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ECCOgen, THE Prepaid Cashless Campus Solution Enters New York Market as Christian Brothers Academy Comes On.
SAN FRANCISCO (September 4. 2008) – ECCOgen announced today its ECCOgen Campus Card – a unique, prepaid program that gives students a versatile and secure means to conduct purchases on campus – signed a long term agreement with Christian Brothers Academy in Syracuse, New York. The program, which allows students to make cafeteria and other on-campus purchases without using cash, is met with a warm reception in New York. Several other schools including three of the largest private schools in California have also embraced the ECCOgen Prepaid Cashless Campus program.
"Our goal is to give our students and parents a convenient, safe, and efficient method of making purchases on campus. ECCOgen makes that possible immediately and without the expenses which are normally associated with this type of initiative," said Brenda Mulhern, Director of Operations at Christian Brothers Academy.
ECCOgen provides Christian Brothers Academy an on-line portal in which parents load value onto their students account, a state of the art Point of Sale Systems complete with touch screens and card readers, provides installation and conducts training of the school's food service staff; all at no cost to the school. Parents may opt in with a nominal annual fee. Parents decide the precise amount of money to load onto their children's cards weekly or monthly, eliminating the hassle of doling out cash every day for school lunches and allowing parents control of how the money is being spent.
"We're excited about the New York market. There are a lot of schools that need our help! Everywhere I go school administrators and parents immediately recognize the benefits – to the school, to the students, and to the parents – of the ECCOgen Campus Card," said ECCOgen founder and president, Michael Ferguson. "It's a learning tool, a budgeting tool, alleviates cafeteria line creep, and helps parents keep an eye on what their kids eat for lunch. There really is no down side, and I think that's why schools and parents are embracing the program so eagerly."
A key element that makes the campus card attractive to parents is the ability for parental control with on-line tracking of purchases, allowing parents to view the food choices their children make. With childhood obesity ranking as a major concern on a national level, parents place great value on being able to monitor their children's food purchases, ensuring that their children are making healthy and nutritious food choices while in school.
As an added incentive, when parents enroll in the ECCOgen Prepaid Campus Card Program, they are entitled to receive exclusive discounts of up to 50% at over 15,000 retailers through the Student Advantage Discount program (www.studentadvantage.com). This program provides discounts of up to 50% at more than 15,000 retail locations and restaurants. The brand names that are included in the program include Target, AMC Entertainment, Urban Outfitters, Barnes & Noble and Toshiba.
Working with ECCOgen has been such an easy process. They installed the software and card readers and trained our entire food service staff in just a day and a half," said Tom Gorndt, Business Manager at Bellarmine College Prep High School. "With the new campus card in place, we are seeing a definite increase in the efficiency of our cafeteria transactions. In the first three weeks of operation, our food sales are up 50% from the same time last year."
About ECCOgen: ECCOgen, with corporate offices in San Francisco, is a privately held company with deep experience in payment processing and consumer products. ECCOgen is a leading provider of reloadable prepaid cards for students in K-12 private schools throughout North America. For more information about the ECCOgen Campus Card, please visit www.eccocard.com or call (415) 353-5371.
About Christian Brother Academy: Founded in 1900 by the Christian Brothers who still run the school, CBA is one of the most well regarded, Catholic college preparatory schools on the East Coast. CBA is located in suburban Syracuse, New York and run by the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, founded by St John Baptist de La Salle. The school has approximately 750 students in grades seven through twelve. In addition to its reputation for academic excellence, CBA, as it is known, has a noted history of athletic achievement at the local and state levels; most recently, the varsity football team won the 2004 New York State Football Championship.
