Card, mobile credential, payment and security
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette (UL Lafayette) has expanded its campus card services, integrated offices, and streamlined processes with TouchNet OneCard Campus ID. By maximizing its many capabilities, the card system is being leveraged to solve problems and simplify campus operations.
Coinciding with the expanded use of the campus card system, UL Lafayette has grown as an institution. As the university expands, it has been purposeful in taking advantage of modern ID technology through TouchNet OneCard Campus ID.
UL Lafayette’s campus card, known as the Cajun Card, supports access to housing and academic buildings, and payments on campus for dining and laundry services. The card also supports library rentals, class and exam check ins, event attendance and parking permits.
Students can deposit funds to a debit-like account, called Cajun Cash. Additionally, students can make purchases with select off-campus vendors that have worked with UL Lafayette’s Card Office to accept Cajun Cash.
Kari Foti, Director Cajun Card Office, seeks out departments and student organizations that could use the card system to solve a problem or facilitate their activities.
By integrating with the recreation center and residence hall software, the Cajun Card provides the data needed to manage the access levels of students. It also allows professors to pull data on how students are using on-campus resources, including who is entering a laboratory to do course work.
Dining services receive transaction reports from card data, helping them improve their service delivery. The card office has also worked with TouchNet and Sodexo, UL Lafayette’s food-service provider, to develop an online ordering option for campus dining services.
Key to the success of UL Lafayette’s new Cajun Card is the hub-and-spoke structure of the card system.
At UL Lafayette, the Cajun Card Office acts as a hub, with the various services it supports acting as spokes. All the components work together to keep the campus running. The card office team manages the core solution while the specific functions are managed by offices across the university.
UL Lafayette’s hub and spoke structure is a model for other institutions trying to balance administrative centralization and departmental decentralization. Each office can independently manage their service and make the service available to everyone else via the campus card.
Software integration help to streamline the process, connecting the spokes to the hub.
UL Lafayette is already looking to expand the Cajun Card going forward. The card office is encouraging student groups to use Cajun Cash for new activities like fundraising and Greek life events.
Ease of use and application has made the Cajun Card a success across the campus and provided UL Lafayette with a tool to improve the student experiences and support its growing institution.
For the full story on UL Lafayette’s campus card system from TouchNet, visit TouchNet.com.
Mobile credential and payment solutions provider, Transact Campus, has launched Transact Insights, a turnkey solution designed to revolutionize the way campuses handle data. The new offering leverages the Transact One platform's integrated data lake to provide a solution to traditionally manual processes, allowing campus administrators to quickly view, analyze, and export real-time data.
The new Transact Insights solution is intended to address a number of the issues that campuses face when handling the large volume of data they accrue.
"This innovation reflects our continuous commitment to providing administrators with the tools they need to make data-driven decisions," says Ian Ashworth, Director of Product Management for API Platform and Data Analytics at Transact. "We are bringing together multiple systems into a unified platform, cutting down the time and resources used on data management, and offering valuable, actionable insights."
Transact Insights has been designed as a turnkey, user-friendly data processing and analysis tool that offers administrators the ability to visualize and summarize years of data in an instant. Insights also includes a comprehensive filtering feature for easy slicing and sorting of data. The solution also integrates with the campus operations software and services, removing the need for complicated data integrations.
The role-based access control (RBAC) feature allows different users to see reports and visual dashboards across their assigned solutions. The single sign-on (SSO) system provides an easy access route for administrators, ensuring that everyone is working from the same source of truth and always has access to up-to-date reports.
"Transact Insights allows our organization to see payment trends on demand,” says Becky Kellow, Assistant Director of Treasury Services at Western Washington University. "We can see the peaks and valleys, how we are receiving payments and what kind of payments we’re receiving."
"We can do all of it without having to pull numerous reports and compiling the data manually," adds Kellow. "This helps us to determine what we’re doing right and where we need to improve. Seeing this data can help in guiding when we can invest any surplus cash as well.”
Future enhancements to the Transact Insights offering will include a holistic view with other elements of the Transact suite, including Campus ID and Commerce.
ASSA ABLOY intends to, through its subsidiary HID Global, purchase approximately 98.5% of the shares of French ID card printer and consumables manufacturer, Evolis.
