We have been the leading provider of online payment and account management solutions for colleges and universities since 1998.  While that has been fulfilling, we have been hearing more and more from administrators about the constraints and restrictions put upon them by their card service providers.  They told us about:

• Unwieldy user interfaces
• Complicated hoops to jump through for creating reports
• Lackadaisical and unresponsive support models
• Escalating fees for proprietary hardware and unwanted updates
• Server security headaches
• Cumbersome systems that are too complicated for anyone on campus to use

This, by the way, was only a partial list.

Several years ago we made a decision: We thought that we could do it better.   We formed an advisory board of current and former card administrators and industry professionals from across the country and asked them what they needed in a modern system.

Our advisory board told us that administrators wanted an intuitive, easy to use Dashboard with quick reporting and a point and click interface.  They said that service should be responsive, with a name.  No more waiting for a help desk that was four time zones away.  They wanted a transparent pricing structure that didn’t surprise them with hidden fees and charges for upgrades that a provider had authorized.  They wanted to be rid of the worry and headache of maintaining data security. Lastly, they wanted their campus to use it, without long lines of students in administration offices trying to figure out how to upgrade the app.

This, too, was a partial list.

We decided that technology had evolved far beyond what current providers were offering. We looked at the best-in-breed hardware, software, and apps. Many sang the praises of a particular card reader, or a door lock.  There were aspects of software and user interfaces that administrators really liked. More often than not, though, they were unable to use these systems due to proprietary restrictions.

We decided to combine the best of all of these worlds and create Atrium, the traditional campus card management system… re-imagined.

We created an intuitive user interface that is 100% mobile available, for administration anywhere, anytime. Reports can be generated with a point and click, sent where they need to go, automatically generated, and saved to favorites. We used the advisory board and industry leaders to create a personalized service model; staffed by industry professionals who are familiar with your system. A single point of contact will answer any questions about Atrium or any of your connected systems. Services can be locked in for five years, and connections to your favorite system can be made with a one-time-per connection charge. We only adjust a price if your enrollment goes up at the end of a contract, or if you add more functionality to your Atrium system. We used the latest in security technology to offer secure, hosted, cloud-based systems that eliminate the need for on-campus servers and create a 100% uptime. Upgrades to your system are by push notification, so there is no need to take down your server at inopportune times.

For your users, we took the latest in these technologies to create a system that your students and staff will love. The best devices and apps today are plug-and-play.  You shouldn’t need an advanced degree to use it. We have evolved far beyond physical keys and ridiculous coding. If you can use a smartphone like today’s iGeneration of student, you will be right at home with Atrium.

Best of all, it’s modular and scalable, so you only pay for what you need. If you want to host sensitive data on your campus, we can help you to do that. If you like your current laundry management, keep it. If you’re a small institution with limited enrollment, we can design a package for you. If you’re a 50,000-student university and would like the whole nine yards, we’ve got you covered.

We were excited to launch Atrium at the most recent NACCU Conference in Seattle, Washington. We’ve already had the pleasure of talking to several institutions that are going to implement Atrium at their schools. And we’re just getting started…

In the meantime, we’re still committed to JSA Technologies. We’ve offered great service since 1998, and with over $2 billion in incident-free transactions we know that people count on us.  Sure, if it ain’t broke… But we’re growing. We’re constantly testing new systems and devices for Atrium, and there is always someone else out there who is going to do it better. There’s always something to learn.

The post JSA Technologies is Excited to Introduce Atrium appeared first on Atrium.

What drives a new technology?  Style, form, function, ease of use?  All of these things play a part, but combined they point to an end question-will people use it?  If it were just a matter of building it and throwing marketing some money we would all be listening to Adele on a Zune.  Ultimately, it is about adoption.  Good, bad, or indifferent, it is the iGeneration that drives this market.  Without a degree in engineering or a background in development, younger users are determining which path we travel.  This is nowhere more evident than in the growth of the mobile device.

There are currently more mobile devices on Planet Earth than there are working toilets.  There are over 4 billion mobile phones in use today, and almost 2 billion are smartphones.  Over 3 billion are SMS (text) enabled.  And people use them.

Over half of all local searches are now done on a mobile device.  That’s a lot of SIRI.  The second largest search engine (behind Google, of course) is YouTube.  200 million YouTube videos are seen on mobile devices every day.  Of the 600 million+ who are using Facebook, a full 200 million do so through their device.  That number goes from a third to a full half for Twitter.  Is Twitter onto something?  People spend more time playing on their smartphones than they do eating.  Feeding their digital hunger?

Part of what has driven this “Move to Mobile” has been a remarkably robust app market.  There are mobile tools for play, for lifestyle, for work, and more.  You can check your social status, play Angry Birds, read a book, or hang a picture.  Musicians can plug a guitar into a mobile device and have access to a plethora of pedals, sounds, amplifiers, and effects.  It’s an Eddie Van Halen stage setup in your pocket.

More and more, the smartphone has become our portal from a virtual world to a real one.  NFC technology is allowing users to wave, swipe, and bump their devices through payments, doorways, and various other uses.  Starbucks began offering a “virtual card” application early in 2011.  Users open the Starbucks app, add credit to an account, and then display a bar code on their device when purchasing their latte.  Starbucks has processed 42 million mobile cups of java since the app was introduced.

The challenge for vendors and institutions is protecting the integrity of the payment environment.  If you go out of town, you may give a key to a neighbor to water your plants.  How many have sent someone to run an errand with the direction, “Here, take my credit card.”  Many have offered a trusted friend or relative a debit card, complete with PIN number.  This equation changes if your key or financial card is found or stolen.

