Case studies
Texas State University consolidates payments across campus with Marketplace by TouchNet
How do universities maintain compliance and take payments securely and efficiently? For Texas State University (TXST), Marketplace by TouchNet is the answer to simplifying payments and increasing revenue streams.
TXST is a public research university with two campuses, located in St. Marcus and Round Rock, Texas. Due to their large number of students, faculty, staff and visitors, they need the ability to accept payments in a variety of ways across campus, from the registrar’s office to the baseball field.
Without a single, campus-wide payment solution, TXST juggled clunky, standalone point of sale terminals and manually kept up with all the influx of payments and deposits occurring across their campuses. Keeping track of various merchants payments and reconciling them with the financial office general ledger was a significant manual burden. And it introduced a layer of complexity to the already cumbersome PCI compliance process that wasted a lot of employees’ time across every department — time that could be better spent enriching the lives of the students they serve.
At a glance
- Public, student-centered research institution in St. Marcus and Round Rock, TX
- 40,000+ students
- 200+ degree programs
TouchNet solutions used:
- Marketplace
- TouchNet Ready Partners
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The tool that brought calm to payments and compliance
When TXST found Marketplace, they discovered a whole new way to take payments.
Marketplace is an all-in-one commerce solution that consolidates payments by easily integrating merchants and service providers with the university’s financial system. This integration means transactions are more secure and automatically updated to the general ledger, which streamlines back-office processing — meaning fewer outdated systems and more security within a single source of truth. With Marketplace, universities can benefit from all this and more:
- Seamless connections between systems
- Stress-free PCI compliance
- Multiple payment method acceptance
- Increase in alternative revenue streams
- Easy customization
- Targeted communications to customers and merchants
TXST uses Marketplace in two ways. First, uStores, which boosts their cash flow by allowing students, parents, alumni and others to easily shop online, register for events or make donations — expanding the ways they can increase revenue.
They also use uPay for web-based, front-end applications to enable a secure, PCI compliant payment experience that moves campuswide payments into one centralized payment system. With 250+ TouchNet Ready Partners available to them, they can now easily onboard merchants and service providers, accept multiple payment methods and deliver a smoother experience for all.
With TouchNet’s Marketplace POS, TXST also simplified and expanded their checkout experience. They can now not only accept payments both in person and on the go, but deposit them automatically, removing another step in the payment process.
““By using TouchNet Ready Partners at Texas State University we are able to minimize our compliance, because we can do an SAQA — which is the simplest SAQ — it helps us to minimize our scope.”
— Kimberly Stringham, systems analyst at Texas State University
A more secure payments future for Texas State University
Technology is always evolving, and maintaining compliance is key to reducing threats. TXST can rest easy knowing they have a partner that reduces the compliance burden so they can focus on providing great education and student experiences.
With QR codes, they’ve eliminated the need for terminals throughout the university, saving them time and money on both equipment and equipment management. This also reduces their liability, allowing people to use their own devices to make payments securely and quickly.
Since integrating Marketplace into their system, TXST has put 460+ items up for sale, sold over 28,000 items and generated about $341,000 in sales revenue.
"The university is in the education business, we aren’t in the compliance business — so we appreciate using TouchNet as our compliance partner."
Contact your sales rep to see how Marketplace by TouchNet can make a difference in your university today.
Case studies
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