CR80News Spring 2017

CONTACTLESS LOCKERS PROVE SMART IDEA

TRACKING STUDENT ACCESS WITH MOBILE DEVICES

CAN SMALL CAMPUSES AFFORD CARD SYSTEMS?

CR80News ID TECHNOLOGIES IN EDUCATION SPRING 2017 - ISSUE 25

NAVIGATING HOSTING’S FUTURE

CARD SYSTEMS

MOVING

S.S. CAMPUS CARD

TO SAAS

Connect cbord.com/future

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“I’m teaching a new course, traveling the world, writing a book and trying to stay in shape. Every morning when I swipe my ID card, I enter this building on a mission to help my students succeed.”

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DATACARD GROUP IS NOW ENTRUST DATACARD

CONTENTS

CONTENTS 4 Editorial: Embracing change, new tech in campus card systems 6 ID Shorts News and posts from CR80News.com

S.S. CAMPUS CARD

12 Moving card systems to SaaS Does the card still fit when retrofitting this age-old service 13 The cloud: Public vs. private 16 The argument for on-premise

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MOVING CARD SYSTEMS TO SAAS

22 Advanced card materials add durability and security to the campus ID 25 Self-service campus card kiosks hit Germany Evolis automates student ID issuance for six Berlin universities 26 Mobile ordering and delivery expand Arizona dining volume App, campus card and declining balance keys to increasing student use

18 Contactless lockers proving to be a smart idea for colleges and universities Using existing campus cards, institutions offer modern lockers with convenience and security

28 Can my smaller campus afford a campus card systems?

20 Northeastern University goes big with contactless lockers

32 Mobile ID verification made easy PockeTracker adds agility, efficiency to campus verification

30 Planning order times What to do when it’s time to restock your card office cabinet

INDEX OF ADVERTISERS 36 Blackboard www.blackboard.com/transact/Top5saas

2

CBORD

www.cbord.com/community

9

ColorID

ADVANCED CARD MATERIALS ADD DURABILITY AND SECURITY TO THE CAMPUS ID

22

www.ColorID.com

35 Entrust Datacard www.datacard.com/CR80

29 Heartland www.1card.com

15 Gantner www.gantner.com

23 Identification Systems Group www.IdentificationSystemsGroup.com

31 MyPhoto www.studentidphoto.com

21 NACCU www.naccu.org

5

SARGENT

www.personacampus.com

MOBILE ID VERIFICATION MADE EASY

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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, Autumn Cafiero Giusti, Gina Jordan 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$39 ($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 four times each 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 2017 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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PERSPECTIVE

Embracing change, new tech in campus card systems ANDREW HUDSON, ASSOCIATE EDITOR, AVISIAN PUBLICATIONS

As we prepped for the annual National Association of Campus Card Users Conference, the vision was to construct an issue filled with articles highlighting the perpetual wave of technology. But in our pursuit of the latest industry advancements, an unintentional theme emerged: embracing change.

This issue is packed with new ways of thinking and operating. You’ll read about how contactless is making student lockers hip again. You’ll see a new means of card issuance via automated campus card kiosk We also detail a mobile-based verification tool that any campus – regardless of system vendor -- can leverage.

But the big fish in this issue is our look at the software-as-a-service (SaaS) hosting model that is taking campus card servers off premise. In interviewing for the story it quickly became clear that idea still split opinions – some applaud it as a godsend alleviating burdens from campus staff while others see it as a fetal position inducing worry.

This was a bit surprising to me. My experience with SaaS has been a highly positive one. At CR80News, we were able to move the server that powers our site from a closet in our offices to a series of secure, virtual servers dispersed around the globe in the public cloud. Instead of reliance on a single machine and one internal IT resource, we are now backed by the expertise and computing power of a global organization.

If you were to ask me if I wanted to move a software system to a SaaS environment, I’d ask, “When can we start?” But for others it will be a more calculated decision. In the near term, some campuses will change hosting models and many will not. Either decision is perfectly acceptable so long as the idea of change is embraced rather than feared.

Being agile enough to accept new ways of operation is crucial because change will come. With SaaS that change has already happened on a global level. Card systems are just another in the long line of applications considering off-premise hosting.

We each have our go-to’s, our defaults, our preferred practices. As creatures of habit, it’s only natural. But when those habits turn to routines, or worse yet ruts, it’s vital that we shock the system and start anew. It can be as simple as a small tweak in our day-to-day, or a wholesale change or hard reset.

In a sense, card offices work in a similar fashion. With all that the average card office has to juggle, it makes sense to lean on tried and true processes. But when something new comes along that can revamp the operation, it’s those that are willing to adapt and embrace change that will ultimately reap the benefits.

Embracing new ways of doing things is vital. Don’t jump blindly, but likewise don’t fear change. See you in Orlando.

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ID SHORTS HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE WEB

DRAKE AND YALE’S PREFERRED NAME POLICIES INCLUDES CAMPUS CARDS Yale has moved to better support gender inclusivity on campus with a new, streamlined preferred name policy. As reported by the Yale Daily News, with the new policy comes, for the first time, the option to change a student’s name on their campus card.

The new policy has been welcomed

by LGBTQ activists and enables students to alter their first name on various official Yale documents, email addresses, student ID cards and campus directories.

ED

PREFERR

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Students wishing to take advantage of the new policy can do so by completing a form on the student information systems website, which replaces an older process that required “significant administrative work.”

The decision to streamline the preferred first name process was aided in part by the university’s Office of LGBTQ Resources. Students and administrators had both expressed the idea that old system was clunky and required an inordinate amount of both digital and physical paperwork, which acted as a deterrent for many students.

The university’s Office of LGBTQ Resources estimates that some 30% of Yale students currently report using preferred first names on Yale forms. The U.S. Department of Education provided guidance to Yale on the issue earlier in 2016, while the Office of LBGTQ Resources has been recommending the change to Yale administration for nearly 6 years.

At Drake University the preferred name policy will enable students to change the first name that appears on many university platforms, ranging from email addresses to the campus card.

Per a report from The Times-Delphic, the new preferred name policy is slated for launch in the coming weeks, and has been on the docket for some time with interior discussions of a policy dating as far back as five years.

The policy finished its public review period last week and will enable all Drake students to submit the first name of their choice to appear on non-legal documents and other, select university platforms.

Included in the policy will be campus cards, residence hall rosters, Blackboard and MyDUSIS databases, class rosters, advisor lists and email addresses.

As at other institutions, the preferred name policy at Drake is designed to alleviate any confusion over how a student identifies. The preferred name policy will attempt to avoid this by displaying for teachers only the preferred name on class rosters.

ID SHORTS

Drake’s Director of Student Engagement, Equity and Inclusion stated in a Times-Delphic interview that the preferred name policy has been discussed at the university for some time, but the project really took off after a 2014 campus pride index assessment – a national assessment tool administered by the Campus Pride organization. The index is designed to gauge LGBTQ inclusion on college campuses, and Drake received 2 stars out of a possible five.

About a year ago, and following the index score, a working group was formed at Drake with members from campus IT and student records, which ultimately formed the preferred name policy.

Prior to the new preferred name policy, Drake accommodated students seeking a name change on a case-by-case basis.

With the new policy, university officials hope that for a simplified pursuit of a

preferred name with an easier, more recognized process.

According to Drake Student Engagement, Equity and Inclusion, some 1,300 students currently have a preferred name in the system that differs from the name with which they arrived at Drake. Of those students, 900 have preferred names that are deemed “significantly different” from their legal name. International students who often assume a more common name are included in this figure.

Emails are also being sent to the campus community to further explain the policy and how it will work. Students can begin the preferred name submission process on the university’s MyDUSIS system under a “personal information” tab. There, students can download the necessary form to submit a preferred name and also check if they already have a preferred name.

CASHLESS KEY TO BOOSTING VENDING SPEND Vending is a core component of virtually every campus card program and the service has come a long way. The shift to cashless vending has brought a new wave of convenience and utility to users, and removing the need for cash or coin has been a boon to the industry.

As reported by the Vending Times, a new survey conducted by Texas-based Parlevel Systems reveals that some 51% of American adults under the age of 30 prefer non-cash means of payment. 51% even report using credit or debit cards for purchases under $5 – the prime vending price range.

Parlevel conducted the survey based on its vending operator customers who now use the company’s namesake pay system. “We know that accepting cashless payments is a must to appeal to younger

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Americans, but what are the tangible benefits of installing a vending card reader?” asks Christopher Blomquist, Parlevel’s marketing content manager.

Part of the increase in spending with cashless could be the result of patrons not feeling the same “pain” when using a card as parting with cash tender.

In a study of machines equipped with Parlevel Pay cashless readers in San Antonio, average machine sales per service cycle increased 42% when a vending card reader was installed, Blomquist explains.

Of that, cashless payments accounted for 32%, while 10% of the increase was attributed to higher cash sales.

Average transaction value also increased with the addition of cashless capabilities. The average cashless vend-

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ing sale was $1.60, compared to $1.21 average for cash transactions.

The survey also indicated that net sales increase with the addition of cashless with an average machine collection of $128 per month, an increase of nearly $40 over cash-only machines.

Understandably, younger user bases are the more likely to leverage cashless options at the vending machine. “It’s important to prioritize which machines would benefit from cashless the most, in order to speed up return on investment,” Blomquist said. “Locations that are frequented by younger consumers and transient areas are the best bets for rapid cashless success.”

As mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Android Pay grow in popularity, Blomquist also stresses the importance

for cashless readers to expand cashless capabilities further still by accepting more than just credit and debit cards.