Many argue that it should be the service provider who secures the transaction.  The difficulty is the ability of a provider offering approved apps that would be available, much less remain secure, over a wide range of systems and devices.  That issue will continue to grow, as users don’t buy a phone based on encryption or the ability to house an identity.   The purchase of a device is driven by the cool things that it can do.  But the device itself offers multi-level security.  Look at the iTunes model.

When you purchase an iPhone or iPod, plugging it into your desktop will allow you to “register” that device with the machine.  You are offered a password for your machine, and one for the device.  These devices can now be forever linked, with one recognizing the other.  You can then set up your iTunes Store purchases to require a password, prohibiting unauthorized purchases.  So your desktop is protected, your device is protected, and purchases from the store are protected.

The stumbling block is the ease of use.  Over half of all smartphone users say that they don’t use a PIN or password to lock their device.  Almost that many surveyed say that using a password for every action is a pain in the neck.  Is there a possibility that the solution is a two-kernel device?  The theory is already being tested in business applications.  Much like your device is “segregated” between productivity and play apps, some are offering connectivity between a personal device and work through a dedicated kernel.  The virus or gaping hole in your Words with Friends app will not expose your valuable work content to security flaws.

If there is one market that has been progressive in its use of mobile, it’s pizza.  Pizza delivery has long been a staple of campus life.  Companies like Domino’s and Pizza Hut has long been offering apps that allow you to log in, browse specials and deals, customize your pizza, pay for it, and send the order.  Users can then track their manna from the rolling of the dough to the application of sauce.  They are alerted when the pepperoni is applied, and when it enters the driver’s car.

If we can apply all of this functionality to the delivery of a pizza, can a fully mobile-integrated campus be far behind?

The post Going Mobile appeared first on Atrium.

We recently took the opportunity to join with our peers at NACCU 2013 in Orlando, Florida during the middle of April, and it was great to see the excitement that our product has been generating. While many of us have been members of this community for years, last year was our introduction of Atrium. Our revolutionary new system marked a fresh approach to campus card administration, and much like any paradigm shift in the way people do things, there were a ton of questions about how Atrium would work. After countless hours of testing, forums, and discussions with administrators across the country, we developed a system that anticipated their needs and responded quickly to their requests, all in a cost-efficient platform.

We’ve installed Atrium in live campuses since our first NACCU, and the real-time data and feedback has been phenomenal. The campus card administrators that visited our booth at this year’s show had heard the buzz, were curious to see it for themselves, and were ready with their own questions. We were able to show them actual use cases from some of our satisfied customers, allow them to test drive an Atrium dashboard, and show them how our system will make their lives easier and more productive. We hosted a roundtable discussion on “Hosting Campus Card Management Systems in the Cloud” that was very informative and thoroughly validated what we’ve known for the past two years: that the technology of our industry is changing and it’s past time that we caught up.

More Atrium systems are being installed in the coming months and new capabilities are being added as we learn of new administrator needs. If you had the opportunity to visit with us in Orlando, thank you for coming by. If you missed us at NACCU, contact us to learn what Atrium can do for your campus.

[gallery link="file" columns="5" ids="364,368,351,353,354,355,356,360,362"]

The post Atrium at NACCU 2013 appeared first on Atrium.

Goucher College, just outside of Baltimore, Maryland, offers 31 majors and six interdisciplinary programs.  They also require all students to have a study abroad experience.  Their Director of Business and Auxiliary Services, Calvin Gladden, is also keenly aware of the issues that can arise when you switch to a new card system.  He’s done software and hardware transitions before, and in his words, “None of them ever go exactly as you planned.”

Gladden describes himself as a “high maintenance kind of customer, but  I wouldn’t call our last system provider for service unless we really needed help.”  He told us, “It never mattered what level of service you had.  Gold, Platinum or Rust – you went into a queue.”  The responsiveness of the Atrium team has been a big selling point for him.  “Chat is huge.  It allows them {Atrium} to be very responsive.”  He is also a fan of the dashboard.  “I really like the scrolling feature.  I can see a problem and immediately address it, often before the student has left the facility.”

“I really like the scrolling feature.  I can see a problem and immediately address it, often before the student has left the facility.”

Being able to tailor Goucher’s Atrium system meant that Gladden was able to incorporate the components that the school needed, and not implement something simply because it was proprietary.  Using the system has been a snap.  “As long as I have Wi-Fi, I can access it from anywhere,” he told us.

Goucher is just the latest example of what we can do for a campus, and what we offer to administrators.  We can build a system that meets your individual needs.  There is no ranking system for service calls – every one is critical.  You can quickly and easily access your system, and rapidly see the information that you need, with real-time results.  Making the switch to Atrium makes economic sense.  And our team is by your side every step of the way.

The post Checking in with Goucher College appeared first on Atrium.

[caption id="attachment_404" align="alignleft" width="253"] Karen Barnes
Mount St. Mary's Card Administrator[/caption]

Mount St. Mary’s is a liberal arts university in Emmitsburg, Maryland.  It is the second oldest Catholic college in the United States, and has a student population of just over 2,000.  Their size, however, does not mean that they have any limitations when it comes to campus card system needs.

Karen Barnes is the Mount Card Supervisor for the school. For the past five years, she has been a “one person office” for their “one card world.”  In addition to standard duties such as issuing cards and assigning access and roles to accounts, she performs many of the management and accounting functions for the Mount St. Mary’s system.  Her biggest role, and to her the most rewarding, is assisting students.  Whether answering their meal plan questions or helping them to make deposits, she’s always available to them.

When we began working with Karen to design the Atrium system for her campus, her first thought was in applications for dining services.  “I didn’t really know what to expect,” she told us.  Through a comprehensive question and answer period and visits to the campus, she told us what her needs were.

