Welcome to the next generation of back office applications. eCard is a guest-focused software application that empowers restaurants to generate and keep repeat business. This is a vital business tool, since repeat customers are considered the key to long-term success in the restaurant industry. (View eCard System Requirements.)

Gift Cards and Gift Certificates:
>>  increase business 
>>  increase customer loyalty 
>>  make a profit for the restaurant, since up to 30%
      to 35% of gift cards traditionally go unredeemed 

Nearly one-half of U.S. consumers used a gift card during the past year according to results released earlier this year from Standard Register's third National Consumer and Retailer Survey of Plastic Card Usage. Research indicates that 45% of adults have used gift cards, an increase of 34% over last year's survey. Consumers spend an average of $200 per year on gift cards, an increase of $61 from 2000. In addition, 61% of respondents who have received gift cards indicated they spend more than the amount assigned to the card and 55% of gift card recipients find more than one trip necessary to deplete the value of a gift card. This adds up to big business for restaurateurs.

In response to this business trend, restaurants today are launching more complex gift card programs, but this means that they must spend considerable time on IT administration. eCard is an ASP offering for a simple monthly fee that reduces the time and manpower needed to manage the gift card process, while also boosting sales and increasing store traffic. It is available stand-alone or as an add-on component to Enterprise.com.

Benefits

>>  Uses existing hardware. All the store needs is an Internet connection (dial-up or dedicated modem) and an
      Internet browser.
>>  Supplies timely information to make informed decisions. 
>>  Full Aloha POS and Aloha Enterprise.com reporting. Both systems work together to give you a complete
      account of all gift card activity — from the guest check to a full year or more of gift card sales reports for all
      stores, or for the company at large. 
>>  Allows for gift certificate control across all locations. 
>>  No extra equipment in your restaurant or steps for your employees — simply ring up a gift certificate just
      like any other item. To redeem a certificate, the server need only swipe the card, and eCard handles all of
      the authorization steps. 
>>  Built-in warehousing and back-up. All gift card data is stored safely off-site. 
>>  Built-in redundancy. Hardware failures can happen. For this reason, eCard gift cards can be authorized even
      when your back office file server is down or while experiencing connection issues. Built-in redundancy
      means your gift card customers get the attention and service they deserve, regardless of potential hardware
      or connection issues.

Features

>>  eCard links all stores in real-time.
>>  Gift Certificates can instantly be redeemed through any sales channels immediately after purchase
      Interfaces with POS. 
>>  Easy-to-use Gift Card Wizards provide secure access to enterprise-wide gift card controls via the Internet. 
>>  Full enterprise reporting available ad-hoc or as scheduled reports that can be sent to you via email in over 20
      different formats. 
>>  Internationalization: All Enterprise.com eCard components will support multiple languages. 
>>  Alerts: Notification via Enterprise.com, cell phone or email. Alerts can be used for monitoring gift card sales
      and redemptions, or possible audit issues like gift card voids. 
>>  Add value: This feature allows your guests to add more dollars to their existing gift cards. This is a great
      way to allow guests the flexibility of storing dollars on a very convenient gift card — especially for your
      restaurant! 

eCard is fully integrated with gift card sales and redemption, so that all sales and redemptions are performed through the standard POS interface, with full in-store reports on back-of-house and front-of-house reports, as well as guest receipts. Denominations are predetermined or flexible. Cards are activated at time of purchase and their value decreases as they are used. Activation and redemption are tracked and authorized through the Enterprise.com web interface. 

The easy-to-use Gift Card Wizards allow the configuration of the store-level cache and synchronization setting to be specified for the entire company, or just for specific stores, where the store hardware presence or Internet connectivity varies from the company standard. In addition, the Gift Card Set-up Wizard allows authorized Enterprise.com users to configure or modify company Gift Cards for all stores, or for specified store groups or single stores. 

eCard supports a very high level of redundancy, so that the POS terminals can still authorize gift cards even if the back-of-house is down. In fact, Enterprise Gift Card systems can authorize in disconnected mode, so that even during connection failure, eCard still functions smoothly with no disruption to your customer service. This application also offers a powerful replication group feature, which allows an authorized Enterprise.com user to control which store or stores honor which gift cards, and to optimize store-level data cache. 

One of the advantages of eCard products is that they are highly serviceable. User documentation, as well as interactive customer support, is available via the Web. In addition, auto-install and updates are sent to the customer through the Internet and online help is available. eCard also features full usage reporting, historical reports and analysis. 

eCard Connection Modes

eCard is fully functional in a semi-connected or virtual environment. There are two connection options available for eCard.

Virtual. The store is fully connected via a DSL or other high speed connection. You can optionally store all data centrally, which leaves a very small technology footprint.

Semi-Connected. The store connects at intervals. The data is archived in an in-store cache. This option offers the inherent redundancy for which Aloha is famous