Card, mobile credential, payment and security
By Joann Wright, University ID/RaiderCard Unit Manager, Texas Tech University
As the summer winds down and another semester is upon us, I’m inclined to consider the role my office plays at the university. While there may be some who claim that your campus ID office is purely a location where plastic cards are made, those in the identification community know our reach is far greater. We facilitate access. Yes, that can mean physical access to buildings, services, and dining plans; but we also provide access to experiences and a shared community. Access to connect with others.
I don’t mean to imply that my office is the be-all-end-all of what it means to be associated with an institution of higher learning. But I am reminded of a personal story from my school. During new student orientation a student forgot their government issued photo ID, so they couldn’t pick up their student ID on arrival, but would instead have to wait until they came back in the fall. The student, obviously upset, then questioned the point of even coming to orientation at all if she couldn’t get her campus card? We gently reminded her that orientation is also about registering for classes, learning traditions, touring campus, and getting information for paying the bill. But this is just an example to illustrate that for students (and let’s be honest, employees too), getting an ID card is a tangible way to show they are part of the university community. They go home excited to show their new ID to their friends and then imagine what the next years hold for them.
An ID card for many people is more than just another card in their wallet. It holds an inherent opportunity for belonging. For the first-generation student, it could be finally realizing the prospects that await them because they now have an opportunity to get a degree. For the student who is relieved that their school uses preferred name on their ID, it could mean they can finally feel they are associated with their real identity. For the non-traditional student, it could be a reminder that working full time and taking classes on the side is worth it to pursue a new dream. For the tired parent taking care of a family, the card could remind them to keep pushing through the night to finish up homework. For university employees, the campus card can be a reminder that each day they work with students and support other employees. Even for retirees who take the opportunity to enroll in personal enrichment classes after a lifetime of hard work, the card can be a symbol of belonging. For each of these groups the ID card is a way we can bond with each other and be identified to our institution and to the world.
For us in the ID business, we also share a unique relationship with each other. Like any industry, we are a group with our own common experiences. We can share a laugh about what worked and what didn’t. We can appreciate the common annoyances of the university setting (yes, the ID office should be notified when someone leaves campus so we can remove their access and deactivate their account). I am always thankful that I am part of a group who is so willing to share tips and tricks of the trade. It is understood that if one succeeds among us we are all successful because we can share what worked and what didn’t. Together we represent more than an identification card -- we are the facilitators of relationships for each other and those we serve.
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By Karen Roberts, Director of Product Management at Apriva
In a continually expanding campus market, students, faculty and staff expect payment acceptance and a consistent customer experience across all points of interaction. With today’s omni-channel technologies, universities and their supporting communities can deliver this experience while monetizing their payment ecosystems for greater revenues.
Before advancements in technology yielded multi-purpose campus cards, colleges and universities often maintained separate door key systems, library copy cards, dining cards, and more. Campus cards today have evolved into more efficient, multi-function products with the ability to support identification, access and commerce all from a single account.
Classic student identification cards have grown from enabling library book checkout, to unlocking doors, and paying for goods and services such as dining hall, laundry and bookstore purchases, to serving as a debit card associated with a personal checking or prepaid account. As campuses continue to develop features for campus cards, students and merchants will expect a seamless, omni-channel experience both on- and off-campus.
Campus cards most often fit into one of two categories: closed-loop and bank-affiliated cards. Closed-loop cards operate as pre-paid debit cards, where deposited funds are held in underlying campus-based accounts. A closed-loop card can be designed to provide dining, vending, laundry and printing payments, as well as support debit transactions for designated off-campus locations like grocery stores, restaurants and even mobile apps.
When extended to the revenue opportunity for off-campus businesses — plus the additional revenue potential for the schools themselves — the campus card payment market becomes gigantic.
Bank affiliated campus cards are coordinated by universities with specific financial institutions to associate checking accounts with campus ID cards, enabling the card to function as a debit card against the checking account at that specific financial institution.
Atrium, Blackboard, CBORD, ITC Systems, TouchNet and others provide campus card transaction processing for closed-loop cards at more than 2,000 institutions of higher learning across the United States. With an average U.S. campus supporting 15,600 students that means more than 31-million users already exist in the campus card ecosystem. The average college student spends more than $15,000 annually for living expenses — projecting upwards of $465 billion in potential spending each year .