“The Atrium team listened to what we wanted.  Our system was tailored to what our needs were vs. a provider telling us what we needed to have.”

Previous providers had also left her wanting when it came to service needs.  “I felt like I didn’t have the IT support,” she said.  A problem with a card reader would force her to call the provider, who would direct her to the manufacturer of the reader, who would schedule a support session for IT.  In addition to offering her recommendations for suitable POS readers, we were able to stand with her in a dining hall as the system went live and the first transaction took place.  “A few transactions down the line when we went live, we had a problem with a card.  Jon and his crew were promptly on their iPads, and the problem was resolved in seconds.”

She was also impressed with the ease of the transition.  “After we went live, I saw a real time transaction on my administrator dashboard.  The Vice President of the college had made a purchase.  I asked him how the experience was, and he shrugged and said, “Just fine.””  He wasn’t aware that we had gone live at Mount St. Mary’s.  Certainly a great example of a smooth transition.

Having this level of support means a lot to Karen.  Being cloud-based means that she no longer has to schedule support and block out time for server access.  Her Atrium support team is always a chat or email away, and no resolution has taken longer than two hours.  She once sent us an email at 4 a.m.  Our Jon Gear replied, “Karen, go back to sleep.  I am here to take the worry off of you.”

The post How can Atrium take the burden off of you? appeared first on Atrium.

The feedback we're receiving from Atrium customers has been great, and in addition to the flexibility and ease of use, our level of support has been getting rave reviews. When we talked to Calvin Gladden, Director of Business and Auxiliary Services for Goucher College in Maryland, he really drove that home. For Calvin, it came down to that level of service, and it’s a cornerstone of what we provide. The responsiveness of Atrium and features like AtriumCare Live Chat were big selling points for him. He described his decision to make the move from his previous provider to Atrium very succinctly:

“It never mattered what level of service you had.  Gold, Platinum or Rust - you went into a queue.”

We understand that while the needs of a campus come in all shapes and sizes, each service call is a critical issue in the eyes of the caller.  That’s why AtriumCare is complimentary with every system that we install.  That’s why we don’t believe in outsourcing your service to a call center.  Our service center is here, answering the phone.  The person on the other end is intimately familiar with your system, and more often than not has walked in your shoes.  The development of Atrium was based on feedback from professionals in the industry.  The team that we’ve assembled is made up of people with decades of experience in card services.  This is why we incorporated features like AtriumCare Live Chat, so that your dedicated AtriumCare Specialist is always a click away.  We personally visit each and every campus, and our team is there through each and every installation, assuring that someone who knows how to solve your issue is answering your question.

Someone creating a great deal of passion for exemplary service at Atrium is Ben Kahoussi.  Ben began over a decade ago with JSA Technologies, and as someone who has been a System Administrator, Database Administrator, Code Tester, and more, he has a great wealth of knowledge about our system and how it works for you.  He’s familiar with the other vendors and products that are available to card administrators now, and in his words, “What they lack in vision, we make up for in the quality of our product and our level of service.  It’s amazing how much you learn and how good you can be just by listening.”   It is his vision that Atrium will have a reputation as a company with incredibly reliable service and world-class support.  Ben’s results and feedback from Atrium users says that his vision is quickly becoming a reality.

Ben is one of our AtriumCare Specialists.  He grew up in Greece, and came to the United States in 1991 to receive his Bachelor of Science from Northeastern University.  He holds an MS from NYU, and has been working in card administration for over a decade.  Ben lives in Boston with his lovely wife and their four children.

The post Atrium Service is A Level Above appeared first on Atrium.

We’re pleased to announce George Mason University (GMU) has joined the Atrium Family.

With enrollment of over 32,500 students across four campuses, GMU ranks as the largest university in the Commonwealth of Virginia.  GMU has a stellar reputation for their schools of Law, Computer Science, and Business.  In addition, members of their faculty have twice won the Nobel Prize in Economics.

After a rigorous RFP process, we were awarded the contract in late June.  The turnkey contract encompassed new dining point-of-sale registers and kiosks as well as copy, vending, mobile activity and off campus readers.  The statement of work also included comprehensive integration with an array of existing GMU student information, access and residence management systems.  Despite the tight seven-week timeline, the mid-August go live date was achieved before the arrival of students for fall classes.

When we installed Atrium at Mount St. Mary’s University, we incorporated over 50 point of sale endpoints serving over 2,000 students.  At GMU we incorporated over 450 disparate endpoints serving over 30,000 students with over 90,000 unique profiles.

Importing data from GMU’s existing card system and Banner SIS, a process that used to be an enormous and tedious task, was completed quickly and easily.  Manual copy and meal plan billing management work processes that required a full-time staff member are now being automated.  Hundreds of individual departments billing for copy services are now gathered under one umbrella and automated.  By the end of the year, GMU’s entire meal plan billing management process will also be automated.

The cutover to Atrium was seamless.  On their first day with students, Mark Kraner, Executive Director of Retail Operations, remarked, “Wow!  We’ve never seen the volume of transactions coming through the readers so quickly. Atrium is running under unbelievable conditions, and it’s flawless.”

When we began laying out a blueprint for what Atrium would become, we spent a great deal of time speaking to administrators and industry professionals from across the country to determine what their needs were for a next generation campus card solution.  Our President, Jim Doyle, said,

“Most of the directors and administrators told us their existing systems were not meeting their expectations, and a close examination of the issues helped us to truly understand their problem areas.” 

Today’s administrators are looking for a solution that is easy to use, cloud-based, with robust reporting, automated billing workflows, and easy management of accounts.  The more we’ve sought the input from these professionals, the more they have became advocates that we design a comprehensive and innovative system.  Our conversations with them have been invaluable, and have done a great deal to shape the evolution of Atrium.

