Client Success Story - University of Southern Maine
Founded in 1878, the University of Southern Maine, with three campuses in Portland, Gorham, and Lewiston-Auburn, is a public, regional, comprehensive university.
The University of Southern Maine is unique in its approach to using a campus card system because unlike most colleges and universities, USM does not require students to have a USM card. However, over 85% of the students choose to use one.
The card office staff at USM has put significant effort into improving efficiency and convenience for the campus community. In another cost-effective move, they recently combined multiple campus card systems into one powerful program, using CBORD’s Odyssey PCS™ campus card system.
In May 2001, USM upgraded its card system to Odyssey PCS, which is integrated across all campuses for USM card usage. In May 2003, USM began recarding all students in preparation for parking garage access using proximity cards. USM currently uses proximity card readers for residence hall access (online Synergistics access control system; Synergistics is a CBORD® Campus ElementsTM partner). USM also uses offline access for interior doors in one residence hall and several administrative buildings. Currently, USM uses Odyssey PCS for dining, online vending machines, bookstore purchases, pay-for-print, copying and microfiche, access to the gym, and declining balance account deposits using ValuePorts. In addition, using CBORD’s transaction API, USM has created a solution for their pay-for-print needs and, using CBORD’s views of the database, created a web interface for patrons to check account balances online.
Future system plans include equipment checkout at recreation centers, access control interfaces with new campus parking garages, web deposits (through CBORD’s Campus Elements partner, JSA), and signature capture.
Deb Nightingale, USM Campus Card Services Manager, states, “I really like how the system keeps track of funds. It makes reconciliation very easy, and everything appears seamless to the customer…very slick!”
CBORD Configuration
USM’s Odyssey PCS campus card system includes 6 Micros 3700s, 9 laundry readers, 13 Flexcoms, 5 Encore LTs, 6 ValuePorts with card dispensing option, 11 vending readers, the Missouri bookstore interface and the Synergistic WAPAC security interface.
