Smartcard based Loyalty e-Rewards Solution & Prepaid e-Cash subsystem
7 Reasons to Choose iBonus Terminal
Very easy to deploy

Unattended Server Design
When deploying iBonus Terminal at each outlet, it only needs to enter the Server IP and Server port at each Terminal. iBonus Server automatically register the Terminal when the Terminal connects to the server the first time. Deregistration is also to be done at Terminal side. The setup process can be done even there is no one attending the iBonus Server. It saves up the man power during deployment.

Dynamic Virtual IP Operation
Every TCP/IP connections between iBonus Terminal and iBonus Server is initiated at Terminal side. With the simplicity of the protocol, Terminals can work perfectly with just a dynamic virtual IP. Port forwarding at the Terminal side is not necessary. It saves the effort on configuring the tricky router settings.

System Health Monitoring
The system health can be monitored at server side. Administrator can make use of the information shown at the monitor screen to track the Terminal which needs maintenance.




Web report viewing terminal status



Application viewing terminal status
Complete transactions types and card control features

Generic Transaction Set
iBonus Terminal sets the standard of transaction types of prepaid and loyalty system. It provides generic transaction types for performing calculations of stored values, such as, prepaid, bonus point and accumulated spending balance. The behavior of all transactions types are consistent with the combinations of card status, system setting and system status, like, decryption keys, expiry settings, decimal mode, bonus rate, blacklist, card sector usage and card value limits. For example, transaction limit is defined in Staff Card. It limits the maximum prepaid transaction amount of all money transactions. Blacklisted card is detected and expiry date in Last Visit mode is extended in all operations. Without the need of redeveloping the complex and sophisticated algorithm behind, system integrators can make use of them and quickly deploy a loyalty system.
Table of Generic Transaction Types

Name
Card Purchase
Cash Purchase
Reload
Redeem
Quick Reload
Undo Card Purchase
Undo Reload
Undo Cash Purchase
Undo Redeem
Carry Forward
Description
Purchasing goods by card stored value while adding bonus values
Purchasing goods by cash while adding bonus point.
Adding stored value
Exchanging bonus points for gifts
Do Reload and Card Purchase at the same time.
Undoing a Card Purchase operation.
(Staff Card reconfirmation is required.)
Undoing a Reload operation (Staff Card reconfirmation is required.)
Undoing a Cash Purchase operation.
(Staff Card reconfirmation is required.)
Undoing a Redeem operation. (Staff Card reconfirmation is required.)
Setting a new member card to certain values
Member Card Calculations
- Prepaid Balance
+ Bonus Points
+ Accumulated Purchase
+ Bonus Points
+ Accumulated Purchase
+ Prepaid Balance
- Bonus Points
+ Reload amount to Prepaid Balance
Then
- Prepaid Balance
+ Bonus Points
+ Accumulated Purchase
+ Prepaid Balance
- Bonus Points
- Accumulated Purchase
- Prepaid Balance
- Bonus Points
- Accumulated Purchase
+ Bonus Points
In prepaid mode, set Bonus Points and Prepaid Balance

In Bonus mode, set only Bonus Points
Function Available at
Prepaid Mode
Bonus Mode
Prepaid Mode
Bonus Mode
Prepaid Mode
Prepaid Mode
Prepaid Mode
Bonus Mode
Bonus Mode
Prepaid Mode and Bonus Mode

Advanced Card Control
Lost card replacement, expiry date extension and card repair can be done at any branches.

Real Time Balance Checking
Members can enjoy real time balancing by simply presenting their card to iBonus Terminal. If the Terminal is connected to POS, the balance is also sent to POS.

Receipt Reprint and Auto Reprint
When printer is connected, a receipt is printed whenever any transaction is made. Press the button A if you wish to reprint the receipt of the last transaction. If auto reprint is on, two receipts will be print for every transaction.

Customizable Customer ID
Card issuing company may like their card number to be in their own format. Administrator can customize the customer ID of each member card. In case of customers losing their member card, the replaced member card can have the same customer ID. The range of customer ID is 0 – 9999999999999999.

4 Expiry Date Calculation Modes
There are 4 different choices of Member Card expiry schemes:
1. Always Valid
    In scheme 1, member card never expires. This is simple. However card replace and blacklisting feature cannot be used.

2. Fixed Month
    In scheme 2, Fixed Month, you simply decide which month of the year you want the Member Card to be expired. For example, the current     month is February and the expiry month is set as January. The Member Card will not be able to use in January of next year.

3. Relative to Card Initializing Date
    In scheme 3, Relative to Card Initializing Date, you have to define the number of months relative to the Member Card Initializing Date. For     example, if you set 12 months and the Member Card is initialized on January 2002, the Member Card will be expired on January 2003.

4. Automatic expiry extension based on the last visit.
    In scheme 4, Automatic Expiry Extension Based on the Last Visit, the expiry date will be automatically extended by the administrator defined     periods (months) if Members purchase, redeem, or reload before the card expires.

Staff Card Reconfirmation
Staff card is needed to be presented to the Terminal again for some transaction types which are less frequently used. It will ensure staff intention on using those transaction types.

Staff Card Transaction Auditing
Staff Card ID is logged for every transaction. It will facilitate auditing at the server report. iBonus Report can summarize the amount collected by each individual staff.

Maximum Prepaid Limit
iBonus Master Card defines the maximum prepaid amount to be stored in each card. This safety measure enhances the safety for the card users.

Maximum Transaction Limit
Maximum transaction limit must be defined in each staff card. All transaction that alters the accumulated spending or prepaid balance is limited by this value.

