the life of its contract, which is based in part on the number of students who opened card accounts.

Department of Education staff and card providers concur that revenue-shar-

COLLEGE CARD PROVIDERS BY TYPE OF CARD OFFERED (JULY 2013) SERVICE

CARD PROVIDER

PROVIDER TYPE

Higher One

Nonbank

✓

U.S. Bank

Bank

✓

Sallie Maea

Nonbank

PNC

Bank

✓

Wells Fargo

Bank

✓

Citibank

Bank

✓

✓

Heartland

Nonbank

✓

✓

Blackboard

Nonbank

✓

✓

Other

Various

✓

✓

Debit

✓

Prepaid

Financial aid and other student payments

✓ ✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓ ✓

Source: GAO analysis of Education data, industry reports, and school and provider information.

In May 2013, Higher One announced the acquisition of Sallie Mae’s Campus Solutions business, which includes college card operations. a

ing agreements for college cards have been declining.

Reasons for the decline include the negative public attention the practice has received and the reduced need for providers to offer revenue sharing as an inducement.

Detailed information about the terms between college card providers and schools was not available.

Some providers that the GAO spoke with noted that they consider the contracts with schools to be proprietary or confidential.

MARKETING Another issue the GAO explored was how these campus card offers were presented to students.

The GAO’s review of marketing materials and other information offered to students found variations in the type of information provided. “At some schools, students were presented with an unbiased presentation of these options. For example, one school emphasized that ‘you have the ability to select the option that is best for you,’ followed by a factual description of payment options. Some schools also recommended direct deposit over their campus card.”

But the opposite was also evident, where the options were less than clear and the school pushed college cards over other options. Several instances of students having to take additional measures

to have funds direct deposited in existing accounts were cited. “One school directly recommended its college card over the direct deposit alternative and gave guidance to students who already had selected direct deposit on how to switch to the card option,” says the report.

With new regulations on the horizon, the campus banking market will continue to face turmoil for at least the 2014 calendar year.

Changes will almost certainly have to be made, but how it will impact schools and providers remains be seen. Perhaps the first and potentially best indication will emerge from the current Negotiated Rulemaking process.

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ANNUAL CR80NEWS CAMPUS CARD BANKING SURVEY

Banking partnerships grow in shadow of uncertainty It seems that banks are picking and choosing their battles when it comes to campus card partnerships, with some expanding their reach and others holding steady at their previous numbers.

With subtle overall growth, however, it seems that it’s business as usual despite possible future regulations.

This time a year ago, the CR80News Banking Survey examined the impact that new regulations might have on the campus banking market. The 2012 survey saw very little year-over-year growth, and while there weren’t any earth shattering moves in 2013, the landscape has changed nonetheless.

The nature of banking relationships is changing. There are positive changes such as a strong crop of new partnerships from two survey leaders and a new player in the market boasting impressive experience from its international campus partnerships. There are negatives as well including looming regulations and continued bad press.

No longer is it just about having a bank branch on campus and combining a student ID and debit card. Those were the simpler times when banks,

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campuses and students believed – for the most part – that the service was good for all parties.

What some considered questionable student account fees from Higher One, a leading provider of financial aid dispersal services, raised the ire of some students, consumer advocates and the mainstream press. The issue percolated all the way up to Washington, dragging an entire industry segment along for the bumpy ride.

A General Accountability Office report released in early 2014 recommends regulations for campus banking relationships, and the U.S. Department of Education has started the process of creating new rules expected before the close of the year.

The nature of campus banking partnerships and financial aid dispersal services are likely to change as these regulations unfold.

A GLIMPSE AT THE NUMBERS The two largest movers year-over-year were Blackboard and U.S. Bank.

U.S. Bank added nine new institutions to its partner list in 2013. One partnership ended during the year fixing the total at 63. In addition to its retail-banking footprint, U.S. Bank offers a prepaid option effectively expanding its ability to serve campuses nationwide.

U.S. Bank is a nationally chartered bank and licensed to operate in all 50 states. With the introduction of its prepaid campus card product in 2012, U.S. Bank is able to offer programs in all 50 states. In fact, several of the bank’s campus partners are located outside of its 25-state retail footprint including two of their new 2013 additions.

Blackboard added 12 new partnerships while two ended in 2013 bringing its total to 35. Its Discover-branded BlackboardPay offering made a major impact in 2012 entering the survey for the first time with an impressive 25 client partners.

Wells Fargo added one new institution to its partner list, bringing its total to 37 campus card partnerships and continuing its hold on the number two position. Also licensed to serve all 50 states, Wells Fargo maintains a nationwide presence and features the largest retail footprint of all the banks, spanning 39 states and D.C. Adding to its existing Midwest presence is TCF Bank, with two new campus card partnerships. With its total of seven campus partners, TCF is the last of the banks to increase its year-over-year numbers.

Holding steady since last year’s survey are SunTrust, Commerce Bank, Heartland Campus Solutions/CNB and PNC Bank with two, three, 23 and 26 partnerships respectively.

Perhaps the most significant change to the landscape this year, however, doesn’t come in the form of increased numbers but rather a new presence altogether.

Santander Universities U.S. has entered the campus banking market this

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year following its purchase of Sovereign Bank in 2009. The Spanish bank enters the market with four campus card partnerships located in Rhode Island and the greater Boston area.

Santander’s U.S. footprint spans the Northeastern seaboard including Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine and New Hampshire.

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While campus banking partnerships started with the goal of providing basic banking services to students, a range of added features and services have complicated the once simple offering.

Financial aid dispersal is a feature more institutions want, says Don Becker, assistant vice president of student and prepaid card partnerships at Commerce Bank. With increasing pressure on university budgets, refund disbursement may work its way into more and more university RFPs in an effort to reduce costs and provide better service for students.

Long-time campus bankers are also figuring out the prepaid market. Network

branded prepaid cards are a relatively new product on campus and they require banks to invest in different systems, platforms and marketing, Becker says. The banking compliance regulations for prepaid cards are still in the development stage and it may yet be too early to tell if prepaid cards will begin to displace existing campus debit cards on a wider scale.

Certainly some providers see strong advantage in prepaid. “It is a great example of how the offerings have evolved, giving the institution and their students options that weren’t widely available six or seven years ago and that are decidedly more consumer friendly than the average checking account,” says Jeff Staples, vice president market development at Blackboard Transact.

Staples believes prepaid is the ideal choice for financial aid dispersal. “Universities can put credit balances in the hands of their students in 15 minutes, with no risk of overdraft and access,” he says. “That is the epitome of ‘free and clear.’”

Another trend is the appearance of network-branded debit products on campus.

“Some institutions are interested in adding the ATM-only functionality without the Visa branded logo,” says Stephen Nixon,

GROWTH IN BANKING PARTNERSHIPS OVER TIME

Though there has been steady, gradual growth in traditional banking partnerships since the survey's inception a decade ago, much of the growth since 2010 has come from the addition of prepaid products.

TRADITIONAL PLUS PREPAID

TRADITIONAL BANKING PARTNERSHIPS PREPAID OFFERINGS*

Such as those provided by Heartland, Blackboard, U.S. Bank’s Contour offering and others are available nationwide.

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Source: CR80News

vice president and manager of Wells Fargo’s Campus and Workplace Banking Programs.

In other cases, however, Nixon explains institutions are interested in going to a network-branded debit program and maintaining issuance on campus. “This method requires more significant changes to the campus issuance operation largely due to the security requirements associated with instantly issuing Visa-branded plastics and card stock,” he says.

Wells Fargo also offers a Visa branded debit card that the bank centrally issues to students.

Financial aid dispersal, branded prepaid and branded debit can all add value to the student ID card but they also can complicate things. The days when all parties readily agreed on the merits of a campus card banking partnership seem like a long time ago.

