Card, mobile credential, payment and security
By Andy Williams, Contributing Editor
Six colleges, located around Boston’s famous Fenway Park, have something in common besides their affinity for the Boston Red Sox. Their student campus cards can be used interchangeably among the six schools. It took a consortium to make that happen, as well as a card company with the technology and expertise to meet the consortium’s unique needs.
“It’s one of the coolest and most dynamic projects I’ve ever worked on; it’s innovative on many different levels,” commented Taran Lent, Vice president of Product Development and Management for CardSmith, the company that installed the card system for the Colleges of Fenway.
The Colleges of Fenway, a consortium of six colleges established 10 years ago, “was created for just this type of opportunity,” said the consortium’s executive director, Claire Ramsbottom. Its members are Emmanuel College, Massachusetts College of Art, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Simmons College, Wentworth Institute of Technology, and Wheelock College. Five are private; only Massachusetts College of Art is public, she added.
“These are very distinct institutions. Emmanuel College is a Catholic institution founded in the early 1900s,” she added. “Simmons has an all women’s undergraduate college. Wentworth focuses on technology. They’re all very different institutions with long standing heritages.”
“When the presidents (who serve as the organization’s governing board) created the consortium, they wanted to enhance opportunities for students, staff and faculty,” said Ms. Ramsbottom. One of the first opportunities they put in place was the ability for students to cross register for courses between the colleges, with no additional tuition charged.
Other opportunities include an intramural program for the six institutions. “It would be difficult to for each campus to sustain an intramural program on their own. Together, we have over 2,000 students who participate in that program. We also have an orchestra and we’ve launched a dance program, things that colleges want to do. By coming together we can build the critical mass to do it more effectively,” she said.
Origins of the Fenway Card program
Instead of each of the six schools with student populations ranging from 700 to 2,800 handling the purchasing, staffing and operation of their own campus card programs, the consortium brought in CardSmith to implement a global program connecting all six campuses.
“The beauty of our arrangement with CardSmith is that it allowed our smaller colleges to do things they normally couldn’t have done.”
She noted that a shared card system started as a discussion among the schools’ IT directors and some of the chief financial officers. “We had built a fiber optic network which connected the campuses. That allowed us to significantly increase the bandwidth. When we were building that network, we had a lot of discussions about other opportunities. Technology seemed the key and a card system was one of the items put on the table. At that time, two of the colleges had invested in proprietary systems. One realized it needed a significant upgrade and that was when we looked at having one card program for all six institutions managed by a joint card office.”
She said the consortium wanted the students to have something portable so that “they could eat in the dining hall at another campus or use the soda machine, etc., on any other campus.”
Outside consultants quickly showed the consortium that the cost of “putting in our own proprietary system was daunting,” said Ms. Ramsbottom.
“Our centralized processing center eliminates the need for deploying a local IT infrastructure,” said Mr. Lent. “That’s what takes up so much time. All we need is an active data jack and we’ll take care of everything else.”
“We asked our consultants to check out CardSmith, which was launching another Boston-based program at Berklee College of Music. Berklee had a very positive experience which merited further investigation,” continued Ms. Ramsbottom.
Berklee is not a member of the consortium, but its experience gave CardSmith the inside track to obtain the Fenway contract.
“We started in late Fall 2005 to check out CardSmith.” By early 2006, the decision was made to go with the company. “We had it up and running that fall,” said Ms. Ramsbottom.
“CardSmith offered us an alternative to get it done quickly while mitigating our financial investment,” she added.
To get the six schools “to cooperate is really impressive,” said Mr. Lent. “It required a solid commitment and leadership from the presidents and their key administrators.”
“The first true multi-school interoperable program”
CardSmith, based in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, “is relatively new. We were the underdogs for that project. The Colleges of Fenway’s consultants, who looked at all the different players, came to the realization that the only way it could be done was to use our centralized technology and managed service approach. We delivered more in two to three months of implementation than a lot of schools have done in one to two years. But the schools also deserve a ton of credit for the leadership and commitment to making the project succeed,” said Mr. Lent.
He described the program as a first for the industry – “a true multi-school interoperable program, the first time six schools simultaneously developed and launched an integrated campus card community. The six campuses are so close to one another that a common program enables cardholders to more easily utilize each other’s resources. The schools and the consortium said, ‘Let’s cooperate and provide a service experience greater than we can working alone’,” he added.
Mr. Lent describes CardSmith as “an outsourced management service provider. We’re the first and only company to provide centralized processing technologies coupled with complete outsourced management services enabling clients to outsource some or all of their card operations.”
To enable that business, CardSmith had to develop a centralized campus card transaction processing center. “That’s one thing that’s unique. We think of ourselves as a very different kind of company. As ongoing service managers we are also daily users of our own technology. This is very different from a company that sells and licenses software and leaves the rest for clients to figure out on their own. For example, we provide a toll-free help desk providing live customer care to students, parents and merchants so we are very intimate with the nuances and challenges of running a high quality card operation.”
To show the student acceptance of the Fenway Card, Ms. Ramsbottom noted that Wentworth’s enrollment in the Fenway Card surpassed what it previously had on its own card.
Each school issues its own cards, maintains its unique identity and can even customize aspects of the program to their individual campus. “We created a common brand, the Fenway Card. While each has a look and feel specific to each school, every card also has the Fenway Card branding and logo,” Mr. Lent added.
As Ms. Ramsbottom further explained: all students are required to have the Fenway Card, since it does serve as the official campus ID, but they’re not required to put cash on the card. In the card’s bottom right hand corner beneath the student’s photo, is the Fenway Card logo. “Everything to the left is up to the campus to populate. Each card has the name of the campus on it. However, when you go into any place that accepts the card, the Fenway Card logo is the common denominator. We agreed also on the coding (for the magnetic stripe).”
The financial applications are driven by the magnetic stripe. Security and access applications are powered by either the magnetic stripe and/or proximity technology, said Mr. Lent.
“One trend we see is that more and more schools, particularly in metro areas, are partnering with specialized security companies for building and door access solutions. We coordinate and integrate with leading security firms to make sure that the card is compatible with both platforms,” he said.
CardSmith also recommends that clients follow the national and international card number and encoding standards defined by ISO to ensure current and future compatibility with open-ended systems and avoid the pitfalls of using non-standard programs that lock them in with proprietary providers.
At Colleges of the Fenway, the flexible spending account is called Fenway Cash. “Every cardholder has that account available on their card. You put money in that account, and it’s similar to cash,” said Mr. Lent. “But most cards also have additional accounts linked to the cards. There might be a mandatory meal plan, a print account or financial aid. Most cardholders have four or five different accounts.”
CardSmith also has a feature which it has nicknamed “beg-o-matic,” with which a student can email his or her parents a request (with a compelling argument) for more money. The student’s email contains a hyperlink which will take the parent directly to the Fenway Cash web site, where the parent is able to instantly add money, said Mr. Lent.
However, students own and control their account. “They can optionally set it up so mom and dad can access the account and define what privileges are allowed. For example, the student may allow the parent to add money but not view the student’s balance or history. It’s a privacy feature,” he added. “If they don’t want parents to see where they’re spending the money, they have that option. It’s their decision; we put them in the driver’s seat.”
Off-campus purchasing
Before the Fenway Card, none of the institutions offered off campus use of their cards, but that has changed. According to Mr. Lent, “we have recruited about 50 merchants in the Boston community to date.”
Schools invest significant time and money supporting and marketing the program to maximize student participation, said Mr. Lent. “Accepting merchants do pay a commission on the transactions, and we share those commissions with the schools 50-50.”
