Net Coupons is an application which allows the WiFi Area Owner to create coupon campaigns which will be displayed on the Splash Portals belonging to all the Tenants activated on the Platform. This allows to have a very powerful tool to introduce and make available a large amount of commercial offers to end-user even outside of the particular WiFi Area or geographical area.

An end-user who wants to take advantage of a campaign, has to:

1. sign in to the Splash Portal (unauthenticated end-users cannot use the application)
2. access the Net Coupons application and obtain the code for the wished coupon
3. go physically to the WiFi Area Owner who will validate the coupon assignment and will give to the end-user all the necessary to really take advantage of the promotion

Please note that the application will work at WiFi Area level only when the Tenant configured the Category field for the WiFi Area. If the field is not set, the alert "In order to use the application select a product category" will be displayed.
To get further information about this, please see Viewing and managing a WiFi Area for a Tenant.

The Tenant is able to create and manage coupon campaigns, but he is not able to set a particular WiFi Area until he descends at the WiFi Area level.
The administrator of the Solution can add coupons to be displayed in Splash Portals. Please note that an end-user who is authenticated in the Splash Portals will see coupons according to the following priorities:

1. coupons created by the WiFi Area Owner belonging to the WiFi Area where the end-user is logged.
2. coupons created by the Tenant who is managing the WiFi Area
3. coupons created by the WiFi Area Owners of the same Tenant who does not belong to the WiFi Area where the end-user is logged.

If a WiFi Area Owner assigns a coupon to more than one Hotspot, the end-user will see only one coupon (that is the coupon assigned to the Hotspot where the end-user is, or the one assigned to the nearest Hotspot).

Control Panel management

By clicking the Manage button it is possible to configure coupon campaigns for end-users. It is possible to carry out a set of control and management actions, that are:

• Create new: it is possible to create a new coupon campaign.
• Check: it is possible to validate the coupon assignment to an end-user.
• Manage: it is possible to perform some operations on an existing coupon campaign.
• Options (only for WiFi Area Owners): it is possible, for the WiFi Area Owner, to set filters in order to hide coupons of specific categories and origin.

Creating a new coupon campaign

By clicking the Create button it is possible to create a new coupon campaign. It is possible to specify the following information:

• Campaign name: the name of the campaign.
• Date range: the range of dates where the campaign is valid.
• Number of coupons: the number of coupons that can be instantiated. Can be limited or unlimited.
• Product name: the name of the product or the service that we are going to promote.
• Product description: a short description of the promotion.

Furthermore, it is possible to associate one picture to a coupon campaign. Any uploaded picture will be resized to 140x140 pixel.

The Tenant is also able to set the following information:

• WiFi Area: the WiFi Areas where the coupon is visible. Please note that the assignment of a coupon to more than one WiFi Area will not create duplicate coupons: WiFi Areas will be able to see, in any case, a unique coupon.
  
• Latitude, Longitude: the geographical coordinates associated with the service that we are going to promote. This information allows to correctly geolocalize the coupon in the map visible the application.
• Address, Town: the geographical coordinates associated with the service that we are going to promote. This information is displayed as text in the main data of the coupon.
• Category: the category associated with the service that we are going to promote (for example: pizzeria, pub, clothing, cinema etc.)

The WiFi Area Owner is not able to set the information above, since he is able to create coupons only for his own WiFi Area. Then it is not necessary to specify these fields (WiFi Area, Latitude, Longitude, Address, Town, Category), as they are directly taken from the details of the particular WiFi Area whose the WiFi Area Owner belongs to.

Conversely, the WiFi Area Owner is able to specify the following information that are not requested to the Tenant:

• Hotspot: the Hotspots belonging to the WiFi Area where the coupon is visible. Please note that when a Tenant assigns a coupon to a WiFi Area, the coupon will be visible in all the Hotspots of that WiFi Area.
  
  

Validating a coupon assignment

By clicking the Check button it is possible to validate the coupon assignment to an end-user.
Every time an end-user gets a coupon, the system produces a coupon code (displayed in the screen and, when possible, sent via e-mail).
Then, the end-user can physically go to the WiFi Area Owner asking, for example, for the real "paper" coupon. The WiFi Area Owner just have to click the Check button and verify if the coupon code is valid or not. If valid, all the details for the coupon will be displayed, and the WiFi Area Owner can give, for example, the real "paper" coupon to the end-user.