“The upside of accepting campus card payments for vendors, merchants, and food-service providers on campus is impressive,” says Scott Dowty, chief revenue officer at Apriva, a technology company providing an adaptive payment platform supporting campus cards. “But when extended to the revenue opportunity for off-campus businesses — plus the additional revenue potential for the schools themselves — the campus card payment market becomes gigantic.”
Merchants today need to connect with students across multiple channels and campus card processors to capitalize on this market opportunity. A true omni-channel strategy requires meeting students in store, online, with mobile, with self-service and vending, perhaps even with mail order/telephone order options.
Wherever students seek products and services during their college years, merchants must be ready to take payments across all channels, and accepting campus card payments can only expand sales opportunities.
“It is critical for the university to deliver a seamless and completely transparent experience to a variety of stakeholders,” says Christopher Yong, associate IT director at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. “This includes off-campus merchants that serve our students and staff.”
Integrating to a payment platform with campus cards enables both on-campus and off-campus businesses to expand into new markets for their products and services. Vending merchants have seen as much as a 25% increase in revenue when adding campus card transactions. On-campus parking transactions for most students range from $400-$2000 per year, and $200-$400 per month in food and grocery expenses.
It's critical for universities to deliver a seamless and completely transparent experience to a variety of stakeholders, including off-campus merchants that serve students and staff.
In addition to the on-campus opportunities, off-campus merchants, restaurants, vendors, independent software providers, and mobile app developers can quickly break into the campus market by accepting campus card payments. Ready examples of ride-share apps and meal delivery apps are often used by students for convenience and safety. Merchants able to accept campus cards can quickly gain market share in campus areas and can build loyal customers well into the future by first winning patronage during consumers’ college years.
The campus commerce ecosystem is complex and ever evolving. However, as campus cards continue to serve identification, access control, and payment functions, delivering a more robust ecosystem can benefit students, staff, local merchants, and educational institutions.
The more places students and staff can use their campus cards for payment — across storefront, mobile, self-service and online channels — the more the university has enhanced their customer experiences. For merchants expanding their payment options to include campus cards, the sales growth and new revenue opportunities are significant. And for educational institutions that generate income from the distribution and use of campus cards in commerce, the opportunities for increased revenue also climbs as campus card adoption and use grows.
With technologies and payment expertise to unite customer experiences with omni-channel commerce, the campus market presents a unique opportunity for payments: Equally supporting consumers, merchants, and the institutions bring them together.
By Michael Giusti, Contributing Editor
When officials at Sam Houston State University wanted to find a way to increase student engagement with on-campus programming, they turned to a new product from CBORD called GET Rewards. The offering seamlessly integrates a loyalty program into Sam Houston’s existing CBORD campus card system.
Through the GET Rewards program, students who use their campus card for food purchases or attend an event such as an educational seminar, swipe their campus card or use a barcode generated by the GET app to make a purchase or “check in." The system then rewards the student with loyalty points that can be accrued throughout the year and redeemed for prizes.
“Our goal is to use the rewards program to help increase engagement among the student body,” says Daniel Erickson, associate director of Bearkat OneCard Services at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas.
While the program will begin through the Division of Student Affairs and Bearkat OneCard Services, Erickson is hopeful for widespread adoption across campus. “We could eventually use it for everything from athletic events to leadership workshops,” he says.
GET Rewards works in a similar way to systems used by retail and restaurant chains that offer loyalty programs to customers. From a university perspective, however, the program is integrated directly into the university’s existing GET platform, CBORD’s suite of cloud-based commerce systems. That makes deployment rapid and straightforward.
In addition to the rewards program, the GET suite allows students to order and pay using their mobile device and manage their campus card accounts. GET also offers a wide number of other features such as a list of locations that accept the campus card payments and photo upload for their ID badge.
Students and parents can also use the GET system to check balances and add funds to campus card accounts from anywhere in the world.
“The campus card is their one-stop shop to integrate all the features of the university,” says Rob Wakelee, GET Product Owner for CBORD. “And the GET platform helps extend that integration.”
Universities choose which modules of GET to deploy to fit their particular needs. Campuses already utilizing the system can implement GET Rewards at no additional cost.