Working with GMU has been a great testimonial to the scalability of Atrium, proving it to be an ideal solution for campuses of any size.  Their rigorous requirements also allowed us to showcase the comprehensiveness of our system.  As Atrium grows and evolves to meet the changing needs of today’s institutions, we’re excited to see George Mason validate our vision of what the system of the future can provide today.

The post George Mason: A Measure of Scalability appeared first on Atrium.

One could argue that Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) has always been on the leading edge of education.  Accepting their first students barely two decades after the first flight of the Wright Brothers, they’ve served as educators to astronauts, military personnel, decorated pilots, and elected officials.  What began as a small flight school in Ohio is now an international program with over 150 campuses around the world.  Time Magazine referred to them as “The Harvard of the Sky.”  They boast a combined annual enrollment of nearly 32,000, and offer degrees not only in aviation, but engineering, science, business, and arts.

We recently caught up with Joseph Busch, Executive Director of Enterprise Technology Systems for ERAU.  We worked with Busch and his team to bring Atrium to the residential campuses of ERAU in Florida and Arizona, where 9,000 students use the solution for dining, vending, copy, laundry, off-campus merchants, flight management, access rights, attendance tracking, and various point-of-sale applications.  Atrium provided the new EAGLEcard solution on a single source, turnkey basis inclusive of all new best of breed hardware and services.  What caused ERAU to become an early adopter of Atrium?

“We performed an extensive RFP search for a new campus card system.  We were interested in a solution that provided modern functionality, open architecture, easy to use graphical interface, a robust roadmap, and of course, one that could reduce our costs.  Atrium was chosen for all these reasons.”

Also important for Busch was the fact that Atrium is modular, and able to integrate with many of their existing enterprise systems.  Being cloud based reduced the need for costly infrastructure.  From an administration standpoint, they have found it to be quite easy to navigate, the intuitive user interface leads you to necessary activities, and reporting and account administration is no longer a painful chore.  Having the backing of JSA Technologies told Busch that Atrium was well thought-out, and would have the longevity required of a seasoned school.

“Working with Embry-Riddle was a unique opportunity for us.  It was our one of our most complex systems to date, and we were entrusted with the project management role for the entire turnkey project.  We contracted POS for dining, laundry, vending, copy, activity time and reporting and set up hosting for their card production in our enterprise cloud.  They trusted us, and we created a one-stop-shop solution that met all of their needs.  We also delivered a finished solution inside of two months,” said Atrium President Jim Doyle.

We were able to tailor a unique solution for Embry-Riddle, and our relationship with them continues to evolve.  We’re currently integrating a security access solution that was specifically tailored for their diverse campus needs.  Contact us or visit with us at NACCU to see how Atrium can improve your campus today.

The post Atrium Takes Flight at Embry-Riddle appeared first on Atrium.

For Immediate Release

May 11, 2015 • Atrium, the exciting new campus card solution, is pleased to announce new leadership within the company.

James Doyle, citing personal reasons, announced an early retirement from the Atrium Board. Effective immediately, Tammy Johnson will accept his role as interim CEO and President.

Johnson said, “We’re extremely grateful for the leadership James provided, and for his participation in proving the viability and competitiveness of the Atrium product. We look forward to his continued participation as an advisor as we work with our current clients and introduce new campus card administrators to our revolutionary product. We remain committed to our core values of teamwork, integrity, customer support, and providing innovative solutions for the campus ID market.”

Tammy Johnson has been Chief Financial Officer of JSA Technologies since 2003. She joined Atrium as CFO and Partner at its founding in 2012. She received her MBA in Finance from Northeastern University, and brings with her experience from Smith Barney and ORBCOMM.

About Atrium • We started with a simple question: What do campus card directors and administrators need in a modern card system? What would make your life easier? What would save you money, but still provide a better experience for your students?

We formed a Customer Advisory Board, including card administrators and industry leaders, from institutions large and small, and engaged them in discussion. They told us they wanted an intuitive user interface, accessible anywhere, anytime. They asked for robust reporting, with point and click tools. They sought security, 100% availability and personal service from seasoned card industry professionals. They were under pressure to do more for less, and provide an improved experience for students.

We came up with a campus card management solution with the functionality of traditional systems... re-imagined for the future. Atrium was born.

Atrium is powered by JSA Technologies, renowned for personalized service from seasoned card administrators. Atrium is an extension of proven card system technology in use today at over 100 of the nation’s leading universities and colleges. Atrium technology has securely processed billions of dollars in financially sensitive transactions since 1998 without incident and is used today by over 1.4 million students.
Learn more about Atrium at atriumcampus.com

The post Atrium Announces New Leadership appeared first on Atrium.

We're pleased to announce the June 30th Go Live of our new campus card solution partnership with Rutgers University.

Rutgers, founded in 1766, is one of the oldest colleges in America, and was one of the nine “Colonial Colleges” founded before the Revolution. It has since grown into a leading research university with several campuses across New Jersey.  With more than 66,000 students and 22,000 faculty and staff, Rutgers is one of the largest universities in the country.

The Rutgers Atrium solution comprises over 179,000 cardholders and twelve best-in-breed systems across four campuses, including Sequoia (dining), Barnes & Noble (bookstore), Follett (bookstore), USATech/Apriva/Canteen (vending), MEI/Apriva/Pepsi (vending), Pharos (print/copy), USATech (laundry), DishOUT (on and off campus with over 70 merchants), ITC (activity), Banner (student information system) and JSA StudentLink (online account management).