HID has entered into a put option agreement with the shareholders of Cedys & Co for all of its Evolis shares — 84.4% — and voting rights, as well as Crédit Mutuel Innovation's of 14.0% of Evolis shares to HID. The two transactions would result in a combined purchase price of approximately €224.9 million for 98.5% of Evolis shares.
Once the initial share capital and voting rights acquisitions are completed, ASSA ABLOY would then launch a mandatory public tender offer shortly thereafter to acquire the 1.5% outstanding shares subject to the Evolis board of directors approval.
Evolis develops, manufactures and sells printers and software for card and credential personalization. Evolis has built a well-established global market position in the instant issuance of physical credentials including ID cards, access control badges, payment cards and other personalized credentials.
Established in 1999 and headquartered in Angers, France, Evolis currently employs 380 employees.
“I am looking forward to welcoming Evolis into the ASSA ABLOY Group," says Nico Delvaux, President and CEO of ASSA ABLOY. "Evolis would be a good technological addition to the ASSA ABLOY Group and would reinforce our current offering within the secure issuance business."
“It would be a pleasure to welcome Evolis to the HID family” says Björn Lidefelt, Executive Vice President and Head of Global Technologies business unit at HID Global. “Joining forces with a strong industry player like Evolis would enable us to better meet our customers’ needs and provides complementary growth opportunities across product, geographical and vertical market presence”.
The University of Minnesota is considering limiting general public access to campus buildings in an attempt to improve security on its Minneapolis campus. The access control protocol change would apply to 70 of the university's open access buildings.
According to a report from MPR News, university officials have been discussing building entrance changes periodically since the COVID-19 pandemic, citing safety goals and concerns expressed by the university community. University officials are working with public safety staff, deans, individual building leadership, and the Office of Classroom Management to determine the best solution.
The buildings to be included in the reduced access are those with limited need for general public use. The security changes will not impact open access to public events or common public spaces like libraries, museums, and student unions — all areas that require open access to the public.
Roughly half of the university's 280 buildings currently require U Card — Minnesota's student ID card — for access. The process for determining which of those buildings will be added to mandatory card access is being conducted on a detail oriented, case by case basis.
“It depends on the nature of the building, the use of that building, the particular circumstances surrounding that," said Myron Frans, Senior Vice President for Finance and Operations speaking of new access policy.
Recent instances of violence on other college campuses have, in part, influenced the Minnesota's decision to overhaul is campus building security.
“The incident at Michigan State sort of tells us to close as many buildings as we can from outsiders,” cited Frans. “And on the other hand, it's a public university, and we want access, we want people there. The main thing for all these buildings, if you're a student, a staff or faculty and you have your U card, you can get in under the right hours.”
The university also plans to run a security pilot at one of its campus residence halls. That project will see the installation of turnstiles at the entrance of the dorm, in time for the start of this fall semester. Further measures include more security staffing and cameras to further improve safety at the residence hall.
“The pilot program will include working closely with staff and students at Pioneer Hall to get their feedback and their experience with the turnstiles to determine whether we should expand this to other areas,” said Frans.
The University of Minnesota's Housing and Residential Life will conduct a more comprehensive security assessment this fall in an attempt to identify the need for any additional staffing or safety measures for student dorms on campus.
In this edition of CampusIDChats, we do a bit of deep dive on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and Near-Field Communication (NFC), as well as talk about campus card reader upgrades, reasons to upgrade to mobile.
HID's Director of Sales Engineering for Higher Education, Nathan Cummings talks through the finer details of each technology and the advantages campuses can realize when going mobile.
We also discuss HID's Reader Manager and how campuses can leverage the program to easily manage Signo and iCLASS SE readers in the field.
Finally, Cummings offers his advice for campuses looking to move to mobile and how to determine which upgrades best suit your campus' specific environment.
Check out the HID Tech Talk Series:
Transact recently announced a major milestone, topping one-million mobile credentials provisioned across its client base. In this edition of CampusIDChats, editor Andrew Hudson catches up with Rasheed Behrooznia, Transact Campus SVP and GM of Campus ID Solutions, about the achievement.
Why is one-million significant?