Perhaps they will return, but in the meantime, the “wait and see” approach from last year’s survey still applies today as future regulations are anything but clear.

CAMPUS CARD BANK PARTNERSHIPS: 2012-2013 QUANTITY COMPARISON 25

Blackboard Commerce

35 3 3 23 23

Heartland

26 26

PNC Santander US Suntrust TCF

0 4 2 2 5 7 55

U.S. Bank Wells Fargo

63 36 37 Source: CR80News

THREE GREAT CAMPUS CARDS, ONE GREAT CAMPUS PARTNER.

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Spring 2014

CR80News

21

CAMPUSES WITH BANK PARTNERSHIPS Blackboard (35) Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, GA Alcorn State University, MS Arkansas State University, AR Atlanta Metropolitan State College, GA Bainbridge College, GA Bowie State University, MD Bradley University, IL Brookdale Community College, NJ Central Michigan University, MI Central Wyoming College, WY Clark Atlanta, GA Coastal Bend College, GA College of Coastal Georgia, GA College of Southern Maryland, MD Concord University, WV Connors State College, OK Copper Mountain, CA Crafton Hills College, CA Georgia Gwinnett College, GA Georgia Southwestern University, GA Georgia State University, GA Hamilton College, NY Herzing University, WI Johnson and Wales, RI Jones County Junior College, MS Murray State College, OK Quinnipiac University, CT Salt Lake Community College, UT San Bernardino Valley College, CA Southside Virginia Community College, VA Technical Career Institute, NY Touro College, NY University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, AR University of North Georgia, GA University of Texas at Tyler, TX Commerce (3) Fort Hays State University, KS Pittsburg State University, KS The University of Kansas, KS Heartland (23) Bastyr University, WA Clearwater Christian College, FL College of the Holy Cross, MA Colorado Christian University, CO Concordia University of Wisconsin, WI Harrisburg University, PA Hillsborough Community College, FL Florida Coastal School of Law, FL John Carroll University, OH Lebanon Valley College, PA Manhattan College, NY Mississippi Delta Community College, MS Mount Holyoke College, MA North Central Missouri College, MO Northwest Florida State College, FL Palm Beach Atlantic University, FL Pittsburgh Technical Institute, PA Reinhardt College, GA Slippery Rock University, PA St. Thomas Acquinas, NY Tompkins Cortland Community College, NY University of Massachusetts Lowell, MA Waukesha County Technical College, Wa PNC (26) Allegheny College, PA Arcadia University, PA Bowling Green State University, OH Carnegie Mellon University, PA Case Western Reserve University, OH

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Cornerstone University, MI DePaul University, IL Duquesne University, PA Edinboro University, PA Florida Institute of Technology, FL Georgetown University, DC Grove City College, PA Indiana University of Pennsylvania, PA Marymount University, VA Mercyhurst University, Erie, PA Morgan State University, MD Mount St. Mary’s University, MD Olivet Nazarene University, IL Penn State University, PA St. Joseph’s University, PA Saint Xavier University, IL Temple University, PA University of Cincinnati, OH University of Delaware, DE University of Pennsylvania, PA University of Pittsburgh, PA Santander Universities US (4) Wheelock College, MA Mount Ida College, MA Providence College, RI Bentley University, MA SunTrust (2) Florida State University, FL Mary Baldwin College, VA TCF Bank (7) Northern Illinois University, IL St. Cloud State University, MN University of Illinois at Chicago, IL University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, IL University of Michigan, MI University of Minnesota Duluth, MN University of Minnesota Twin Cities, MN U.S. Bank (63) Austin Peay State University, TN Bakersfield College, CA Bellevue College, WA Benedictine University, IL Bethel University, MN California State University Fullerton, CA California State University San Bernardino, CA Capital University, OH Carroll University, WI Central Washington University, WA Cerro Coso College, CA Colorado State University Pueblo, CO Concordia University Chicago, IL Creighton University, NE Drury University, MO Everett Community College, WA Fairleigh Dickinson University, NJ Gonzaga University, WA Hamline University, MN Harris-Stowe State University, MO Henderson State University, AR Iowa State University, IA John Carroll University, OH Johnson County Community College, KS Kirkwood Community College, IA Metropolitan State University of Denver, CO Michigan Technological University, MI Milwaukee Area Technical College, WI Minnesota State University Moorhead, MN Missouri Baptist University, MO Missouri Western State University, MO

Morehead State University, KY Normandale Community College, MN North Carolina State University, NC North Dakota State University, ND Northern Kentucky University, KY Northwest Missouri State University, MO Northwestern University, IL Oakland Community College, MI Pacific University, OR Porterville College, CA Roger Williams University, RI Saint Louis University, MO San Diego State University, CA San Francisco State University, CA San Jose State University, CA Seattle University, WA Southwest Minnesota State University, MN St. Cloud Technical & Community College, MN Thomas More College, KY Truman State University, MO University of Central Missouri, MO University of Denver, CO University of Missouri Kansas City, MO University of San Diego, CA University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, WI University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, WI Washington State University, WA Washburn University, KS Waukesha County Technical College, WI Webster University, MO Wisconsin Lutheran College, WI Xavier University, OH Wells Fargo (37) California State University-East Bay, CA California State University-Los Angeles, CA California State University-Sacramento, CA California State University-Stanislaus, CA Colorado Mesa University, CO El Paso Community College, TX Elon University, NC Fayetteville State University, NC Florida A&M University, FL Florida Gulf Coast University, FL Florida International University, FL Georgia Perimeter College, GA Guilford College, NC Mercer University, GA Midwestern State University, TX Minnesota State University-Mankato, MN New Mexico State University, NM North Carolina A&T State University, NC North Carolina Central University, NC Northern Michigan University, MI Riverside Community College District, CA Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, TX Texas State University-San Marcos, TX University of Arizona, AZ University of Florida, FL University of Nebraska-Kearney, NE University of Nebraska-Lincoln, NE University of Nevada-Las Vegas, NV University of Nevada-Reno, NV University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, NC University of North Texas, TX University of Northern Colorado, CO University of Texas-Arlington, TX University of Texas-Dallas, TX University of Texas-El Paso, TX Villanova University, PA Virginia Commonwealth University, VA

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New player enters campus banking game

Santander brings international experience to U.S. Santander Universities U.S. is the latest player to enter the U.S. campus card banking market, and the bank intends to lay down roots in its new home. The Spain-based institution is among the world’s 20 largest financial institutions with strong presence in Europe, Latin America, Asia and now North America.

Santander bought Boston-based Sovereign Bank in 2009 marking the Spanish bank’s first retail presence in North America. “We had to upgrade the existing systems (at Sovereign) and that’s why we are later entering the campus market than we’d originally planned,” says

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Samuelson Drummond, vice president of smart cards at Santander Universities U.S. Santander is no stranger on campus.

Already 264 universities use Santander Universities card systems throughout the world, dating back to its first contracts with Spanish universities in 1995. The presence in Europe translates into experience with EMV and with contactless card technology – features it hopes to bring to campuses in the U.S. when the time is right.

“In most of our other countries, the cards we issue are dual-interface contact

and contactless smart cards,” says Drummond. “The cards in the U.S. aren’t the final product that we plan to offer to U.S. institutions, but because the market here hasn’t migrated from mag stripe to EMV, we haven’t made that available yet. But we will be ready when the time comes.”

The company is a believer in smart card technology and wants to bring that to campuses in the U.S. “We see smart cards as an opportunity to increase value to universities and colleges that we serve,” Drummond says. “For example, we always offer a card with both mag stripe and contactless technology. We see

it as an opportunity to transfer technology to the university.”