UNIVERSITY SAYS ‘NO’ TO CAMPUS CARD PAYMENTS FOR FAKE TANNING The University of Massachusetts Medical School has taken a hard stance against students fake tanning, and with research conducted internally, is leading the charge to remove the campus card as a payment option for tanning services.

According to a university release, UMass’ Sherry Pagoto, PhD, professor of medicine, documented the number of American universities that allowed students to pay for indoor tanning beds

ID SHORTS

with campus debit cards. According to the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, 23 of those 37 institutions have since ended the practice.

Research has shown that indoor tanning is linked with an increased risk of melanoma, particularly among teenagers and young adults. Pagoto has stated previously her doubts that any university would intentionally promote something they know is harmful, like tanning but says that tanning beds located on or near campus combined with campus card payment acceptance could be interpreted as a university endorsement of the practice.

After reviewing the top 150 residential colleges in the United States, Pagoto and

her colleagues found that 26.6% supported campus card payments for tanning services. Pagoto contacted university officials at the 37 institutions identified in the initial survey, encouraging them to dissolve campus affiliations with tanning salons.

Neighboring New England institutions Salem State University and the University of New Hampshire are two such campuses that have opted to halt the use of their campus cards’ debit functionality at tanning salons.

Several states have also passed legislation that bans minors from indoor tanning. While researchers are encouraged that 15 states including Massachusetts

have now banned indoor tanning for minors, they remain concerned by the fact that college-aged adults comprise the highest rates of indoor tanning users.

Pagoto as the co-chair for the Indoor Tan-Free Skin Smart Campus Initiative plans to continue to target universities and encourage administrations to enact policies that promote healthy student choices. Along with her colleagues at UMass, Pagoto urges campus administrators to commit to a policy that will prohibit tanning beds on campus, and in particular, the acceptance of student ID cards and university-issued debit cards.

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FRAGMENTED VISITOR MANAGEMENT PROTOCOLS DRAW CRITICISM Security and visitor management protocols at the University of Kansas are in the spotlight following an alleged assault in one of the campus residence halls that is seemingly not subject to the same policies as the university’s other on-campus halls.

According to a report from The Kansas City Star, there are no regulations barring non-students or minors from overnight visits at University of Kansas student housing, but not all protocols apply to the university’s McCarthy Hall – a 38-person apartment complex for the university’s men’s basketball team and other male students – where a 16-year-old girl was reportedly assaulted in December 2016.

McCarthy Hall has two 24-hour entrances that residents can use either by swiping a student ID or using a fingerprint scanner. Officials with university student housing say that students living in the complex can bring in guests at any hour and for overnight stays.

Unlike Kansas’ non-apartment residence halls, guests at McCarthy are not required to sign in upon arrival, meaning there is no official log of non-resident visits. The hall does employ a student resident assistant and one full-time housing employee, a complex director, and both live on the premises.

The reported assault, which remains under investigation by university police, allegedly occurred between 10:00 p.m.

5:00 a.m. and there has been no indication from police as to whether the suspect is a resident at McCarthy or a student.

According to the university’s student handbook, residents are held responsible at all times for their guests, and must ensure that the guest’s conduct is appropriate and not disruptive to the community or disrespectful to the rights of any other resident. The handbook also states that guests visiting between 11:00 p.m. and

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7:00 a.m. must register at a front desk, as well as present photo identification other than their KU card – protocols that seemingly don’t apply to McCarthy Hall.

MIZZOU PILOTS MEAL SWIPE SHARING A new pilot program at the University of Missouri is enabling students to transfer unused meal swipes to fellow students in need of a meal.

According to the Columbia Daily Tribune, the new program allows students to transfer up to ten swipes from their meal plan and transfer them to other students. The initiative is working with the university’s Tiger Pantry, a food pantry that serves Mizzou students and employees.

Missouri dining services has stated that students living off campus and those that don’t have a meal plan will likely be the primary beneficiaries of the program.

The program will be piloted throughout the spring semester of 2017, after which dining services will determine whether there is enough need to continue the program.

The initiative comes, in part, as a response to a growing number of college students feeling the financial burden of full-time student status. The director of the university’s Tiger Pantry, stresses that some students don’t know where their next meal will come from, and that the overall success of the new program will ultimately depend on the number of students donating meal swipes and the number of students who sign up to receive them.

The Tiger Pantry is also imploring students to donate their meal swipes throughout the course of the semester as extra meals become available, rather than donating all 10 of the allotted swipes at the end of the semester to ensure that enough are available and the pantry has sufficient time to issue them to students.

Students who want to transfer meal swipes can do so online by clicking on the “Swipes Program” tab on the Tiger Pantry website and, after providing account information, select the number of meals to transfer.

Students using the Tiger Pantry service must fill out a form in order to receive the donated meals. Once completed, transferred meal swipes will be loaded onto the student’s account to be used at any university dining location. Students using the donated swipes will be able to hand their ID to cashiers in the same fashion as every other student so as to avoid anyone knowing whether the meal swipe came from the donation program.

Any student client of Tiger Pantry can be a recipient of the donated meal swipes. Students in need may visit the Pantry once per week for meal swipes, with the number of meals the pantry is able to provide being dependent on the volume of donated swipes.

NEW CARD OFFICE TWITTER PAGE NOW LIVE AT CR80NEWS.COM With the arrival of each wave of new students to campus comes the need for institutions to evolve to meet the needs of new residents. With social media residing at the heart of student life, it can be the ideal means to boost awareness for your campus card operation.

With this in mind, CR80News has compiled a new resource dedicated to the Twitter handles of campus card offices from around the country. The page can

ID SHORTS

be found from the homepage by clicking the “Twitter feeds” tab in the newly redesigned navigation bar.

Of the many social media platforms available, Twitter has separated itself as the go-to channel for instant communication, and a number of card offices are taking full advantage. Check in with this dedicated page periodically to see how leading card offices are using Twitter to educate and motivate users.

The CR80News editorial team hopes this resource will encourage more card offices to leverage social media, and whether you’re already active on the social platforms or not, these feeds can always be a great resource to help card offices come up with new ideas and inspiration during those inevitable creative lulls.

The card office Twitter page is ever evolving, and we encourage any office whose Twitter feed does not appear on the page currently to tweet @CR80News with the details.

POLICE CALL FOR TWO IDS FOR MIAMI STUDENTS TO CURB FAKE ID USE Underage drinking and fake ID use have Oxford, Ohio police calling for local bars to ask Miami students for two forms of ID to prove legal age. The motion is in part the result of Miami University’s president committing, at a recent university board meeting, to a “breakthrough” on the issue of underage binge drinking.

Underage drinking at Miami came to the fore recently following the hospitalization of some 21 students in a single weekend due to alcohol-related ailments.

Of the 21 students hospitalized, 17 were female and all but two were underage.

Local authorities say that the number of alcohol related incidents at Miami is so significant that it has put a strain on police, fire and EMS operations to the

point that the agencies have had to call for backup.

Calling for a secondary form of age verification is expected to curb the use of fake IDs for entry at local bars, according to a report from local ABC affiliate WCPO. It’s a serious problem around the Miami campus, as state agents arrested 17 people in a single Friday night at one bar alone located near the Miami campus. All 17 arrested used fake IDs to buy alcohol, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Ohio Investigative Unit. Oxford police say fake IDs are common and are getting harder to detect.

The WCPO report reveals that police seized 21 fake driver licenses and the student ID cards of the underage individuals. Additionally, a number of the underage Miami students recently hospitalized for drinking-related illnesses were in possession of fake IDs. Of the possible solutions proposed are changes to the Miami University student ID card. Specifically, new student IDs printed with the student’s date of birth will make them an effective second form of age verification – in addition to a state-issued credential – at local bars.

WISCONSIN MULLS STUDENT USE OF FOOD STAMPS ON CAMPUS The University of Wisconsin-Madison is considering a new policy that would allow eligible students to use federally issued food stamps to pay for meals on campus.

As reported by The Journal Times, University Housing officials are currently working on a plan that would enable students and other individuals receiving aid through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to use their government benefits at campus dining halls and other dining locations.

A concrete program could be in place as soon as the start of the fall 2017 semester. Should the initiative reach completion, it would make UW-Madison the first institution in the country to accept food stamps for use in on-campus dining establishments.

Student advocates pushing for the program suggest it’s a way for the university to better meet the needs of low-income students, while also helping to better include those relying on government assistance by enabling them to eat at dining halls with their peers.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the federally funded benefit program formerly known as “food stamps.” Benefits provisioned through SNAP are loaded onto an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card, similar to a credit or debit card.

University officials are yet to fully work though the logistics of the proposed program, so no official start date has been announced. According to the Journal Time report, University Housing must apply to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for approval to become a SNAP retailer, and federal inspectors will have to visit campus dining facilities.

Federal regulations also limit what types of food may be purchased with government assistance, meaning University Housing and Dining departments will have to go through all of the items it sells to determine what would be eligible to sell to SNAP cardholders.

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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NAVIGATING HOSTING'S FUTURE

CARD SYSTEMS

MOVING

S.S. CAMPUS CARD

TO SAAS

ANDREW HUDSON, ASSOCIATE EDITOR, AVISIAN PUBLICATIONS

If you’ve been around campus card systems long enough, or been included in enough campus IT conversations, chances are you’ve heard the term “SaaS.” The shorter and sweeter way to say “Software as a Service,” the SaaS model is quickly becoming the go-to model for hosting software systems across virtually every industry vertical, higher education included.

The trend toward hosting campus card instances off premise and moving away from dedicated, on-campus servers has already reached a significant number of institutions, and it’s high time that we all become acquainted with what this means.