Please note that it is possible to validate a coupon even through a separate public URL outside the Control Panel. You can learn more about this by reading below the Validating Coupons without accessing the Control Panel paragraph.

Managing existing coupon campaigns

By clicking the Manage button it is possible to view the list of coupon campaigns that are currently present in the system.

Each coupon campaign listed comes with its status, that can be:

• Active: this indicates a coupon campaign that is currently active and valid. This means that the current date is within the Validity period specified.
• Not active: it indicates a coupon campaign currently inactive, which will be active in the future. This means that the current date is earlier than the Validity period specified.
• Expired: this indicates a coupon campaign currently inactive, which has been active in the past. This means that the current date is later than the Validity period specified.
• Coupons unavailable: this indicates a coupon campaign currently valid, where all the coupons have assigned to end-users. In this case it is possible to edit the coupon campaign and specify a greater Number of coupons, in order to reset the status to Active.

For every coupon campaign it is possible to perform the following actions:

• Refresh credentials: through this function it is possible to replace the old token for the external access, with a new one. You can learn more about this by reading below the Validating Coupons without accessing the Control Panel paragraph.
• Block credentials / Enable credentials: through this function it is possible to enable or disable the external access through credentials. You can learn more about this by reading below the Validating Coupons without accessing the Control Panel paragraph.
• Edit: through this function it is possible to edit the following parameters for the selected coupon campaign:
• Campaign name
• Validity period
• Number of coupons
• Product name
• Product description
• WiFi Area
• Latitude
• Longitude
• Address
• Town
• Category
It is also possible to change the uploaded picture, or add it if it was not previously specified.

• Statistics: through this action it is possible to display all the coupons associated to the selected campaign, along with the following details:
  
  • Coupon code: the unique code that characterizes each single coupon.
    
  • Checked: if the coupon has been assigned, it indicates whether the assignment has been validated or not through the Check feature previously described.
  • Assignment date: if the coupon has been assigned, it indicates the date when the coupon has been assigned.
  • User: if the coupon has been assigned, it indicates the username of the end-user whom the coupon has been assigned to
  • Email: if the coupon has been assigned, it indicates the email address of the end-user  whom the coupon has been assigned to.
  • Phone number if the coupon has been assigned, it indicates the mobile phone number for the end-user whom the coupon has been assigned to.
  It is also possible to export all statistics to a CSV file, by clicking the Export to CSV button in the page content of the Statistics page.

• Delete: through this function it is possible to delete an existing coupon campaign. Please note that after deleting a coupon campaign, all the details regarding coupons and their assignment to end-users will be deleted too.
  
  

Hiding coupons from competitors

By clicking the Options button (available only for the WiFi Area Owner), the WiFi Area Owner can set filters in order to hide coupons of specific categories and origin. In particular, the following options are available:

• Select to hide Merchandise Categories: this option allows to hide some categories of coupons between those shown in the page. Please note that only coupons created by the other WiFi Areas can be hidden. On the contrary, coupons created by the Tenant cannot be hidden in any case.
• If selected, hide from the following geographical area: this option allows to apply the selected restrictions through the previous option, according to the location of the single coupon. Please note that this option affects only coupons created by WiFi Area Owners and no restrictions are applied to coupons created by the Tenant. It is possible to choose between:
• Same city: the coupons belonging the previously selected categories and from the same city of the WiFi Area are not shown to end-users.
• All the network: the coupons belonging the previously selected categories are not shown to end-users, regardless of their localization data.

Validating coupons without accessing the Control Panel

As previously mentioned, it is possible to validate a coupon without accessing the Control Panel: in fact the application makes available a mini portal for this purpose.
In the list of available campaigns there is a column named External access. It is possible to assign a code called Token to each campaign.


The URL of the external dashboard is based on this token (for example, if the token is 3bcd7674, the URL will be: https://controlpanel.cloud4wi.com/fwebapps/geo_couponing/external/?token=3bcd7674. Each token identifies only one coupon campaign.
If you want someone to validate coupons without giving him/her access to the Control Panel, you have to provide him/her the URL of the external dashboard ("token" included). From there, it is possible to type and validate a coupon code.
If you want revoke to someone the possibility to access to this page, just refresh the token.

The external dashboard looks like the picture below:

Settings

This application does not require a particular configuration to run. The management of the workspace is always assigned to the WiFi Area Owner, and so it is not possible to set Management and Responsibility options.

End-user experience

By entering the application, through the App Bar, the end-user is able to see and possibly to get coupons that have been configured by end-users.