Tammy Johnson, President & CEO of Atrium, said of the partnership, “Rutgers University appreciated Atrium as a modern, non-proprietary, hosted campus card solution that meets their demanding meal plan requirements, connects to their numerous best-of-breed campus systems and is backed by a team of campus card professionals offering 24/7 client care - all for a fixed cost with turn-key implementation.  Especially exciting for us is that adding a university of Rutgers' size to our Atrium family realizes our vision that Atrium is a great solution for institutions of any size.”

“The requirements for our campus card solution have changed substantially in recent years with the advent of mobile payment, need for connectivity to an array of disparate campus systems and increasing complexity in our meal plans.  We determined Atrium best met these requirements.  We have found Atrium to be incredibly responsive and our Go Live was achieved on schedule.  This was one of the smoothest large-system migrations I have experienced in over 25 years in IT.” said Juan Gorondi, Application Developer, IT R&D, Rutgers Dining Services, of the partnership.

Contact us today to find out how we can revolutionize your campus card system.

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You may remember the commercials. They were for a budget hotel chain, and staying in one of their rooms apparently unleashed hidden skill sets. In one spot, a crowd of physicians huddled over an operating table.

“Wait…You’re not the doctor.”

“No, I’m not, but I did stay in a (X-Brand Hotel) last night.”

Getting a good deal on a hotel room does not make one a qualified thoracic surgeon. Likewise, being a door access vendor does not make one an expert in point of sale (POS) systems.

Think about it: Would you call your plumber to fix your transmission? Would you call your veterinarian to address the faulty wiring in your family room? Probably not. Why, then, would you buy an access system from a company that doesn’t specialize in access control?

Most of the campus card systems on the market come with a lengthy list of proprietary hardware and software requirements. Dedicated on-site servers are installed to support a host of features and products that you may or may not need. Updates are forced upon you with new mandates for locks, vending machines, copiers and more, and often entail troublesome downtimes for administrators and users. All of this for components that you didn’t want in the first place.

Think about this also: Do you still use a Blackberry? Most of you don’t, because technology has improved at such a pace as to render them obsolete. Then why be harnessed to obsolete hardware or software thrust upon you by a vendor?

The Atrium advantage is two-fold: We allow you to choose best-of-breed hardware with a cloud-based infrastructure. You can select an access system manufactured by a company that is skilled at creating access systems. Your POS is provided by a company that specializes in POS software and hardware. Everything about your Atrium system is modular, and being cloud-based allows you to upgrade individual components that benefit from the latest technology without impacting the rest of your system. As updates become available, they are rolled out seamlessly without the need to take the entire campus off-line.

Using Atrium with best-of-breed and cloud-based infrastructure allows you to configure your campus with the hardware and software that you need, when you need it. You get to choose which components are right for your campus, rather than being forced into costly upgrades from companies that try to be everything for everyone. We designed Atrium to be agile and modular, and a perfect tool for the new iGeneration. It’s simple and easy for both card administrators and users.

Why be forced into a laundry solution from a company that does not specialize in it? Why buy POS systems from companies that do not specialize in it? Why not tailor your own personal Atrium system with the options and specialized functions that will propel your campus forward – while preserving uptime and saving you valuable money on your bottom line?

You wouldn’t submit to your podiatrist performing brain surgery on you. Don’t allow your vendor to dictate your hardware or software needs. Demand the flexibility to react to changing needs and technology in an effortless and cost-effective way. Choose from the best-of-breed products and create the perfect campus card system for you.

Choose Atrium.

The post Best of Breed Brings the Best in Value appeared first on Atrium.

A security breach at the University of Tampa exposed the personal records of almost 7,000 students.  A class doing a random Google search was able to gather the social security number, date of birth, and student ID information of students and staff.  It was an apparent “server management error.”  A spokesman for the campus IT department said that while the risk to students was minimal, such breaches in security were common.  She equated it to changing the locks on your home, and said that nothing is ever completely secure.

Common to who, and what qualifies as minimal risk?

Anyone with access to this information could purchase a cellular plan, get a credit card, or even file for tax returns or purchase a home.  While the students who discovered the breach saw only strings of numbers, anyone maliciously trying to hack into a system would easily be able to glean the information that they wanted or needed.

It is estimated that almost 50 institutions suffered a significant security breach in 2011.  Notable among them was Virginia Commonwealth University, who saw over 176,000 records compromised in November of last year.  Their lapse in server security exposed the personal information of thousands of students who had attended classes over a period of several years.  They said that while the likelihood of infiltrators actually gaining information was very low, they couldn’t say for certain that it didn’t happen.  The average cost of “fixing” a hack of this sort is $112 per record, and in the case of VCU, nearly $20 million was spent in updates, patches, and fixes.  That’s a great deal of mopping up.

The tide of hacks, loopholes, and breaks hasn’t subsided.  In the first two months of 2012, 300,000 records were left in the open at Arizona State University, and the Sun Devils are being tailed by anxious students from the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, Central Connecticut State University, and City College of San Francisco.  And here you thought that San Francisco was the Petri dish for Silicon Valley tech-types.  It may be a short ride from some of the biggest and brightest in information security, but apparently a long haul from the campus side of things.

There are obvious monetary costs to these lapses in “server judgment”.  Institutions need to pay IT departments to code, debug, and patch the holes that allowed the breach.  Servers are re-wired, re-firewalled, or re-placed.  The offending campus may also incur notification and legal expenses in addition to the software and hardware costs.  In the case of the University of Hawaii, a class action suit forced the institution to purchase “credit monitoring plans” for almost 100,000 current and former students and staff.  These plans can run as high as $15 per month.  So, $1.5 million over the course of two years that won’t be going into education.

Aloha.