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Let’s use CR80News as an example. A decade ago, the CR80News web server lived in our office in the coldest room we could manage – which in Florida can be a challenge even in the winter months.

Then shared hosting became the norm.

CR80News.com moved to the shared hosting model when we purchased a physical server that was housed in a regional data center – in our case, Atlanta – complete with a redundant facility somewhere in California. We operated the box in Atlanta in much the same way as the one that lived with us locally, with the only difference being geographic location. It would be

akin to moving the box that holds your card system to an IT facility somewhere else on campus.

Five or six years ago, we moved from shared hosting to a SaaS model that has removed the need for a dedicated server altogether. Instead we now operate on shared servers around the globe. Depending on the individual viewers location, overall web traffic and various other factors, the web site might be served from one of a dozen or so locations.

Despite this sounding far out, we actually feel safer in this service model because fire, flood or robbery no longer pose a

threat to our operation. All the while from a reader perspective you didn’t see any change in website experience, in the same way students would not be affected by the decision to host a card system in a different way.

From personal experience, CR80News was able to move away from a model that is already starting to seem archaic.

In many industries including publishing, dedicated on-premise hosting is already a thing of the past. And if progress made by other verticals is any indicator, it’s less a question of if, but rather when the SaaS model will become the de-facto choice for campus card systems.

TERMINOLOGY Now that you’ve got an idea of what moving to the SaaS model looks like in practice, it’s important to be acquainted with the basic terminology. For starters, “SaaS” isn’t a technology; it’s a business model. Under the SaaS umbrella, there two primary methods of deployments: Multi-tenant A truly multi-tenant solution is a hosted system where many tenants share the same database and related applications. The data related to numerous client instances of an application is stored in the same database. The database and application architecture uses logical separation that prevents clients from seeing or making changes to each other’s data.

Single-tenant Single-tenant SaaS systems are typically virtualized systems where the provider can spin up a fresh instance of their application including a dedicated database for a client. It is provided as a service, but fails to obtain all of the economies of scale possible with multi-tenant.

These SaaS solutions each reside at the opposite end of the spectrum from the traditional, on-campus hosting method.

As a quick rundown, on-campus hosting sees an institution’s card instance installed locally in its own data center. The university purchases, provisions and manages the entire infrastructure and server stack including data, application, web servers, and crucially, disaster recovery.

With on premise, the campus has complete control of all data and the network, and data is stored locally and within the university’s firewall – all with no reliance on third-party providers. However, many are finding that the concept of

maintaining “complete control,” while once considered a necessity, has become an unwanted burden.

WHY SAAS? The idea of moving to a SaaS model is one that splits opinion, as some will be reticent to see their campus card instance leave the confines of campus. There’s no wrong answer, but the heart of the issue is what justifies each institution’s lean on moving to the SaaS model.

The cloud: Public vs. private With platforms like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Azure, campuses mulling the SaaS model also have to decide whether to host via the public or private cloud.

“Personally I believe in a mixed environment,” says Dave Falldien, campus card industry veteran and independent IT consultant. “These days there is no need for new physical hardware to be used, there is just so much to be gained by virtualizing.”

Amazon Web Services, or AWS for short, offers a suite of cloud computing services that operate from 16 geographical regions around the globe. AWS boasts more than 70 services including computing, storage, networking, database, analytics, application services, deployment, management, mobile, developer tools and more. AWS is a service designed to provide large computing capacity quicker and cheaper than a client company could by building its own physical server farm.

Similarly, Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing service designed for building, deploying, and managing applications and services via a global network of Microsoft-managed data centers. Azure provides SaaS solutions and supports many different programming languages, tools and frameworks both third party and Microsoft-specific systems.

“Services like AWS and Azure are a perfect environment to augment your campus program,” says Falldien. “Depending on business needs, these services provide an excellent option to decrease administrative overhead associated with managing systems, while creating opportunities for growth.”

The biggest difference is the large investment, economies of scale, and rate of innovation in the public cloud, says Jeff Staples, VP Market Development at Blackboard Transact. “There are arguments for both and it depends on your organizational needs and philosophy.”

For a Facebook-sized organization, running a private cloud makes sense. But for most organizations it’s difficult to achieve the economies of scale that large enterprises can realize with private clouds.

“For campuses, this decision really should be out of their scope. They should be more concerned with the features, performance and security of the overall card system they’re running,” says Staples. “If their provider is running a true multi-tenant system then the fact that it lives in a public cloud environment simply equates to efficiencies and features that are derived from that environment, but are otherwise invisible to the client.”

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EVEN THE MOST SKILLED INDIVIDUALS HAVE FINITE CAPACITY. SAAS RELIEVES THE BURDEN OF EXECUTING NECESSARY TIME-CONSUMING TASKS – LIKE IMPLEMENTING SOFTWARE UPGRADES AND MAINTAINING SERVERS – AND CREATES THE CAPACITY FOR HIGHER VALUE PROJECTS

“It’s really philosophical for what fits with your organization’s model. If you’re more comfortable and have the technical resources and capacity to manage on-site, and you feel there’s value in the control, security, and management responsibility, then an on-site server is a good fit,” says Jeff Staples, VP Market Development at Blackboard Transact.

On-site management would, for example, be a good fit if a campus has a full IT staff who manage other large-scale systems and have the ready-knowledge to undertake the maintenance. For those campuses that don’t have the resources to implement and manage the technology and security, SaaS is often a better fit.

“SaaS removes the maintenance of a heavy server and local data center from the campus to a professional, purposebuilt data center with a 24/7 network operations center,” says Staples. “The campus IT team and card program team no longer need to worry about keeping the backend running, up to date, in compliance, and backed up. In the event of flood, power outage, earthquake, or other disaster, there is no longer a need to respond and get the local system running again.”

The SaaS model can see campuses experience financial gains by transitioning personnel to focus on strategic, meaningful projects, while new features can be introduced more frequently and easily as updates are provided automatically.

“Moving your card program off campus means you are no longer investing man-

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hours in the low-level system management and can focus on developing your program,” says Dave Falldien, campus card industry veteran and independent IT consultant. “Being able to focus on the business drivers of your program and having a contract with target availability will help grow your program.”

By moving system management to a hosting vendor a campus can free up onsite resources for things like system improvement and advancing overall offerings, adds Falldien.

It all comes down to resources, skillsets, and how campus leadership would prefer their teams to use their time, says Larry Delaney, VP of cashless systems, CBORD. “Even the most skilled individuals have finite capacity. A SaaS solution relieves an individual of the burden of executing necessary time-consuming tasks – like implementing software upgrades and maintaining servers – and creates the capacity for an individual to commit to higher value projects.”

WHAT ARE MY OPTIONS? Changes to card system hosting has been in the works for some time, with all the major card system vendors offering some form of SaaS solution.

CBORD offers a full portfolio of SaaS solutions including hosted card systems, access control, point of sale, student facing apps, off-campus merchant programs, and food management and nutritional

solutions. The card system vendor has seen significant interest from its existing client base in moving to the SaaS model.

“Our customers are motivated by their commitment to provide more and better services to their students, faculty, and staff – and to do so under the reality of increased budgetary pressure and restrictions,” says Delaney. “With this pursuit in mind, customers are actively exploring how our SaaS solutions can make them more efficient and effective.”

Heartland OneCard, now TouchNet, has also entered the SaaS game with an offering of its own.

“Our latest generation solution, OneCard VIP (Vertically Integrated Platform) operates out of the TouchNet PCI DSS Level-1 service center and provides campuses with a turnkey off-premise campus credentialing and commerce system,” says Fred Emery, Director of OneCard Sales at TouchNet. It leverages TouchNet’s expertise in off-premise integration of campus systems for better performance and management, he explains.

Blackboard also offers SaaS options for campuses looking to move card systems off premise, and they suggest that all signs are pointing to a SaaS wave on the horizon.

“There is a global trend in our industry, and frankly in all others, toward SaaS. There’s just a generally bigger appetite for it because of more awareness of SaaS offerings across the spectrum and they’re becoming more mainstream,” says Staples.

“The great news for our clients is that they are free to choose the means by which they consume services, which for many includes a mix of SaaS and on-premise.”

CardSmith, acquired by Blackboard in 2014, in many ways established the SaaS model for card systems and came ready made with a successful solution and client base.

“Blackboard has continued to make major investments in the platform, and frankly, great software is never ‘done,’” says Staples. “There have been natural synergies bringing the SaaS solution into

the Blackboard Transact ecosystem, and we continue to integrate other systems, readers and more with the platform.”

According to Blackboard, the multitenant model continues to grow and transaction volumes have nearly doubled in the past three years while average transaction processing time has been cut in half.

Blackboard’s SaaS offering is a true multi-tenant solution, explains Staples.

“We pioneered the model, feature the largest deployment, and have learned a great deal over many years from clients in order to enhance our service offerings,” he

says. “We also place a strong emphasis on security and deliver PCI-Level 1 services.”

Blackboard’s SaaS is designed to scale to meet the needs of institutions small and large. “Once we centralize the technology, we provide a cadre of managed services – such as live cardholder support and merchant services – to help make the institution and its card program even more successful,” says Staples. “We also have more third-party applications that are certified to integrate with our SaaS solution than any other vendor.”

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A TAILORED FIT Campuses don’t have to go full tilt from right out of the gate, but can instead pick and choose what aspects of their systems should be moved to a SaaS model.

“The appetite for institutions adopting SaaS solutions is huge, but it’s not really an either/or scenario,” says Staples. “Some

parts of a system can be kept on premise and other parts SaaS. In fact, a large portion of our on-premise clients runs SaaS-based components of their systems.”

