Economic downturns impact universities in many ways. Hiring, purchasing, philanthropy—the financial climate beyond a university’s walls impacts virtually every area of its operation. While universities are likely to identify new areas of cost savings and revenue generation to deal with a struggling economy, their focus on student services will not waver.
The card office will become a major player in the all-important task of maintaining financial solvency while providing student services that differentiate one university from another.
Cost savings Technology integrations and partnerships will be more important than ever in the coming year. The labor savings achieved when platforms share data without manual intervention provide important cost savings and add value to investments. This could involve integrating campus card and housing management solutions, automated room assignment processes or point-of-sale platforms and menu management software that provide automatic updates of inventory levels and product movement patterns. All are designed to save time and money, allowing employees to work smarter while achieving significant labor cost savings.
Revenue generation Off-campus programs will remain a popular means of generating university revenue while improving student services. For example, when Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, implemented CBORD’s UGryd off-campus payment platform, more than 33,000 transactions were processed off-campus in the program’s first year even while discretionary deposits to student accounts grew by 19.5%.
Student discount programs will become increasingly popular aspects of off-campus programs, which can be fully integrated with the university ID card. In addition, membership sales in such programs provide a good revenue stream. Many Student Advantage customers have revenues on track to exceed $15,000 this year.
Security will remain a top priority Even with budget cuts and resource reallocation, security will remain a top priority for university administrators. With competition for enrollment heating up, technology designed to secure facilities will provide dividends in student enrollment and retention. Technology solutions for intelligent video monitoring, access control, alarm management, and emergency notification will continue to gain prominence.
The coming year will provide new challenges for card office employees, but with these challenges will come an equal number of opportunities. Creativity and strategic thinking will open new doors and foster new ideas that will improve campus communities as well as the university’s bottom line.
About the AVISIAN Publishing Expert Panel
At the close of each year, AVISIAN Publishing’s editorial team selects a group of key leaders from various sectors of the ID technology market to serve as Expert Panelists. Each individual is asked to share their unique insight into what lies ahead. During the month of December, these panelist’s predictions are published daily at the appropriate title within the AVISIAN suite of ID technology publications: SecureIDNews.com, ContactlessNews.com, CR80News.com, RFIDNews.org, FIPS201.com, NFCNews.com, ThirdFactor.com, and DigitalIDNews.com. ![[end]](/resources/bullet/archive-4.gif)