Santander Universities is a global division that maintains offices in each of the countries it operates including Portugal, Brazil, Spain, the UK and the U.S. This global presence has enabled Santander Universities to establish a wide perspective on the campus banking formula, explains Drummond.

“Across our branches we discovered that financial literacy was something that added value to universities,” says Drummond. “In the U.S. we created a manual called the Student Money Management Guide and we train managers

Ida College, this level of service offers both value and a personal touch to the banking process.

“Santander’s commitment to offering financial literacy seminars and other educational efforts is of great value, particularly for our first generation college student population and their families,” says Laura De Veau, vice president of Student Affairs at Mount Ida College.

“While Santander is an international bank, the local connection has made the relationship very positive and quite genuine.”

Mount Ida students, at their sole discretion, can choose to activate the

WE ALWAYS OFFER A CARD WITH BOTH MAG STRIPE AND CONTACTLESS TECHNOLOGY. WE SEE IT AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO TRANSFER TECHNOLOGY TO THE UNIVERSITY. to provide financial literacy lectures and classes to increase knowledge of money management.”

The extra attention to student financial literacy has been a valuable asset to Santander’s partnering institutions and their students.

“Institutions have requested that we take part in the student orientation, providing information to students when they arrive, and in some cases we conduct lectures and seminars for parents as well,” says Drummond. “It’s amazing, but usually the reason kids don’t know how to manage money is that their parents don’t know how to manage money.

For many of us, this is information that we think is basic, but it is really good for anyone maintaining a bank account.”

For one of Santander Universities’ partnering institutions, Boston’s Mount

Santander bank account and debit card feature on their student ID card, explains De Veau. “Our next phase is to make use of the card’s contactless MiFare technology by upgrading our residential access control and using the cards to track student engagement and participation in campus programs.”

Santander’s presence in the Boston area has been bolstered in part by its former namesake, Sovereign Bank, as it offered an opportunity to continue pre-existing relationships like that of Boston’s Wheelock College.

“Based upon the strong relationship Wheelock had with Sovereign Bank, we opted to move forward and continue the relationship through the transition with Santander,” says Beth Kaplan, Communications Manager, Wheelock College.

“We wanted a bank that provided the accounts and services necessary for us to manage college business and serve our students and employees with service fees that are reasonable and competitive,” says Kaplan.

In addition to their optional debit card functionality, Wheelock College is using its Santander-issued cards for entry to campus buildings and residence halls as well as access to campus services like dining, vending and laundry.

One service that Santander Universities will not be offering, however, is the disbursement of financial aid. “We are not specialists in disbursement and opted not to enter this market,” explains Samuelson.

At this point the Santander Universities team has no plans to issue prepaid cards. “Our clients have not expressed interest in the solution,” he says.

“We thought about issuing a prepaid card in the past, but as the economy was improving, we didn’t see a lot of demand for a prepaid card from the universities,” he adds.

Rather than offering a prepaid solution, Samuelson maintains that a solid financial education can provide far more value to a student over the long term.

“We really believe in teaching students to handle a real checking account,” he explains.

The key for Samuelson and Santander Universities U.S. is to establish a longstanding relationship with its partnering institutions as well as with the students they serve.

“We don’t have a short term vision about our student relationship,” says Samuelson. “We don’t want them to overdraft their account and end their relationship in the beginning, we want them to bank with us as students, at the beginning of their career, for their first car loan, their mortgage and so on.”

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50 BUILDINGS

ONE

PHYSICAL ACCESS SYSTEM

ACADEMY OF ART IN SAN FRANCISCO TAKES CAMPUS CARD CITY-WIDE

Maintaining physical security in 50 buildings over 47-square miles is a daunting challenge. But it was one the Academy of Art University in San Francisco faced in order to protect and serve its 18,000 students.

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The school unlocked the doors during normal business hours and locked them at night. A host was on duty at each site, but keeping tracks of hundreds if not thousands of students walking in and out of various buildings each day was an

enormous task. The university wanted a system that would reduce crime, secure buildings and above all make the campus a safer place, says Mike Petricca, campus safety director at the Academy of Art University.

With the prior system criminals targeted the buildings for theft, Petricca says.

“People pretended to be students and walked right past the host,” he adds.

Seven-years ago the school decided to pilot a student ID access system with 14 buildings, Petricca says. Since then it’s expanded to 40 buildings and a multipurpose ID that is used for more than just physical access. The school has installed 260 readers to protect every residential hall and computer lab, and plans are underway to rollout to its remaining buildings.

Installing new readers is an ongoing process as buildings are acquired and rooms housing valuable equipment are added.

The old campus safety program that was augmented by security guards has been replaced with a new, 24-hour patrol team, a campus communications center with emergency dispatching service and

round-the-clock safety hosts stationed at most buildings.

Since the school had left buildings unlocked and used old-fashioned metal keys, there were concerns that students would be upset with the change. This was not the case. “From the very beginning it was well embraced,” says Petricca.

ANATOMY OF THE NEW SECURITY INFRASTRUCTURE The Academy of Art deployed HID Global technology around campus. The school contracted with Microbiz Security which recommended the HID Global iCLASS SE platform, including the company’s multiCLASS SE readers that can support both entry-level prox cards and high security contactless smart cards. The institution opted to deploy both Indala low-frequency proximity cards as well as HID Global’s iCLASS SE smart card credentials.

Approximately 25,000 cards are in use at any given time, and card numbers are tracked in the manufacturing process to ensure that card numbers are not duplicated.

The multiCLASS SE readers are at the front and back doors of the buildings where students must tap for access. They are required to flash their ID to the host when they walk in, Petricca explains. An intercom system enables students to ask for access if they forgot their ID card.

The readers are IP-enabled to communicate with the central campus back-

bone, but each building has its own sysThe university also uses the cards for tem in case the larger network experiences its part- and full-time employee payroll an outage. system.

The academy uses PeopleSoft to manFuture considerations include: age access for the campus ID system. Stu using the cards for student attendents are entered into the system and are dance systems granted access to the appropriate build enabling students to carry the ID ings on the first day of class. When the cards on their smart phones term ends all student access is revoked. verifying access to the 40 buses that Physical access transport students was the primary to university builddriver behind the

BY THE NUMBERS ings around the ID cards, Petricca city. says, but other uses The school has installed HID multisoon emerged.

CLASS SE readers to protect every But it still all The card can also residential hall and computer lab. comes back to sebe used to enter curity. Deploying Urban Knights 18,000 students the new physical sporting events or 50 buildings access control sysmake purchases 47-square miles tem has drastically using Knight 260 access control readers reduced theft and Kash – the univerburglary making sity’s declining the classrooms balance program and residence halls for on-campus dining, cashless vending safer, Petricca says. Safety, he stresses, was and off-campus purchases at partnering the original intent and remains the most merchants. crucial goal.

Spring 2014

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27

The future of campus card servers On-campus, hosted or in the cloud?

ANDREW HUDSON, ASSOCIATE EDITOR, AVISIAN PUBLICATIONS

Throughout their history, dedicated servers have been a fact of life for card programs both large and small. Over time, however, the evolution of campus card systems and advancements in computing technology have given rise to newer alternatives to the traditional, dedicated server.

Card offices now have a wealth of options to choose from that can enable them to either leverage in-house servers or eliminate hardware altogether. What, then, should an institution consider when weighing its options?

Traditionally, the issue posed by inhouse servers has been the cost of maintenance and human resources to keep them running. Additionally, in-house servers require physical space that must be secured and protected against the outside world and the natural disasters it can bring.

Using this logic, then, minimizing the number of servers needed to manage a system would make sense for any institution. But minimizing and eliminating are two very different things.

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One alternative to the traditional server setup is Software as a Service. This architecture enables a school to cut back on – or eliminate altogether – server hardware on campus by either moving the card system to the cloud, or hosting it in an off-site server via a third-party provider.

