CR80News | Blackboard offers integrated security, commerce management to more schools

Monday, January 12, 2009

Washington-based campus card provider Blackboard Inc. says some 14 colleges, universities and K-12 institutions, have selected the Blackboard campus commerce and security management platform. These institutions have joined hundreds of others which have signed up for campus ID card technology, on- and off-campus payment solutions, facility access control and other security solutions.

Some of the organizations that have recently selected Blackboard include: Cushing Academy, a K-12 boarding school in Ashburnham, Mass.; Endicott College, Beverly, Mass.; Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colo.; Jones County Junior College, Ellisville, Miss.; Maine College of Art, Portland; New York Law School, New York City; Northwest Nazarene University, Nampa, Idaho; Phillips Academy, Andover, Grades 9-12 boarding school, Exeter, N.H.; Point Loma Nazarene University, San Diego, Calif.; Ringling School of Art and Design, Sarasota, Fla.; Shenandoah University, Winchester, Va.; Tecnologico de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico; University of Arizona, Tucson; and Wallace State Community College, Hanceville, Ala.

“We had a wide range of needs, including the ability to process financial transactions at campus shops, minimize the need for cash at vending and laundry machines, provide door access, manage campus printing in support of our sustainability initiatives, and provide a tool to take and manage student attendance,” said Valerie Roman, director of technology at Phillips Academy. “We were looking to address these needs with an integrated solution which could be phased in over time. We partnered with Blackboard based on its long track record, solid financial standing, strong customer base, and high customer satisfaction.”

With the integrated Blackboard Transact platform, institutions can streamline business operations and increase revenue while meeting a wide range of commerce and security needs. Specifically, the platform enables organizations to:

Facilitate campus ID card issuance; on-campus, off-campus and online commerce; cashless payment processing for dining, bookstore, vending, laundry, copy and parking services; financial reporting; self-service account management; and
Monitor all campus and student activity with integrated door access control, video surveillance and mass notification capabilities.

Smart phones empower the campus card

Vendors rolling out initial apps for mobile devices

Across markets, smart phones are being used for more than phone calls, texts and email. It is easy to focus on brand new functions, but the biggest impact may be in the way people interact with long-standing services. Handsets are changing banking, retailing, marketing, health care, public service delivery and virtually every other aspect of modern life–including campus card programs.

Finger scanning utilized at two West Virginia high schools

High schools in Jefferson County, W.V. will be implementing biometric finger scanning in an effort to provide security for the students’ cafeteria accounts. Purpose of the program, according to school officials, is to eliminate clerical errors and to provide students with an easy way to identify themselves when using the cafeteria.

State of Colorado judicial center installs 310 HID multiCLASS readers

The Ralph Carr Judicial Center in Denver, Colorado has selected AMAG Technology’s Symmetry Homeland V7 Security Management System,to provide integrated access control and security management solutions from HID Global.

Get students involved in securing schools

As the need for security increases, whether its K-12 or on college campuses, educators certainly don’t want to turn their schools into fortresses.

While certain elements, such as or metal detectors, may be necessary evils, some security experts believe that creating a good relationship with students could be just as important.

Blackboard, FeliCa enable school-created apps

When Blackboard deploys Sony’s FeliCa contactless smart cards, the credentials have two areas, one that is a secure area where payment and physical access control transactions take place and an open area where the school can add its own applications, says Jun Shionozaki, technical consulting manager, FeliCa Business Division at Sony.

Codebench, S2 partner

Codebench Inc. and S2 Security Corp. announced that Codebench’s PIVCheck Plus software suite, a card validation, authentication, and registration solution for HSPD-12 compliance, now integrates with the S2 NetBox Extreme and Enterprise systems from S2 Security Corporation.

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Blackboard offers integrated security, commerce management to more schools