The GET Rewards program takes the experience people are already used to with places like Starbucks, and it brings that to an on-campus setting.
“Our rewards program takes the experience people are already used to with places like Starbucks, where you get something back as a reward for some action, and it brings that to an on-campus setting,” Wakelee says.
The university can use the GET Rewards system to incentivize behavior it wants students to engage in more often, and it can be used to encourage behavioral changes as well.
The rewards program could drive students to new venues, it could encourage online ordering, or it could promote service usage during non-peak hours by offering double points, for example. Alternately, if a university wanted to use online ordering to quell long lines, they could offer incentives to students to use the app to order ahead and then skip the line when they go to pick it up.
“It’s all up to the institution to define their program, but it comes down to rewarding behavior they want to see,” Wakelee says.
Wakelee says rewards can be physical items such as lanyards or hats, or intangible items, such as discounts or free admission to sporting events or fitness classes.
Intangible rewards can be set to automatic redemption, meaning that once a student hits a certain points threshold, discounts or other rewards can be automatically applied to his or her account.
Erickson says one of the main selling points of GET Rewards for the university was the program’s flexibility.
“It can be customized at any time,” Erickson says. “It’s not centralized where one person has to control everything. We can make it so if one department wants to promote attendance, they can give specialty prizes for just their specific program.”
Administration of the rewards program is done through the back-end portal of the GET system, so anyone who can log in can also administer rewards.
Students are obviously drawn to the program because of the free giveaways. It’s also attractive to students because it is built into the system they are already using — it’s not an extra app to manage or keep track of.
But from the larger university perspective, the ability to drive engagement is key.
“Lots of research shows that student engagement leads to retention,” Erickson says. “If we can get students to want to be involved, they are more likely to stay at SHSU and more likely to graduate.”
Wakelee also points out that increasing traffic to campus venues translates into more direct revenue.
Research shows that student engagement leads to retention. If we can get students to want to be involved, they're more likely to stay at SHSU and more likely to graduate.
Sam Houston initially explored developing its own rewards system in house. “It’s definitely something that was considered, but the various layers and how to manage the platform from a technical perspective made it challenging,” Erickson says.
He says they decided to go with GET Rewards instead because they wanted something that could be implemented quickly and that could be easily integrated into all areas of campus that accept the campus ID card.
“Could it have been done in house? I’m sure it is possible,” Erickson says. “But with our current relationship with CBORD and other various campus dynamics, GET Rewards seemed to be the best course of action.”
Wakelee adds that a common trap campuses that try to go it alone fall into is that they end up with disparate systems that don’t easily integrate with each other.
“You get one system designed to drive engagement and another solution that fits for another department, and yet another for their point-of-sale systems,” he explains. “This ties it all together. It breaks down silos, and you have one program that works well and is integrated across the board.”
Erickson says that while Sam Houston’s initial efforts are geared toward campus engagement, in the future he would like to see the program being used across all campus departments.
“If we can get to half of the campus using it in the next few years, that would be a great goal,” Erickson said.
Sam Houston plans to promote the program during its first-year student orientations and formally roll out GET Rewards in the fall semester of 2018.
By Mikhail Ilin, Manager of Campus Card Services, and Adjunct Professor of Business Law and Ethics, Suffolk University
At Suffolk University the Campus Card Services Office serves a community comprised of students, staff and faculty across three schools: College of Arts and Sciences, Sawyer Business School and the Suffolk University Law School. We handle many of the vital aspects of the student experience, including meal plan management; access control; on- and off-campus payments and a discount transit program.
We are a staff of 2.5 full-time employees, and with such vast responsibilities we rely heavily on student employees. Student employees manage the student services center, assist in marketing and technical support areas, as well as staff our student outreach programs. On a semester basis we hire a team of 12-15 student workers.
But why hire so many student workers? In the past, hiring student workers was universally seen as a cost-saving technique, however this view is outdated. The Suffolk card services office hires student workers for reasons that go far beyond saving money.
If your office, like ours, is charged with marketing and student outreach programs, then student workers can be a tremendous resource. Staying current with marketing trends is a daunting task, but students are well equipped to reach their peers.
In the past, hiring student workers was universally seen as a cost-saving technique, but this view is outdated.