Software as a Service essentially gives institutions the opportunity to outsource its card system. It can be an ideal fit when in-house expertise is limited or resources are constrained.

But as outsourcing has gained momentum, another shift has taken place.

Computing power has increased and the price of physical servers has fallen, making the cost argument against campus-hosted servers a debatable topic.

“The major advantage of on-site servers is total control over your system and the data stored within,” says Brian Adoff, executive vice president at NuVision Networks. “Cloud computing is light years ahead of where it was a handful of years ago, both in terms of speed and reliability,

but it still can’t compete with an on-site system,” he suggests.

Comparisons aside, Adoff points out that in-house servers remain a core element of higher education. “I’m not aware of a campus without an IT department that doesn’t already support on-site servers,” says Adoff. “In the past, bringing on a One Card system meant purchasing and maintaining a $10,000+ hardware server, but today virtualized servers are drastically bringing those costs down.”

UNDERSTANDING SAAS Initial approaches to server reduction and outsourcing have led to some confusion between the various solutions available to institutions.

In the 90’s Application Service Provider, or ASP, was the buzzword. ASPs hosted and managed specialized applications, helping organizations to reduce costs through central administration.

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A predecessor to the contemporary Software-as-a-Service model, ASPs hosted dedicated third-party applications on behalf of clients. This would be similar to a campus card vendor offering to host a university’s dedicated system, eliminating the need for on-campus hosting.

It’s particularly important to recognize the differences between hosted services and Software-as-a-Service solutions, explains Kent Pawlak, director of Product Strategy at Blackboard Transact.

“Hosted solutions generally involve moving the same application, deployed on-premise, to a remote hosting facility with each application continuing to be dedicated for a single organization or tenant,” says Pawlak.

server virtualization and multi-tenancy are also transforming the server market.

A virtual server essentially acts as a real, physical computer with one notable difference: the software being run on a virtual server is separated from hardware resources. One machine can run many virtual servers and one virtual server can easily migrate from one machine to others.

Virtual servers can be installed locally or in hosted hardware and can provide management, portability, recovery and scaling benefits, explains Pawlak.

The virtual route offers more flexibility than other options and can be provisioned without an up-front hardware purchase.

The most recent developments in server technology, however, have taken place in

THE CURRENT SAAS TREND SHOWS VENDORS CONSOLIDATING SERVERS, LEVERAGING ADVANCEMENTS IN COMPUTING POWER AND REDUCING RELATIVE COSTS “Today, a school on the East Coast can host a campus card system in a data center in California,” says Taran Lent, vice president of Product Development at CardSmith. “But when you do that you haven’t materially changed the economics or logistics around service delivery. You haven’t created any benefit or leverage, you’ve only moved where you’re hosting the system from point A to point B.” Software as a Service and most cloudbased applications, on the other hand, are designed to enable many institutions to share software and hardware with logical separations of data.

VIRTUAL SERVERS, MULTITENANCY BRING CHANGE The current Software-as-a-Service trend shows vendors consolidating servers, leveraging advancements in computing power and reducing relative costs. In addition to the Software-as-a-Service model,

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the cloud, giving rise to a new model called multi-tenancy.

In a multi-tenant environment, numerous clients share the same application, running on the same hardware and operating system. The distinction between these clients is established during application design, ensuring that customers don’t share or see each other’s data.

“Clients aren’t required to learn or manage a proprietary software program, rather they define their own business objectives and requirements and work with a service provider to achieve them,” says Donna Franklin, vice president of marketing and communications at CardSmith.

CardSmith heralds this multi-tenant platform, what it calls a shared infrastructure. “It’s creating an economy of scale for customers, as many schools can leverage the one platform,” says Lent.

For some campuses it is impractical to buy a transaction system and then further invest in staff to manage and operate the

system. “There’s virtually no economy of scale there; that’s about as expensive as you could do it,” Lent adds.

The “one system for each user” model leads to massive inefficiency. As Lent explains, processes, infrastructures and staff resources are replicated many times over, making for a more expensive model than a multi-tenant cloud platform where administrative costs are distributed across hundreds of clients in a cooperative manner.

WHICH STRUCTURE IS BEST? Institutions have different demands and different populations to serve so the choice of how best to deploy servers is not one size fits all.

Whether an on-premise, hosted or Software-as-a-Service structure, finding the right fit comes down to the application purpose, network infrastructure and the institution’s human resource capabilities.

“A hosted solution can reduce time spent on system maintenance and database upkeep and it can also give universities more flexibility in evaluating systems since they aren’t constrained to solutions utilizing only the type of servers their IT department agrees to manage,” says Read Winkelman, vice president of sales at CBORD. In addition to its core campus-hosted platform, CBORD offers a suite of hosted add-ons and services that offers universities strong benefits. These include the company’s GET solution for online and mobile account management and ordering and the UGryd commerce solution for off-campus programs.

“Our customers really like the easy access it provides, extending their commerce program without requiring any more resources,” says Winkelman. “The online and mobile format of these services reduces card office workload and traffic.”

Similarly, Blackboard Transact offers certain functions and services via SaaS architecture as a complement to its traditional client-hosted core system.

“We offer SaaS self-service applications as well as on-premise, hosted, and mixed

deployment transaction applications,” he explains. “And the increasing desire of institutions to move more applications to hosted and SaaS offerings is leading us to develop more solutions to meet that need.”

For some institutions, it may be appealing to know that their system is being supported and managed by experts. Externally hosted options can alleviate some of the university’s responsibility for security compliance, migrating at least a portion of the burden to the provider rather the campus.

As CardSmith’s Lent explains, ”advancements in computing happen at a rapid pace so for mission-critical enterprise services it makes sense to run on the best equipment possible as every few years there is a material improvement.”

Another benefit of the hosted structure can be found when it’s time to update the system. Typically a burden for institutions with dedicated, in-house servers, with hosted solutions the latest system updates can be deployed to all users automatically.

“With a managed, hosted service, CardSmith is continually making investments in its infrastructure,” says Lent. “It’s a headache that our clients don’t have to deal with.”

Disaster recovery procedures are another headache that can be alleviated by outsourcing. “Most schools that self operate don’t have true disaster recovery measures in place primarily because it’s prohibitively expensive to have stand-by hardware and software ready to go at a different geographic location,” Lent explains.

LET’S NOT BE HASTY While there are clear benefits, not all check marks flow to the SaaS side of the comparison chart. Most agree that a centralized, campus-hosted model has advantages that make it the preferred choice for many environments.

The consensus is that self-hosted systems offer the campus greater control and can make it easier to innovate.

Despite the benefits of server reduction, Winkelman cautions universities to first

consider their specific needs before making the decision to host off site.

“Carefully weigh the cost of a externally hosting service to your realistic cost of system maintenance,” says Winkelman.

“Many campus card systems are so easy to use that, in practice, you receive the ease of use touted by a hosted solution without paying a provider to host it for you.”

“With self-hosting there are fewer com-

integrated system, he says. “In order to get ready for a new semester a school must send in their meal plan changes and access rules ahead of time to the SaaS vendor,” says Adoff. “Then they must contact the vendor to run reports, reset passwords or create logins for their staff.”

“We’ve found that dollar savings from removing manual tasks through the data integration and the benefits from be-

MANY CAMPUS CARD SYSTEMS ARE SO EASY TO USE THAT YOU RECEIVE THE EASE OF USE TOUTED BY A HOSTED SOLUTION WITHOUT PAYING A PROVIDER TO HOST IT munication points of failure for applications like security alarm monitoring and remote door control,” says Blackboard’s Pawlak.