Work with your cashier and receipt printer

Full Point of Sales (POS) Functions Coverage
iBonus System unifies the smart card system with the POS system. All the transaction types in iBonus Terminal are accessible by POS through RS-232 serial port. Coming with a ready made Windows based API, all the generic transaction set and advanced card handling functions can be accessed with ease. In addition, with the help of read member card and read staff card functions, POS can command the most suitable transaction based on the POS side member profile.



POS application provided as sample code for the API

Receipt Printer Connectivity
When printer is connected, a receipt is printed whenever any transaction is made. Press the button A if you wish to reprint the receipt of the last transaction. If auto reprint is on, two receipts will be print for every transaction.
iBonus Terminal generally work with printer with the following specifications:
  • Connector: Parallel port
  • Protocol: ESC/POS
  • Paper Width: 42 Characters per line


High Scalability

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 support
iBonus Server also connects to Microsoft SQL Server 2005 through ADO .Net technology. For a large deployment with sophisticated reporting or clusters for database, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 can fit in to such purpose. Also by using the reporting service feature in SQL Server 2005, iBonus Reports - a web based report can be leveraged. The iBonus System instantly becomes a hub for generating sales a financial report centre.

Microsoft Access Support
iBonus Server connects to Microsoft Access database through ADO .Net technology. Microsoft Access is supported for deployment of smaller scale. As Microsoft Access database is freely built in Windows XP. This is useful for system evaluation, or system with small number of member.

Batch Operation
iBonus Server writes each record into its journal transaction queue at its local database, and sends back notify signal to Terminal. The server side transaction queue is optimized for data collection. The data stored in the queue will later on be processed by the batch. The replies for the request are stored in indexed tables. When the Terminals are querying the Server, the server can get the reply by simple table look up. This design radically reduces the demand of server processing power and therefore allowing a large amount of Terminals to connect to and large amount of member to use the system.

Branch Code and Terminal Code
Branch code and terminal code can be defined in each Terminal. These codes are useful for maintenance and for reporting.


High Reliability

5000 Transaction Buffer
In case of temporary network failure, transaction is stored in the flash memory of iBonus Terminal. Up to 5000 transaction can be stored in the memory. As soon as the network is reestablished, the transaction is sent back to server.

Journal Database
iBonus Terminal temporary stores transactions. In case of network congestion, iBonus Terminal has transaction buffer which stores up to 5000 records. As the database in iBonus is used as buffer, the data integrity of the database is taken into great care. Journal database is implemented at iBonus Terminal. During Terminal start-up the flash memory copy of the database is decompressed to RAM. During the transaction, each updating SQL command is recorded at the journal file after successful execution on the RAM copy of the database. The database is committed either periodically or when the journal file reaches a certain size. During write back, the RAM copy is written back to the Flash memory. In case of unexpected power shutdown, all the commands in the journal file are re-executed against the flash memory copy of database.

Ordering of Card Transactions Done in Distributed Terminal
It is possible that transactions that are done in different terminals for the same card are not reaching the server chronologically due to temporary network instability. In the need of updating server side member’s latest card value correctly, each member card has a transaction counter that is incremented after each transaction. By attaching the value onto each transaction, server can serialize the transaction collected from different Terminals in order to update the member record correctly. There is a side benefit for using transaction counter. In case of record loss, it is still possible to tell what transaction has been done based on the sequence of the transaction record of each card.

Record Duplication Detection
iBonus Server ensures that no record is recorded twice in the database. This is done by recording the last record of that terminal in the Server. If the acknowledgement of the transfer of the last record is missed, the Terminal may send back the same record again. By comparing the record being transferred with the last record, Server can tell whether there is duplication and reject the record accordingly.

Blacklist Overflow Protection
Each iBonus Terminal is capable to store 32767 card serial numbers in the blacklist. To further ensure the size of the blacklist will not grow indefinitely, blacklisting is allowed only when the member card has an expiry date. The serial number is removed from the blacklist when the card is expired; thereby freeing up space in blacklist.

High Security

Anti-fraud Card Control feature
  • the newly replaced card will reflect the pre-blacklist salvage value of the lost card even it is used at any other Terminals after reported loss,
  • only one replaced card is issued even the user intentionally report card loss in more than one terminal within a short time,
  • the repaired card must reflect the latest card information even the card has done a transaction at another branch a short time before needing to repair,
  • the blacklist will not be grown to an unlimited size by allowing only the card having expiry date to be blacklisted, only the valid card are blacklisted, and
  • the card being renewed must not be a blacklisted card.
iBonus Master Card Key Loading
iBonus Terminal guarantee to operate only with the card issue by the same company. This is achieved by loading key from iBonus Master Card. As the key and company code of iBonus Master Card delivered to each company is different. iBonus Terminal can only recognize the member card with the same key.

Staff Card Transaction Auditing
Staff Card ID is logged for every transaction. It will facilitate auditing at the server report. iBonus Report can summarize the amount collected by each individual staff.

Card Blacklisting
In case of losing member card, the lost card can be blacklisted by using Request Replace function. With in 1/4 day, all terminals will collect the newest blacklist from the server.

Maximum Prepaid Limit
iBonus Master Card defines the maximum prepaid amount to be stored in each card. This safety measure enhances the safety for the card users.

Maximum Transaction Limit
Maximum transaction limit must be defined in each staff card. All transaction that alters the accumulated spending or prepaid balance is limited by this value.

Localizable

Language localization
All the wordings and currency signs at the LCD display and receipt can be localized*. Customer can have iBonus Terminal adapted to their language by submitting their translating table to us. Translated wordings are limited by the characters available at the LCD display and receipt printers

Decimal and Integral Currency Support
iBonus System supports both integral currency and currency with two places. If decimal mode is chosen the maximum prepaid value is 83,886.07. If integer mode is chosen, the maximum prepaid value is 8,388,607. This setting is unified by the iBonus Master Card.
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