He said that when the Berklee College of Music card was launched, “we recruited 20 or so merchants. Because of how CardSmith’s central platform works, Fenway Card users are able to use the card at merchants in the Berklee neighborhood; and Berklee cardholders can use their card at Fenway merchants in the Fenway area.”
CardSmith has no proprietary readers or software at point of sale. “We use industry leading devices and deploy one terminal for the merchant. They only need one to accept all seven schools’ cards,” added Mr. Lent.
In Ms. Ramsbottom’s opinion, the whole operation has been a smooth transition. “They’ve (CardSmith) signed up the local businesses; we’ve canvassed where we wanted readers, they’ve installed the readers. They helped produce the marketing materials for mailings to students. They helped develop a web site where students could add value to their cards.”
By the end of January 2007, “we had over $1 million that students had put on the cards,” she said. Currently, 52 off-campus merchants accept the Fenway Card. Revenue (commissions) earned from the off-campus programs is shared between the consortium and CardSmith, said Ms. Ramsbottom.
Eventually, she believes the colleges will add new applications. Some of their members already use the card to monitor door access. She points out, “we’ve agreed on the common formatting. As campuses want to add functions, they can move ahead and do it.”
Reports are provided by CardSmith. “We know how much money students have spent at a particular machine on which campus and where the student came from,” she said.
The biggest challenge in the implementation, she added, was communications between all the players that were involved. “We might have a committee which represents a functional area, but does that infer that what the committee decides gets back to the right people (among the six colleges)? Some had card offices who understood; but others didn’t, so it was a learning process for them.”
And deciding where the card can be used off campus also has proved interesting. “We surveyed the students across the colleges, reviewed the list with the vice presidents for student affairs and an on-going operational team. They agreed that we didn’t want anyone accepting this for cigarettes or at a local bar,” she said, “but recently the question has been raised about local tanning businesses. We have a local tanning salon that has approached us about accepting the card. However, there have been some concerns raised that we will be promoting something that has health risks, so we bring the six colleges together and work to come to a consensus.”
About CardSmith
Mr. Lent describes CardSmith as “a team of people who have been in the campus card space for 10 years. I believed that full-featured campus card programs were cost prohibitive and inaccessible to many schools. We looked at the market that wasn’t being served and wanted to start making getting in the campus card business cheaper and easier. The Internet helped a lot because 10 or 15 years ago, the technology didn’t exist. We studied bank card service models and got a lot of our ideas from that industry. Every bank doesn’t own and operate its own credit card processing platform. They outsource to a small number of third party processors that have enormous economies of scale. Why not use a similar approach to benefit the education market?” he asked.
CardSmith has two processing centers, one in Brentwood, Tennesseee, and the other in Louisville, Kentucky.
“One of the things we do is that we have a lot of redundancy, like two data centers capable of doing the same thing. If one goes down, the other jumps in. Think about some of these big schools that have a huge operation. Their campus cards power the commerce on campus and is mission-critical to the campus. How many of these schools have a second back-up system in the event of a disaster?” asked Mr. Lent.
He feels that with the Colleges of Fenway project, the consortium “has created a community that’s bigger than each school on its own. The leadership demonstrated by each school should be a model to which other colleges can look. We all learned that you can do a lot more by collaborating and cooperating rather than working in your own vacuum. I’m happy that CardSmith could be a part of making it happen.”
Students enjoy added flexibility and institutions benefit from new revenues
Andy Williams, Contributing Editor
In the drive for more bucks–and don’t kid yourself, nearly every college and university needs more money, particularly in today’s tax revolt environment–one overlooked revenue stream could be as near as the pizza joint next door to the college.
Off campus card usage is becoming more common among campuses, particularly since campus card companies have overcome one of the major obstacles: the institution’s perceived loss of on-campus revenue. The fear of ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’ kept many colleges from pursuing off-campus programs … But fear seems to have largely subsided.
All those interviewed agreed on one thing: Allowing students to use their cards off-campus enhances the student experience.
“One of the things we did last spring and last summer was to interview a variety of presidents, provosts, and vice presidents, and followed that up with a survey, trying to find out what are the key issues among universities,” said Tom Bell, vice president, industry relations, for Blackboard, which produces the campus card program BbOne™, is part of the Blackboard Commerce Suite™.
“The number one issue was the student experience and how to improve it,” Mr. Bell said. “Number two was accountability to your customer, the student, staff, private entities who may be evaluating your campus (such as accrediting agencies).”
And number three? You guessed it. “Colleges are looking for new sources of revenue. That’s something we run into all the time,” said Mr. Bell
Obviously numbers one and three are closely related when it comes to off-campus card use.
“The number one thing from my road show when I visited 27 schools, was that students wanted off campus use,” said Shawn McCarthy, managing director, Off Campus Advantage, now a subsidiary of campus card provider CBORD. “It’s out there enough so they’re all hearing about it and they see the value of it. They don’t want to carry a lot of extra things (in their wallets), they love the way it works on campus with vending, laundry, so they want everything on one card,” he added.
Jeff Zander, vice president of General Meters, which manufactures and supports the campus card program known as the University OneCard System, said it only makes sense for merchants to “capitalize on this captive market, students from nearby campuses who are increasingly asking to use their University OneCard at off campus at restaurants, movie theaters, pharmacies, taxi services, hair salons and more. Students are going off campus, they can spend the money wherever they want and campuses are recognizing this fact. They’re also aware there’s money to be made here,” said Mr. Zander.
“Students are getting more savvy with payment products, it’s something they expect,” said Pedro Marzo, Blackboard’s BbOne director, “and they’re pushing the university to do it.”
Does on-campus revenue drop?
Mr. Marzo says in the past, the discussion about off campus use was different. “We had to first and foremost sell the concept because they were initially skeptical.” The biggest fear, of course was would it pillage on-campus sales, particularly at dining facilities and bookstores.
Losing on campus revenue “was valid at one point,” said Mr. Zander. “But they’re adults and they’re going off campus so why not make some money off them? If they put money on that card, they’re going to want to use that card wherever they can.” It’s the old ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ mentality, he adds.
“That loss of on campus revenue argument is going away more and more, because on campus spending is going up,” said Mr. McCarthy. “It ups the amount of money deposited into those discretionary accounts and parents love it (that they’re able to) place a defined amount of money into a discretionary account.”
Mr. Marzo agrees. “We’ve been following this data and we’ve found that when a university goes off campus, they actually see an increase in on-campus spending because there’s more money in the system,” he said. “Most of them do not see a (negative) impact in on campus sales. On average, on campus spending increases 25% because there’s more money in the system. If students have money on the card, they’ll still spend it on campus because it’s more convenient.”
Percentage-wise, Mr. Marzo estimates that for every dollar a parent deposits in his child’s account, less than a third goes for off campus purchases.
He said many universities have two purses on their campus cards, one for dining and another “called flexible funds. Most of the time, only flexible funds can be used off campus but they also can be used on-campus” while the dining purse is limited to on-campus use only.
Added Mr. Bell: “As the parent of a college student, I love the idea of depositing money to my student’s account rather than sending them a check for $200. I then have some idea of how it’s going to be spent.”
“Parents feel better about making deposits into a closed loop declining account,” said Mr. Marzo.
“We’ve seen schools that compete in the same market, the one with the off campus program is seen as more favorable in the eyes of students and parents,” said Mr. Marzo.
Making the move off campus
Colleges who tried to manage off campus programs in many cases found themselves “a victim of their own success,” said Mr. McCarthy. Colleges would end up with 75 to 100 merchants but it became a nightmare to settle with each merchant. They quickly realized they didn’t want to be in this business, he added.
