iBonus Android POS terminal – Loyalty Card Solutions

MEMBER CARDS

A member card is a contactless smartcard with the size of a credit card. Integrated within the card is a built-in memory for storing the most up-to-date bonus points, prepaid dollar value and 1:1 administrator-defined member profile. Utilizing 13.56Mhz radio frequency smartcard technology, the transfer of data between smartcard and Terminal or Display unit requires no physical contact.

Essential features

Since the most current information about the members are stored on the Member Cards, this reduces the dependency of real-time information from the centralized database server, as in the case of the traditional magnetic strip card loyalty solutions. Two types of Member Cards are used:

• (a) Ultralight Card with less memory (48 bytes) and lower security for loyalty card solutions (single redemption item stored)
• (b) Classic Card with more memory (15 sectors of 48 bytes each) and high security (Triple Des) for both loyalty payment card solutions and prepaid subsystem.
• Basic information (48 bytes) format stored in both Ultralight and Classic cards:

• • » Unique card ID (4 bytes) assigned using the Master Card supplied from the factory.
  • » Current bonus points (3 bytes, Max.point = 16,777,215)
  • –» Unique Company Code (2 bytes) assigned using the Master Card for a company’s identity. – Accumulative bonus points (4 bytes, Max.point = 4,294,967,295)

–

• » Last Member name (10 characters) – Redemption or Purchase item name (10 characters) – Administrator-defined member profile (12 bits combination of questions and choices) – Identifier for Item Name (1 Character) – Date of birth
• » – Redemption point or Purchase Value (3 bytes, Max. point = 16,777,215 or max. value =167,772.00 with 2 decimal places)

• Language selection (4 choices)
• – Current prepaid dollar value (3 bytes, Max. value = 167,772.00 with 2 decimal places)
• – Member Card expiry date

A Master Card is first generated to assign a Company Code and a range of unique new Member Card ids. The Company Code is used to identify and is exclusive to every client.
The terminals at every outlet are fed with the Master card details and can then read a Member Card easily. A member card with a different company code will just not be recognized at the terminals.

iBonus Terminal provides advanced card handling function, this eliminates the need for a separate card control unit or center and a subsequent savings on cost.

STAFF CARDS

Staff Card is essentially a conversion of a Brand New Card (Newly formatted card) to a Staff Card. Staff Card login is required for the Terminal to accept the Member Card operations such as addition and deduction of bonus points. Staff Card logout is recommended when the staff is not attending the Terminal. Staff login and logout actions are recorded as transactions in the pos terminal, and they provide trails for auditing purposes

THE iBonus BACK-END SERVER ENGINE

The iBonus Server is a comprehensive multilingual Windows-based CRM software tool. It collects transaction records from Terminals and stores them in ODBC database format. Also provides an SQL report tool to generate results and reports based on different criteria: filter, grouping, and sorting.

iBonus Server does not require a processor of high speeds or high data usage as there is no real-time query between the Server and the Terminals. The advantage of which is that it can be installed on any Windows desktop computer.

iBonus Server can collect records from Loyalty Terminals as well as Prepaid Terminals.
Grouping in the case, is used to generate reports or summaries according to Reload $, Undo reload, Card purchases, Undo card purchase or Net $ Balance (which

equals to Reload – Undo reload-Card purchase +Undo Card purchase).
Reports generated by grouping branch codes will reflect the income generated at different branches.
Different Terminals in different branches are identified by the difference in their branch code. Different Terminals within the same branch have the same branch code but different terminal code. Both branch code and terminal code range from 1 to 9999. The connection between a Server and the Terminal can be established as long as the Terminal can ping the Server. The data is sent through the Internet, and the terminal is set to have local IP, no additional NAT or port forwarding is needed for the Terminals.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Recommended System Specification
As the iBonus Server is not required to handle real-time responses regularly, the system has little requirements of network connections and server hardware.

SERVER

For a System with up to 50,000 members, iBonus Server can be run without a Microsoft SQL Server 2005. iBonus Server can make use of the built-in Microsoft SQL Server Express 2005 for data storage. For any system with customer base larger than that,
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 should be deployed.The following is the recommended specification of the server platform for a system with up to 1,00,000 members.

BASIC FEATURES OF SQL REPORT TOOL

The range of records can be selected based on different filters. For e.g., taking into account the criteria of Time, one can set the filter to a particular date, a period of day and time, this week, last week, this month, or last month.

MEMBER ID

Terminal Action Type: There are different actions regarding the operation of the Terminal, such as presenting Master Card, Staff logout and Card Purchase. Each action has an internal code associated with it: Member Information: Administrator requires first to upload the Member profile definition before using this filter

The filtered records can also be saved in CSV format for further working on the data with Excel if needed. Example of record fields stored in CSV format:

• » rcdid: Record ID
• » ItemBonus: the bonus value of the redeemed item
• » ID: Card ID
• » BalBonus: Current Bonus Point Balance of the Member Card
• » Name: Member Name (10 characters)
• » AccBonus: Accumulated Bonus Points of the Member Card
• » DOB: Date of birth Staff ID (4 bytes)
• » Expiry date: Member Expiry Date
• » Terminal Code (4 characters)
• » LogdateTime: Record date and time
• » CompanyCode (2 bytes)
• » Logdate: Record date Branch Code (4 characters)
• » Type: Terminal action
• » CardSN: card serial number
• » Description: Item Description
• » BalPrepaid: Prepaid Value of the Member Card
• » Amount: Cash/Card Purchase, Reload
• » Member ID (20 characters)

A summary of Cash Purchase, Redemption, Undo Purchase and Net Bonus Balance (which is equal to Cash Purchase -Redemption – Undo Purchase) can be grouped and sorted by following fields:

• » Time: This will generate daily transactions summary required for all accounting needs.
• » Branch code: This group can help to summarize transactions at each location.
• » Card ID: This can be used to summarize the activities of each Member by it’s Card ID.
• » Member ID: This can be used to summarize the activities of each Member by it’s Member ID.
• » Item Description: This can help to identify popular redemption items or products. Also helpful for tracking inventory.
• » Staff ID: This grouping is useful for staff operation auditing.
• » Age