Fraser Muir from Queen Margarets took us on their journey from blank slate to their new campus and in particular – the wonders they’ve managed with smarcards.
Many institutions have used smartcards for ID or printer credit or access control or cashless purchasing or car-park provisioning but QMU have done the lot – well, more or less… cashless purchasing still to be fully sorted but almost there, we’re promised. Admittedly they have been aided by being able to start from scratch but they’ve had some hard setbacks too – including their vendor going into administration (and subsequenly being bought out). The benefits seem quite immense – significant efficiency gains and a wealth of management information (attendence monitoring for a start) being just two.
I would very much love to emulate their success but… CMS and service desk first. If I keep telling myself that I’m sure I’ll get them both signed off quicker… 