Niles Dally, vice president, sales and marketing, for NuVision Networks’ One Card System, remembers the first time one of its schools installed an off campus program. “It was 15 years ago, a small school, which had this idea to put a card reader in a local pizza place. The cardholder would call up the pizza joint and read off the ID number off his card, it would clear his account and the pizza was delivered. Everything worked fine at first but in the first week, the thing crashed. Actually, the concept crashed. It was taking four to five hours to get a pizza because they were so busy.” But the college and the merchant made money, lots of it, he said, since the school was keeping a 20% commission.
Things have quieted down since then, or gotten more organized and sophisticated. Now, Mr. Dally estimates off campus usage has grown some 200%.
CBORD and its Off Campus Advantage subsidiary offer central processing
CBORD recently purchased a company specializing in off-campus use, Off Campus Advantage (OCA), which had been serving many of CBORD’s customers that had formerly been users of Diebold’s Gold offering (CBORD acquired Diebold’s Card Systems Division in 2005).
“What we found interesting was they (OCA) had a central processing technology solution which is what we were developing,” said Mr. McCarthy. So, instead of continuing with development of the central processing part, CBORD went a step better and bought the company, which is now a CBORD subsidiary.
“Up to this point, all the campuses needed to connect through a dial-up (if they had off-campus functionality),” said Mr. McCarthy. “Now that’s alleviated with the OCA technology which connects all the campuses with a secure connection.”
Mr. McCarthy sees CBORD and OCA as the “bridge” between merchants and the college.
“There’s been a tremendous reaction from schools because the schools want this in a hurry,” he said. There’s no cost to the campus, it provides them a revenue stream and “we’ll take care of everything. They just have to monitor the reporting features,” he added. “If they wanted to recruit their own merchants, we’re open to that, but it’s a soup and nuts operation.”
“We would sell them specific readers that they could take off campus. But when they started getting out there and realized what it took, they realized they needed a better solution,” said Mr. McCarthy.
CBORD is in the process of creating a national merchant network that its colleges to tap into wherever they are.
General Meters offers campuses the ability to self-manage or outsource the program
In General Meters’ case, the university can also buy the reader and operate the off campus program on their own. “Some campuses buy our readers direct and solicit merchants themselves and they make all the money,” said Mr. Zander. “And then we have some campuses tell us they don’t want to get involved at all. We sell it to the merchant directly.”
“In most cases the merchants don’t purchase the readers, they rent them from the campus or from us,” adds Mr. Zander. “One university gave a reader to the merchant and every time the university card was swiped through, the college took 25 cents, whether it was a dollar sale or a one hundred dollar sale.” That college, he said, turned a tidy profit. “There are a lot of ways a campus can make money.”
“There are many different ways the program can work, but it’s up to the campus to tell General Meters what they prefer. Unless the campus card office gives us their blessing, we don’t do it without their approval,” he added.
He said that when colleges let General Meters do everything, “we gamble. If the merchant leases it, we bundle a lease agreement so it covers our expenses … and we split the profits with the campus and/or the merchant.” He said General Meters has created an entire division dedicated to off campus merchant programs (in cases where the campus doesn’t have the time, personnel and/or resources to pursue such a program but wants help in developing one). This program is known as 1Card Advantage. In this example GMC will handle everything right down to connecting the terminal in the merchant location then sharing profits with the campus and/or merchant based on the variety of agreement options offered by GMC.
He said more campuses are realizing the potentials of buying these terminals and managing them themselves. “But we still have a lot of clients who want us to do it all.”
General Meters’ merchants can be paid daily, weekly or monthly, said Mr. Zander. The General Meters system can generate a dollar amount (of sales) and a check is sent to the merchant. “Or we can do an electronic transfer where General Meters can transfer the value to the merchant’s online account. The most efficient way is for the campus to cut the check and we confirm the balance.”
The card readers are manufactured by General Meters and are easy to install at just about any merchant location, he said. “We make a variety of readers that talk over a variety of phone lines. At the very minimum if you only have a phone line to conduct Visa and MasterCard charges, you can attach our reader to the same phone line,” said Mr. Zander.
NuVision offers web-based off campus purchases
NuVision rents colleges its card readers “or we can ship directly to the merchant,” said Mr. Dally. “In most instances, a card can’t go through a national clearing system because they still don’t have ISO numbers. So another device is necessary.”
Another option for NuVision’s college customers is “our web portal, a campus center. It has a shopper built into it and allows a cardholder to log on to the campus center and actually place an order for items at a merchant location. That’s usually done with merchants delivering a product, like pizza, or picking up an order (e.g. an off campus bookstore). It’s not designed for those locations where a cardholder needs to present his card,” said Mr. Dally.
NuVision’s software is built into the card reader. “Just put a card reader on a merchant’s table top, and plug it in. It attaches to a phone line, has a modem built in as well as our web portal,” Mr. Dally added.
Blackboard views merchant settlement as key to program success
With Blackboard’s BBOne offering, Mr. Marzo notes, “merchants can get reimbursed daily. We extract transaction details from our POS devices and debit the funds from the university account and deposit 100% of the funds back to the merchant. We’ve modeled the service after credit card best practices.”
Monthly, he explained, Blackboard accounts for the money in the various merchant transactions and debit the merchant for his fees, which includes fixed rates, the percentages which vary by merchant and by each university. For example, gas stations, with lower margins, would pay a much lower fee then say a restaurant, said Mr. Marzo. Those collections are shared with the universities.
As to the money that can be made, and the reasons for implementing an off-campus program, it depends on the university’s population total, discretionary deposits and the campuses’ physical location, said Blackboard’s Bell. “I know of many colleges that significantly support their ID operation with their off campus revenue. On other campuses, campus revenue helps fund projects, such as access and activity control that improve the student experience but are not direct revenue-generators. For other universities, off-campus is simply a cost-saving opportunity. I know of campuses that want to extend their off campus capabilities so they don’t have to open a dining facility during late night hours that can be difficult to staff and control.”
Getting merchants to buy in … and keeping others out
The philosophy behind recruiting merchants is simple. Get students as customers now and they may stay with you for a long while after they graduate. “We all know there’s a soda war that’s going on,” explained Mr. Dally. “Whatever soda you drink then you’ll probably drink for the rest of your life. The same holds for McDonald’s, Burger King, etc. For them to give 10 percent away for the ability to have the student use his debit account at their restaurant” is a good deal for them.
“What’s nice in a campus community is that it’s fairly easy to define merchants that have a good value for the students, such as food, pharmacies and health and beauty,” said Mr. McCarthy of CBORD. “We work with colleges to define what merchants they want. Colleges say parents have entrusted us to build a trusted merchant community to meet the students’ needs.”
“For merchants, they tap into a pool of funds they wouldn’t normally have access to,” added Blackboard’s Mr. Marzo. “When we approach merchants, we lead with the access channels they’re going to have available to them, like emails, posters and flyers that (go out to students). Some schools consider going off campus because the merchants are knocking at the door. It’s a push and pull situation,” he added.
In Blackboard’s case, the company solicits the merchants. “Every merchant we approach is pre-approved by the institution,” said Mr. Marzo. “We think of it like working with an architect in designing a house. You wouldn’t design a room without consulting the client. We wouldn’t, for example, add an off campus bookstore because there’s an on-campus bookstore.”
But for those institutions without an on-campus bookstore, giving their students access to bookstores off campus would be an ideal arrangement, he added.
All campus card companies talked to for this story agree that certain merchants are off limits such as liquor stores, tobacco, firearms, and distributors of obscene material. “Some Catholic schools are very sensitive to having pharmacies on the program because they sell family planning products,” added Mr. Marzo.
“When they think of off campus you think of fast food, but it goes beyond that. The most popular category we’ve seen is grocery stores,” said Mr. Marzo. “We’ve seen a trend in universities wanting to add health foods to complement their on campus food offerings.”
