Smartcard Golf
Introduction
The Sharp Smart Card System is now the most used Cashless System in the UK.
CCM / Sharp have the pleasure of supplying and supporting a growing number of major catering companies and government agencies including a unique jurors meal payment system developed for Crown Court Services by CCM.
Our smart card systems have been developed over 15 years and have proved to be efficient, reliable and cost effective.
The System has acquired fame on GM Breakfast Television, and ITN main news where it was commended the system for its ingenuity and in particular its "Healthy Eating" programme in educational catering.
Overview & Security
The Sharp System utilises the latest smart card technology and not the outdated magnetic stripe option.
Our smart card system utilises a cash register with a smart card reader interfaced to it. All cards can be loaded with prepayments of any value. This is done in one simple quick operation at any cash register and a statement is printed showing the new balance. Goods can then be purchased to the value on the Smart Card.
If the Card has insufficient value to cover the cost of goods, the shortfall is calculated by the terminal and can be paid in cash or items can be returned.
When the card is running low on funds the system will alert the operator to inform the holder that they need to re-value his card.
The system is not dedicated to smart cards and can be used for club visitors on a cash only basis.
The System also has the facility to control hospitality and complimentary sales.
A number of security features have been built into the system which include the simple operation of hotlisting lost or stolen cards and automatically transferring any unused balances onto a new card.
If a hotlisted card is later presented as payment for goods the operator will be informed that this card has been previously hotlisted.
Funds can be paid by cheque to the club which prevents the risk of larger sums of money lost.
Members will no longer have the problem of carrying cash on a daily basis.
For clubs who have a annual fixed bar levy, this can be automated to issue the annual levy to the card the first time it is used each year.
Loyalty Discounts
The Sharp Smart Card System allows members clubs to increase their tariffs to a higher level to take full advantage of profit margins on visitor and guest sales.
When members purchase goods with their smart cards although goods are priced at the normal retail price when the transaction is finalised the sale is automatically discounted by the level of discount set by the club for members.
Products can be programmed to be either discountable or not, allowing low profit lines to be set as non discountable.
Where clubs franchise the catering sales, the catering products can now be entered with bar sales, catering sales are reported in a separate group and are not included in the clubs turnover or daily cash figures, this overcomes the problem in most clubs with franchise catering of having to enter a sale into two separate tills, therefore this will speed the whole transaction process.
Remote kitchen printers can also be added to the system allowing food orders to be electronically processed direct to the kitchen from the bar, overcoming the problem of hand writing orders and then walking these orders to the kitchen. Food orders are normally required at the bars busiest times.
Our system also allows for large amounts of monies placed on cards to be to have a bonus applied by a fixed percentage, this allows the club to promote members placing larger sums of money onto their cards. The parameters of what level the bonus commences and what percentage it attracts can be set by the individual club.
Lottery, Loyalty Points & Happy Hours
To further promote the members interest in the system, a lottery feature has been included.
Any number of prizes can be offered and a simple operation at the terminal selects active card users for the day and randomly allots the number of prizes to 1st 2nd and 3rd prizes etc.
A new development is the points loyalty system, which can be utilised to promote sales
Points are allotted to products, each product can have a different number of points allotted allowing you to promote the products you wish to sell.
When points have been accumulated they can be redeemed for credit on the members card or items of interest e.g. gift vouchers, leisure tokens , record token , etc.
The system also incorporates a Happy Hour system this allows time and day zones to be allocated and at the programmed times the terminal will automatically change to the allocated level.
Happy Hours can be by price or points or both, happy hours can also be by a point multiplier for example on a Tuesday between 6.00pm and 7.00pm points could be trebled.
Happy hours can be used to promote the clubs facility when not they are fully utilised.
Additional Smartcard Applications
A full back office software package is also available which incorporate the following features:
Daily / Weekly reports from the terminals via the secretary's office.
Product maintenance can be downloaded from the secretary's office.
Full members smart card database.
Cards can be hotlisted and re-issued in the secretary's office.
Revaluation can be made in the secretary's office with a full audit report .
Members names can be written into the smart card chip allowing all terminal receipts and audit reports to display the members name.
Expiry dates can be utilised, allowing the card to be used only after subscriptions have been paid.
A full smart card account archive showing full usage of the card.
The above is an optional extra, our system does not rely on a computer connection and does not run on a file server basis making the Sharp system one of the most reliable cashless system in the market place.
Smart Cards can also be utilised by most security companys as a door access control card to changing rooms etc.
Conclusion
THE ABOVE FEATURES ENSURE THAT THE SHARP SMART CARD SYSTEM IS THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE AND FLEXIBLE SYSTEM IN TODAY'S MARKET AT AN AFFORDABLE PRICE.
Questions & Answers
Why CCM / Sharp?
CCM are the market leaders in cashless systems for catering, having gained over 9 years knowledge and experience with new smart card technology. (Previous to this we offered magnetic stripe solutions which many companies are still operating).
Sharp Electronics are one of the worlds largest manufacturers of electronic systems.
CCM have 32 years experience of marketing and supporting retail systems with Sharp who are the number one suppliers of hospitality systems in the UK.
Our system utilises a conventional cash register with a proven record for reliability (Over 28,000 in use in the UK alone).
Software is not required to control our system, although we do have a complete back office database system with reports for larger installations.
As we do not use file servers and software driven applications like many other similar applications. Therefore our system is more secure in that if any terminal malfunctions all other terminals are still operable, whereas a file server that malfunctions will automatically cause all terminals linked to it to malfunction.
CCM/Sharp are dedicated to customer support not only on implementation of the system but also in after sales support.
Quotation prices are fully inclusive, with no hidden charges for telephone hotline support, staff training, maintenance, and project management fees.
CCM/Sharp offer the most cost effective solution.
CCM clients benefit from their wealth of experience in the catering sector.
What are Smart Cards?
Smart cards are similar in appearance to standard credit, debit, and loyalty cards. The one significant difference is that smart cards do not have an encoded magnetic stripe, instead they have an embedded intelligent chip.
The easiest way of explaining this chip is to compare it with a hard disk on a computer which can be read or written into.
Smart cards can have varying size memory chips embedded on the card. Sharp utilise a 2k memory chip of which only 10% is used to control our system, this allows other applications to be integrated onto the same card.
Why Smart Cards?
Smart Cards within the next five years will be the industry standard in debit and credit cards.
The major high street banks and finance houses are now investing in the change over to smart card technology.
Smart cards have an anticipated working life of 10 years compared to 3 years with magnetic stripe cards.
Smart Card systems are more secure than magnetic stripe cards as the processed information is written to the terminal; and also to the chip on the card , therefore if one part of the system fails then the other part works as an automatic restore facility. Magnetic cards are only written to the terminal.