Many institutions feel better about hosting sensitive information on a dedicated server, often on-campus.  In a classic case of stuffing your money in your mattress and then letting the house burn down; closer does not always mean better.  In the cases of VCU, ASU, and Hawaii, the servers and networks that were compromised were on-site.

The IT personnel at the institution may do a fantastic job of de-bugging software updates and replacing a cranky card reader, but are they up to date and proficient in database security?  Might your information be safer in the hands of someone who does nothing but build, secure, and maintain databases?  Like a hosted cloud-server?

Or will you be content to let the guy at the Lube-N-Go change your brakes?  He can’t guarantee that they’ll work, but there’s a likelihood that you’ll be safe the first time that you hit a traffic light.

[caption id="attachment_265" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="A brake job by your trusted Lube-N-Go"][/caption]

The post A Likelihood of Secure appeared first on Atrium.

It often begins with a simple question. “How can we make it do this?” “What if it were faster?” With an artist, it begins with a blank canvas. A writer begins with a blank sheet of paper. A musician stares at a silent guitar.

Today’s creators are more likely staring open-mouthed at an iPad, a Google docx and an empty Pro Tools file, but the genesis is the same. It is about looking at something in a different way, forgetting what you know, and creating something unique.

Truly gifted creators bring us things that are at once brand new yet instantly ubiquitous. A golden age of design and innovation was the 1950’s, an era of giant tail fins and sleek profiles. Industrial Designer Henry Dryfuss remarked in 1955 that much of what we see in the modern kitchen is not driven by an interest in food, but by the creative designs of new automobiles and airplanes: Clean, modern, chrome-plated gadgets that took us on a road trip to the future. Sometimes it wasn’t even so much about originality as it was re-thinking what was around us. Einstein said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

REEF has become synonymous with surf wear. They grew out of that culture and understand two things go together: the beach and cold beer. Everyone combining those things needs flip flops and a bottle opener, so why not combine them? They began marketing sandals with an opener built into the sole. They sold like hotcakes.

Dohyuk Kwon got tired of fouling his keyboard with fingers greased from digging into the bottom of potato chip canisters. His design for a chip can that unfurls to create an instant bowl is winning raves from users and interest from food producers. Brilliant.

When we first met the mobile phone, it was an oversized, heavy, awkward status symbol that cost a fortune and weighed a ton. Is it any wonder that it earned the nickname “The Brick”? We graduated to smaller devices, and then flip phones, and then the Blackberry became the status symbol. It said, “I’m so important that my phone needs a full keyboard.” Do you own one?

Steve Jobs has said that he was inspired by a class that he wandered into in college. It was a calligraphy class and drove his passion for art and design. He often cites it as a “defining moment.” He never forgot what great design could inspire in a user, be it art, music, or a bag of chips. His motivation for the iMac stressed the ease of use, and his desire to put this new technology in the hands of everyday people, not just elite technophiles. The handle at the top of the monitor was an invitation to pick it up. You won’t break it, and it’s not inaccessible. You have to touch it to use it, and Jobs invited you to. So it went with the iPhone.

The Jobs Challenge to the Apple team was to forget everything about the mobile device, and design from the ground up. “You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology-not the other way around.” His mandate was to forget about folders, throw away files, and don’t even think about a keyboard. Some have pointed to the “Zen-ness” of Jobs’ design philosophy, his quest to strip away bias and prejudice and realize the essence of a device. Everything must be approached from a naïve perspective. Instead of “how?” designers asked “why not?”

Tap on an easy-to-recognize icon and you would open an application. Natural swipes and gestures would make navigation intuitive. A robust autocorrect function would render a traditional keyboard useless and obsolete. When they were done, they unveiled a product that could be purchased, unwrapped, turned on, and used. No programming was needed, and modifications could be made easily and conveniently through a user-friendly app store.

The physical design of the device and its packaging continued the aesthetic. Before he worked for Apple, Jonathan Ive designed industrial and plumbing fixtures. When you look at a sink, regardless of the design, you have a pretty good idea of how to use it. Take the simplest of porcelain and chrome, and make it work. Much like an Apple device, it screams “simple”, and like a bathroom fixture, it is synonymous with “clean”. Opening a brand new iPhone is engineered to trigger an emotional response, and the design of the box often takes as long as that of the actual device.

We used to search for information by leafing through an encyclopedia. Britannica has ceased physical publication and our most effective recourse is to “Google it.” After several decades of struggling from the couch to choose one of three television stations, we evolved to a video store, and are now walking upright through a virtual catalog of thousands of titles that reach our living room via a little black box. Blockbuster? They’re adjusting their rabbit ears in Bankruptcy Heaven. The forty-pound boombox that made many go through adolescence with a limp is now a device not any more cumbersome than a box of raisins, and it contains thousands of songs. There’s no need for a backpack full of D-cell batteries, we’ve broken the pencil of tape winding, and a decade’s worth of Culture Club and Grandmaster Flash is safely ensconced in our pocket. As Sony lays off ten thousand and reports billions in losses.

It seems that the innovators of today are less worried about form and sticking with the proven, and more interested in asking the question: What do they need?

The post Where Does it Start? appeared first on Atrium.

We have been the leading provider of online payment and account management solutions for colleges and universities since 1998.  While that has been fulfilling, we have been hearing more and more from administrators about the constraints and restrictions put upon them by their card service providers.  They told us about:

• Unwieldy user interfaces
• Complicated hoops to jump through for creating reports
• Lackadaisical and unresponsive support models
• Escalating fees for proprietary hardware and unwanted updates
• Server security headaches
• Cumbersome systems that are too complicated for anyone on campus to use

This, by the way, was only a partial list.

