Managing money in schools is a messy business. From daily cafeteria purchases to special event sales, cash transactions create administrative burdens, reconciliation nightmares, and security concerns. VPS (Vertical Payment Solutions Pte Ltd), known as My Campus Card, emerged as a solution to digitise these processes, offering schools a complete cashless payment ecosystem that benefits parents, students, staff, and administrators alike.
The challenge:
Schools faced multiple pain points with traditional cash-based food services, from the administrative burden of manual cash handling, counting, and reconciliation to the security risks of cash on premises. Not only that, but cash is inconvenient for parents, and end-of-day accounting was time-consuming and error-prone. VPS’s online portal, point of sales (POS) devices and kiosk devices aimed to solve some of these problems, with a payment-gateway connected wallet for parents, and transaction reporting for schools.
However, the 15-year-old legacy system required modernisation to meet current digital expectations and operational demands.
The solution:
Over four years, our development teams in Myanmar, Thailand and Singapore have supported/enhanced VPS using .NET architecture, creating an integrated digital payment ecosystem with multiple touchpoints. This includes:
- Integrations such as Yonyou ERP Integration for Inventory Management, Open Apply for data syncing and payment methods like NETS & EZ Link, Thailand’s ThaiQR payment system and Indonesia’s DOKU & QRIS payment systems
- Created a mobile POS (Android) to handle on-site cashless payments at ad-hoc school events
- Introducing a native iOS & Android mobile app to give additional convenience to the parents, allowing them to manage children’s spending remotely and track purchases
- A Kitchen Display System (KDS) was also developed for the kitchen staff to handle quick claims for pre-ordered food by students, allowing students to receive their food with a tap of a card.
- The team is also providing ongoing services to resolve existing issues and implement system enhancements.
Results:
VPS now serves over 20 international schools, delivering measurable improvements across operational and financial processes through automated reporting, transaction monitoring, and budget control.
The platform continues to expand with ongoing maintenance, feature development, and integration capabilities to meet evolving school requirements, and the future development roadmap includes enhanced hardware compatibility, framework upgrades, and UI redesign. We’re also looking at AI-powered features for automated ordering and meal plan suggestions, automatic wallet top-ups, and the overall experience.