“Generally, universities that opt to keep servers in house do so because they desire to better leverage the data in their enterprise resource planning (ERP) system,” says NuVision’s Adoff. “This allows them to better customize and automate their business rules and operating procedures.”

With SaaS there is a tradeoff between simplicity and customization. It is an important consideration for institutions that maintain complex card programs and integrate tightly with other campus systems.

It’s a priority that Adoff has seen first hand.

Additionally, some universities may feel more comfortable hosting private or sensitive data – gender, GPA, class status – in a physical location it controls. With a hosted solution, that information leaves the confines of the campus; it’s a matter of preference on the part of the university.

“I spoke with a school administrator using an SaaS system who is completely happy with the overall product and service, yet is looking to switch to a non-SaaS system because of the problems that occur when a system has no data integration back to the school’s ERP,” says Adoff.

With SaaS, importing data is more difficult to automate that it is with a campus-

ing able to easily incorporate card usage data for things like retention and student engagement outweigh the perceived savings from outsourcing the server management,” Adoff explains.

THE TAKEAWAY For many, the aversion to in-house servers is little more than a legacy fear. Advancements in server technology have streamlined the required number of servers, enabling universities to embrace virtual servers when appropriate or move their operation to the cloud in pursuit of the highest value for the dollar.

Multi-tenancy is ideal for Web applications but for highly customized and enterprise-level solutions, it can be limiting.

There will always be a trade-off – passing the controls to a third-party vendor comes at the expense of customization, but the maintenance cost and drain on human resources can be reduced.

The SaaS architecture can offer real advantages over its in-house counterpart, but it may not make sense for every campus as managing servers is anything but an impossible feat. A university should consider SaaS if the business drivers make sense, but doing so simply to avoid the deployment and management of a couple of servers just doesn’t add up.

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Card office customer service: No traffic can mean job well done BURT REYNOLDS, COMMUNICATIONS & CUSTOMER RELATIONS REPRESENTATIVE, BUSINESS AUXILIARY SERVICES, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO

In my five years in the campus card industry, I have noticed that the focus has shifted more and more to two main components: technology and security. Rightfully so, as these are the key components that make up any successful identification program: some type of credential – the technology – and the objective of that credential – security.

As important as these components are, however, it is equally important to remember why we are in this business. Yes, for some it may be to design the newest and greatest biometric software or identity solution, but ultimately we are in it for the benefit of our customers. In the world of campus cards, our customers use our products for everything from identification to access and from a debit card to a soda can opener. Regardless of the use, however, they expect the card to work without fail every time.

Recently, I have found myself asking why customer service is important in our field. Students need us more than we need them, right? Does it matter if I treat my customers poorly? They are still going to need their ID, and it isn’t like they can do it without me. Or can they?

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Soon there will be those who do not remember having to turn a mechanical key to open a door. For those us who remember, imagine which is more troublesome for the customer: fumbling with that key or swiping a magnetic stripe that fails. At least with the key the customer can still gain access to the room. Poor customer service, much like a faulty magnetic stripe, will make the customer long for the day when all they had to do was put a key in the lock.

Let’s be honest, our ID credential is not the only one in our customer’s wallet. I probably have ten ID cards in my wallet from various organizations so there is no question of who I am. Our customers also have multiple debit cards, separate keys and some even have a real can open for their soda. So why do they need us?

That is where customer service comes in. We all believe that our ultimate goal is to make life easier for our customers, but believe it or not we often have to sell that idea to them. Customer service is essential in our business because, yes the customer can get the same results from other services. Sure, we can all agree that we should provide quality customer service because it is the right thing to do. I too am a firm

believer in the Golden Rule. But it’s more than that; we are all in the business of sales.

We have to sell the idea that our product is worth the customer’s time.

So what does the customer want from us?

Honestly, not much. Primarily, they want their credential to work. They don’t want to interact with us on a regular basis.

When they do lose their card, they want the interaction with our office to be as quick and efficient as possible.

The truth is that it does not take much to keep a customer satisfied. In fact, if a customer doesn’t remember who or where we are, then we’re doing a fantastic job.

Our job is very much behind the scenes, just like many others on a busy college campus. Our customers want to use our product without ever having to think about it. When they come into our offices, they want to be able to leave without incident.

It’s simple really. As long as the credential works and we aren’t rude, we can stay in the game.

But what if we want to get ahead of the game?

The field of identification and security is moving quickly in pursuit of the latest and greatest technology. To grow a card program we have to stay on top of technology, but to do so we must sell our customers on the benefits. More selling means increasing or improving our level of service. Now we must go beyond keeping the customer satisfied and actually make them happy.

As we strive to grow our card programs, it is vital that we not lose focus on what is best for the customer in the pursuit of the newest or coolest technology. Advances in technology for the sole purpose of advancing technology are often lost on the end user. Yes, facial recognition is awesome, but when that system fails to open the door, the customer is going to once again wish for that mechanical key.

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Making a case for

wireless access control A small women’s college located in South Hadley, Mass., Mount Holyoke, opted to go in a new direction with its access control system installing wireless locksets throughout the 800-acre campus. Mount Holyoke’s Department of Auxiliary Services decided that wireless access control was the perfect fit for its 41 total buildings, 20 residential and 21 administrative.

All 2,100 students reside in campus housing, and Mount Holyoke has installed more than 1,000 devices across the campus with an additional 500 monitored points.

The institution’s longtime campus card supplier, Heartland Campus Solutions, provides the system.

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“It didn’t take long for us to figure out that wireless access control would be good for us,” says Doug Vanderpoel, director of Auxiliary Services. “It was easy to configure, easy to add on to and there were no issues with frequency interference from other devices on campus.”

Mount Holyoke uses a magnetic stripe for physical access but the college is testing contactless smart cards as a potential alternative. They are also trialing Heartland’s mobile app, which uses cellular and Wi-Fi to open doors.

The decision to go wireless coincided with Mount Holyoke’s expansion of its residential infrastructure. “Around the

time we were considering the wireless access solution, we had a new dorm coming up and we wanted to implement Heartland’s online, fully wireless card access,” says Vanderpoel. “Facilities management was on board because the locks themselves are simple to install, requiring only a carpenter or locksmith and no electrician or low voltage technicians.”

Allegion, formerly Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies, manufactures the AD-Series wireless locks that are used at Mount Holyoke. The new locksets use the 900MHz band to update and transmit encrypted information through the air. The

wireless locksets can support all major card technologies.

Mount Holyoke took advantage of the flexibility that the wireless locksets provide. “For example, we had a lot of wired doors on campus, but had some doors that didn’t require or merit the kind of attention that a controller and hardwiring provides; it’s a lot of work and a lot money,” explains Vanderpoel.

One challenge was the institution’s smaller student-used buildings where wireless access control has been an ideal fit. “Many of our buildings are standard houses in surrounding neighborhoods that have been converted into campus buildings, and there is a lot of student traffic and activity,” says Vanderpoel. “Also, we

locksets. In turn, multiple Panel Interface Modules are wired to the campus network to communicate with the security system’s larger control panels.

“The control panels have a backup of transactions and the readers do as well,” says Fred Emery, Vice President of Sales, Heartland Campus Solutions. “So, if you lose network connectivity to a control panel, it can still communicate through the PIM to the readers. Additionally, if the wireless communication between a reader and PIM is lost, a reader can still operate using its stored local list,” he explains.

Wireless systems can be impacted by power outages, but in the case of Mount Holyoke, the wireless system has a failsafe in place.

OUR STANDARD FOR RESIDENCE HALLS IS TO HAVE A WIRELESS ACCESS READER ON EACH DORM DOOR AND SUITE DOOR recently constructed new athletic fields that require access rights for students. It’s difficult to get wires out there, so we used wireless.”

The transition to wireless access control has been a smooth one for Vanderpoel and Mount Holyoke.