I’m reminded of one example when our marketing intern produced and advertisement with purple text. To me it didn’t look quite right, but as she explained, purple was the “in color” for teen and early twenties age groups at the time. A quick Google searched completely backed her claim.
Perhaps the most important reason to hire student workers, though, is to provide them with functional, hands-on experience and résumé building blocks. We are an institution of higher learning and our office is an extension of the institution. Thus, I feel it is my duty to help advance student knowledge.
During our pre-employment interviews, we ask, “what is your major and how may we help you attain your educational and career goals?”
Because card services interfaces with so many areas of student life on campus we are able offer hands-on experience in marketing, information technology, graphic design, communications, global business, management, education, accounting and many more areas. It’s not uncommon for our student employees to branch out and obtain part-time employment with one of our external merchants to further their education toward a specific career goal.
With our office’s wide range of responsibilities we are in need of at least 12 student workers every semester. But where and how do we recruit?
Between work-study job fares, financial aid listings and internal web postings, there’s no shortage of recruitment sources on campus. But the two most effective channels for our card service office have been word-of-mouth and intra-departmental recruitment.
Campus card services at Suffolk works very closely with many other student-facing departments. At times, our flexibility, opportunities and management style might better fit a student worker from another department. In these situations, our campus’ intra-departmental network will help to find a more suitable placement for these students.
Because Suffolk’s Card Services department is able to offer experience in several academic and professional disciplines, we are often the go-to department for student worker transfers. These transfers are always welcome and are made possible by strong bonds that the card services office has formed with other campus departments.
An even more effective channel is word-of-mouth recruitment. Somewhat jokingly we implemented a rule that a graduating student worker needed to find someone to take their place. To our surprise, the rule has taken root and has been successfully followed.
By Darren Learmonth, Head of Innovation and Technology Research, HID Global
The way that student ID cards are used on college and university campuses has changed dramatically in recent years, and will continue to evolve in 2018. Campus cards have long enabled users to buy meals, check out library books, open dorm room doors, and more. But crucially, the way campus cards are being issued is evolving, creating a significantly different environment than has existed for the past two decades.
Instead of issuing cards using one or more PC workstations, each connected to a nearby printer, universities will also be making a shift during 2018 to cloud-based solutions that will enable a new, remote card issuance experience. This move will also transform ID card printers into edge devices within the Internet of Trusted Things (IoTT), and redefine the economics of card issuance by ushering in new service-based models.
Issuers will also be accelerating their adoption of mobile IDs, while taking a more integrated approach to access control that significantly improves how campus services are delivered. With all this in mind, here are the top campus trends to watch in 2018:
Increased awareness of the cloud’s ease of deployment, flexibility, connectivity options and productivity benefits will escalate adoption. Access control cloud platforms with APIs and SDKs will fuel new software solutions that expand choices for campus administrators to get the most out of their investments.
Cloud-based card issuance will prove its mettle with campuses for its simplicity, security and cost structure. The cloud-based model improves the user experience by enabling instant issuance at many different locations, rather than requiring a visit to the main card office in order to pick up an ID card.
Moreover, card printers can be installed anywhere, including remote offices and satellite campuses, and cards can be sent to any of these printers. Printers essentially become smart, secure, web-enabled edge devices in the IoTT that can leverage all of the platform’s functionality.
Over the coming year, digital certificates will become a core component for adding trust to applications like cloud-based campus card issuance. The use of digital certificates creates a trusted relationship between the cloud and the issuance console. This also enables students, faculty and staff to confidently interact with cloud-based campus services.
The latest solutions will enable universities to improve both security and privacy protection on the connected campus. As an example, cloud-based issuance solutions securely store encryption keys in tamper-proof hardware, and card data also remains encrypted until it is printed, after which all personally identifiable information (PII) disappears.
Meanwhile, unique firmware ensures the printers cannot be hijacked, but will only work with the cloud-based issuance system software. The issuance console can also be secured with a card reader so that ID print jobs are only released when an authorized card or credential has been physically presented for validation.
Maturation in mobile solutions and integration into other systems -- coupled with mobile’s ability to enhance user convenience, improve operational efficiency and provide higher security -- will drive accelerated growth for mobile access and mainstream campus adoption.