“The applications most common are restaurants first, then pharmacies. They’re making huge money. One is making $40,000 a week in sales,” said Mr. Zander.
Off campus use can also run the gamut from golf courses to housing complexes. “We have one university in the Midwest that owns a golf course and it’s part of the off campus program. And one in New England owns several off campus housing complexes. They’re thinking of allowing students the ability to pay their rent with their university IDs,” said Mr. Marzo.
“And we’re barely scratching the surface,” he said. One university has just cleared a partnership with the local major league baseball team to allow students to pay for their tickets with their campus cards.
A growing trend
“The percentage of off campus use is growing,” said Mr. Zander. “Right now, for every 10 campuses, only about three or four have off-campus programs. I expect that number to double in the next three years to between six to eight.”
Added Mr. Dally: “We implemented this because the students wanted it and colleges could make money. It’s a synergistic effect. The money is motivation for some and for others it’s providing a service to students. Mom and dad win because they don’t have to send money to the kid because there’s control over it. The kid wins because he learns to budget. The merchant wins because they get more business. Colleges win because they get more money and thus have more to spend on student services.”
“Students are incredibly interested in a variety of services,” adds Mr. Bell. “Dining services are now serving sushi. I never thought we’d get there but (choices) have expanded, and off campus has also expanded to allow students to eat where it’s most convenient for them.”
The future of campus cards goes mobile
Andy Williams, Contributing Editor
As wireless connectivity becomes the norm rather than the exception, colleges are finding greater uses for handheld PDA-type devices that can simplify everything from taking food orders to checking students in during an event, such as a football game.
Meal vending, picnics, field trips, photo or event verification, even shuttle buses all lend themselves to handheld usage. One thing’s for sure: colleges certainly have a variety of wireless devices from which to choose.
But for a handheld system to be effective, the campus must first have an ID system in place. “This system is the backbone and provides the means to make the magic happen on the handheld,” explained Vision Database Systems’ Emil Bonaduce. VDS, which has been supplying ID card and tracking solutions for more than 15 years, uses several handheld devices from various manufacturers. “Our applications are written to be compatible with devices running on the Pocket PC Operating system,” he added.
There are basically three levels of handheld suppliers for campus markets:
On campus use: authentication, dining, tracking, access …
Bottom line purpose for any handheld used on campus is to pull up information stored in a database for the card just scanned by the device, said Mr. Bonaduce.
“Handhelds provide an excellent way of ensuring that students do not defraud a sporting event system, for example, by passing their student ID to others to gain free or discounted admittance,” said Mr. Bonaduce. The company’s PockeTracker Red/Green application “can allow one ID one entry (flashing a green symbol) and then deny entry to all subsequent presentations of the ID (via a red symbol),” he added.
Added General Meters’ vice president, Jeff Zander: “They’re used to verify someone who says they paid for an event. The card is swiped and a photo is displayed along with a pass/fail status. This keeps students from giving their card to a friend if they know a second level of verification will be a photo ID.” General Meters produces the Pocket 1Card as an extension of the company’s University One-Card System. Pocket 1 Card is a software package and a card reader designed to operate on a PDA using the Microsoft PocketPC operating system.
Another possible use “is the tracking of attendance for a special or cultural event that is required for select students,” said Mr. Bonaduce. “Perhaps a famous speaker will be presenting and all history majors need to attend the lecture, yet it is open to the entire campus. By placing a handheld per point of entry at the auditorium, quick and accurate attendance data can be gathered without disrupting traffic into or out of the auditorium. This data is then complied into reports that show at a glance who was in attendance so that proper credit can be given.”
General Meters has a handheld that can be used as an access device, he said. A list of people who have access rights to a facility–be it a dormitory or a lab–is downloaded to the device. As the student enters, the card is swiped or an account number is manually entered, and a pass or fail light determines if the person can gain entrance.
General Meters’ Pocket 1Card, like other applications, can accept meal plans. “No pre-wiring is needed and no setup is required. The appropriate data is downloaded to the Pocket 1Card which will then read a student’s meal plan eligibility,” said Mr. Zander.
Sequoia Retail Systems, a provider of point-of-sale, inventory control, e-commerce, and textbook management systems to colleges and universities, offers handhelds. Customers use them for everything from athletic event entry, food delivery, board plan picnics on the quad, shuttle bus service, student group sales, attendance tracking, and even tracking iPod distribution,” said John Diaz, Sequoia’s vice president, Auxiliary Services Division. “In the campus retail store arena, they are also being used for inventory tracking, ordering and receiving, on-line order processing, and textbook buyback.”
Campus card provider CBORD offers two varieties of handheld card readers “allowing users to process transactions at any location, regardless of power or network connectivity,” said the company’s president, Bruce Lane. “The readers are frequently used at athletic events, picnics, concession sales, conferences, and other on- and off-site events. In online mode, transactions are processed in real-time, using a wireless network. (Alternatively,) transactions are verified against an offline database downloaded to the device before the event. Transactions supported include sales, activities, and balance inquiries (when online only).” Reporting, he added, is available from either the handheld or the company’s campus card system, Odyssey PCS/CS Gold.
Off-campus use: Eligibility, loyalty, payment, age verification …
Off-campus merchant options based on a college ID card system “are virtually limitless,” said Mr. Bonaduce. “The ability to capture data from an ID card, assign vendor points, decrement those points and ensure loyalty are present once an ID system and handheld programs are introduced. Desktop or Point of Sale versions of the handheld software could produce a suite of applications that tie in seamlessly with one another and provide a boon for local businesses near a collegiate campus.”
For example, PocketPoints, a decrement/increment application from VDS can be used “to track and distribute booster points,” Mr. Bonaduce added. “The Booster Club assigns one point for each sporting event attended by a student that is stored in the handheld. At special booster meetings or events, the students can redeem those points for prizes and rewards. This same system can be used to track drink and food tickets accurately to determine exact quantities of items that were given away versus those that were purchased.”
Sequoia has customers “who have used the devices for food delivery and even at locations such as off-campus coffee shops where student groups have held functions and needed to track attendance and charge admission to events,” said Mr. Diaz.
The company also has customers “who use them on shuttle busses whereby students must swipe their card upon entering the vehicle where they are then validated as to whether they are entitled to ride the bus at no charge or if they must pay for the trip,” said Mr. Diaz.
Some applications don’t even need a database or access to one. For example, you can verify the data on a driver license, ensuring that the data encoded on the magnetic stripe or bar code matches the info on the license. Similar software can also determine if the person holding the license is of legal age to purchase alcohol, said Mr. Bonaduce.
In General Meters’ case, a specially designed card reader attached to an HP iPaq enables card validation in a matter of seconds by a simple swipe of the magnetic stripe. “No external power is needed as the card reader is powered by the HP iPaq,” said Mr. Zander. “It, too, can verify a person’s age. Set Pocket 1Card to age verification mode, enter the age limit you want to verify and it will do the rest. The age is calculated based upon birth dates downloaded from the University One-Card System database.”
For administrators only: System maintenance, remote access …
Handhelds can also help college staff perform their jobs better, according to Mr. Lane. “Our CS Gold AdminPDA puts the power of CS Gold Administration GUIs at users’ fingertips—anytime, anywhere.”
This handheld device gives system administrators the ability to use a wireless online connection to view patron information and reader status, lock and unlock doors, and perform system administration functions. “The AdminPDA also has a patron lookup feature which allows users to see demographics and pictures of cardholders,” he adds.
Bob Lemley, manger of CS Gold Development at CBORD, notes that “administrators can connect via Wi-Fi or cellular to monitor and control doors or view patron information. Plus, all of this is fully encrypted, using Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) on top of whatever network protection is in place.”
