At DU, students now can pay for their mocha with Mocapay.
DU’s School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management (HRTM) has entered into a strategic partnership with the Denver-based company Mocapay to enable students to use their mobile phones to make purchases at Beans, the school’s student-run coffee shop.
Students will be able to use a “mobile wallet” service that allows users to make payments with gift and loyalty cards using a program on their mobile phone. Mocapay also allows users to access their account balance and transaction history, reload their account, and even give gifts to other accounts — all from their mobile phone.
Additionally, HRTM will use Mocapay to distribute customized mobile marketing campaigns to students. Since mobile technology is quickly becoming an essential part of the hospitality industry’s business, the school also plans to integrate the Mocapay platform into its curriculum.
“Our mission at the University of Denver has and continues to be about providing students with the best education possible, including integrating innovative technology into the curriculum and the campus setting,” says David Corsun, director and associate professor of HRTM. “Mocapay not only offers students a solution for conducting secure, mobile transactions on campus but gives our hotel, restaurant and tourism management students’ cutting-edge experience in deployment of mobile technology within the hospitality industry.”
The company ran a test of the mobile phone platform with a select number of merchants and consumers in Boulder in 2007, and is currently partnered with businesses such as Doc Popcorn and Ink! Coffee. HRTM is the first school to team up with Mocapay.
“We are very excited about the relationship with the University of Denver’s School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management,” says Kevin Grieve, Mocapay CEO. “This relationship marks our entry into the university setting and illustrates the versatility and ease of implementation of the Mocapay platform into the point-of-sale environment.”
Mocapay’s Mobile Wallet service is currently available on AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile, Nextel, Boost, Cellular One, Alltel and USCellular. Cricket does not support the service. For more information about Mocapay, visit www.mocapay.com.