Contactless Technology Integrations – Starship Delivery Robots, Panasonic Smart Food Lockers and Apex Order Pickup Solutions

PHOENIX–(BUSINESS WIRE)–As college campuses modify operations in response to the ongoing pandemic, Transact, the leader in innovative credential and payment solutions for a connected campus, continues to develop and release technology solutions to benefit students, faculty and staff members’ health and safety. Today Transact announced three new software integrations with Apex Order Pickup Solutions and Panasonic Smart Lockers, which provide automated, contactless order pickup solutions for food service and retail, and with Starship – a mobile technology and autonomous robot platform that allows for fast, cost-efficient and green food and goods delivery.

“Campus life is increasingly busy and colleges and universities are turning to solutions to help students streamline their days. Integrating Transact’s payment solution with Panasonic’s Smart Food Lockers enables students to order and pick up their food at their convenience”

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“Our team is dedicated to providing solutions for the rapidly evolving needs of college campuses,” said Transact Campus Vice President of Product Management Erica Bass. “These systems integrations will help mitigate overcrowding in some heavily trafficked parts of campus, provide students with additional food service options, and offer a safe delivery option for those who may need to isolate or quarantine. We are committed to putting the safety of students at the forefront of all our work at Transact.”

Transact’s integration with Starship’s app and robot delivery platform allows users to order from any restaurant or store that partners with Starship and deduct funds through Transact’s closed loop payment system. Transact is currently installing systems for up to 10 colleges and universities. New and existing Transact clients will easily be able to enable this functionality and the integration is already available on some campuses.

“While our robots were doing deliveries long before the pandemic began, they’ve never been so important as right now, making life a little bit easier, especially in settings like college campuses,” said Chris Neider, Senior Manager, Business Development, Starship. “The integration with Transact’s payment system makes ordering food that much easier for students – they can use funds they’ve already designated for campus spending.”

Transact also collaborated with Panasonic to develop a closed loop payment integration with Panasonic’s Smart Food Locker solution. Higher education campuses that deploy these locker systems offer streamlined food pickup facilitated by a QR or pin code. This contactless order and retrieval process allows students to receive their food without waiting in long lines or interacting with restaurant or dining hall staff. With heavy foot traffic around campus, Panasonic’s Smart Food Lockers stand in as a solution to reduce crowding during peak times when social distancing is a top priority.

“Campus life is increasingly busy and colleges and universities are turning to solutions to help students streamline their days. Integrating Transact’s payment solution with Panasonic’s Smart Food Lockers enables students to order and pick up their food at their convenience,” said Eric Symon, Vice President of the Enterprise Process Innovation Center, Panasonic System Solutions Company of North America. “Our Food Smart Lockers host enclosed and temperature-controlled environments to help reduce cross contamination for certain allergies and dietary restrictions while keeping food at peak freshness – hot or cold. We’re excited to work with Transact to offer this streamlined dining solution to students so that they can spend more time experiencing the important parts of campus life.”

Transact has developed a similar closed loop payment integration with Apex Order Pickup Solutions. Each of these integrations allow students to use their campus card funds to make purchases through the vendor’s system or app. In addition to convenience, these partner solutions are secure – keeping payment information private and ensuring that goods get to the intended recipient.

“Colleges and universities continue to turn to Apex for guidance on how to offer streamlined, contactless pickup solutions that fit their specific campus needs,” said Mike Rizzo, Chief Growth Officer for Apex Order Pickup Solutions. “We believe our innovative solution paired with Transact’s payment capabilities, gives students fast, digital options that not only will outlast the pandemic environment, but also will better position campuses to serve their communities in a more seamless way in the future. Contactless pickup is a long-term trend that will continue to evolve over the coming years.”

For more information or to schedule a demonstration of Transact’s campus solutions, visit www.transactcampus.com. Follow Transact on Twitter and LinkedIn and join the conversation.

About Transact

Transact is the leader in innovative payment solutions for a connected campus. Its highly configurable, mobile-centric campus technology ecosystem simplifies the student experience across the full spectrum of student life. Transact’s offerings include integrated solutions for tuition and other student expense payments, multi-purpose campus IDs, and campus commerce. With a long-standing reputation of serving the education community, Transact proudly assists millions of students each year with its innovative products and solutions. For more information, visit www.transactcampus.com.

About Apex Order Pickup Solutions

Apex is a leading global provider of self-serve automated pickup solutions for use in foodservice, retail and b-to-b ecommerce. The Apex Heated Pickup Station was a recipient of the 2019 Kitchen Innovations Award from the National Restaurant Association. Apex contactless order pickup solutions are in use in over 4,000 restaurant, foodservice and retail locations globally. Apex is headquartered in Mason, Ohio. For more information, visit www.apexorderpickup.com.

About Panasonic System Solutions Company of North America

Panasonic System Solutions Company of North America, a division of Panasonic Corporation of North America, delivers game-changing technology solutions that deliver customized experiences to drive better outcomes—for our customers and our customers’ customers. Panasonic designs and manufactures reliable, flexible and dependable products and solutions to help create, capture and deliver information of all types, especially where, when and how it is needed. The complete suite of Panasonic professional solutions for government and commercial enterprises of all sizes addresses unified business communications, mobile computing, security and surveillance, retail point-of-sale, office productivity, audio and visual systems (projectors, displays & digital signage) and professional video production. To learn more and Panasonic’s business products and solutions visit: https://na.panasonic.com/us/food-service-systems.

About Starship

Starship Technologies is revolutionizing deliveries with autonomous robots. The robots are designed to deliver food, groceries and packages locally in minutes. The delivery robots have traveled millions of miles and completed over 1.6m autonomous deliveries around the world. They drive autonomously but are monitored by humans who can take control at any time. Starship was founded by Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis (Skype Chief Architect and Co-founder) and Alastair Westgarth is the CEO.