"Why do we need a One Card system? We already have software that do the same things, changing to One Card would be really expensive," sounds familiar, doesn't it? This is a conversation I've had with more than a couple schools who are either investigating implementing or expanding One Card systems, as well as schools considering decommissioning theirs. The answer is a simple, and I don’t know if it gets quite enough attention or design thought during implementation and it is this: An increase in transaction information leads to increased business intelligence which can be used to increase the information base for recruiting and retention which leads to success for both the institution and its members.
Most campus card systems are seen as a way to increase revenue to the department running them through streamlining of processes, decreasing credit card processing fees and capturing a percentage of on and off campus transactions. I am a fan of the ancillary approach as it is a great way to get initial buy-in and is a great way to begin engagement with the cardholder population.
However, the goal of any One Card roll out or expansion should be to make your card program an integral part of a positive campus experience.
Positive experiences are built every time the card is used to make every part of the day on campus a little easier. From secure building access when people arrive in the morning, to swipe-to-release printing and then paying for dinner at the campus dining hall. As your program grows and expands into things like attendance, access, parking and events / service management you are building a relationship with your cardholder population. Through this expansion will, intentionally or otherwise, encourage both your cardholders and other campus departments to look to the campus card as their single solution to problems on campus. With the increased level of service on campus you are both building a service first environment while also being able to take a holistic look at the campus activity and understand how not just if your cardholder population is taking advantage of services on campus.
One Card systems are a huge wealth of knowledge, and being able to have access to this data enables your institution to really dig into trend analysis of the campus as a whole, while building a generalized view of your cardholder population. For example who is attending student events? How long are they staying? Which schools were the most active students recruited from? How does all of this relate to student academic success? Being able to use real data to visualize, graph, and track the level of student engagement helps to ensure that you are spending your time effectively when developing service, recruiting strategies and promotional offers. With a successful One Card program, your institution is now able to use your One Card system to data as an additional data point to ensure that you are doing your best to engage all student groups. You move from a passive paper ticket system to online or digital sales enabling confirmation that not only that events are being attended, but how long are people staying, or how often does the average student attend certain types of events? Maybe buildings and labs on campus are open and are being accessed late at night and you should provide additional staffing for safety and security reasons. Perhaps the other is true and you are staffing and running buildings or events that are not being used by the groups that you had hoped, and you can take corrective action as required.
Having access to this kind of data analysis is a little bit like "Big Brother" and should serve as a reminder that as program administrators; we need to keep privacy in mind as a top priority. It is our responsibility to ensure that we are doing our best to not expose individual students information or trends when trying to develop It is important to note that tracking individuals does not help provide better services for the campus population, however following group trends like first years, grad students or staff does. While it is important to be able to report on individual students for both student welfare and safety concerns, the overall goal of trending is to discover how your cardholder population is using their card to increase usage, and thus improve their access to services. Through proper trending and development of processes using this data, you are able to provide more services, which are accessed quicker and easier, all while reducing administrative overhead. Win, Win, Win. Currently a lot schools all have many processes that include things like writing lists on paper, gathering and typing excel sheets, and handheld clickers at events for attendance. While these solutions have worked, by migrating these types of services to your campus card program you are able to increase convenience, and service uptake while gaining insight far beyond anything you have been able to do in the past.
I am sure by now, some people reading this will still bring up their privacy concerns, and the perceived personal intrusion that the mining of this data provides. It is important that people are able raise their concerns, and that you can answer those questions with policies and information to ease their concerns. Taking steps to protect your data such as putting proper infrastructure, processes, and safeguards in place to protect your cardholder population's data is key to the long term success of both your program and campus. As I have mentioned in both my resources section, as well as my post on cloud hosting, there are plenty of resources and legislated acts to help ensure that you are doing what is necessary to protect your data. At all times, these laws and bills should be considered when both mining data from your system, and disseminating that information on and around your campus.
As an institution of learning, we should want our cardholders to get the most out of their time at our schools. Anything we can do to help students be active and engaged, increase safety and security in our facilities, or foster a positive campus life environment should be considered one of the highest priorities in today's market. So, while it is a great start to offset costs through implementation of a campus card system it is important to remember that you should consider a system that is able to increase your schools ability to compete in today's market. You need to ensure the implemented system not only meets your "now needs" but is able to expand to cover all aspects of student and staff life on campus. By implementing a scalable system, you will enable your school to become a more responsive institution who is able to leverage your card system to improve the level of services you offer; and that's a good place to be.