The Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences (H-BRS) offers around 9.500 students the opportunity to learn and conduct research. About 1.000 employees work at the three campuses in Hennef, Rheinbach and Sankt Augustin. (Photo: H-BRS / J. Küstenmacher)
One card for different applications
After enrolling at H-BRS, the student receives a personalized student ID card. The ID is issued in the form of a chip card based on the latest technology (MIFARE® DESFire EV1). This can be used as a user ID, e.g. in the university library and for payment in the refectory.
The employee cards can also be used for time recording and access authorization.
Automated card personalization from different data sources
HISinOne is used to manage student data – from enrollment to de-registration. When a student is enrolled, the data record is created in HISinOne. Our card management application cm6 queries the HIS database at regular intervals for new / changed data records and imports the data required for personalization. Employee data is maintained in a university LDAP database.
The production of the ID cards is site-specific based on characteristics from the HISinOne database. When the card is printed, cm6 automatically loads the associated layout, regardless of whether it is an employee or student ID card. At the same time, among other things, the card type is set, which is decisive for the correct subsidy level (employees / students). In the last step, production-relevant attributes are added to the data records. Now the cards can be issued to the users.
Subsidy control saves a lot of money
Guests pay the highest price for their meal in the canteen. Students and employees receive their food at subsidized prices. In the canteen or cafeteria, the chip card is simply held up to our reader and the price to be paid is automatically deducted from the stock balance at the checkout according to the card type.
If the card is lost or the student is de-registered, this information is passed on to our cm6 by HISinOne. Here, a new (expired) validity date is set for the affected card and transmitted to the reloaders.
When recharging the purse at the RS 5600-series rechargers, the validity date is always reset and the card may lose its validity. This ensures that only authorized persons receive the subsidies to which they are entitled.
“For us, the administrative effort has been significantly simplified by the automated card creation and subsidies arrive secured to the entitled persons. This saves costs,” says Professor Böhmer, Head of the Institute for IT Service (ITS).
Data security receives special attention
Of course, data exchange between the individual databases is carried out in compliance with data protection regulations and with current encryption methods, such as TLS. All communication channels are standardized, and the solution was designed with data minimization in mind – as much data as necessary and as little as possible.
Summary
In cooperation with the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences, we succeeded in optimizing the data exchange of the different databases HISinOne / cm6 in such a way that the process of map creation could be automated. The integration of the hardware supplied by us (revalidator and card reader) also completed the process automation. This enabled cashless payment at the checkout workstations and everyone automatically pays the correct price.