Card emulation on the iPhone, the NFC mode most coveted for mobile access control, remains reserved exclusively for Apple Pay. This leaves Bluetooth as the de-facto communication standard for cross-platform mobile access support. In the meantime, however, campuses will continue to invest in readers and other infrastructure that supports NFC and BLE to prepare for future possibilities.
An increasing focus on the user experience will lead to a new wave of converging physical and data security to a single student credential.
New, converged identity models that use cloud authentication and mobile devices are also emerging, such as the ability to verify a person’s classroom time and attendance, and smart cards that authenticate users to campus networks and other resources.
Devices, access control systems and other solutions connected to the cloud will provide robust data for advanced analytics. Insights from these analytics can be used to optimize campus services and provide more seamless access for students.
Predictive analytics and biometrics will play an increasingly important role in people-centric campus security, as well as address the growing demand for premium and increasingly individualized services.
While the technology used by campus card offices has largely remained static for the past 20 years, the technology available to most other areas of a university’s operations has advanced considerably. It's only natural for the card office to evolve alongside these advancements.
Cloud-based card issuance solutions now have the potential to revolutionize the way that campus card offices operate. Mobile IDs are expected to move towards mainstream adoption. And converged solutions can now deliver new capabilities and the opportunity to use trusted identity analytics to create a more people-centric campus. Universities, and their issuance environments, are poised for big changes in 2018.
By Tom Stiles, Identification Systems Group
Card security is an understandable concern for many public and private organizations, and the use of security features to detect fraudulent cards is increasing everywhere. An ID card is the visual verification that the person is supposed to be there, and is who they say they are, so it needs to be secure and easily validated.
Higher education may be lagging behind other vertical markets in the implementation of advanced card security features, but it really shouldn’t be. No institution wants to be involved in an incident where a fraudulent campus card is used for illegal or unethical purposes.
Other organizations routinely accept student IDs as a valid form of identification, so it is essential for your cards to be legitimate. Particularly in states where a student ID is accepted as proof of identity for voting, it makes a lot of sense to have verifiable protections on your issued cards.
The widespread availability and common knowledge of card printers makes it easy for others to duplicate the look of your card. In addition, the Internet is full of fake ID sites where you can purchase fraudulent student ID cards. Here’s just one example. The presence of these sites raises an important question: Why would these sites exist if there were no value in having a fake campus card?
It is important to protect your ID card by adding security features that you can manage and afford. There are a wide variety of advanced card security options available today, many of which aren’t overly expensive.
But before you dive in with advanced card security features, consider the following:
It is important to thoroughly consider the options for both aspects of card security – during the manufacturing process for the stock for fixed security items, and during the actual card issuance process.
Before your cardstock even arrives on campus, there are a host of security features that can be added to the card body during the manufacturing process. A number of these features may be proprietary to a specific manufacturer, but there are at least two features that are common for nearly all manufacturers.
By Tom Stiles, Identification Systems Group
Historically, most smaller universities and community colleges have shied away from true “one card” systems, with larger price tags and staffing requirements often giving them pause. More recently, however, we’re noticing a major transition as institutions of all sizes are looking to benefit from a true campus card system without the initial hefty investment of the past.
More campus card systems have begun offering scalable and modular systems, giving even the smallest colleges an opportunity to benefit from one system to manage all of their on-campus card systems and applications. With cloud-hosted offerings, pricing can drop even more significantly, as campuses no longer need to worry about the hardware and staffing requirements associated with on-campus servers. The flexibility of systems today gives them an opportunity to only purchase what they need initially and expands as budget and security requirements grow in the future.
With less than 5,000 students, East Mississippi Community College (EMCC) is a great example of a smaller institution with big dreams for their campus card system. In 2015, EMCC made the decision to migrate their campus card platform to TotalCard, a BadgePass product, giving them the cost-effective solution they needed with the long-term functionality and flexibility they required.
The first step of migration was implementing new ID software in the form of BadgePass Identity Manager. “TotalCard’s badge production module, Identity Manager, couldn’t be easier to use,” explains Jeff Harrell, Network Administrator at EMCC. “When we switched from our previous software to this, I think we spent 5-10 minutes training the library staff and sent a short email to them to describe the process. It’s that easy.”
