CBORD acquires Off-Campus Advantage
04 April, 2007
category: Education
Off-Campus Advantage (OCA), a provider of merchant solutions for campus card programs, will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of The CBORD Group. OCA was originally SA Cash, a component of Student Advantage’s offering, and later an independent company. Student Advantage was acquired by CBORD late in 2005. Stay tuned to CR80News for more details on this development as they arise.
The CBORD Group Acquires Off-Campus Advantage
Deal expands CBORD’s off-campus solution set
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Ithaca, NY and Boston, MA: The CBORD Group, Inc., one of the world’s leading suppliers of campus card, housing, and foodservice management systems for the College & University market, today announced it has acquired Off-Campus Advantage, LLC (OCA), a leading provider of off-campus payment services for colleges and universities.
OCA expands the functionality of the University-issued ID card by enabling merchants in the local community to accept it as a form of payment. Since 1999, OCA has been providing CBORD’s CS Gold® customers with a robust and secure off-campus payment platform. OCA’s Central Server Solution, which eliminates modem banks, phone lines, and other hardware on campus, will now be expanded to CBORD’s Odyssey PCS™ customers with new or existing off-campus payment programs and will help accelerate the building of CBORD’s UGryd™ national network of merchants, which links participating merchants with participating colleges and their students across America.
“OCA brings a proven, Central Server technology platform to CBORD’s 800+ university clients to address the demand for the campus card to be used off-campus, without adding overhead to the university infrastructure,” said Shawn McCarthy, CBORD’s Vice President of Wide-Area Commerce Solutions. “We are excited to work with the OCA team with their proven track record of excellent customer service.”
“The combination of CBORD’s industry knowledge and campus card systems expertise with OCA’s technology is a terrific win for universities,” said Rory Hersch, President of OCA. “Whether a school is thinking of going off campus for the first time, or has had a program up and running for years, we now offer options to build and maintain those programs according to each university’s unique needs.”
The combined company will offer universities:
- High Speed Transactions
- Nightly ACH settlement
- Customized programs to meet each university’s distinct needs
- Incremental revenue stream that captures a share of dollars spent off-campus
- Proprietary Loyalty & Rewards program which stimulates usage and rewards loyalty
OCA will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of The CBORD Group, Inc. with offices in Boston. Existing OCA client schools will continue to work with their current OCA account managers.
About The CBORD Group, Inc.
The CBORD Group, Inc., founded in 1975, has provided service to the campus-wide needs of higher-education facilities for over 30 years. CBORD works with a wide variety of clients and markets, providing cashless and ID card privilege control systems, housing management systems, Webfood® online ordering service, and the Student Advantage® discount membership program. In addition, CBORD serves thousands of chain restaurants, hospitals, universities, supermarkets, and gaming facilities with its suite of foodservice, catering, and nutrition software products. The CBORD Group has customers in the U.S., Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and Australia. To learn more about CBORD, visit us at www.cbord.com.
About Off-Campus Advantage, LLC
Off-Campus Advantage, LLC expands the functionality of the University-issued ID card by enabling merchants in the local community to accept it as a form of payment through its proprietary Central Server technology. With its suite of services, OCA creates fully customized programs for schools with existing off-campus vendors. By leveraging relationships with national retailers, OCA’s Loyalty platform rewards students with prizes for each dollar spent off-campus, creating a strong revenue source for university partners. The Company can be reached online at www.offcampusadvantage.com.