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Campus Host GatewaysCampus Host Gateways
MBS Systems has built our applications with interfacing in mind. We've been designing and deploying gateways for more than a decade and have worked with large turnkey solutions that include PeopleSoft, SCT Banner, CMDS/Jenzabar, FRS, and FAS, along with proprietary state systems serving Florida, Indiana, and North Carolina. From initial set-up to testing and deployment, MBS takes complete responsibility for project management. We charge a flat fee for our interfaces and the project management services associated with them, regardless of the time and resources it takes to complete the job. MBS also provides investment protection for all of our interfaces. Users pay an annual support fee that not only covers ongoing support, but also covers any future enhancements or modifications that need to be made in response to version/release changes made to the campus host system. As long as the campus utilizes the same provider, an existing interface will never have to be re-purchased.

Interfaces Currently Available:
. Course Import
. Registrar Link
. Daily Sales
. Accounts Payable
. Student Financial Aid (AR)

Course Import
Course Import capability is built in to both native Text-Aid (TA400) and TA2, thus allowing the application to accept a master course-schedule feed from the campus host system. MBS provides the registrar with the file types and layouts that we can accept, and assuming that the registrar is willing to furnish the required data, it can then be imported into the system. This will populate Department, Course Number, Section, Professor, Pre-Enrollment, etc. The bookstore can then take additional feeds for the term in order to pull in changes to the course schedule. This will allow the store to track changes in enrollment as well as cancellations and additions.

Registrar Link for MBS inSite
For campuses where students can register online, MBS offers the ability to tie textbook purchasing to online registration, thus creating a process whereby once students register, they are given a link to the inSite-managed store website. When they click the link, they—along with their registration data and course codes—move to the textbook-ordering module on the site. Here, they'll see that their course lists are already built and that they need only click "Match Books to My Course List" to place their textbook orders.

The process described above relies upon the campus side feeding MBS the CRN (Course Record Number) data through the URL string when the student clicks over to the bookstore website. We employ a standard procedure for receiving and formatting the data, one that requires the bookstore to use the TA2 application instead of native Text-Aid, which does not support CRN.

Sales Audit Interface (Daily Sales)
The Sales Audit Interface allows the bookstore to post tender and/or class sales totals to the campus general ledger. This is accomplished by posting daily sales data from the POS to the MBS Sales Audit application, which then categorizes data into appropriate types (Cash, Check, Non-Taxable, etc.) and their matching GL account numbers for the campus system. When the sales are ready, they can be sent via batch file (FTP) to the campus side. The campus side can then import the data into the general ledger.

Accounts Payable
With the AP Gateway, invoice data that is being input into TA2 (or native Text-Aid) and MBS General Merchandise can be communicated to the campus side electronically instead of having to be re-keyed. Invoices (and credits) are posted from the text and merchandise management applications to the Accounts Payable application for reconciliation. Once the invoices have been adjusted and balanced and prepared for payment, they can be posted to a batch file that is created as part of the AP Gateway process. This file can then be communicated via FTP and imported into the campus system.

Each AP Gateway MBS deploys is uniquely designed for the campus we are servicing. We begin with a batch process for extracting the invoice header and detail from the MBS application. The campus then provides the specific data fields needed and the formatting requirements. From there, we'll tailor the gateway to meet your school's needs.

Student Financial Aid (AR)
With the MBS Student Financial Aid application, bookstores are able to manage accounts where aid, sponsorship, grants, or other monies are in place. These accounts are dynamic in that each award within a student's account may be customized with regard to taxability, merchandise restrictions, effective dates, and priority of usage. The MBS SFA application automatically compares the student's purchases to his or her awards and then applies the funds accordingly. This process at the POS eliminates the need for paper vouchers and cashier intervention in the application of aid monies, while also ensuring that students do not purchase in excess of the allotted aid amount.

SFA interfacing comes into play in getting student award information onto the MBS system. This can be done through a batch or real-time interface. In the batch environment, the campus creates a snapshot of all student accounts and awards and then sends that information to the bookstore via FTP. The bookstore then uses an importing process that populates the student accounts and their awards into the application. In the real-time environment, the transactions are actually cleared from the campus system as they occur.
If you're ready to get started, or you'd like more information about Campus Host Gateways, contact your MBS Systems Territory Manager or call 800-325-4138.
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MBS Textbook Exchange, Inc.
2711 West Ash Street
Columbia, MO 65203
800-325-0530
http://www.mbsbooks.com/systems.php?PAGE=CampusHostGateways.html