By Jon Collinson, Corporate Systems

The University rolled out its new Cashless payment and reward service in September this year and it’s been outstandingly successful.  Over £80,000 has already been put onto people’s accounts and over £60,000 has been spent.  The papercut transfer service has also been used to transfer more than £3,000 into student printing accounts.  Jon Collinson explains IS&T’s work in helping to bring this service to staff and students at Sheffield Hallam.

Cashless payments (also known for a while as CashU) was a two year project –  primarily a collaboration between Finance, Facilities, IS&T and LIS but involving stakeholders from many different areas of the University.  It allows staff and students to use their SHUcards as payment cards, topping up their accounts online and, in the process, earning rewards towards catering purchases.  IS&T’s role in it was instrumental: The service relies on an infrastructure of more than 50 point of sale devices over more than 25 separate locations – along with a customer web portal and various system links and technical interfaces.