Ball State University faculty, students and staff can look forward to registers across campus with credit and debit card capabilities.
The Micros registers have been installed in the Atrium, and will be put into other dining locations.
While Director of Dining Services Jon Lewis said he was unsure when the bookkeeping would be finished and the registers will be able to take credit and debit cards, they were capable of the transactions.
"We had been asked for several years to have that approval [to accept credit and debit cards] and just got it a few weeks ago," he said.
Until now the registers have only accepted meal plans, cash and checks. Credit and debit cards will be accepted on a trial basis to determine how cost-effective it is for the university to take them, Lewis said.
Each register cost $4,920, he said.
The installation of new registers began in the Atrium at Caliente about a month ago and was completed Wednesday.
Registers will be installed at the Bookmark Cafe once it opens, and Noyer Retreat. Woodworth Complex's eatery, which is expected to open in Fall 2007, will have the register system, Lewis said. Minor challenges have occurred thus far, but Lewis said that is to be expected when running a new system. For example, Wednesday morning the Micros registers could not accept some meal plans because the system did not reset Tuesday night, Mary Cosby, director of financial information systems and technology, said.
The registers are reset every night so students can use the next day's meals, she said. However, since the system didn't reset itself, students who have the 21-meal plan and used all of their daily meals did not have any left because the register still thought it was Tuesday, Cosby said.
Students did not go without food, she said. Records were kept of what students bought and would be added to their accounts once the problem was corrected.
The meal card acceptance issue was resolved by 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Deborah Hutton, manager of training for dining services, said despite occasional problems, employees love working with the new register systems.
"The machine is a lot easier to use than the old 5400s," she said.
The Atrium has converted from Diebold 5400 registers, which were used for about 10 years.
The register system is called Micros, Lewis said. Micros and Diebold collaborated to create the system Ball State invested in.
Equipment installation is best accomplished by a "phased in method," Lewis said.
"I think now that we have the first few in it will be easier," he said. "Now the issue becomes training the employees, and it's easier to train them step-by-step than all at once."
Credit and debit card capabilities are not the only benefits of the system.
Webfood is an application that will be introduced in the Atrium in March or April, Hutton said.
It would let students go online and order selected menu items from eateries in the Atrium and the food would be ready for them once they arrived.
The students would print out and bring a receipt with a barcode the cashiers scan, and all of the items pre-ordered by the student are automatically entered into the register, Hutton said.
Block and Barrel and McKinley Grille are two locations that might be involved in the test.
"We're trying to analyze which areas would benefit the most from the program," she said.
Nancy Cooksey, Atrium cashier for six years, has carpel-tunnel and is very excited for the new registers.
"The older the registers got, the harder they got to push," she said. "We love these things," she said laughing. "It's gonna be a good change for everybody."
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