We are seeing clients move parts of their system to the cloud even if they haven’t moved the transaction host, explains Staples. “For example, clients are moving to hosted versions of point-of-sale systems,

online cardholder account management, etc.”

“In general it seems to be a mix of on and off premise that best meets needs,” says Falldien. “The business benefits of SaaS typically outweigh having servers on premise, however there is still a lot of resistance from people who rely on managing those systems for job security.”

THE BUSINESS BENEFITS OF SAAS TYPICALLY OUTWEIGH ON PREMISE, BUT THERE IS STILL RESISTANCE FROM PEOPLE WHO RELY ON MANAGING THOSE SYSTEMS FOR JOB SECURITY

The argument for on-premise By this point, SaaS is probably sounding like a viable option.

But what’s the argument for remaining on premise?

the supporting systems to an off-campus environment while ‘protecting’ the data by keeping it on campus.”

“For starters, there’s regulations,” says Dave Falldien, campus card industry veteran and independent IT consultant. “There are regulations like the Patriot Act, for example, that increase the difficulty of transitioning data across borders.”

So if there’s an argument for on-premise hosting, then what specific areas of a campus system are better left within the confines of its walls?

There’s just something about the word “data” that sends a chill down people’s spines.

“Data in card systems contains personal student data and passing it ‘around the Internet’ is a terrifying thought to stakeholders,” says Falldien.

“Keeping an on-premise server – ideally in a private cloud – allows you to move

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“ERP systems are still predominantly on premise and so some campuses continue to have a staff to manage systems onsite,” says Jeff Staples, VP Market Development at Blackboard Transact.

“As more campus-related solutions including ERP move to the cloud, the faster we expect other applications to follow that trend.”

Physical security is still largely an on-premise function for

campuses. Though it is potentially a powerful use case for the SaaS model, off-premise hosting still seems a ways away in higher education.

“We see scenarios where physical security is leveraging the power of cloud computing; but again, it’s not an all or nothing situation,” says Staples.

CBORD’s VP of cashless systems, Larry Delaney, echoes the sentiment. “Hosted options are simply one more way that we can supply users with the means to carry out their missions. The SaaS decision is specific to each campus, the skills of their teams, and their ambition to commit their resources to other programs,” says Delaney. “Having said that,

access control and integrated security solutions tend to be held more closely and managed on campus.”

For access control and door access, in particular, it only makes sense that cloud management of the system will sync with a local system to ensure you have offline capabilities, stresses Blackboard’s Staples.

“You’ll continue to see the application layer live anywhere, but have local presence as well for other components,” he says. “Again, on-premise and SaaS are not mutually exclusive and using them in combination is a very compelling model.”

An independent consultant, Falldien always recommends looking at how SaaS can assist the campus as a whole. “I’m a fan of hosting systems and servers in a dedicated off-premise environment and taking full advantage of today’s virtualization options.”

Entrusting a campus card instance to someone off premise might be a daunting thought for some, but the anxiety may be misguided. “Think of it this way; security and availability is their entire model. Their ability to keep your stuff running is their core business,” explains Falldien.

“We create solutions in the cloud to add value and create meaningful operating advantage, not just to put applications out in the cloud for technology sake,” says Blackboard’s Staples. “We work to ensure there’s a true advantage to moving a client’s service.”

Regardless of the deployment, however, campuses need to comprehensively plan out the move to the cloud.

“Start by migrating one part of the overall solution and over time transition the rest of the system,” says Staples. “Things like end of life schedules, hardware replacement and compliance impacts will affect this timeline. Build out a road map for an overall plan on how best, in what capacity, and in what timeline to migrate.”

WHAT’LL IT COST ME? With these types of decisions cost is always a consideration, but the bottom line will ultimately depend on the campus.

“The cost question is related to opportunity cost and should be focused more specifically on what you want to direct your resources,” explains Staples. “Shifting the services side of implementation and management to a partner is more scalable. Software costs are comparable, but SaaS clearly benefits the client in terms of total cost of ownership.”

Investments in SaaS infrastructure and capability are spread across many clients making the per-client cost for security and service redundancy very economical, Staples adds.

Another way to look at the cost consideration of a SaaS deployment is the convenience value that a campus can achieve. “The model and analysis for the campus needs to be evaluated over multiple years. Costs are more predictable with the SaaS model, as the campus pays via subscription with continuous updates,” says Staples. “The provider takes care of issues for the campus and eliminates major server hardware and software upgrade cycles.”

see an increasing number of institutions explore SaaS options.

“I think ‘on the cusp’ is the best way to state it. Mixed environments are becoming more and more prevalent, particularly as people realize the benefits of decreased, localized overhead and an increased freedom for business units to open up possibilities and advancements,” says Falldien.

“Most campus card vendors and partners are offering some form of SaaS solution, and it will become increasingly prevalent in the next couple of years.”

From the vendor side, progress is moving at a rapid rate and it seems most will be prepared to serve clients when institutions come around to SaaS. “We’re not constrained to only release

WE DON’T ENVISION A ‘BIG BANG’ INFLECTION POINT FOR SAAS ADOPTION, BUT RATHER A PROGRESSIVE REALIZATION DRIVEN BY EACH SITE’S SPECIFIC NEEDS AND PRIORITIES DOWN THE ROAD SaaS solutions for the campus card system have already arrived, but the roadmap will likely be one of iterative change that will accommodate new features and continuous innovation, rather than a mass migration.

“We don’t envision a ‘big bang’ inflection point for SaaS adoption, but rather the future will be a progressive realization, campus by campus, driven by each site’s specific needs and priorities,” says Staples.

“Each institution can choose to consume services from on-premise or cloud-based services as it best fits their needs.”

Nevertheless the campus card industry is on the cusp of a paradigm shift that will

new features a few times a year, instead we add new features every month. This dramatically increases the rate of innovation while smoothing out the peaks and valleys inherent to a localized client server deployment,” says Staples. “As we look ahead, our clients will welcome a flow of robust API’s and platform features that create an increasingly more compelling solution set, all while enabling campuses to focus on the primary task of providing first-class service to students.”

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Contactless lockers proving to be a smart idea for colleges and universities Using existing campus cards, institutions offer modern lockers with convenience and security For some, the image of a student locker still evokes thoughts of cutout celebrity photos taped inside rusty metal boxes.

But on modern college campuses, lockers are being re-envisioned to serve a real need for busy students. Today’s lockers often feature sleek designs to integrate into high-end buildings, while new technology is replacing metal keys and combination locks with contactless smart cards and mobile phones.

Though often not as visible as their high school counterpart, most college and university campuses have lockers in at least a few niche locations. Rec centers, labs, athletic facilities and libraries are common locales where students need to secure valuables – equipment, laptops, clothing and books – as they transition between activities. Some institutions are finding

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that as student culture evolves there is a growing need for more widely available lockers.

If you consider the cost of a smart phone, a laptop and some high-priced course materials, the average student could be lugging around several thousands of dollars worth of belongings in their backpack.

Without convenient locker options, the reality is that students must return to a residence hall, apartment or car if they’re going to participate in another campus activity before, after or between classes.

This storage challenge can keep a student from taking advantage of some institution-offered activities. And researchers now believe these extracurricular activities are key to engagement, retention and matriculation.

Traditionally, campuses have offered a limited number of lockers to be checked out, with or without a fee, for a semester or an academic year. But this is changing as more flexible models emerge.

As the need for student lockers rises, the available real estate to install them on campus grows harder to come by. Convenient locations are at a premium and deploying lockers for dedicated student use requires a significant footprint. This has given rise to shared locker systems, where a student checks out a locker for a short time, say an hour or a day.

Rather than tying up a dedicated locker for a semester or a year, this shared model allows a smaller quantity of lockers to serve a large population, as most students only need the locker for a few hours each week.

ENTER “SMART” LOCKERS A.K.A. CONTACTLESS LOCKERS The state of locker systems on the contemporary college campus has effectively set the stage for a newer, smarter solution.

“Smart lockers use the latest contactless technologies to deliver both improved operations and user experience,” says Gerhard Pichler, business development manager at Gantner Technologies.

Gantner has been empowering lockers with contactless technology for decades, delivering improved locker management solutions to water parks, spas, hospitals, corporate campuses and universities.

The key – both figuratively and literally – to these shared locker systems is the campus card. Smart lockers, or contactless lockers as they are often called, use card readers and common ID technologies – cards, fobs or phones – as the credential rather than a key or combination.

Using an existing card with Mifare, DesFire, iClass, Felica, etc. opens up a new world of possibilities. “Using a student ID card as a locker key, smart electronic locking systems eliminate many chal-

lenges associated with traditional locker management – lost keys, blocked lockers, and resetting combinations” says Pichler.

With modern smart locker systems and management software, institutions can effectively take control of their locker resources and achieve greater insight into their actual use. A smart system can also automate the assignment of lockers so no staff interaction is required.

There are various smart locker architectures with different levels of control, but all deliver advanced capabilities such as: Streamlined locker assignment Reduced time required for locker administration and maintenance Compatibility with international standards based technologies Increased security, transparency and control

BATTERIES, WIRES AND ARCHITECTURAL CHOICES At this point, you may be wondering about implementation logistics. Maybe you already have banks of lockers that you simply don’t care to overhaul. Key

to contactless lockers is that they can be retrofitted into existing locker units or integrated as entirely new deployments.

If lockers are to be retrofitted, a wireless, battery-operated system is the right solution. Since battery locks aren’t hard wired they can be easily built into existing lockers. These systems are an easy solution for universities looking to upgrade to smart lockers. “Advantages of a battery-locking system include the ability to limit students to one locker, easy key replacement, and a clear status display showing locker availability. Battery-locking systems, however, can’t provide the same level of management as a networked system,” says Pichler.