“Today, our standard for residence halls is to have a wireless access reader on each dorm door and suite door,” says Vanderpoel. “We also use the readers for doors at multi-use facilities. If students are using it, it gets a card reader. If just facilities or house keepers are using a door it doesn’t get a reader, but if they share access with students, then it does.”

ARCHITECTURE PROTECTS AGAINST OUTAGES At each door, a wireless lockset controls access by communicating with its assigned Panel Interface Module (PIM), which is capable of managing up to 16 individual

“Even if all that power goes down, the locks can still operate in an offline mode,” says Emery. “The PIM receives power from the control panel, so in the case of a power outage, as long as the control panel has battery back up, the PIM still works.”

The system can operate in this offline mode in a couple of different ways. “It can operate just off the site code – which is not very secure – or can use the last 1,000 valid transactions through that door to establish access privileges,” explains Emery. “The locks store transactions in local memory and use that stored list until a network connection is restored.”

It’s a feature that Vanderpoel implemented from day one of the new wireless system at Mount Holyoke.

He also ensured that backup power is available. “We made sure that the PIMs were on the generator circuit,” explains Vanderpoel. “This way we can take full advantage of the controller’s memory

as opposed to just the wireless locksets’ memory.”

UNIQUE INSTALLATIONS Many buildings were not wired for card access or were located in areas that were difficult to wire.

The health center dates back to the 1970s and features a great deal of masonry – a wiring headache, explains Vanderpoel. Additionally, there are four doors leading to a single loading dock. These doors would have been a difficult to wire individually, but using the wireless implementation makes for an easy and effective solution.

In another installation, a small unwired building is using wireless access control by drawing a signal from a nearby residence hall. In this case, the online hardware is located in the residence hall and broadcasts the wireless signal across the street to the smaller building’s readers.

Mount Holyoke has put wireless access control to the test both in terms of the solution’s published 200-foot radius and also its broadcast strength. Vanderpoel has seen this broadcast strength in practice, penetrating the equivalent of 10 walls. This is the most extreme case, but for the dorm installations they have followed Allegion’s guidelines.

“For the dorms we followed the recommendations by installing one Panel Interface Module per floor,” says Vanderpoel.

“There are only so many doors you can have per antenna. So for example, if the limit is 16 doors, but we need to add 19 doors, we can draw from another antenna that is close in proximity.”

This is, in fact, exactly how Vanderpoel and his staff implemented the solution at the college’s three-story Safford Hall dormitory. As the limit is 16 locksets per Panel Interface Module, Vanderpoel was faced with an antenna dilemma. “We have three floors, and on the third there are 19 locksets and a Panel Interface Module,”

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says Vanderpoel. “To account for the extra need on that floor, we steal signal from the second floor module.”

Allegion expects these kinds of patch solutions to occur, and provides a testing unit with each order that enables Vanderpoel and his staff to test and see if the signal will penetrate a wall or floor before making the system live.

Another dorm on campus, Creighton Hall, has 80 locksets spanning five floors. The building houses a multitude of wireless devices, is fully Wi-Fi, redistributes cellular service for six carriers and uses the wireless locks. It’s an intricate tapestry of wireless technology, but as Vanderpoel explains, the access control system has operated like clockwork.

“We have no issues whatsoever with the signal in these buildings,” says Vanderpoel.

THE BENEFITS The benefits that Vanderpoel has seen in the relatively short time since the campus went wireless are as evident as they are valuable.

Securing facilities and making sure cards were used over keys was a primary driver of deploying the system. “We have various conferences that come in, alumni, etc. who all get a card instead of a key, and we can remotely shut those cards down immediately,” explains Vanderpoel.

Having control over the master keys, the ease of installation associated with wireless doors, and a simpler, more streamlined process has relieved a burden on the Auxiliary Services staff. With a small workforce, any bit of congestion and complication that can be eliminated makes a difference.

LESSONS LEARNED For Mount Holyoke, and likely a number of other campuses, wireless access control represents a significant step forward in safety and convenience.

“The technology just wasn’t there at the time we were installing our system before,” says Vanderpoel. “Just from a coordination standpoint, wired doors always present an issue between personnel.

The builder doesn’t have experience with card access, so he leaves it to the electrician, who leaves it for the low voltage guy, who needs the electrician to run the conduit, and yet you still need a carpenter to actually make the door work. With a wireless lockset, all those are standalone processes.”

As if the benefits and lessons learned weren’t enough already, Vanderpoel estimates that the wireless locksets are, on average, onethird the cost of a wired door. Specifically, labor is a major factor in the price of wired doors. With wireless there is no need to hire multiple trade personnel – carpenters, electricians and low voltage specialists.

At least for Mount Holyoke, the verdict is rather clear-cut. The institution has been able to employ wireless access control to great effect, leveraging the technology’s versatility, convenience and comparably smaller price tag to forge a solution that works for the campus, its staff, and most importantly, its students.

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EXPERT PANEL

Residence hall security takes center stage BOB LEMLEY, DIRECTOR OF SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT, CBORD

Campus life begins and ends in the residence hall. Students are likely to spend more time there than anywhere else on campus. That’s why colleges and universities are putting greater focus than ever before on securing these central hubs of activity.

No problem, you can open your door by sending a text message or by launching an app. This mobile control dramatically reduces the number of lockouts that RAs and other staff members respond to. Plus, the more ways students have to unlock their doors, the less

of opening their doors, lockouts are reduced. When they do occur, resident advisors can send a text message to temporarily elevate their privileges, letting them open students’ doors using their own cards.

This process is fully auditable so all occupants of the room,

THE MOVE TO ONLINE ACCESS CONTROL WITHIN RESIDENCE HALLS WILL DRIVE HOME THE FACT THAT WE NO LONGER NEED TO SACRIFICE CONVENIENCE FOR SECURITY In the past, residence hall security consisted largely of metal keys on interior doors and perhaps electronic access control on exterior doors.

Where traditional locks had been replaced, we saw many keypads and offline, hotel-style locks. While these technologies have their uses, they are not ideal for the online, networked world with which today’s students are accustomed.

Today, a focus on security and accountability has led more universities to extend online access control throughout the residence hall. Not only are universities outfitting student room doors with online card readers, they are also making access easier with cellphones.

Left your card in your room?

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likely they are to prop them open.

In 2014, more universities will realize the benefits of online access control in residence halls. These include:

REDUCED COSTS When a metal key is lost, universities take on the cost of rekeying and re-coring the door (perhaps hundreds of doors in the case of a master key). If a card is lost, privileges can be immediately revoked with the tap of a button.

EASIER RESPONSES TO LOCKOUTS When students have their phones as back-up methods

along with selected managers, can receive a text or email notifying them of the access and the reason for it.

IMPROVED SECURITY & AUDIT TRAILS The easier it is for students to unlock their doors, the more likely they are to lock them.

This increase in security comes along with greatly improved audit trails for the university.

In the event of criminal activity, online access control makes it easy to report on the state of the door during the specified incident (e.g., was the door propped open when the theft occurred?). This information aids investigations and helps

manage the university’s liability.

LOCKDOWNS MADE EASY Campus lockdowns frequently make headlines and schools are looking for the most effective ways to handle them.

With online locks, the process is simple thanks to real-time communication with the readers. Universities can also exercise greater control over the areas affected by lockdowns.

For example, administrators can lock down a single building, all perimeter doors or the entire campus with a single click. Online access control lets universities tailor their responses for each situation.

As campus safety remains a priority for students, parents and administrators, residence hall security will become an even greater focal point. The move to online access control within the residence hall, especially with mobile-enabled methods, will drive home the fact that we no longer need to sacrifice convenience for security.