Though the campus may not be home to tens of thousands of students like some larger universities, EMCC’s data integration requirements are still of upmost priority. “When implementing TotalCard, one of our biggest concerns was being able to seamlessly integrate with our existing student information system database for easier card production for students and faculty members,” Harrell says. “We created a few SQL views that include information such as name, ID number, meal plans and housing number. Since all the information comes directly from our student information system, the library staff who issue the ID cards have no extra data entry to do.”
As mentioned, integration to the student information system database was important to EMCC. No matter the campus one card system being used, getting everything working together is very important. Here are some questions to consider:
Which is the one true, accurate student database at your institution - the student information system or the campus one card database?
At most institutions the one, truly accurate database is student information system. It is where the campus one-card system should get its data from, not the other way around.
By Tom Stiles, Identification Systems Group
Your campus card program is not just one system from one vendor. It is an ecosystem of cards, systems and databases that all need to work together. And when it comes to maintaining that ecosystem, service is paramount.
While there is discussion of which service model is best for your campus – on-site from regional dealer, depot service, or a hybrid mix – you need to consider your overall campus card system to best guarantee service for your various solutions from different vendors. These can include everything from one-card and ID badging to door access and housing solutions. You need to evaluate and determine which components are best supported remotely and which are better served by on-site attention.
If you have a problem, it often is not the card printer! For the ID system alone, the issue may be a cable, camera, printer ribbon, cardstock, or even a database connection to name a few. What if the cards are not operating correctly in a certain campus system? Is it the card, the reader, the software or the database at fault? You need a local card management expert to visit and help diagnose where the problem lies. The local technician can help with testing of the cards, confirming database connectivity and many other possible issues. This independent set of eyes can also help reduce potential finger pointing from various component vendors.
The purpose of the regional dealer is to support their local customers. A glimpse into their office shows shelves full of card printers, software, ribbons, plastic cards, replacement parts and more. Regional dealers also house an office with a full staff, a service and training department, diagnostic equipment, and decades of experience.
While the benefits of local service may be evident, there is a range of integration support that local service through the ISG and its family of dealers can deliver. We’re available to our customers to consult on a range of topics including:
Smart card, EMV card, and mobile expertise
ISG dealers work closely with colleges and universities on integration projects that require expertise in data connectivity, smart cards and smart phones.
Database connectivity
Often, a customer needs to connect an ID system to a central database like Banner or PeopleSoft. In other cases, schools want to populate the photo field in the central database or share cardholder data with other systems like door access control, housing or food service so that cards are immediately activated or de-activated.
By: Brett St. Pierre, Director of Business Development, Education Solutions with HID Global
University administrators are charged with accommodating a growing enrollment, expanding facilities and services all while often using obsolete and vulnerable campus ID card systems that are severely restricted in terms of features, functions and flexibility. At the same time, school violence and fraudulent ID card usage have become more prevalent, challenging administrators to improve security without compromising campus accessibility or the overall quality of the campus experience.
So how do colleges and universities provide the best security for their students, faculty and staff without hampering their ability to move freely throughout the campus? How do they bolster physical security without sacrificing easy access to campus facilities, resources and services?
These are questions that administrators will be asking themselves around campus security in the coming year. The biggest challenge ahead in 2017 is how to improve campus security without compromising the user experience on what are typically open, highly accessible campuses. Students and employees must feel both safe and welcome at their institutions.
The best path forward is to systematically replace legacy technology with the latest “One Card” solutions that deliver improved end-to-end card issuance capabilities and a path to new capabilities and ROI value. Successful One Card implementations deliver flexible student and faculty accessibility through visual security, enable cards to be used for many applications from opening dorm room doors to making cashless transit system payments or checking out media center materials, and support campus “green” initiatives through features like wasteless ID card lamination and eco-friendly card printers.
The good news is that the solution may not be as challenging to implement in 2017 as it once was. Today, the vast majority of student IDs leverage barcode or magnetic stripe technology to provide access to dorms, classrooms, libraries and on-campus meal plans. But utilizing a contactless smart card with an embedded smart chip is the more secure option because it cannot be easily cloned and inherently diminishes the opportunity for unauthorized individuals to obtain card information. One main benefit of leveraging contactless smart card technology is the ease of use it provides for students and faculty to access various campus facilities and services by simply tapping the card on a reader. Since the information is specific to the cardholder, cards can be further configured to allow access to specific buildings, services or applications.