A networked, or connected, locking system includes wired locks and controllers that can be managed remotely via locker management software. When a networked locker system is installed, Pichler explains that the locks will be sent to the locker manufacturer for inclusion and the controller infrastructure will be commissioned on site during the locker installation.

Controllers are typically connected via low-voltage power supplies to the main network, states Pichler. If there is a power failure, lockers stay as they are – open or closed – but connection to an Uninterrupted Power Supply alleviates the issue.

Networked locking systems provide greater capabilities than battery locks, including detailed locker usage statistics, real-time monitoring, as well as scheduled synchronization and notification tasks.

Gantner’s locker management software enables configuration and management of their networked locker system. Features include a networked alarm, occupancy monitoring, and remote locker control.

The software offers detailed usage statistics and the ability to integrate with third-party management software, such as campus card or security systems.

“With a fully integrated smart locker system, universities can easily rent lockers via an online student portal and increase security with a networked alarm, connected to the campus security system,” Pichler adds.

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AN ARRAY OF FEATURES AND CONTROLS To learn more about the wide range of features available with contactless locker systems, CR80News asked Gantner’s Pichler a series of “what if” questions.

CR80News: What if some one tries to break into a contactless locker? Are there any safety mechanisms in place to deter vandalism and/or theft?

Pichler: All smart locking systems store a time-stamped history of openings and closings, meaning operators can easily view who opened which locker and when. For additional security and protection again vandalism, the networked locking system is alarmed and installed completely within the locker corpus, leaving no locking components on the door, and no possibility for vandalism.

CR80News: What happens if a user forgets which locker they used?

Pichler: If a user forgets which locker they used, system administrators can easily check either via the locker management software, or via a connected info terminal, which locker was used. Via kiosks or conveniently located checkpoint readers, students can tap their ID card to the reader to verify the locker currently in use by that card. This data is held in the software for networked systems and can be written to the card itself for standalone systems.

CR80News: What if someone checks out a locker but keeps it indefinitely? Can you limit the time to avoid someone tying it up for extended periods?

Pichler: After an allotted time or following an overstay, the system could be set to either block access to the locker or open it automatically at a defined time. If

the locker is blocked, the student would need to contact the admin office to get it released and might incur a fee. Alternatively if the policy says no overnight locking, for example, the system could automatically open all the locked lockers at a defined time (e.g. midnight) and staff would remove any remaining items.

CR80News: What if someone checked out every locker as a prank? Can you prevent one user from checking out multiple lockers at the same time?

Pichler: Yes, the system could be configured to set the number of lockers that can be used with a single student card to a maximum of one locker per student. In a networked system, this can be controlled at the software level, and in a standalone system the status can be written to the card itself.

Northeastern University goes big with contactless lockers Hidden below Northeastern University in Boston is a network of tunnels that serve as a passageway for students traversing between key buildings on campus. Unlike the famous tunnels in other cities, these don’t hold catacombs and no Phantom lurks within. Instead Northeastern’s tunnels house one of the worlds leading deployments of advanced contactless lockers.

On winter days or rainy evenings, the 16,000 square-foot underground network is particularly appreciated by students. It links 11 major locations above ground, including academic buildings, residence halls, gyms and libraries.

As a part of a facelift that included new energy efficient lighting and colorful directional signage to facilitate travel, the popular – and sometimes hard to obtain – student lockers were upgraded and expanded.

The networked contactless lockers from Gantner Technologies are used around the world at athletic clubs and spas, ski resorts, corporate centers and universities. And in the summer of 2016, Gantner added another university to its user base with the installation of more than 1,200 new lockers at Northeastern.

All 1,286 of the tunnel’s lockers are larger than their predecessors – now 3 foot by 2 foot. Each locker is marked with a letter and number code, identifying its location within the tunnel system.

Students rent the lockers through the university’s myNEU portal and use their student ID – the Husky Card – as the contactless key for locking and unlocking. The lockers are rented on a per-semester basis, and thanks to the Gantner locker management software no staff interaction is required to sign up for or operate a locker.

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At the myNEU student portal, all available lockers can be viewed. The student selects the locker of their choice, and the locker is linked to the unique ID number of the individual’s Husky Card. For the remainder of the semester, only that contactless card can provide access to the locker.

The Gantner locking system guarantees the safety of belongings by delivering networked alarms to maintenance and security staff if vandalism is detected. The software also provides locker usage reports, remote locker control and occupancy monitoring.

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Add durability, security to campus IDs with advanced card materials Universities across the country issue millions of pieces of plastic every year so that students can make purchases, access facilities and prove identity for applications both on and off campus.

The vast majority of cards issued in higher education are made exclusively from polyvinyl chloride – or PVC. This is the cheapest and most common card material available, and for applications where the use is short term and counterfeiting is of little concern, 100% PVC could be a fine choice.

But when a card needs greater lifespan and increased security, universities may want to consider composite cards made from advanced card materials. These materials can add durability to the card and make them more difficult to counterfeit.

The trade off is an increased cost per card, but in virtually every other secure card market, issuers are finding the benefits exceed the added cost.

If the card includes electronics – such as a contactless chip and antenna array – those are sealed in a sheet of plastic and placed in between the PVC core layers, Scaglia explains.

“This basic PVC card offers fairly low levels of security,” he says, alluding to the fact that it can be easily and inexpensively counterfeited.

PVC cards are everywhere, likely due to their extremely low cost. They are personalized using readily available desktop printers, which are available online from countless resellers and auction sites along with the PVC cards and printer ribbons required to create extremely passable fakes.

In summary, 100% PVC cards are great for fast, convenient and low cost ID creation, but they are susceptible to fraud and rank low on the durability scale.

CARD CONSTRUCTION 101

Instead of constructing cards only with layers of PVC, composite cards layer different materials to add advanced features and combat counterfeiters. Composites are the go to options in the high-security identity document market and are being used in driver licenses and national ID cards across the U.S. and around the globe.

One common composite is a Teslin core with two polyester overlays, Scaglia says.

Teslin is a substrate material, manufactured

by PPG Industries, which is placed in the core of a card and then personalized with photos and other information. The Teslin substrate absorbs the printing and lamination materials making it highly resistant to de-lamination and altering. It also increases the durability of the card and adds cushion

Many assume the standard CR80-sized plastic card is a single piece of plastic die cut from a large sheet, but the truth is a bit different, says Pierre Scaglia, global segment manager for Secure Credentials at PPG Industries.

A typical card issued by a campus card office includes multiple layers of white plastic made from PVC with a clear PVC layer on top. The clear layer contains the variable information, such as photo and demographic information, he explains.

The card can also include an overlay or laminate layer with a security element such as a hologram that is added during the personalization process.

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COMPOSITE MATERIALS TURN THE TIDE ON FRAUD

to better protect chips, antennae and other embedded electronics.

Teslin and other advanced card materials also enable the issuer to embed additional security elements into substrates of the card, Scaglia explains. “There are a range of Teslin substrates that incorporate different security features such as ultra violet or forensic features,” he adds.

The Teslin core is typically surrounded by polyester overlays, which protect the card. The three sections are bonded together using a thermal adhesive, Scaglia explains. “The advantages of this construction are that you secure the information into the substrate and once it’s there it can’t be altered,” he adds.

Here is the kicker. When done correctly, security elements can be embedded deep in a composite card making it easy for security personnel to spot forgeries, and thus making counterfeiting a difficult perhaps pointless exercise.

Composite cards can still use PVC, but in much smaller quantities. Using a PVC core with other materials such as polyester, Teslin and polycarbonate can add strength and security to the credential. “Every card material has its strengths and weaknesses,” Scaglia says.

The trick is finding the right composite materials that suit the credential’s specific needs. “If you want a five-year, dual-interface card, PVC isn’t strong enough to do that,” he says. “You need to adopt other materials as well.”

Some security features work better on different materials and using different card printer technologies, says Carla Boria, director of supplies & secure technologies product management at Entrust Datacard.

“There is no one card type that gets good

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Spring 2017 CR80News 25

grades across the board, it all depends on what you’re looking for,” she adds.

For example, PVC is low cost, widely used, compatible with the majority of printing technologies and laminates, and issuers can embed a chip. On the downside, it’s not very durable and has a one to three-year lifespan. Composite cards made of PVC and PET – a polyester material – are more expensive but also last longer than cards made of PVC.

THE DURABILITY FACTOR Many campus card office personnel have interesting stories of students coming in to replace their IDs. The card will be splitting into its different layers and when asked how it happened they explain they used it as an ice scraper on their windshield, a shim for a door lock, or left it baking on the dashboard on a hot summer day.

Though such practices are still to be avoided, choosing the right materials is important when it comes to durability. But first any issuer must decide what durability means in their environment.

“Does the issuer want the ID to last for one, five or 10 years?” asks Scaglia. “Will the card be used once in awhile or multiple times each day? All of this will impact durability.”

Electronic components add another level of complexity when talking about durability. More and more, identity documents contain embedded electronics, and protecting these chips and antenna coils is important. “If you use highly rigid card materials with embedded electronics, in time they may crack,” says Scaglia. He adds that both PVC and polycarbonate are typically considered among the more rigid card materials.

Cards with embedded electronic components may have a shorter lifespan based on that fact alone, says Brad McGoran, principal engineer at Exponent, a consultancy that performs card testing. “With contact, contactless and dual-interface cards, our experience and testing have shown that the durability of the internal components, circuitry and connections can significantly affect card life longevity,” he explains.