Slashing costs from the card issuance process The list of goals for campus card offices varies depending on the institution, its size and how it plans to use the student credential. However, there is one goal that seemingly runs the gamut – reducing cost.

It’s hard to ignore an opportunity to cut card issuance costs, but saving money cannot come at the expense of the card office’s efficiency and effectiveness. Where, then, should an institution looking to cut card issuance cost turn? The printer is a good place to start.

“Printer manufacturers have made it easier for campus card offices to produce professional badges for their students and employees without breaking the bank,” explains Elisabeth Afriat, marketing director at ID Security Online. “From moneysaving card printer options to cost-effective ribbon solutions, each campus can now build a successful and affordable ID card program.”

COST-CUTTING CONSIDERATIONS A lot has changed in the printer market, as new technologies have given rise to a new level of card printer. The latest ID card printers are much faster and more

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efficient than older models, which helps reduce downtime and increase productivity – advancements that, as Afriat explains, are reflected in the bottom line.

“Campuses using an outdated printer should consider that the cost of consumables and support is on average 50% higher for an older printer than for a new one,” says Afriat. Campus card managers can often receive trade-in rebates for old systems.

Saving money at the card printer requires a card office to first consider the scope of the institution’s program. “Defining the design of the ID cards, along with the data and security features that will be embedded in the cards, is critical to avoid costly mistakes,” says Afriat.

To avoid costly mistakes, Afriat explains that the campus card manager should seek answers to four key questions: Will I print on one side or both sides of the card?

How many cards will I print per year?

Will I encode data to the card, and if so, do I need mag stripe or smart cards?

Do I need extra security features on the card such as lamination or secure watermarks?

The type of printer used offers an opportunity to shave overhead costs, says Amber Hanson, senior manager of eCommerce AlphaCard.

“Instead of using expensive duplex printers – which automatically flip cards to print front and back in one run – many schools elect to use a single-sided printers and to preprint the back of the card with generic information,” explains Hanson.

“The back of most cards are printed with information that is the same for each student, while the fronts are custom printed as needed.”

Another feature that should be considered when selecting a printer is the availability of field-upgradable modules, explains Afriat. Many card printers can be upgraded onsite to adapt to evolving needs, which can cut start-up costs.

“This means that there’s no need to get a brand new machine to add a printing or encoding feature,” explains Afriat. “And you don’t need to buy a full-featured printer up front.” She says today’s most common options are dual-sided printing, encoding and Ethernet connectivity modules.

One more printer consideration involves the printing process itself, says Brett St.

Pierre, western regional manager at HID Global.

Direct-to-card technology uses a print head to apply dye directly onto the plastic card surface. Retransfer technology applies the dye to a clear transfer film, which is then adhered to the card itself.

The retransfer process reduces the print head damage that can occur when the print head makes contact with the plastic card, and any dirt or imperfections, in the directto-card process, explains St. Pierre.

TRIMMING RIBBON COSTS Universities can also save money by using a monochrome black ribbon to pre-print the back of the card, as opposed to using a full color ribbon to print in black.

Pre-printing the generic card information with a black ribbon is much less expensive than wasting a full color ribbon to print a single color.

The card back can also be preprinted before the cards arrive on campus eliminating the need to print this side of the card onsite altogether. “Preprinting the backs can reduce print times dramatically,” says Mark Degan, corporate marketing manager at ColorID. “And the cost typically evens out whether preprinting the backs or buying a different ribbon and printing them in house.”

Some campuses even opt to preprint the static elements on the front as well.

“Pre-printing cards with certain information ahead of time – school seal, logo, mission statement and other visual security elements – can be done either in-house or through a third-party service,” says St. Pierre. “The remaining items can be printed at the time of issuance using faster, partial-ribbon printing on one side of the card only.”

This not only cuts print time, but also reduces ribbon and transfer film costs, St. Pierre explains.

Preprinting static color elements on the front can result in cards that are less prone to fade over time and have superior image resolution and quality. “With this fully

preprinted card stock, half panel ribbons are a great option because the campus only has to print the photo and variable text,” Degan adds.

While the printer itself is a vital piece of the puzzle, Afriat explains that the most common mistake is selecting the wrong consumables. “Most campuses use a standard YMCKO color ribbon to print their student badges, neglecting two cost-effective options: YMCKO-K and half-panel color ribbons.”

YMCKO-K is a dual-sided, six-panel card ribbon that prints full color on side one and black – represented by the additional “K” – on side two.

“When printing dual-sided badges, a YMCKO ribbon is the right choice if the

front and back of the card are printed in full color,” says Afriat. “But if the back is only printed in black, a YMCKO-K ribbon is a lot more cost-efficient.”

An underutilized cost-cutting option is the half-panel color ribbon. “In half-panel color ribbons, the Yellow, Magenta and Cyan panels are half the size of the regular panels of a YMCKO ribbon,” explains Afriat. “This means that up to half of the card can be printed in full color while black information can be printed anywhere on the card.”

For many campus IDs only the student’s photo ID and the school’s name or logo is printed in color. “If these color items are placed on the same half of the card, buying a half-panel color ribbon will deliver twice

Features that help cut costs AlphaCard reveals a list of practices and features that can help a card office to cut start up and overhead costs.

Printer Speed: As the old adage goes, time is money.

Saving even a few seconds per print can really add up for schools that print large batches.

Hopper Size: Larger input and output hoppers can save schools time when printing larger batches. Many ID printers come with hoppers with a 50 card capacity, which means the user has to reload five times before a standard 250 print ribbon is used up.

Supply Costs: Evaluate the average cost for supplies per card for each printer.

Mid to high level ID card printers are geared towards higher volume, and generally offer a lower cost per card for ribbons and cleaning kit supplies.

Printer Warranty: A good warranty can save schools thousands of dollars in repair costs. Some warranties include free loaner coverage to help reduce internal costs of downtime.

Energy Star Rating: Many newer printers have an Energy Star Rating and will save on electricity consumption.

High Yield Ribbon: Consider printers that offer high-yield ribbons that provide a lower cost per card and will save on operational costs, as the user doesn’t need to change the ribbon or clean the printer as frequently.

Ribbon Refill: Fargo is offering a new ECO Refill Ribbon for certain printer models. Instead of throwing away both the used ribbon and the cartridge, schools can order special cartridges that can be re-spooled with a refill ribbon. In addition to reducing waste, this will also save a school in overall ribbon costs. Just make sure the user doesn’t’ accidently through away the cartridge with the used ribbon!

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the number of prints that a regular YMCKO ribbon produces.” This one move can cut an office’s ribbon costs essentially in half.

CARD STOCK CONSIDERATIONS Another opportunity to cut consumable costs is with the card stock, though not in the way you would expect. “We recommend using a composite card – a blend of polyesther and PVC – as it reduces the ID office’s need to reissue cards due to cracking from wear and abuse,” says Degan.

“Composite material helps guard against damage from bending, improper use and adverse weather.”

AlphaCard’s Hanson explains that higher quality card stock, though more expensive, can save in the long run. “Campuses often have to replace cards due to breakage so they can actually save money by using durable polyester/PVC blend cards,” says Hanson. “Although the upfront cost is greater, these cards bend more before breaking and withstand more abuse.”

Hanson suggests providing students with ID card holders to protect cards and eliminate the temptation to hole punch the card or store it in an unprotected manner. Students often punch holes in their cards so they can put them on a key ring or lanyard, but this is a common source of card breakage.

It pays, also, to keep up with the trends in advancing identification technology, explains HID Global’s St. Pierre.

He suggests that going contactless eliminates card replacement costs that can result from mag stripe damage or demagnetization – common occurrences when cards are used frequently. “It also eliminates fraud-related losses associated with mag stripe technology that typically has little or no security protections.”