How about durability and battery life?
You get what you pay for, suggests Mr. Bonaduce. “Some of the devices are fairly fragile while others can be dropped from ten feet onto pavement and not receive a scratch. There are also third party suppliers that produce aluminum or steel cases for common handheld devices for further armor. Basically, if one is willing to pay for durability, obtaining a robust handheld device is possible. If cost is a concern than handling the device with care becomes a priority,” he adds.
Our readers can withstand the demands of the higher education environment,” said CBORD’s Lane. “Extra reliability is built into every aspect – from battery contacts to keypads to acoustics – to ensure they exceed the demands of daily, high-volume usage.”
“GMC rates each hand held for three to five years of use under normal operating conditions,” added Mr. Zander. “Most will last much longer.”
And Mr. Diaz from Sequoia notes: “Our wireless card reader applications run on rugged devices manufactured by vendors such as Symbol Technologies. These devices are much more durable than a standard PDA device. Customers can also purchase an optional hardware service plan which covers just about anything that can happen to the unit.”
Another thing colleges need to consider is battery life. “Most handheld devices can operate intermittently for up to ten hours without needing a re-charge,” says Mr. Bonaduce. “Rarely is a handheld device in constant use for more than a few hours at a time.”
Mr. Diaz agrees. “We support several different devices, but with our primary units, customers can expect run-times ranging from 10 to 14 hours of continuous use. This battery life can be greatly extended by doing things such as turning off the touch screen backlight after several minutes of inactivity and having the device automatically go to sleep when it is not in use.” Using these power-saving tips means a handheld can “be used over several days without the need to be recharged,” he said.
However, Mr. Bonaduce offers a word of warning. “Once a handheld runs out of power, nearly all of them revert back to factory settings when turned on again. This is due to the volatile nature of the memory inside the devices. Some manufacturers allow for a saved backup to be recalled upon start-up but any data obtained after the last backup is lost. Cradling (and thus recharging the batteries) is mandatory maintenance.”
The future of handhelds on campus: Bigger apps from smaller units
While handheld usage on college campuses has grown over the last couple of years, there is still much more to come. “Wireless, debit, access, financial and transit applications will continue to evolve with the size of the device continuing to decrease,” said Mr. Zander.
Security concerns will drive the growth in handheld usage, says Mr. Bonaduce of VDS. “Campus security, dormitory administrators and even faculty can utilize handheld devices to check the authenticity of a student ID, capture that student’s information digitally and record other crucial pieces of information with just the press of a button,” he says. “Once campuses understand the power that a handheld can bring to their security program, the presence of such devices in a collegiate environment will become as common place as radar speed detecting devices in highway patrol cars.”
Sequoia “saw a doubling of our wireless customer base in 2006 and we expect this growth to continue in 2007,” said Mr. Diaz. “We are also seeing many of the early adopters, who often started with just one or two units, placing follow-up orders for large quantities of devices as they’ve realized the benefits of using the handheld technology on their campuses.”
Handhelds have obviously made their mark on college campuses. As a user of CBORD’s handheld offering stated: “(It) is a great example of forward-thinking. It fills a niche that has been overlooked for a long time—a wireless, portable, small card reader … The uses are only limited by the imagination of the user.”
Near field communication is still, technically, in its infancy, but it’s gaining a good head of steam as illustrated by this year’s edition of CardTech / SecurTech event. The show is being held May 15-17 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Bill Rutledge, CTST program director, projects a 15% increase in attendance over 2006 figures for the SourceMedia Conferences and Exhibitions event.
Why go? “There’s a lot going on in security and on the payment side,” said Mr. Rutledge. “For people in the payments industry, there’s a lot to be aware of. On the security side, the big effort now is on protecting data and managing identity.”
Focusing on these issues and more will be 15 workshops as well as the CardTech Americas Executive Summit that will feature an hour-long Q and A with key officials from Gemalto, Giesecke and Devrient, Oberthur, Sagem Orga, added Mr. Rutledge. “Attendees will be able to ask whatever they want.” In addition, a well-known security expert, former FBI Director Louis Freeh, who is credited with transforming the FBI from a national law enforcement agency to a global security institution, will be a keynote speaker.
A few years ago the show, now in its 17th year, was dominated by security, particularly after 9/11 and the subsequent issuance of HSPD-12 and FIPS 201 standards. Then, contactless made its big splash but stepped aside while everyone rushed to get on the ID security bandwagon.
Then along came near field communication, a co-developed technology of NXP and Sony, to reawaken interest in contactless applications. It has caused an “increasing focus on contactless,” said Mr. Rutledge.
Cardtech
This year, the CardTech portion of CTST will be “focusing on NFC and other mobile payment technologies,” he added. A full day will be devoted to NFC. That will include a look at some of the trials currently underway, including the Dallas, Texas consumer trial initiated by MasterCard and a Bank of America “internal test” with its employees, where they were issued NFC-enabled phones, said Mr. Rutledge.
“A lot of vendors are talking about this new technology,” he added. These vendors include not just credit card issuers or chip makers, but wireless carriers as well. And there’s more to mobile payment projects than just NFC. There’s one “payment scheme that will allow you to call up, enter a number and transfer money via a phone line,” said Mr. Rutledge. “A lot of smaller companies are experimenting with that.”
Along with NFC market projections from Ginger Schmeltzer, manager of Edgar Dunn and Co. and market opportunities in telecom-based payments by NXP’s Manuel Albers, the NFC/Mobile Payment Technologies session will also include a look at Visa’s pilot mobile payments programs and an “Update on NFC Reference Design” by Inside Contactless and a look at SIM-based NFC services from Gemalto.
There are also what Mr. Rutledge calls “merchant driven alternative payment systems, like Paypal that allows merchants to go beyond major credit card vendors to offer payment systems that don’t have anything to do with MasterCard or American Express. That’s started to take off in a lot of areas. Whether its online or over the phone, alternatives to different payment systems will be some key topics,” he said.
May Kay Bowman, senior manager, global payments for Amazon.com will discuss “The Retailer Rebellion,” while a Verizon representative will talk about the “Move to Mobile.” Under the heading, Battle of the Systems,” a panel discussion will include representatives from First Data Commercial Services, Gratis Card, Tempo and Yodlee.
With these alternative payment systems also comes different card form factors, he added.
A section titled “Battle of the Form Factors” will include panelists from Cardinal Venture Capital, iCache, and Aliaswire.
The CardTech portion will also feature an update on EMV migration, particularly in Canada. Catherine Johnston, president and CEO for ACT Canada, will head a panel discussion featuring representatives from the Bank of Montreal, Interac (the country’s national automated banking machine and POS debit sale network), MasterCard Worldwide and the Visa Canada Association.
There will also be an EMV case study, “Deploying a Full Grade EMV Card and Acceptance Network,” a look at “Contactless EMV: Finding its Place in the U.S. Market,” and “The Role of EMV in Fraud Mitigation.”
Another daylong session will cover contactless payment strategies and will look at those of Visa and MasterCard, Wells Fargo’s contactless card rollout, American Express’ contactless card, and “Consumer Perceptions versus Realities.”
SecurTech
The other half of CTST, security, won’t be outdone. “We’ve always talked about security at the card level. We have a new workshop called ‘Advanced ID Management and Cybersecurity,’ where we’ll be talking about network security, management of digital IDs, public key encryption,” said Mr. Rutledge. This Smart Card Alliance-produced session will include representatives from Gemalto, Microsoft, Actividentity, Verisign, Lockheed Martin, GSA, Intercede, the Department of Defense and Corestreet.
Some of the topics include: ID management on desktops and servers, managing the identity on the credential, shared services for ID management, the DoD’s Common Access Card and mobile credential management for first responders.
