enVisionPro - at University

Client Profile and Project Brief

TSSI were approached by a large University in the West of England who had run into difficulties efficiently issuing cards to their new undergraduate students. Their problem was that at the end of each summer, once details of the new undergraduate intake are known, about 2,000 successful applicants submit their personal details, together with a passport photograph, to the university. With limited staff, inputting the data and printing all the cards before the start of the academic year was proving very challenging, costly and in all this rush, inaccuracies often meant cards had to be reprinted.

The Solution

TSSI worked closely with the university's IT department and other third party system to enable data to be automatically imported directly into enVisionPro from the Student Registration System. The staff then simply had to scan (or import) the photographs into the system against the correct person. This dramatically reduced processing time and ensured that the student ID cards could be produced prior to the start of the academic year. Thus, on the first day of term, newly arrived undergraduates are able to collect their ID cards without delay.

Each student's ID card is printed through enVisionPro, and contains a barcode and a number encoded in the magnetic stripe. The card magnetic stripe and barcode are used throughout the University for Physical Access Control, as well as accessing library and sports facilities. All the data printed onto the card, as well as information on lost and reprinted cards is stored within enVisionPro which runs on a centralised SQL Server, thus allowing straightforward interfacing with other University systems.

The Business Benefits

The efficiency gains introduced through enVisionPro have allowed cards to be efficiently printed at one central department. In addition, the flexibility of the enVisionPro Badge Designer has ensured that the one card includes both barcodes and magnetic encoding, to allow the card to have multiple uses. Future plans for the system involve increasing the quantity of data shared with other third party systems and deploying different card technologies. For more information of this or other applications of the enVisionPro system in the Academic world, please contact us.