Several years ago we made a decision: We thought that we could do it better.   We formed an advisory board of current and former card administrators and industry professionals from across the country and asked them what they needed in a modern system.

Our advisory board told us that administrators wanted an intuitive, easy to use Dashboard with quick reporting and a point and click interface.  They said that service should be responsive, with a name.  No more waiting for a help desk that was four time zones away.  They wanted a transparent pricing structure that didn’t surprise them with hidden fees and charges for upgrades that a provider had authorized.  They wanted to be rid of the worry and headache of maintaining data security. Lastly, they wanted their campus to use it, without long lines of students in administration offices trying to figure out how to upgrade the app.

This, too, was a partial list.

We decided that technology had evolved far beyond what current providers were offering. We looked at the best-in-breed hardware, software, and apps. Many sang the praises of a particular card reader, or a door lock.  There were aspects of software and user interfaces that administrators really liked. More often than not, though, they were unable to use these systems due to proprietary restrictions.

We decided to combine the best of all of these worlds and create Atrium, the traditional campus card management system… re-imagined.

We created an intuitive user interface that is 100% mobile available, for administration anywhere, anytime. Reports can be generated with a point and click, sent where they need to go, automatically generated, and saved to favorites. We used the advisory board and industry leaders to create a personalized service model; staffed by industry professionals who are familiar with your system. A single point of contact will answer any questions about Atrium or any of your connected systems. Services can be locked in for five years, and connections to your favorite system can be made with a one-time-per connection charge. We only adjust a price if your enrollment goes up at the end of a contract, or if you add more functionality to your Atrium system. We used the latest in security technology to offer secure, hosted, cloud-based systems that eliminate the need for on-campus servers and create a 100% uptime. Upgrades to your system are by push notification, so there is no need to take down your server at inopportune times.

For your users, we took the latest in these technologies to create a system that your students and staff will love. The best devices and apps today are plug-and-play.  You shouldn’t need an advanced degree to use it. We have evolved far beyond physical keys and ridiculous coding. If you can use a smartphone like today’s iGeneration of student, you will be right at home with Atrium.

Best of all, it’s modular and scalable, so you only pay for what you need. If you want to host sensitive data on your campus, we can help you to do that. If you like your current laundry management, keep it. If you’re a small institution with limited enrollment, we can design a package for you. If you’re a 50,000-student university and would like the whole nine yards, we’ve got you covered.

We were excited to launch Atrium at the most recent NACCU Conference in Seattle, Washington. We’ve already had the pleasure of talking to several institutions that are going to implement Atrium at their schools. And we’re just getting started…

In the meantime, we’re still committed to JSA Technologies. We’ve offered great service since 1998, and with over $2 billion in incident-free transactions we know that people count on us.  Sure, if it ain’t broke… But we’re growing. We’re constantly testing new systems and devices for Atrium, and there is always someone else out there who is going to do it better. There’s always something to learn.

The post JSA Technologies is Excited to Introduce Atrium appeared first on Atrium.

What drives a new technology?  Style, form, function, ease of use?  All of these things play a part, but combined they point to an end question-will people use it?  If it were just a matter of building it and throwing marketing some money we would all be listening to Adele on a Zune.  Ultimately, it is about adoption.  Good, bad, or indifferent, it is the iGeneration that drives this market.  Without a degree in engineering or a background in development, younger users are determining which path we travel.  This is nowhere more evident than in the growth of the mobile device.

There are currently more mobile devices on Planet Earth than there are working toilets.  There are over 4 billion mobile phones in use today, and almost 2 billion are smartphones.  Over 3 billion are SMS (text) enabled.  And people use them.

Over half of all local searches are now done on a mobile device.  That’s a lot of SIRI.  The second largest search engine (behind Google, of course) is YouTube.  200 million YouTube videos are seen on mobile devices every day.  Of the 600 million+ who are using Facebook, a full 200 million do so through their device.  That number goes from a third to a full half for Twitter.  Is Twitter onto something?  People spend more time playing on their smartphones than they do eating.  Feeding their digital hunger?

Part of what has driven this “Move to Mobile” has been a remarkably robust app market.  There are mobile tools for play, for lifestyle, for work, and more.  You can check your social status, play Angry Birds, read a book, or hang a picture.  Musicians can plug a guitar into a mobile device and have access to a plethora of pedals, sounds, amplifiers, and effects.  It’s an Eddie Van Halen stage setup in your pocket.

More and more, the smartphone has become our portal from a virtual world to a real one.  NFC technology is allowing users to wave, swipe, and bump their devices through payments, doorways, and various other uses.  Starbucks began offering a “virtual card” application early in 2011.  Users open the Starbucks app, add credit to an account, and then display a bar code on their device when purchasing their latte.  Starbucks has processed 42 million mobile cups of java since the app was introduced.

The challenge for vendors and institutions is protecting the integrity of the payment environment.  If you go out of town, you may give a key to a neighbor to water your plants.  How many have sent someone to run an errand with the direction, “Here, take my credit card.”  Many have offered a trusted friend or relative a debit card, complete with PIN number.  This equation changes if your key or financial card is found or stolen.

Many argue that it should be the service provider who secures the transaction.  The difficulty is the ability of a provider offering approved apps that would be available, much less remain secure, over a wide range of systems and devices.  That issue will continue to grow, as users don’t buy a phone based on encryption or the ability to house an identity.   The purchase of a device is driven by the cool things that it can do.  But the device itself offers multi-level security.  Look at the iTunes model.

When you purchase an iPhone or iPod, plugging it into your desktop will allow you to “register” that device with the machine.  You are offered a password for your machine, and one for the device.  These devices can now be forever linked, with one recognizing the other.  You can then set up your iTunes Store purchases to require a password, prohibiting unauthorized purchases.  So your desktop is protected, your device is protected, and purchases from the store are protected.