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BLENDED CARDS SUCH AS PVC AND POLYESTER RESIST CRACKING DURING REPETITIVE FLEX TESTING BETTER THAN PURE PVC CARD STOCK Still, maximizing lifespan is the goal and composite cards made with different materials have the best durability, says McGoran. “Blended cards such as PVC and polyester blends tend to resist cracking during repetitive flexure testing better than pure PVC card stock,” he explains. “We have observed this often translates to longer service life in the field for these blended cards versus pure PVC card bodies.”

There are several facets to card durability. A primary consideration is the mechanical durability of the card body, which includes characteristics like bending and stiffness, peel strength and resistance to chemicals, says McGoran.

Additionally, there are the durability characteristics of the printed and laminated features on the card. These include the abrasion resistance of the magnetic stripe or printed barcode, the resistance of the printed dye to smear or drift, and the UV resistance of the printed surface, McGoran explains.

Experts seem to agree that the biggest downside for PVC is durability. As issuers spend more money embedding electronics such as contact or contactless chips, they want longer life out of their credentials.

PVC vendors will say their credentials can last up to five years or longer, but largescale testing of PVC-only cards hasn’t been done in more than a decade, says Dave Tushie, technical and standards representative at the International Card Manufacturers Association.

Tushie was part of the testing conducted between 2000 and 2003 that looked at the durability differences of PVC-only card bodies versus various composite card types. Durability and bend testing found that 75-80% of the PVC-only card bodies registered as failures versus a failure rate of just 20% for the composite cards.

At that time durability needs were less demanding – two to three years for payment cards and four to five years for driver

licenses, Tushie says. Issuers, including those in campus card offices, now want a longer lifespan.

This testing was conducted a long time ago and improvements in PVC have been realized, but it’s hard to tell how much better they’ve become since there hasn’t been any open testing, Tushie says. And while PVC vendors may have improved the durability of their materials in the last decade, manufacturers of other materials have been doing the same.

Tests have shown that composite cards have far greater durability than a typical PVC-only card. A bend test of durability found that the composite card lasts 300,000 bend cycles, whereas a PVC card lasts just 20,000 cycles, Scaglia says.

A COMPOSITE FUTURE? When it comes to security and combatting counterfeiters, it could be money well spent. The only way to make visual inspection work is to ensure the ID documents cannot be easily forged. Card construction, materials and the visual security features they afford are key to this process.

National IDs, driver licenses and other government identification almost always employ these materials already. Other issuers, however, have been slower to migrate from the inexpensive 100% PVC cards.

But there are signs that this is changing. As U.S. banks add technologies to cards because of the switch to EMV, they are showing more interest to both protect the card and add longevity by increasing durability. Other issuers from corporations to educational institutions are feeling the fraud pinch as well, and it is inevitable that the threat will rise. As education about the countermeasures offered by advanced materials spreads, the cost benefit balance swings in favor of better security and away from plain PVC cards.

Self-service campus card kiosks hit Germany Evolis automates student ID issuance for six Berlin universities One of the hallmarks of a campus card office is customer service. For many institutions in the US this could mean face-to-face issuance and a service with a smile, but a new system from Evolis deployed at universities in Berlin, Germany is taking an alternative approach using campus card kiosks.

In an attempt to alleviate the issuance process for the more than 180,000 students enrolled in Berlin’s universities, six campuses participated in a joint project that has introduced self-service kiosks for the instant issuance of student cards. The system is now enabling students to create and print their own campus cards in less than a minute and has opened the door to issuance outside the normal working hours of the campus card office.

Deployed in autumn 2016, the new ID issuance system has made it possible to convert outdated paper documents to multifunction contactless cards. In addition to serving as students’ primary form of identification on campus, the credentials also act as a loan card for the university library, an electronic wallet for the cafeteria, as well as a bus and train ticket.

“Due to the rapidly increasing number of students, we had to find a more optimal solution for the issuance of the student cards,” says Dr. Tamas Molnar, head of the campus card project at the universities of Berlin. “Lack of space and personnel in the student offices led to the idea of self-service kiosks. We also wanted an innovative solu-

tion that not only replaced the old card, but offered new functions to the students.”

German card management system developer ProService GmbH was selected by the universities to develop 20 machines for the personalization and the instant issuance of multifunctional student cards.

ProService in turn chose a printing solution from French card printer and software manufacturer, Evolis. Evolis’ card printing system and the KM500B printer model are being used to produce the cards, while German company Pfister ID Systeme is charged with card distribution.

Separately, an additional 30 accreditation kiosks were developed in order to revalidate student cards and re-enroll students at the start of each new term. These kiosks, outfitted with Evolis’ TattooRW system, leverage thermo-rewrite technology to both instantly delete the existing validity date on the student card and enter a new date.

REAL-TIME ISSUANCE Each ID card contains a contactless chip, as well as a bar code, the name of the cardholder, their student registration number, a university library number and an option for a student’s photo.

Prior to receiving their campus card, students are first issued a single-use QR code from university administration. It’s with this QR code that the student can be issued a campus card via the self-service kiosk. The creation of the ID card takes no

longer than a minute, and once printed the card must be validated by the updating kiosk where the validity date and the codes for the bus and train ticket are amended.

The process must be repeated at the beginning of every academic term in order to properly update the student’s information.

The cards do not contain any personal details about the student in electronic format, and the machines access students’ personal details online using a pseudonym. All communication is encrypted.

ProService also installed Evolis’ Primacy printers in the card offices of the six participating universities as a back up in the case of overcrowding at the self-service kiosks.

THE HARDWARE Evolis’ modular printer solutions, the KM500B and KM2000B, are ideal for inclusion in kiosks, and feature high loading capacities at 500 cards for KM500B, and 2000 cards for KM2000B. Evolis’ Tattoo RW model, integrated into the updating kiosks, is the designed for temporary IDs that need to be updated frequently. The same card can be deleted, changed and re-written up to 500 times and no ribbons are required.

According to a ProService spokesperson, there has been interest in the kiosk solution from other institutions in Switzerland, Austria, Hungary and from schools in other cities across Germany.

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Mobile ordering and delivery expand Arizona dining volume

App, campus card and declining balance keys to increasing student use A mobile app, some golf carts and a renowned burrito are proving that campus food services can change with the times. Many argue that the traditional model of institutional food service – student ID cards, board plans with declining balance, on-campus locations and limited availability – can no longer compete in the modern marketplace.

But at the University of Arizona, it is not just competing it’s thriving.

Arizona Student Unions partnered with mobile ordering provider Tapingo three years ago in the fall of 2013. “We were responding to the lines,” explains Todd Millay, interim director for UA Student Unions, referring to the campus’ ever-growing food queues.

Millay oversees 30 retail outlets on the Tucson campus and serves between 25,000 and 30,000 meals per day. “Everyone still eats at the same time, so with mobile ordering, we were trying to be responsive to lines,” he says.

It’s a sensible strategy, because if you can increase throughput at the moment when lines normally become problematic, then students won’t walk away and go to your competition.

“How do we maximize the same six registers at the Chick-fil-a?” he asked.

It was the kind of question that led to the mobile ordering trial.

Since that successful trial three years back, mobile ordering has expanded to 80% of the university’s retail outlets.

As Millay explains, the solution is best suited to declining balance users and locations that service them. Board plan users and more traditional dining hall locations don’t benefit from mobile ordering to the same degree, as they tend to be eat-in and self-service in nature.

Enter the Highlands Market breakfast burrito, a staple of any Wildcat’s life.

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“The ticker machine never stops,” says Millay, referring to the printer that pushes out Tapingo orders in the Highlands Market kitchen.

This hints to the advantage of mobile ordering. The receipt ticker tells the kitchen that someone wants to pick up a burrito soon, and while they’re not standing at the counter right that second, they will be in a specified number of minutes. These minutes are the key to reducing the lines Millay mentioned, increasing throughput and enticing customers to come back for more.

“We call it the anticipation throttle,” he says. “Getting the order to the staff 14 minutes earlier gives us time to prepare.”

It seems to be working. Across the university’s outlets, mobile ordering already accounts for 15% of all orders.

Though increasing per order dollar amounts or spend is often cited as a goal of mobile ordering, Millay doesn’t see that as the driver at Arizona. “To me its less about the spend changes than the processing efficiency – I want the stickiness so I don’t lose the customer.”

DELIVERY BUILDS ON MOBILE ORDERING Even after the successes with mobile ordering, Arizona was still losing more customers than they would like from the dinner crowd.

The university’s main and secondary student unions are a 12-minute walk from the residence halls, which has always made it difficult to get residential students to come back after they have left campus for the day. “Dinner falls off the cliff compared to breakfast and lunch,” says Millay.

Cue delivery.

“We had the portfolio, we just needed to find way to get them to eat dinner,” he says.

The university piloted delivery as a complement to mobile ordering in the spring of 2014. Around finals week, Arizona trialed on-campus delivery of its famous burrito using existing staff and golf carts. “It was huge but we learned we would need a fleet of golf carts,” he says.

After another successful trial during the fall semester exam week, Tapingo agreed to step in and take over the currier delivery service, making it available year round.

In the first ten months, 20,000 meals were delivered on campus. Since then, the program has grown to more than 1,000 deliveries per day. Millay estimates that 60% of those deliveries are occurring in that underserved dinner or late night timeslot.

Lessons and opportunities As with any meaningful endeavor success rarely comes without pain, and Arizona experienced its share of speed bumps along the delivery route.

“It won’t be seamless – receipt printer problems, confusion, operator adjustment, food sits too long, the student doesn’t show up so how does it get credited back to the outlet. All these are growing pains for the operator,” he stresses.