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Choose a printer with efficiency features that help to speed badging and reduce registration lines, recommends Brett St. Pierre, western regional manager at HID Global. Important features to consider include:

• High throughput so that operations can be run in parallel to speed issuance – for instance, encoding one student’s card while printing another.

• Built-in programmers/ encoders that combine what previously were multiple processes into a single in-line card personalization step.

• Distributed printing capability to support both centralized and distributed printing.

This enables flexibility to pool multiple desktop units for large-volume, centralized card runs (e.g. orientation) but also lets individual units be deployed at remote locations (e.g. residence halls).

This can alleviate long card pickup lines while improving student convenience.

PROPER USE AND MAINTENANCE Another important consideration when saving money at the printer is the manpower that supports the card operation.

Hanson insists that proper training and maintenance will be key for any card operation looking to conserve resources over the lifespan of a card solution.

“Properly maintaining an ID card printer saves dollars by minimizing downtime for repair,” explains Hanson.

Printer maintenance is often considered a chore, but it’s often the small measures that make the biggest impact.

“Make sure to use a cleaning kit every time the ribbon is changed out. You can also use a can of condensed air, or blow through a straw to remove built up dust inside the machine,” Hanson explains.

“With proper care, ID card printers are much less likely to suffer damage to the print head. Typically, print heads cannot be repaired and cost around $700 to replace.”

“When searching for an ID Card Printer dealer, look for companies that include training and support in the purchase of the system,” says Hanson. “Even if the institution itself have to pay for training and support, we highly recommend it because even simple mistakes can cause printer damage, or waste printing supplies.”

TAKEAWAYS Though it may not be as apparent as the savings from printers and consumables, another way to save money in card production is to make the credentials themselves more valuable to the student. Adding features to the card creates a sense of responsibility amongst students, encouraging them to protect and keep track of their ID, Afriat explains.

No matter how you cut it, card issuance is a necessary expense for universities, but cutting costs doesn’t have to come at the expense of student safety and convenience.

The number of applications that modern campus cards can deliver is vast. So too are the number of printers and consumables.

Rest assured, a winning combination is out there. It’s a combination that, when properly struck, can provide relief to campus card offices and their budgets alike.

EXPERT PANEL

Mobile everything in 2014!

EMIL BONADUCE, VICE PRESIDENT, CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT, CARDSMITH

The burgeoning use of mobile everything.

That’s the trend. So evident is the mobile trend that you would have to be Rip Van Winkle to not notice.

Smartphone growth and usage is the biggest thing since, well, sliced bread. In fact, it’s engulfing entire economies. Samsung is producing double the volume of smartphones as compared to the incredible iPhone, and now represents 20% of the gross domestic product of South Korea.

Can 50% be that far away?

The heaviest users of mobile services are young people, millennials, and most importantly, students. But what is driving this monstrous growth? App automation.

Drudgery relief. The quest for cool. The desire for constant communication and instant gratification. Apparently, the human desire for these things is insatiable.

Before we speculate on how the power of this “trend” will contribute to the betterment of the collective college student experience, we need to take a look at where we’ve been, in terms of apps: Camera, Gallery, Email, Gmail, Maps, Navigation (amazing utilities); Pandora, Spotify (music); Candy Crush, Angry Birds, Words With Friends, Plants vs. Zombies (gaming); Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Instagram, Snapchat, Vine (social); ESPN, Yahoo (sports); Kindle, Reader, Amazon (reading and shopping); Flipboard, Feedly, NYTimes (news); Starbucks, Yelp, Dominos (dining); Uber (limo rides); and Paypal, Wallet, ISIS, Dwolla, Coinbase (payments).

So, what exciting developments can we look forward to in our industry in 2014?

Well to start off, don’t expect the plastic ID card in your wallet to disappear. Like Mark Twain’s remark about the rumors of his death, the early demise of the stu-

dent ID card – and its replacement by the smart phone – is greatly exaggerated. The expansion of the traditional plastic card to include RFID and NFC will continue. Many are aware of Disney’s experimentation with wristbands for hotel keys, ride scheduling and dining payments. The rate of change here is gradual. In mobile realm, however, it may be explosive.

The biggest trend for 2014 in the mobile arena will no doubt involve payments, things “around” payments, and the multitude of smartphone payment methods.

Vending will drive NFC although the clock is ticking and the jury is still out as to whether this technology will succeed as competing technologies emerge.

Remember Videotex? Of course, you don’t. It was supposed to deliver news, sports, entertainment, dining, etc. via a set-top box in the 1980’s. It just never went anywhere, and the broadband Internet and now smartphone apps satisfied this consumer desire. Let’s hope NFC is not the next Videotex. How about offline smartcards? They were the next big things in the ‘90’s. Today, not so much.

The simplest and most successful mobile payment app today is the one offered by Starbucks. Tap a few times, generate and scan a barcode, and voila, your latte is handed to you. The simple genius here is that the app works on virtually all phones at all stores. No swapping out merchant hardware or convincing consumers to change hardware; it is ubiquitous and frictionless. Google Wallet, PayPal, ISIS and other apps are growing as well. These apps and the growing number of apps for pizza delivery, takeout and other dining establishments will drive mobile payments in 2014.

In our business, mobile payments and applications will accelerate where they make transactions faster and easier – where they add value. For example, checking your phone to avoid busy dining halls or laundry machines, or pre-ordering and pre-paying for lunch. How could student pre-ordering by phone for pick up between classes not expand enormously? This is just the tip of the iceberg. We predict that 2014 will be the year where applications like these really take off.

Another mobility-enabled trend will involve ticketless entry and privilege verification. Here again, the mobile phone is the key. Do we know you? Do you have a seat for this concert? Did you pay for your pool access? Today this problem is often solved with paper tickets, scanning personnel, and in many cases guard radio calls. Imagine how nice it will be to use your smart phone to book tickets AND verify identity and validate privileges. It can be an end-to-end solution; the student pays for a ticket or privilege from a phone app and the cashier or security staff verifies that privilege from a companion app on a phone or tablet. No paper, no waiting, no swiping.

The third trend that will likely grow legs in the New Year is geolocation technology.

We see a world where low-energy Bluetooth devices will be deployed in arenas, stores, labs and dining halls to notify your registered smartphone with loyalty offers, sales, discounts and so forth. Reading, especially for ads and coupons, has been a dying activity, and geolocation notification may drive the dagger in the heart of sale searching. The sales will look for you! That’s real value added from mobile.

Expect more of it in 2014 and beyond.

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New tech improves campus emergency response Patrick Henry High School in Glade Spring, Va. wanted a campus-wide safety notification system that called officers to the scene quickly. Because teachers are often on the move, they needed a solution that was not limited to fixed location panic buttons. Additionally, they wanted a means to send text messages to all teachers with emergency updates without relying on the PA system.

They first considered mobile phones for notification but decided that mobile networks were better suited to sending mass notifications to parents than to managing communication within school premises

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between teachers, administrators and local police.

The solution was a mobile panic button that every teacher – regardless of their location on campus – could use to alert the police of an emergency.

Specializing in RFID location solutions, Ekahau offers a suite of wearable tags that can be used for everything from tracking teacher and student location in real time to providing a rapid means to contact emergency authorities.

The company’s real-time location system uses RFID and the school’s existing Wi-Fi network to enable teachers to alert both

on-site school personnel and off-site police with the touch of a button. Each badge contains an LED screen so teachers can receive emergency instructions in scenarios ranging from medical or security emergencies to school lockdowns.

The badges instantly make their location and pertinent information known via the school’s preexisting Wi-Fi network.

When used in conjunction with Ekahau Vision – software that displays real-time, web-based campus floor plans – police dispatchers can quickly and accurately assess an emergency and pinpoint its location.