playing our cards right

Playing Our Cards Right

Melanie McNutt & Shellie Hubert

Showing You Our Hand…

• 10 years of OPTIM at MSU • Statistics• Recent Implementations• Debit Program• Future Strategies

“Community Cards” - History of Bb Transaction System at MSU

1996 – We started using BbTS-UNIX Edition

(HARCO)

– Meal Plans (Aug) – Hall Access (Aug)

• Night receptionists

– Spartan Cash Debit (Sep)– Owen Grad Center Cafeteria POS

(Sep)– Residence Hall Laundry Rooms

(Sep)Community Cards : The cards dealt faceup in the center of the table that can be used

by all players to form their best hand in the games of hold’em and Omaha.

History of Bb Transaction System Continued1997

– Installed first four Sparty’s Convenience Stores POS (Spring)

1999– Campus Center & Student Events

(Aug)– Verifying Student Status (Aug)– Spartan Cash Statements printed and

mail boxed (Dec)• Only on-campus students received

statements

History of Bb Transaction System Continued2001

– Started increasing Reporting Automation (Oct)

2002– Website: www.spartancash.com (Mar)

• Printable mail-in form, terms and conditions, and list of vendors

– Spartan Cash E-mailed Statements (Fall)

• About 18,000/month with 95% success rate

– Intramural Sports: fitness, pool & POS (Aug)

History of Bb Transaction System Continued

2003– Streamlined Spartan Cash

Reconciliation (Mar)– Added MDT’s and expanded Spartan

Cash off-campus (Jul)– Centralized Off-campus Meal Plans

(Aug)– Web orders for Off-campus Meal

Plans and Spartan Cash (Aug)

History of Bb Transaction System Continued2004

– Emmons Hall Door Access Project (Aug)– Tennis Facility POS & Perpetual

Inventory Project (Oct)

2005– Football Student Passes on ID cards

(Sept)– Home-grown “On-line Card Office”

(Sept)• Balance Check and Report Card Lost/Stolen

– Basketball Student Passes on ID cards (Nov)

History of Bb Transaction System Continued

2006– Blackboard Batch interface with

Residential Management System (RMS) (Jan)

– MSU Micro-lab printing interface TIA (Jan)

“Our Hand” Current Statistics

Number of Students– 45,000 registered students– 15,000 students housed on campus

Transaction System Information– 35,602 Active Card holders– 14,315 People on Meal Plans– 18,000 Spartan Cash

Accountholders– Approximately 50,000 transactions

per dayHAND: All of a player’s personal cards.

Statistics Continued

BbTS equipment in 65 Buildings – 40 On-campus Buildings

• Including 23 Residence Halls

– 25 Off-campus Buildings

Readers - 289 Total

140 Activity49%

10 Security3%

46 Laundry16%

63 POS Wedges22%

30 MDT’s 10%

Statistics Continued

Bb Transaction System Users– 2 Administrators– 2 Hardware Techs– 1 Part-time Programmer– 202 other Users/Operators

• Privilege & Product Maintenance– Hall Managers – Cafeteria Managers– Housing Staff – Vendor Staff

Statistics Continued

Spartan Cash 2004-2005– $2.4M Deposits– 29% Increase from 2003-2004– Commission: $90,000– 27,518 Transactions Reconciled

Point of Sale 2004-2005 – Internal Sales: $3.65M / Patrons:

10.2M• Debit Sales: $1.8M / Patrons: 389K

– External Sales: $4.4M / Patrons: 1.4M

Statistics Continued

Meal Plans– 4.69M Total Meals Served– Off-campus Meal Plan Sales 2004-

2005 • 1,430 Off-Campus Plans Sold• $974K in revenue = an 11% increase

from 2003-2004

Hall Access: 563K Entrances

“Dealing” - Recent Implementations

Football Student Tickets– Then - Snail mailed vouchers

• 11,000-12,000 Student tickets• It cost about $20,000 annually to

print & mail tickets

– Now - Activity readers at the gates

• An import file is created from a Paciolan System Report

• System will pay for itself by end of the second Football Season

DEAL: To give each player cards, or put cards on the board.

Recent Implementations Continued

– Considerations• Equipment: Activity Readers, Security

Readers or Wireless handhelds?• IP Converters or IP Native readers?• Throughput: Can 11 readers put

through 11,000 students in a half hour? – YES!

Basketball Student Tickets– Use same readers as football– Wiring the only additional cost– 3,750 student tickets

Recent Implementations Continued

Emmons Hall Security/Door Access– Security System Pilot program– Student reaction one year later

Getting the “Buy-In” for our Off-Campus Debit Program

– Concerns about our deposits going to non-MSU vendors.

– Hungry Howie’s Pizza - the driving force

– Concern over fair competition • Pizza places• Complicates addition of

bookstores – Implemented gradually

BUY-IN: The minimum amount of money required to enter any game.

Debit Program Vendors

We have over 25 off-campus vendors– Pizza Places– Food Joints– Tanning Salons– On-campus MDT’s

• Bakery• Golf• Campus Health Center & Pharmacy

– TIA with campus printing services for printing in computer labs

Debit Program – Vendor Agreement

How we approached the vendors– Word of mouth, Spartan Cash

Flash, advertising partnerships, Spartan Cash brochures

Agreement Stipulations– No Alcohol/No Tobacco– “At Will” agreement. No yearly

contracts to renew.– Vendors purchase their own

equipment and are responsible for maintaining it.

Debit Program – Vendor Agreement Continued

Our commissions– 4% on-campus & 6% off-campus

How we pay our vendors– How often, check, ACH etc…

Self-Operated Debit Program

Income from the debit program – Pays salaries for several full-time

employees– Supports system maintenance fees

from Bb. For this reason it is cost prohibitive to go

with Blackboard One.

Self-Operated Debit Program Continued

We get complaints about the MDT’s being old slow equipment– We have even had some vendors

say that their bank won’t support the 380x2 for the credit card side, so they have to use yet another piece of equipment to support Bank Cards.

“Aggressive Action” - Our Future Strategies

POS systems in all the Cafeterias– Use NCR registers to Accept All tenders

• Meal Plans, Spartan Cash, Cash, Debit/Credit Cards

New Meal Plans – “Unlimited” Meal Plans– With Spartan Cash – AND Guest Meal Passes

Universal Edition with UNIX TIA– New Server– Replace legacy equipment and readers

NCR REAL POS 70

AGGRESSIVE ACTION: A wager that could enable a player to win a pot

without a showdown; a bet or raise.

Future Strategies Continued

On-line Housing Sign ups– Using RMS & Blackboard Batch

Using Persona for New Townhouse facility’s door access

Questions?

Contact Information:Melanie McNutt:

mcnuttme@msu.eduShellie Hubert: hubertsh@msu.edu