The great challenges are the ones that pay off. Highland Market has experienced a 20% growth in sales, and the challenge has been how to manage all the extra orders – a good problem to have.

The Tapingo app enables purchases at off-campus establishments – both national chains and local Tucson restaurants – as well as at on-campus

establishments. Students can elect to use their campus card declining balance funds for purchases made at on-campus locations only.

Students or any Tucson resident can use a credit card to order through the Tapingo app. While this does enable Arizona students to order from a competitive establishment, crucially it makes on-campus venues an option when sitting at the table is not the patron’s preference.

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD? Millay sees mobile ordering and delivery ushering in a series of changes to campus dining.

One of the first areas to be impacted will be the campus catering service that primarily serves academic and administrative offices.

“We do hundreds and hundreds of these each day and it requires a huge amount of labor,” he says. He hopes to utilize the Tapingo delivery channel to expedite and add efficiency to the catering operation.

He even mentions heated and cooled lockers that would hold delivered meals for student pickup in areas like the university’s business school, which he considers to be food deficient.

Still, Millay views all of this technology and innovation as a complement to traditional campus dining. “It will never replace dining, because food is a bonding experience. Students still want that experience.”

The complementary services like mobile ordering and delivery, however, may prove to be the recipe that bolsters the bottom line for many campus food services.

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Can my smaller campus afford a campus card systems?

TOM STILES, IDENTIFICATION SYSTEMS GROUP

Historically, most smaller universities and community colleges Though the campus may not be home to tens of thousands of have shied away from true “one card” systems, with larger price students like some larger universities, EMCC’s data integration tags and staffing requirements often giving them pause. More requirements are still of upmost priority. “When implementing recently, however, we’re noticing a major transition as institutions TotalCard, one of our biggest concerns was being able to seamlessly of all sizes are looking to benefit from a true campus card system integrate with our existing student information system database without the initial hefty investment of the past. for easier card production for students and faculty members,” More campus card systems have begun offering scalable and Harrell says. “We created a few SQL views that include information modular systems, giving even the smallest colleges an opportunity such as name, ID number, meal plans and housing number. Since to benefit from one system to manage all of their on-campus card all the information comes directly from our student information systems and applications. With cloud-hosted offerings, pricing system, the library staff who issue the ID cards have no extra can drop even more significantly, as campuses no longer need to data entry to do.” worry about the hardware and staffing requirements associated As mentioned, integration to the student information system with on-campus servers. The flexibility of systems today gives database was important to EMCC. No matter the campus one them an opportunity to only purchase what they need initially and card system being used, getting everything working together is expands as budget and security very important. Here are some requirements grow in the future. questions to consider: With less than 5,000 students, SCALABLE AND MODULAR SYSTEMS ARE East Mississippi Community Which is the one true, accurate College (EMCC) is a great exGIVING EVEN THE SMALLEST COLLEGES AN student database at your instiample of a smaller institution tution - the student informaOPPORTUNITY TO BENEFIT FROM CAMPUS with big dreams for their camtion system or the campus one pus card system. In 2015, EMCC card database?

CARD SYSTEMS AND APPLICATIONS. made the decision to migrate At most institutions the one, CLOUD-HOSTING ALSO ALLEVIATES their campus card platform to truly accurate database is stuSOME OF THE HARDWARE AND STAFFING TotalCard, a BadgePass product, dent information system. It is giving them the cost-effective where the campus one-card sysREQUIREMENTS. solution they needed with the tem should get its data from, not long-term functionality and the other way around. flexibility they required.

The first step of migration was implementing new ID software What database should the ID card issuing software connect to in the form of BadgePass Identity Manager. “TotalCard’s badge or sync with? production module, Identity Manager, couldn’t be easier to use,” Most campuses choose to connect to the student information explains Jeff Harrell, Network Administrator at EMCC. “When system database, as that is typically the more accurate and upwe switched from our previous software to this, I think we spent to-date. Most have a field for student photo, but it may not be 5-10 minutes training the library staff and sent a short email to populated. Connecting the ID card issuing system directly with them to describe the process. It’s that easy.” this database allows the photo to be stored for other uses, such

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as faculty/staff being able to view images.

Any fields stored in the student information system, like photo and card number, can be sent to the campus one card system.

What other systems need to be updated when an ID card is activated or replaced/ de-activated?

This is a key consideration. Think about everything on your campus that uses the ID card. Door access control, library, food service, attendance systems and many other applications may need to receive new or modified ID card information. If the syncing of data to your various databases is not automated, it creates a huge security and accuracy problem.

Data integration can often seem daunting to colleges and universities, especially smaller campuses with less available IT resources. Implementing a system with customizable data integration tools allows these institutions to work with their campus card system provider and ensure that data needed from the student information system is automatically imported into their badging and card privilege management system on a schedule or immediately upon update.

Even more importantly, integration with the institution’s database allows for automatic deactivation of users and credentials when someone is removed from the system or deactivated, eliminating unnecessary, time consuming and costly deactivation steps.

Another campus that has been on board with BadgePass’ TotalCard solution for a number of years is Decatur, Mississippi’s East Central Community College. “When we started with the system we only implemented bookstore management, then meal plan management and point of sale,” explains Derek Pace of East Central Community College. “However, we know the system offers us the flexibility we need to gradually expand as our needs grow down the line.”

“One of my favorite things about the TotalCard system is being able to offer customers of all sizes all of the features and functionality they need, including customized data integration capabilities, at an affordable price point,” says Lindsay Martin-Nez, Executive Vice President of Marketing and Indirect Sales at BadgePass. “We work with schools with student populations of over 30,000 and others with student bodies of less than 500. That diversity in a customer base allows us to better understand the needs of all campuses, no matter what the size.”

BadgePass solutions are available to colleges and universities through the Identification Systems Group (ISG), a nationwide dealer channel focused on delivering quality on-site service and support. There are 32 ISG dealers that together cover the whole of the US and Canada. Combined, ISG maintains 90 locations and some 200 field-service technicians.

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Planning order times

What to do when it’s time to restock your card office cabinet Springtime typically marks a period of normal operation for campus card offices. But even though the workload this time of year is relatively straightforward compared to the hectic orientation periods, it’s never too early to start planning for that next, inevitable rush.

Properly planning your card consumable orders is key to being prepared for both the high-issuance periods and normal office operations.

“Planning your card order is vital to the success of a card office,” says Mark Degan, director of corporate marketing at ColorID. “If you aren’t in touch with your provider and know what the accurate and most up-to-date lead times are then you could run the risk of having no cards to issue.”

It goes without saying that a card office without cardstock is a terrible scenario. “It’d be like a gas station running out of gasoline or a grocery store running out of milk,” says Degan. It certainly would be a black eye for the card office if they couldn’t issue cards for a completely avoidable reason.

PROPER PLANNING In order to avoid down time, a card office needs to first consider their operation and the types of consumables needed and then place that order.

“A very good rule of thumb is to look at the time of the year and plan accordingly,” explains Degan. “The summer months are by far the busiest season for orders with early fall and late spring being the elevated lead times.”

That said, the more a card office can think ahead the easier the order process will go. “The winter months are the best time to order,” Degan says. “Lead times also depend on what type of card

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a campus is issuing, the card technology, the type of customization the campus is having done, etc.”

Predictably, the fewer the components included in a card the quicker and more readily available the materials will be, and in turn, the quicker that cardstock can arrive to campus. “100% PVC pre-printed cardstock with black imprinting on the back and one HiCo, three-track mag stripe may have a lead time of just three weeks, for example,” Degan explains. “But if a campus adds a custom holographic overlay and embedded identification technologies or chips, it can increase the lead time to six weeks.”

AVOID THE PITFALLS Improper lead-time is by far the biggest pitfall that a card office faces when placing consumable orders.

“What many offices aren’t considering is how many other jobs are already in line ahead of them, how rare their card materials are, and whether those materials are already sitting on the inventory shelf or not,” Degan explains.

Degan and ColorID have been handling card office orders long enough to have seen the negative impacts of poorly managed lead times.

“One scenario that springs to mind came from an established campus customer of ours that called to place a re-order for custom, pre-printed cards,” recalls Degan. “The card office had just recently experienced some personnel turnover and their new staff hadn’t placed an order for pre-printed cards before.”

“When the campus called in its order, they only had two packs of cards remaining (two shrink-wrapped packs of 100 cards),” Degan says. “This was a horror story because the campus’ orientation was just a few short weeks away and we were already transitioning

over from late spring lead times to the summer month leads times when campus orders flood in and lead times get longer by the day.”

A textbook example of the importance of lead time, ColorID was able to process the campus’ order, sign off on the proofs, upgrade shipping from UPS Ground to RED and proceeded with production, Degan says. “We were estimating our lead time to be 21 business days, and the campus cut it so close that they were likely to run out of cardstock on the same day they placed the order!”

Properly estimating an order’s lead time is vital, but Degan and the team at ColorID are also aware that things don’t always go according to plan.

Luckily, ColorID was able to help the campus temporarily issue the entire card in house by generating new card templates with all the artwork on the cards. “These in-house cards didn’t look as professional, but it was an effective stop gap for the office until the proper, pre-printed cardstock arrived,” Degan explains.

Stories like this aren’t altogether uncommon, and they reiterate just how important it is for offices to think ahead and consider not only their own operations, but also the operations of other cr80_ad_1.5-031417-1-print:Layout 1

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card offices that need to place orders. Should a card office find its back against the wall for whatever reason, however, Degan notes it can be a godsend to have an experienced vendor that produces large volumes processing the order.