Some campuses have also begun adding an option for mobile credentials. This technology leverages the proliferation of smartphones by putting a student’s credentials onto their mobile phone and then using it to give students access to facilities and payment systems on campus. The result is a more convenient, trusted and secure experience on today’s increasingly connected, mobile-first campus.
Mobile access control will grow in adoption, giving users more and more control over how they access and interact with the campus environment, as well as how they discover, purchase and enjoy its services and experiences.
Universities that aren’t yet ready to upgrade card technologies to more secure and mobile solutions can, alternatively, simply add a visual security element (VSE) to their cards that will make student and staff credentials easily verifiable. From overt to covert options spanning holographic overlays, microtext, fluorescing images and more, these VSEs provide a quick method to determine if the card is authentic as students and staff enter sporting or other campus events.
By Tom Stiles, Executive Director, Identification Systems Group
When the topic of card issuance is discussed in the higher education realm, typically we’re talking about the standard CR80 card size – the size of a credit card. We often forget, however, that there are larger format credentials that can be used for a myriad of event ticketing and conference environments.
This begs the questions, then, why would you need a large-format ID? And when does it make sense to issue a larger credential?
When it comes to the “why,” the answer can be simple. It provides a more readable identification credential that can easily be seen from a distance. You may, for example, want the larger credentials to be worn by event attendees or by staff. Which leads us to the “when.” Applications for larger format credentials can include conferences, camps, training sessions and access to special events like campus sporting events or concerts.
Once you’ve determined that large-format credentials are the way to go, the challenge becomes how best to produce these larger credentials – preferably in an easy way and without a high expense. Here are some choices and things to consider.
You may want to issue larger plastic cards if you want the credential to be used more than once, as with a season pass, or if you want it to live on as a keepsake memento. Durability is a major reason to choose plastic credentials.
There are a few card printers on the market that accept larger sizes. They range in price from $3,000 to $10,000 and support either direct-to-card, retransfer or ink jet card printing.
Although the printers will handle larger cards, many direct-to-card printers do not print the entire surface of a large-format ID. They are typically restricted to printing the normal CR80 card size in the middle of the larger card. The remainder of the credential must be preprinted in this case. This gives the ability to have a larger card, but limits how much and how large the printed info can be.
[pullquote]There are card printers on the market that accept larger sizes, ranging in price from $3,000 to $10,000 and supporting direct-to-card, retransfer or ink jet card printing.[/pullquote]
Another direct-to-card printer model prints on a credential that is the same height of a standard CR80 card (2.125”), but twice as long (6.57”). This creates a long, skinny credential that may not be practical for all use cases.
If retransfer printing is your preference, there is a model that can handle 3.375” x 4.875” cards, printing onto the vast majority of the larger card surface. The list price of this printer is about $7,500, and it produces 70 single-sided cards per hour at a cost of roughly $1.15 per card. To put that in perspective, the cost of the blank larger format plastic cards is about 15 cents each.
The final printing method leverages an ink jet plastic card printer that prints on special 3.5” x 5.5” ink-receptive plastic cards. The retail price of the printer is pricier at nearly $10,000, but ink jet plastic card printers operate much faster than direct-to-card or retransfer card printers. The cost for cardstock and ink is just more than $1.00 per card.
As a general rule, larger format cardstock will be a bit more expensive than the standard CR80 card size, either blank or preprinted.
A more affordable option, though, may be an ink jet printer that accepts a roll paper card stock. You’d sacrifice the durability of a plastic credential but would save with a more the cost-effective process.
These printers are used a lot for producing food or packaging labels. For credentials, though, the paper card would likely be inserted into a clear pouch, and then worn with a lanyard, bead chain or strap clip.
The price of ink jet roll printers start at about $1,300 – much less expensive than plastic card printers. The cost of the ink to print the credentials runs roughly 35 cents per 3.5” x 5.5” per card. As for blank paper card stock rolls, a ballpark cost is 10 cents each for 3.5” x 5.5”, based on an order of 10,000.
These units can print 450 cards per hour at a total cost per card of 45 cents. The ink jet printer option provides an outside-the-box alternative to large format IDs using affordable hardware.
Regardless of the card material or print method chosen, the large-format ID is meant to be displayed and will likely require some kind of wearable attachment.