The stumbling block is the ease of use.  Over half of all smartphone users say that they don’t use a PIN or password to lock their device.  Almost that many surveyed say that using a password for every action is a pain in the neck.  Is there a possibility that the solution is a two-kernel device?  The theory is already being tested in business applications.  Much like your device is “segregated” between productivity and play apps, some are offering connectivity between a personal device and work through a dedicated kernel.  The virus or gaping hole in your Words with Friends app will not expose your valuable work content to security flaws.

If there is one market that has been progressive in its use of mobile, it’s pizza.  Pizza delivery has long been a staple of campus life.  Companies like Domino’s and Pizza Hut has long been offering apps that allow you to log in, browse specials and deals, customize your pizza, pay for it, and send the order.  Users can then track their manna from the rolling of the dough to the application of sauce.  They are alerted when the pepperoni is applied, and when it enters the driver’s car.

If we can apply all of this functionality to the delivery of a pizza, can a fully mobile-integrated campus be far behind?

The post Going Mobile appeared first on Atrium.

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Atrium is pleased to announce the Go Live of its new campus card solution partnership with Oregon State University.

Oregon State University (OSU) is a coeducational, public research university located in Corvallis, Oregon. The university offers more than 200 undergraduate degree programs along with numerous graduate and doctoral degree programs. It is also the largest university in the state, with a total enrollment exceeding 28,000.

The Oregon State Atrium solution comprises of over 87,000 cardholders, over 1,750 readers and seven best-in-breed systems, including MEI/USATech/Apriva (vending), ITC (copy), Datacard (card production), Banner (student information system), Sequoia QuadPoint (point of sale), OSU Data Warehouse and JSA StudentLink (online account management).  The Atrium solution also encompasses a very large event and attendance management component.

Tammy Johnson, President & CEO of Atrium, said of the partnership, “Oregon State University College is an internally renown institution and we are excited to be partnering with them to power their next generation campus card system.  OSU places a strong emphasis on attendance tracking and data management.  They appreciated Atrium as a modern, non-proprietary, cloud hosted campus card solution that allowed them to both reduce costs and improve cardholder services by replacing their legacy card system.”

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You may remember the commercials. They were for a budget hotel chain, and staying in one of their rooms apparently unleashed hidden skill sets. In one spot, a crowd of physicians huddled over an operating table.

“Wait…You’re not the doctor.”

“No, I’m not, but I did stay in a (X-Brand Hotel) last night.”

Getting a good deal on a hotel room does not make one a qualified thoracic surgeon. Likewise, being a door access vendor does not make one an expert in POS systems.

Think about it:  Would you call your plumber to fix your transmission? Would you call your veterinarian to address the faulty wiring in your family room? Probably not. Why, then, would you buy an access system from a company that doesn’t specialize in access control?

Most of the campus card products on the market come with a lengthy list of proprietary hardware and software requirements. Dedicated on-site servers are installed to support a host of features and products that you may or may not need. Updates are forced upon you with new mandates for locks, vending machines, copiers and more, and often entail troublesome downtimes for administrators and users. All of this for components that you didn’t want in the first place.

Think about this also:  Do you still use a Blackberry? Most of you don’t, because technology has improved at such a pace as to render them obsolete. Then why be harnessed to obsolete hardware or software thrust upon you by a vendor?

The Atrium advantage is two-fold:  We allow you to choose best-of-breed hardware with a cloud-based infrastructure. You can select an access system manufactured by a company that is skilled at creating access systems. Your POS manufacturer specializes in POS readers. Everything about your Atrium system is modular, and being cloud-based allows you to upgrade individual components that benefit from the latest technology without impacting the rest of your system. As updates become available, they can be rolled out seamlessly without the need to take an entire campus off-line.

Using Atrium with best-of-breed and cloud-based infrastructure allows you to configure your campus with the hardware and software that you need, when you need it. You get to choose which components are right for your campus, rather than being forced into costly upgrades from companies that try to be everything for everyone. We designed Atrium to be agile and modular, and a perfect tool for the new iGeneration. It’s simple and easy for both card administrators and users.

Why be forced into a laundry solution from a company that specializes in POS machines? Why buy POS readers from a door access company? Why not tailor your own personal Atrium system with the options and specialized functions that will propel your campus forward – while preserving uptime and saving you valuable money on your bottom line?

You wouldn’t submit to your podiatrist performing brain surgery on you. Don’t allow your vendor to dictate your hardware or software needs. Demand the flexibility to react to changing needs and technology in an effortless and cost-effective way. Choose from the best-of-breed products and create the perfect campus card system for you.

Choose Atrium.

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Atrium is pleased to announce the December 7, 2016 Go Live of its new campus card solution partnership with Delgado Community College.

Delgado Community College (DCC) is a Louisiana public community college with campuses throughout the New Orleans metropolitan area, the East and West Banks of New Orleans, the East Bank of Jefferson Parish and on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain in Covington and Slidell in St. Tammany Parish.

The Delgado Atrium solution comprises of over 19,000 cardholders and six best-in-breed systems across six campuses, including Pharos (print/copy), C•CURE 9000 (access control), Datacard (card production), ITC (attendance tracking), Banner (student information system) and JSA StudentLink (online account management).

Tammy Johnson, President & CEO of Atrium, said of the partnership, “Delgado Community College appreciated Atrium as a modern, non-proprietary, cloud hosted campus card solution that allowed them to both reduce costs and improve cardholder services by replacing their legacy card system. The fact that we went from contract to go-live in 2 months dispels the myth that changing card systems is difficult and a lengthy process.”

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