“This story, despite being a worst-case scenario, actually ended on a high note as we were able to elevate the campus’ order and have it delivered in nine business days, rather than the initial estimate of 21 days,” Degan recalls. “The campus only had to issue temporary cardstock for a couple of days and more important they learned a valuable lesson and will most likely never allow that to happen again.”

Partnering with the right vendor will go a long way to ensuring that a card office doesn’t find itself on the cusp of high-volume issuance with bare cupboards. Card offices need to take an active role in the ordering process and be mindful that the mortar holding everything together is communication.

“Communication with your vendor is key,” implores Degan.

“Get accurate, up-to-date lead times and plan ahead.”

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Mobile ID verification made easy

PockeTracker adds agility, efficiency to campus verification Between athletics, special events, student organizations and simple classroom attendance, efficient verification on college campuses is an absolute must. But challenges – high throughput demands, diverse locations and fraudulent entry – make executing this vital function challenging.

Many campuses have found their answer in Vision Database Systems’ PockeTracker application – a powerful and efficient verification and attendance tool. PockeTracker enables a campus to validate privileges and provision access to events and facilities from a smartphone or tablet. Core to Vision Database’s concept is the ability to read the existing student ID card, verify that the cardholder meets eligibility requirements for the specific event, and then track this transaction in a mobile environment.

FIT FOR CAMPUS PockeTracker was designed to scan an ID card from a mobile device and quickly identify and verify whether that person is allowed to enter a particular location, says Zack Walker, director of sales at Vision Database Systems. “A good way to think of it is as ‘mobile access control,’ where a user can have the permit/ deny functionality without the need for a static reader or kiosk.”

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PockeTracker is being used for many different applications around campus, most frequently in event management, where institutions need to quickly verify if a student should be allowed to enter an area or sporting event, explains Walker. “This allows campuses to identify who is attending, cut down on fraudulent entry, and vitally, track key event metrics like attendance figures.”

The mobile-based PockeTracker leverages standard consumer smartphones or tablets outfitted with what the company calls “sleds,” that attach to the mobile device and enable card scanning.

“We work with a number of different sleds from different manufacturers, which allows us to meet the needs of the various form factors that Android and iOS devices take,” explains Walker. “This also gives us the flexibility to deal with a majority of card types, from simple barcode, to mag stripe, to the various contactless formats.”

As for the scanning process itself, student access or denial is based on user-defined personal criteria, while validation results are clearly displayed on the device’s screen using bright green backgrounds for approvals and red backgrounds for denials.

“Campuses can also choose to display personal data and cardholder photos on the screen at the time of scanning to better verify cardholder identity,” says Walker. “Additional status fields are

also available on the scanning results screen where the operator can choose to display other actionable information.”

Campuses can also easily switch between profiles on the same mobile device, enabling the freedom to validate multiple privileges without any reconfiguration on the device itself. In other words, the same device could be used to validate separate events without any configuration out in the field.

REPORTING IS KEY TO FUTURE PLANNING Scanning credentials is just one piece of the pie. Reporting on attendance and verification is vital, and PockeTracker has in-built capabilities that campuses can use to support a range of functions.

“PockeTracker contains a number of baked-in reports to allow users to identify and analyze the information being scanned by the handhelds,” explains Walker. “These are accessed through our server piece, the PockeTracker Gateway.”

The Gateway typically sits on a web server at the institution’s location, so it can be accessed from anywhere on campus to configure devices, create new profiles or run reports. This enables PockeTracker users to access reports from any browser on campus, giving them the flexibility to pull up real-time actionable data on the fly.

The Gateway also acts as the backend for the system, allowing PockeTracker to work with a college’s existing database or card system. “Using either direct ODBC connection or flat file imports/ exports, we are able to seamlessly implement PockeTracker into a college’s current environment,” says Walker.

THE EMMY’S, PRO SPORTS AND CONSTRUCTION PockeTracker isn’t just for college campuses. Its utility in other verticals is a great endorsement for the solution’s capabilities in a higher education setting.

“Every year, PockeTracker is used at both the Academy Awards and the Emmy’s to spot-check credential holders on the red carpet,” explains Walker. “It’s also used at several golf and tennis tournaments, including the Miami Open, to not only grant general public access to the event but also control access to VIP areas.”

PockeTracker has also been widely used in the construction market to verify access to high-value sites. “Most recently, PockeTracker has been used during the build of Disney’s Avatar ride in Orlando and for construction projects at New York City’s Grand Central Terminal,” says Walker.

TRACKING TRANSIT RIDERSHIP On campus, meanwhile, Vision Database has seen some of its clients leverage the solution beyond static attendance environments, in particular to track ridership on campus busses and shuttles.

Using PockeTracker in transit applications enables a campus to

ensure that only currently enrolled, fee-paying students are riding their shuttles.

For deployment on buses, PockeTracker readers can leverage either Wi-Fi, MiFi, 3G/4G, or should the campus decide, an offline capability for later reconciliation to verify ridership.

One campus that has seen the benefits of PockeTracker in a transit setting is Madison Area Technical College. The college’s magnetic stripe card is used in conjunction with the solution to control and track bus ridership.

“We were looking to track and control access to our shuttle bus system, as we needed this data for billing purposes and access control,” says Doug Gerbitz, Project Leader Risk Management and OneCard at Madison Area Technical College. “We wanted a mobile solution that was durable, reliable and capable of using our custom criteria for access.”

“Primarily we use PockeTracker for monitoring access to the shuttle bus system, but the desktop version is also being used for issuing Madison Metro Student Bus Passes throughout the district, as well as granting access to healthcare at our on-site GHC Health Clinic,” adds Gerbitz.

Like many institutions, Madison College serves both a large number and wide variety of students. The capabilities of PockeTracker have provided a means to accomplish goals that the college would otherwise have been difficult to address.

“We serve over 40,000 students per year made up of degree credit students both on-campus and online, non-degree credit students and community members,” says Gerbitz. “We also need to accommodate online students who voluntarily purchase a semester benefits package that gives them the same access as our on-campus students. PockeTracker has allowed us to track and monitor access for all of these students based upon our own custom criteria.”

MORE THAN MOBILE Not every campus deployment will require the agility that a mobile scanner can provide. So in addition to the mobile-centric PockeTracker, Vision Database has also developed a browser-based version of the solution called WebVerify.

“Whereas PockeTracker is all about mobility and scanning on the go, WebVerify is meant for more static locations,” says Walker.

“Think libraries, athletic centers, or other areas on campus where you have someone at a static, brick-and-mortar location that needs to verify that a student can enter.”

Both the PockeTracker and WebVerify products can be used simultaneously for different functions, or in tandem with all scanning stations acting as individual readers in a larger infrastructure, explains Walker.

For Lancaster, Pennsylvania’s Franklin and Marshall College, the browser-based WebVerify made more sense to deploy.

“WebVerify is used by Franklin & Marshall’s Alumni Sports and Fitness Center to validate an individuals’ ability to access

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Key PockeTracker Features: Low cost scanning hardware for Android and iOS devices Agile, flexible anywhere access Wi-Fi, 3G, 4G and offline capabilities Pre-configurable privileges Easy connection to multiple data sources Prevents fraudulent entry

the facilities,” explains Barry Bosley, Associate Vice President for Administration at Franklin & Marshall College. “Individuals visiting the Fitness Center are required to swipe their ID card at which point their credentials are validated using the classification and graduation date for students, and classification and card expiration date for non-students to determine whether or not the patron is allowed access.”

Franklin & Marshall was searching for a solution to monitor the front entrance of its fitness center because the facility serves students, faculty and staff along with outside memberships and friends of the college. “This required the combining of several databases, but we also needed to be ‘live’ for students, faculty and staff,” explains Bosley. “Crucially, though, the system afforded us better control over visitors attempting to gain access to the facility using outdated ID cards.”

The success of F&M’s WebVerify installation led the college to expand its deployment to include the PockeTracker mobile component to take student attendance at required training sessions and meetings.

F&M is now able to use PockeTracker to monitor the individuals logged in under the WebVerify, as well as produce reporting on who has accessed the Fitness Center along with the date and time of that access, says Bosley. “We’re seeing much better control at the door and the ability to run utilization reports on participation at different time periods.”

The mobile component at Franklin & Marshall is running on an iPad Mini 2 with an Apto-Flex case to enable card scanning. The WebVerify component uses a swipe reader located at the desk.

The application is web based and installed on a standalone sever.

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Getting the system up and running was a pretty easy process between our IT department and the resources at Vision Database Systems, says Bosley. “Implementation required some older cards to be updated and re-issued, but that came with an understanding that better controls would be in place,” he adds. ”Getting all the cards updated was something we recognized early, due to the different cards F&M used previously, but once that was done this has been a very smooth and efficient program for us.”

A COMPLETE INVESTMENT “I have had Vision Database Systems as a vendor for almost 19 years,” says Gerbitz. “They have always provided elegant solutions that are well supported, at a fair price.”

Also core to Vision Database’s verification and attendance offering is a price tag that’s within any campus’ budget. “Depending on the card technology chosen, an average deployment of five WebVerify stations and five PockeTracker devices, could range from $5,000 to $10,000, with annual recurring costs in the $3,500 range,” says Walker. This includes software updates and tech support.

Once the base system is deployed, there are marginal costs for additional units should a campus wish to expand its deployment, but this is merely the cost of new sleds and is quite affordable, says Walker.

Beyond Vision Database Systems’ offerings, though, is a sense of pride in their ability to integrate with almost any system, explains Gerbitz. “We have Workday, PeopleSoft, Blackboard, and more. I have yet to find a program that we could not get connected,” he says.