“For us the million milestone is really validation that bringing student id to wall was the right move,” says Behrooznia. “About 15 years ago, we went all in on NFC. We incorporated the technology into our readers and found partners to support it. I am glad we made that bet.”
With the initial launch in 2018, how was the company able to hit the one-million mark in the five-year period?
The user experience was key, Behrooznia says. “We focused on making it seamless for clients and because of that we have been able to double the number of implementations we could do each year.”
“Imagine, over one-million students have had to provision the credential. If there was a high barrier to entry, I don’t think we’d be talking about a million right now. It had to be simple, it had to be fast, and it had to be useful on campus.”
A recent Transact market research project interviewed high school students, existing college students and recent college graduates. It found some interesting results that hint to the future of mobile credentials on campus. Tune in to hear about these results and the full conversation.
For more on mobile credentials, visit TransactCampus.com.
In this edition of CampusIDChats we start our three-part Tech Talks series with HID Global, covering some of the key discussions around mobile and the technology that underpins it. In this first installment, HID's Director of End User Business Development for Higher Education, Tim Nyblom, gives a "101" lesson on mobile for access control.
Nyblom helps to shed some light on the main reasons universities should be considering mobile for access control, including ROI, increased security, user experience and convenience, and sustainability.
We also discuss the options currently available to campuses interested in deploying mobile access, the importance of flexibility in that choice, and how to get your campus environment lined up for mobile now so that deployment is smoother down the line.
Check out the HID Tech Talk Series:
A new study conducted by a team of researchers at Northern Arizona University is examining instances of conflict between delivery robots and pedestrians in an attempt to improve delivery infrastructure going forward. Delivery robots have become an undeniably popular — and viable — service for colleges looking to expand their dining services reach. With Northern Arizona being one of the earliest adopters of the technology, having deployed a fleet of delivery robots in 2019, the Flagstaff, Ariz. campus makes an ideal research location.
According to an official university release, the lead author of the research says this work is the first of its kind, examining how "sidewalk autonomous delivery robots" impact pedestrian and cyclist safety. The research, in part, highlighted a need for more "deliberate decision-making regarding the routing of robots around college campuses."
The research suggests planning decisions and facility management practices that are capable of adapting over time will be critical to avoiding incidents between delivery robots and pedestrians.
“With the continued emergence of these delivery services on college campuses, which have expansive sidewalk networks and a technological-savvy consumer market, we believe this work can help inform other campuses who have recently or are considering an introduction of these services to ensure their safe operation in shared-use environments,” says lead research author, Steven Gehrke.
The team made their observations and based its research on the Northern Arizona campus. The research team deployed cameras at 10 sites across the NAU campus with the goal of observing the robots' interactions with pedestrians over a one-week period. From that footage, the team isolated human-robot conflicts, determining whether the pedestrian or the robot entered the "conflict zone" first and what, if any, evasive action took place.
The research team classified robot-pedestrian interactions as "moderate," "dangerous" or "not a conflict." Interactions were considered dangerous if a pedestrian and robot crossed a shared point of a pathway before 1.5 seconds elapsed. The team recorded 12 instances when the elapsed time was zero seconds, indicating that a collision had occurred.
According to the research team, a majority of the more serious conflicts occurred when a robot was crossing in front of, or overtaking, a pedestrian on a sidewalk.
Additionally, sidewalk width, the number of intersections, and the number of robots, pedestrians and cyclists in the area all factored into the number of incidents. The researchers' findings showed that sites with narrower sidewalks and more intersections experienced more dangerous interactions.
“Research on the real-world introduction of this technology on facilities shared with pedestrians and cyclists is important for providing practitioners the evidence they need to support programs and policies that ensure the safe operations of these devices in environments with vulnerable roadway users,” says Gehrke.
While the team at NAU admits that more research is required, they believe that the initial data points to a need for delivery robot routes that prioritize parallel travel along wide sidewalks whenever possible to minimize crossing paths with pedestrians. The team also suggests designated order drop off locations at less-trafficked, well-marked sites.
To learn more, the NAU research team's work was published in the March edition of ScienceDirect's Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives journal.
Mobile credential and payment solutions provider, Transact, has surpassed one million mobile credentials provisioned to students across the company's campus clients. Transact initially launched mobile credential in 2018, and the company also reports that it has now processed over $230 million in financial transactions from its mobile credential user base.