“We’ll be talking about the system holistically, taking it to a new level in terms of network ID, managing security life cycles, etc.,” said Mr. Rutledge. “This will be a very intense workshop.”
There will also be half-day sessions, back-to-back, covering biometrics security and the Real ID Act. Sponsored by the International Biometric Group, the biometrics portion will include what the federal government is doing with biometrics, consumer acceptance of biometric technology, and an update on biometric testing and technology. The Real ID portion will cover what some of the states are currently doing to comply with the act, a panel discussion on “obstacles and opportunities” to Real ID Act implementation, and some of the “benefits and challenges” to the Real ID Act. A panel discussion will feature representatives from the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, California’s DMV, Department of Homeland Security and Digimarc.
Two other daylong sessions in the SecurTech track will cover Healthcare Card Technologies and Strategies and Data and Physical Security Convergence.
The former will feature speakers from Accenture, IBM Research, Healthmeans, G&D, Siemens and Gemalto and will include a look at healthcare cards market projections, open technology standards, best practices in healthcare card implementation, and case studies on the Taiwan Healthcare card, the Texas Medicaid Access Card and the French healthcare card.
The data/physical security convergence session will include speakers from the City of Vancouver, Symantec, Intel, the Boeing Company, Identity Alliance and Unisys and will feature global security management, interoperability standards for security convergence, case studies in convergence engineering, ID token technologies for converged security, and more.
A daylong session on Authentication and Secure Payment Technology for executives will include speakers from Crone Consulting, Javelin Strategy and Research, Volubis, mSystems, Magtek, eFunds Xiring, and IBM Canada.
For more information about this year’s conference, go to: www.sourcemediaconferences.com/CTST07/.
Compare FIPS 201 ProductsRiverside Community College District, a family of three distinct California institutions with 30,000 students, will add Wells Fargo financial services to the district-wide campus card program. The program will launch this summer at RCCD campuses in Riverside, Moreno Valley and Norco. Students will be able to choose to link the new RCCD College Card to a Wells Fargo checking account and can then use the card for ATM and point-of-sale (POS) transactions.
WELLS FARGO TO PROVIDE ENHANCED COLLEGE CARD BENEFITS, FINANCIAL SERVICES TO RIVERSIDE COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT
Enhancements link RCCD College Card to Wells Fargo accounts
RIVERSIDE – March 29, 2007 - Riverside Community College District (RCCD) has selected Wells Fargo to provide financial services opportunities to students, faculty, and staff through the District’s new College Card, which will also serve as an official campus ID card.
The program, to be introduced this summer at RCCD campuses in Riverside, Moreno Valley and Norco, will offer the option to link the enhanced RCCD College Card to a Wells Fargo checking account. The card may be used for ATM and point-of-sale (POS) transactions everywhere PIN pads are present. Plus, as an official campus ID card, the RCCD College Card will provide access to various campus services, such as library access, entry to campus events and more.
“We are very excited to offer this opportunity with Wells Fargo for our students, faculty and staff,” said RCCD Vice Chancellor of Student Services Debbie DiThomas. “After a competitive request for proposal process, the district selected Wells Fargo because of the company’s commitment to the community and its track record in the campus card market. We look forward to a successful relationship.”
RCCD College Card cardholders who link their cards to Wells Fargo checking or savings accounts will enjoy the convenience of Online Banking and My Spending Report, an online tool that categorizes purchases and helps manage and organize finances. In addition, financial aid disbursements will be accessible through the RCCD College Card when student cardholders open a free Wells Fargo College Checking® account. Wells Fargo will provide onsite account opening services for university students, faculty and staff during peak registration and orientation times.
“We are committed to building lasting relationships with our customers, and by establishing connections with students now, we are helping them build healthy financial habits that will serve them well over their lifetimes,” said Richard Domagalski, Wells Fargo regional president for the Inland Empire. “This program is a stepping stone towards a bright financial future and we’re excited to partner with the Riverside Community College District.”
Wells Fargo has the fourth-largest network of ATMs in the nation, with 32 in Riverside, Moreno Valley and Norco, and more than 6,700 ATMs in 23 states around the country. Members of the RCCD community will be able to conveniently access cash through their linked RCCD College Card at any ATM, and at all Wells Fargo ATMs for free.
Wells Fargo offers a wide range of products and services especially developed for students – including Wells Fargo College Checking® account, Wells Fargo College Visa® Credit Card, student loans, insurance, financial education workshops and the Hands on Banking® financial literacy training program available in English and Spanish at www.handsonbanking.org and www.elfuturoentusmanos.org. Students can find more information about Wells Fargo Student Financial Services at www.wellsfargo.com/student/.
Wells Fargo & Company is a diversified financial services company with $482 billion in assets, providing banking, insurance, investments, mortgage and consumer finance through more than 6,000 stores and the internet (wellsfargo.com) across North America and internationally. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. is the only bank in the U.S., and one of only two banks worldwide, to have the highest credit rating from both Moody’s Investors Service, “Aaa,” and Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, “AAA.”
Off-Campus Advantage (OCA), a provider of merchant solutions for campus card programs, will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of The CBORD Group. OCA was originally SA Cash, a component of Student Advantage’s offering, and later an independent company. Student Advantage was acquired by CBORD late in 2005. Stay tuned to CR80News for more details on this development as they arise.
The CBORD Group Acquires Off-Campus Advantage
Deal expands CBORD’s off-campus solution set
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Ithaca, NY and Boston, MA: The CBORD Group, Inc., one of the world’s leading suppliers of campus card, housing, and foodservice management systems for the College & University market, today announced it has acquired Off-Campus Advantage, LLC (OCA), a leading provider of off-campus payment services for colleges and universities.
OCA expands the functionality of the University-issued ID card by enabling merchants in the local community to accept it as a form of payment. Since 1999, OCA has been providing CBORD’s CS Gold® customers with a robust and secure off-campus payment platform. OCA’s Central Server Solution, which eliminates modem banks, phone lines, and other hardware on campus, will now be expanded to CBORD’s Odyssey PCS™ customers with new or existing off-campus payment programs and will help accelerate the building of CBORD’s UGryd™ national network of merchants, which links participating merchants with participating colleges and their students across America.
“OCA brings a proven, Central Server technology platform to CBORD’s 800+ university clients to address the demand for the campus card to be used off-campus, without adding overhead to the university infrastructure,” said Shawn McCarthy, CBORD’s Vice President of Wide-Area Commerce Solutions. “We are excited to work with the OCA team with their proven track record of excellent customer service.”
“The combination of CBORD’s industry knowledge and campus card systems expertise with OCA’s technology is a terrific win for universities,” said Rory Hersch, President of OCA. “Whether a school is thinking of going off campus for the first time, or has had a program up and running for years, we now offer options to build and maintain those programs according to each university’s unique needs.”
The combined company will offer universities:
OCA will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of The CBORD Group, Inc. with offices in Boston. Existing OCA client schools will continue to work with their current OCA account managers.
About The CBORD Group, Inc.
The CBORD Group, Inc., founded in 1975, has provided service to the campus-wide needs of higher-education facilities for over 30 years. CBORD works with a wide variety of clients and markets, providing cashless and ID card privilege control systems, housing management systems, Webfood® online ordering service, and the Student Advantage® discount membership program. In addition, CBORD serves thousands of chain restaurants, hospitals, universities, supermarkets, and gaming facilities with its suite of foodservice, catering, and nutrition software products. The CBORD Group has customers in the U.S., Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and Australia. To learn more about CBORD, visit us at www.cbord.com.
