Clicks-and-mortar smart card loyalty nears
An updated end-to-end smart card loyalty system from Smart Chip Technologies (SCTN) is to be trialled in the retail, gaming, transit, and credit card sectors later this year, with additional investment from the firm's contracted software development partner, Airos Group.
SCTN's patent-protected loyalty software solution, which includes the existing e-llegiance one-to-one marketing software, will help retailers identify and engage their best customers, supported by the firm's LoyaltyCentral back office system, originally co-developed with IBM. The back office system can also be integrated with customer relationship management (CRM) systems to expand business intelligence and reward programme personalisation.
Originally designed for magnetic stripe programme compatibility, the system is principally geared to enable clicks-and-mortar, real-time rewards programmes running on smart cards, laptop computers, personal digital assistants (including Palm and Windows platforms), television set top boxes, and mobile phones.
Partner investment Following its May 2003 appointment, the smart card and electronic payment developer, Airos Group, is to invest up to US$2.5 million in development resources, which will be repaid in company equity and product licensing revenues.
Airos will complete the development of LoyaltyCentral, and will continue to port the original e-llegiance application to many leading cards, devices, point-of-sale terminals, and smart chip readers.
Loyalty drivers "Our experience with smart payment and multi-application cards confirms that strong rewards programmes drive smart card use and dramatically impact bank card and merchant profitability," said Airos Group president, Miki Radivojsa.
And, with EMV compliance deadlines looming for credit card issuers around the world, the backward-compatible system will allow banks and card issuers to begin converting existing loyalty applications while still using magnetic stripe cards.
For additional information: · Visit SCTN at http://www.sctn.com · Visit Airos Group at http://www.airosgroup.com