Transact Mobile Credential leverages Near-Field Communication (NFC) to provide access and transactions to students using their smartphone or wearable. Transact was also the first mobile credential solution provider to offer native NFC contactless mobile IDs leveraging mobile wallet technology.
Mobile credentials offer a modern transaction experience for students on campus by enabling the use of a smart device for secure access to facilities, residence halls, and lockers, as well as for payments in dining, laundry, printing, vending, and retail. Students who provision a mobile credential to their mobile wallet can simply present their smartphone or smart watch to an NFC-enabled reader on campus to open doors, buy meals, or conduct financial transactions in less than one second.
“In the past two years, Transact has doubled the number of schools using Mobile Credential, signing a wide range of colleges and universities worldwide," says Nancy Langer, CEO, Transact. "These numbers and this milestone not only speak to the quality of the product, but also showcases the strong demand for mobile IDs in higher education.”
Transact Mobile Credential also supports integration with ERP, financial, door access, smart locker, and building and security systems.
“Transact takes pride in offering the most extensive range of partner integrations and hardware support in the industry," explains Rasheed Behrooznia, SVP & General Manager, Campus ID Solutions at Transact. "Our commitment to compatibility ensures that our clients have a seamless experience."
“Transact Mobile Credential infrastructure is built to handle the highest scale, ensuring uninterrupted service for clients," adds Behrooznia. "With the highest uptime and unmatched reliability, Transact is the go-to choice for institutions looking for a dependable Mobile Credential solution.”
Transact is now actively expanding its mobile credential user base abroad, having already onboarded universities in Canada and Australia.
“Understanding and responding to the needs of students is at the heart of Transact’s success," says Duane Terrazas, Vice President, Software Development at Transact. "Announcing one-million Mobile Credentials reinforces our commitment to an unbeatable future-oriented campus experience.”
The company also states that the move to mobile credential addresses some key social concerns by providing credential holders with easy access to emergency hotlines and optional use of a preferred name. On the sustainability front, Transact estimates that its mobile credential footprint has saved some 5.2 tons of plastic cards from being printed or discarded.
Mobile credential and payment solutions provider, Transact, has partnered contactless smart locker manufacturer and package management systems provider, Luxer One, to bring package management and pickup solutions to college campuses. Luxer One, an ASSA ABLOY-owned company, provides a turnkey solution for on-campus package delivery that includes hardware, software, installation, service, support, and package delivery facilitation.
From Transact's perspective, the Luxer One partnership meets a strong campus demand for a convenient and secure package delivery solution. The traditional mailroom and package pickup experience on campus is synonymous with long lines and wait times, unattended packages left for pickup, and limited hours of operation. Smart, contactless package delivery overhauls that student experience by providing a reliable, 24-hour pickup service.
Use cases for the Luxer One lockers beyond mail package pickup include laptop and lab equipment exchange, library holds, personal bag and item storage, and bookstore order pickups. Also key to the partnerhsip is a configurable integration with Transact Campus ID solutions, which enables students to access the lockers using their Transact Mobile Credential or physical student ID card.
“At Transact, we are committed to transforming the campus environment into a place where innovation thrives and the campus experience is seamlessly connected,” says Rasheed Behrooznia, SVP and General Manager, Campus ID Solutions, Transact. “Our partnership with Luxer One not only provides a superior, frictionless student experience, but also strengthens the security and connectivity between students and client facilities."
The new contactless, smart locker partnership will provide a secure, convenient, package delivery solution for Transact campuses that reduces the burden on administrative staff and enables efficient management of daily operations. The other notable benefit for campuses is a frictionless student experience that provides assurance of secure package delivery, and helps reduce mailroom costs.
“This collaboration represents a significant milestone for Luxer One as we continue to innovate and enhance our offerings for valued customers," says Josh Middlebrook, President of Luxer One. "By joining forces with Transact, we are combining our expertise and resources to revolutionize the way universities manage packages, item exchange, library orders, and even temporary bag storage."
"Together, we will deliver unparalleled convenience, efficiency, and security as a full campus solution," adds Middlebrook. "We are excited about the endless possibilities this collaboration brings and look forward to the incredible advancements we will achieve together.”