About Off-Campus Advantage, LLC
Off-Campus Advantage, LLC expands the functionality of the University-issued ID card by enabling merchants in the local community to accept it as a form of payment through its proprietary Central Server technology. With its suite of services, OCA creates fully customized programs for schools with existing off-campus vendors. By leveraging relationships with national retailers, OCA’s Loyalty platform rewards students with prizes for each dollar spent off-campus, creating a strong revenue source for university partners. The Company can be reached online at www.offcampusadvantage.com.
By Jerry Banks and Les G. Thompson, co-authors of RFID Applied
The most basic radio frequency identification solution is made up of three main hardware components. These components are the RFID tag, the RFID reader, and the antenna. This is, of course, an over simplification of what it takes to apply today's RFID technology to a real world problem, but these are the fundamental building blocks. Understanding the fundamentals of RFID is the key that allows practitioners to be successful in their application of the technology. Even though this article does not discuss the software required to interpret and make use of the RFID data, its role in a complete RFID solution is vital.
The components of the basic RFID tag are an integrated circuit (IC), an antenna, and the substrate that holds it all together. The IC is responsible for controlling the tag; much like a CPU controls a desktop computer. The IC controls what is broadcast from the tag, processes commands received from the reader via the antenna, and manages any peripherals such as temperature and pressure sensors. The antenna plays multiple roles in most RFID tags. It is responsible for receiving and transmitting data from and to the reader, and, in the case of passive type RFID tags, they collect the energy required to power the tag. Passive tags power themselves off of the energy they collect from high gain antennas that are connected to the RFID reader; therefore, they must be in close proximity to the RFID reader's antenna in order to collect enough energy to function.
RFID tags with onboard batteries are known as active tags. Unlike passive tags, they transmit their data even when they are not in close proximity to an RFID reader. In most cases, active tags can be read at a longer distance than passive tags. There is a hybrid tag known as the semi-active tag. It has an onboard battery just like the active tag, but it will only transmit when it is in close proximity to the reader.
RFID tags may transmit many different pieces of data, but the most fundamental piece of data is the tag's unique identifier. The unique identifier is, in most cases, associated with a real world asset that is to be tracked. The unique identifier is used as the key that identifies information about an asset in a database in most applications. Tags may also transmit state information or telemetry such as temperature or humidity if they have the sensors to collect this type of information. Most passive tags do not have peripheral functionality due to the power limitations of not having an onboard battery.
The RFID reader is sometimes referred to as the interrogator. The reader receives all of the data that the tags are transmitting. The data is then passed on to software that makes use of the data. The tags that are in close enough proximity to a reader are referred to as the reader's "tag population." As a reader's tag population grows, the density of tags around the reader also grows, and the reader may require more time to read all of the tags in its vicinity. This is due to the fact that if all the tags transmit at the same time, the reader will not be able to separate their data into discreet transmissions, so it is important that the tags do not transmit all at once.
Passive tag readers select subsets of the population to query over time until beacons from all of the tags in the population have been received. Most active tag readers do not control the sampling of the tag population like passive readers do. Active tags beacon at a pseudorandom interval to avoid transmission collision with other tags. Anti-collision algorithms such as the ALOHA algorithm determine when the tag will beacon. The ALOHA algorithm assigns transmission time slots to each tag. The name ALOHA is not an acronym, but was given its name because it was developed at the University of Hawaii. The ALOHA algorithm is a common anti-collision algorithm that is used by many RF applications, not only RFID. Over time, the randomization of the tag transmissions will ensure that the transmissions from all the tags are eventually received. There exists a threshold where the tag density is so great that it cannot be guaranteed that all the tags will be sampled in a timely manner. The tag density maximum is different for each RFID tag and reader manufacturer. Some manufacturers even allow the anti-collision algorithm to be changed based on the needs of the solution.
The importance of the antenna that is connected to the reader cannot be underestimated. In a passive RFID solution, the antenna must be sensitive enough to receive the RFID tag transmissions and it must also be powerful enough to power the tags. Passive tag reader antennas may be deployed in many different configurations depending on the application. A portal configuration is the most common type. Portals place an antenna on each side of the tag's path (i.e., at a loading dock door or on an assembly line). Sometimes, a portal configuration may also affix antennas on the top and bottom of the pathway to completely surround the tag's path, thus increasing the chances of reading the tag as it passes through the portal.
Antennas used in active tag applications must solve a different set of problems. Many times, active tags are used in a real-time location system (RTLS). An RTLS is used to track tagged assets as they move through a building, yard, or supply chain. Active reader antennas are usually installed in the middle of the desired coverage area. For example, an antenna could be placed in the ceiling in the middle of a room. This antenna could then read all of the tags in the room. Because of the increased transmission power of most active RFID tags, when compared to passive tags, the antenna may also read tags outside of the room. Transmissions from tags in adjacent rooms, hallways, or in a room immediately above the antenna in a multistory building may be inadvertently received by the antenna. This is known as "bleeding coverage." Most RTLS's require that the coverage be well defined to a single room or to a zone within a room. To resolve this issue, the correct antenna must be selected that meets the needs of the RF environment. Antennas must provide smooth and consistent input to the RFID reader in order for it to efficiently decode the tags' transmissions. Bad input will yield bad results, especially in RTLS's.
In the words of Scotty from Star Trek, "You can't bend the laws of physics, Captain!" Even though RFID practitioners are bound by the laws of physics, they can make smart decisions about what components they choose and how they are deployed.
This article is the first in an ongoing series that will explain the principles of RFID. The series is developed for RFIDNews by Jerry Banks, an Independent Consultant working in Atlanta Georgia and Les G. Thompson, Chief Technical Officer for Lost Recovery Network, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia. They are two of four co-authors of the book RFID Applied, John Wiley, 2007, ISBN-10 0471793655; ISBN-13 978-041793656.
Blackboard’s newest vending reader, the FlexVend, enables payments from campus cards as well as credit cards. The reader, manufactured by USA Technologies, will also accept major association label (e.g. Visa, MasterCard) contactless payment cards.
Blackboard Releases New Contactless Vending Reader
FlexVend Device Supports Acceptance of Major Credit Cards in Addition to Campus Cards
Washington, DC, – March 26, 2007 – Blackboard Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBB) announced today the release of a new vending reader for the Blackboard Commerce Suite™, a family of applications supporting one-card transactions on-campus, off-campus and online and allowing for identification and security access.
The new FlexVend reader, provided by USA Technologies (Nasdaq: USAT), allows for cashless payment at campus vending machines. Cardholders can pay for vended products with their campus card as well as all major credit cards, including the latest contactless cards that allow for ‘touch and go’ transactions. Wired and wireless options of the FlexVend reader are both available.
“Our new FlexVend vending reader utilizes the latest in contactless technology that allows for quick ‘touch-and-go’ card transactions,” said Russ Carlson, president of the Blackboard Commerce Group. “FlexVend provides Blackboard cardholders the ultimate in convenience by allowing them to purchase vended product with a variety of card types including credit cards.”
The easy-to-use vending machine interface allows a cardholder to purchase multiple items with a single swipe or tap of their card. Campuses can also support vending of higher-priced products such as computer or desk supplies.
Online reporting capabilities allow for user-configurable reports on account data of processed transactions.
About Blackboard Inc.
Blackboard Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBB) is a leading provider of enterprise software applications and related services to the education industry. Founded in 1997, Blackboard enables educational innovations everywhere by connecting people and technology. Millions of people use Blackboard everyday at academic institutions around the globe, including colleges, universities, K-12 schools and other education providers, as well as textbook publishers and student-focused merchants that serve education providers and their students. Blackboard is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia.
PockeTracker, the popular handheld ID card verification application from Visionbase, now includes support for HID prox and contactless credentials. The application will read the prox or iCLASS card and check against an onboard or external database for access, eligibility, loyalty, and mustering applications. PockeTracker runs on Motorola Symbol devices, or any PocketPC device paired with an appropriate card reader. An intuitive red or green display permits or denies entry. The product will be demo’d at the ISC West show in Las Vegas next week.
VisionBase adds contactless options to PockeTracker with HID technology
PockeTracker, VisionBase’s mobile handheld ID card tracking device, now includes HID Proximity and iCLASS® technology
Jupiter, FL, March 19, 2007: VisionBase Inc, a premier developer of mobile ID card tracking solutions, today announced that it has integrated technology by HID Global Corporation, a leading manufacturer in the access control industry, to bring improved functionality to PockeTracker Red/Green. PockeTracker works by reading ID cards using the card technology of the user’s choice. PockeTracker now has the ability to read HID Proximity and iCLASS cards, adding secure HID contactless functionality to its list of compatible technologies, which also include barcode and magstripe scanning. Emil Bonaduce, president of VisionBase Inc adds, “I’m excited about joining the HID Connect Partner Program. HID Global’s contactless technologies, paired with our mobile software know-how, bring added security, speed, and convenience when our clients need it most.”
PockeTracker is used to log individuals in and out of events by ID card reading. It runs on Motorola Symbol devices, or any PocketPC device paired with an appropriate card reader. It has a simple red or green display for permitting or denying entry. It can track simple attendance or be used for paperless ticketing. It contains a mustering feature which allows the user to quickly identify who is in, or who is not in a building, a bus, or any other location. It can also tally points for loyalty applications. With HID Proximity and iCLASS as part of the system, an administrator only needs to present the ID card to the reader and they will have access to the photo and data of the individual scanned.
“PockeTracker is a perfect fit for the type of application we look for to make our contactless products stand out in a unique and helpful way,” said Debra Spitler, executive vice president of HID Connect. “VisionBase’s PockeTracker represents a forward-thinking approach to credential-based applications.”
ID Card Administrators need not worry about the headaches of data integration when starting out with PockeTracker. Since launching the PockeTracker Gateway earlier this year, PockeTracker can easily work with current ODBC compliant databases such as Oracle, SQL Server, etc. and that also includes the majority of the ID card software available on the market.
VisionBase will be giving demos of the new PockeTracker functionality at the upcoming ISC West Security Conference in Las Vegas March 28-30, 2007.
About VisionBase:
VisionBase is a software development firm specializing in ID card systems and tracking devices. After success with its ID card software RapIDcard throughout the 1990’s, VisionBase soon branched off into PC based and handheld tracking solutions. PockeTracker, VisionBase’s handheld mobile application is used by college campuses nationwide as well as other organizations in need of wireless mobile tracking by ID card. VisionBase also sells all the components needed to get ID systems up and running including handheld devices, printers, software, cameras, and a wide array of ID carding supplies.
Learn more about VisionBase Inc – www.visionbase.com
About HID Global:
HID Global is a leading manufacturer in the access control industry, serving customers worldwide with proximity and contactless smart card technologies; central station managed access controllers; secure and custom card solutions; photo ID and ID card application control software; and secure card issuance solutions. Headquartered in Irvine, California, HID Global operates international offices that support more than 100 countries and is an ASSA ABLOY Group company. To learn more, please visit www.hidcorp.com.
Access, attendance tracking, lunch programs drive the implementation provided by Scholarchip
Andy Williams, Contributing Editor
Colleges have been using campus card ID systems for years. But with increasing security concerns, similar products are moving into public schools. One example: Philadelphia, Penn.’s school system where high school students at 60 schools have been provided a contactless ID card needed to gain admission to school property, track attendance, and, in some cases, buy lunch in the cafeteria.
“We have 56,000 high school students and we wanted a better handle on (them),” said Patricia DiLella, senior project manager for Philadelphia School District’s Office of Information Technology. “Before, everyone was assumed present until marked absent. We needed something to track students. With this new system, everyone is assumed absent until they tap (their card) and have physically been seen by school personnel.”
Via a request for proposal process, the district selected ScholarChip Card LLC, a seven-year-old organization whose origins date to higher education and has since incorporated K-12 schools in its lineup. While ScholarChip had been conducting a pilot program in two of Philadelphia’s middle schools, it landed the five-year contract because it had “better technology, ease of implementation and cost,” said Ms. DiLella. “It was state of the art and they had experience with smart cards in universities.”
“We spent a year and half doing evaluations in the pilot program (with the middle schools),” said Dr. Maged Atiya, ScholarChip’s founder and chief technology officer. “We’ve provided a contactless card (using NXP’s MiFARE technology) to every high school student in the district.”
Ms. DiLella added that the district, Pennsylvania’s largest, was “in the process of implementing the system in three large middle schools. We concentrated on high schools first because they needed it.”
Students are encouraged to wear the lanyard-attached badge around their necks, however, many are still simply carrying them on their persons, said Ms. DiLella. “We want them to get used to wearing the cards because they’re going to be used (eventually) for classroom attendance.”
The smart ID badge is tapped when a student enters school grounds. Attendance is taken in a classroom in the normal fashion and the results are compared with the records generated when the students first enter the school. In addition, the badges can be read by portable, PDA-style readers. So, if a student is in the hallway, the badge can be read by an administrator to determine where the student should be.
To accomplish this, the card contains the student’s picture and also his class schedule. Other information can be added, such as any special health needs and whether he’s on free or reduced lunch, which can be read by a POS device in the cafeteria.
The next step is implementing electronic attendance at the classroom level. She said some schools would like to put readers in classrooms so students can walk by, thus registering their physical attendance in the class. But that’s not something the district is looking at as a whole because it’s expensive and would require readers in each classroom.
“The (first) challenge is making sure teachers have computers,” she said. “If a child is marked as tapping in (when he first enters the school) when the teacher gets to her class for the day, it shows he’s present.” She then manually identifies that the student is in the classroom. If he’s not, a notation is made on the computer.
“We opted right now not to have devices hanging on the door,” she said. Inevitably, they would be subject to vandalism. “So the teacher will be doing it. This system does help tremendously in finding kids and keeping track of them.”
Eventually, the POS system in the cafeteria will be able to have the foodservice portion on the card and ultimately an e-purse. But right now it just notifies cafeteria personnel that the child is eligible for free and reduced lunch, said Ms. DiLella.
In, the technology-savvy Microsoft School of the Future in Philadelphia, the cards are also used to open lockers. “I don’t think it will be implemented at our other schools anytime soon,” she said. It would require either upgrading the lockers or, more likely, installing new ones, which is an expense the district isn’t willing to undertake at this point.
Each school issues its own cards. “The school can queue a card and print it or we can print it at our data center,” sats Dr. Atiya. “It’s all up to what the school wants to do. (It is a major) implementation of distributed smart card issuance and printing. We have almost 70 printers in the field.”
The printers from Evolis are customized to encode the contactless chip during the print cycle. According to Dr. Atiya, as the blank card is physically printed, a unique digital ID is added to the card that contains the student’s schedule data, emergency information, cafeteria e-purse, etc.
“Our approach is ideal … for large urban school districts,” adds Dr. Atiya. “We installed 300 devices in Philadelphia inside of five weeks. That’s because of the architecture of our system. Everything is self-configurable.”
It seems that the Philadelphia experience supports his claim. “The technology is unbelievable,” Ms. DiLella said in rating the overall system. “We implemented in 59 schools in six weeks. That’s unprecedented. ScholarChip was out here helping them with training and helping us get more accurate data. Now we’re able to assist schools manage and keep accurate attendance records.”
Additional resources:
Visit Scholarchip online at www.scholarchip.com.
