SAM^FP

Self-service Advertising Module

For the on-line, self-service of a customer’s account and booking of their classified and display advertising. SAM provides a complete, yet simple environment for your customers at home or work to view and pay outstanding invoices and place their own advertisements into your newspapers, magazines and web sites. Integration with the main FutureProof and CMS3000 business system databases ensures on-line access to booking, styling, rating, payment and invoicing information and thus no need to replicate this data on your web sites.

The Databases

The authentication database (used to store users and passwords) is a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 database. The FutureProof and CMS3000 databases are Microsoft SQL Server 2000 or 2005 databases.

Software Features

The System

A hosting method or service provider needs to be selected for the SAM product. The SAM module user and password data is stored in a SQL database at the hosting facility. Credit card payment services must be supported by the hosting provider. The SAM interface uses a “callback” method for credit card processing. The “Callback” method is used to provide a secure website to carry out all your credit card transactions.

Adverts are passed via the Miles 33 Business Logic Server directly into the Miles 33 FutureProof Booking database, where they are automatically put into a scrutiny queue to await approval for publication.

The standard FutureProof Advertising System Managers module is used to expose your titles, packages, classifications and styles on the web site. The styles and pricing setup in your FutureProof Advertising database are automatically available on the web and can be further customised using the usual Booking Restriction facilities available in the System Manager module. It is possible to, for example, change pricing for the web, offer different packages on the web and invoke different deadlines on the web.

Recent enhancements to the System Manager module enable the System Manager to change package names, page group, classification and style prompts.

Adverts placed on the web are directed to the scrutiny queue where they are checked before being released into the main advertising database. The adverts come into FutureProof as prepaid or “to invoice” adverts. A SAM specific payment type may be defined to identify the prepaid adverts within FutureProof. This can then be fed to our CMS3000 system for reconciliation purposes.

Invoicing, statement and credit (status, balance and limit) information is fed back to the on-line user (they must be an account holding customer), in real time, from the CMS3000 database. The web site then enables the user to pay outstanding invoices using the on-line credit card functionality. With information being processed in real-time the account customer can have their account put on hold or even stopped as their credit status is changed in the CMS3000 system.

The User Interface

The user interface is customised by your own web developers, branding the look and feel, ordering of the pages and the user experience. A series of API calls enable the web pages to interact with the FutureProof and CMS3000 databases via the Miles 33 Business Logic Servers (using web services). All publication and pricing setup is configured through the standard FutureProof System Manager module. All invoicing and credit path setup is carried out in the standard CMS3000 administration module. The interface is split into two parts, one for Private advertisers and one for Trade advertisers. The Private advertisers interface contains a sub-set of the features available for Trade advertisers.

Private Advertisers

When placing an advertisement the user first selects the type of advert they wish to place; such as recruitment, property or cars. Following selection the user is presented with a simple interface which makes it easy for the customer at home to construct their own advert.

To aid the customer in their choice of style, the built-in style gallery gives them the option of seeing a selection of different styles before making their final selection. If the style of advert chosen by the customer allows for a picture, it can be uploaded and basic manipulation such as cropping can be done, prior to the image being added to the advert.

This is followed by an insert screen giving the customer the chance to change the number of inserts and confirm their selection of titles. Prior to paying for the advert by credit or debit card the customer is presented with a summary of their order details, where they are required to fill in contact information.

Previous adverts booked either via the web site or through traditional telesales channels are visible on the web site. The adverts can be viewed, stopped or re-run, as required.

Trade Advertisers

In addition to the features available to the Private advertisers, Trade customers have access to the following:

Trade customers also have access to their account information and can view statements and invoices on-line. They can also make credit card payments against outstanding invoices.

On-line Advert Make-up

Miles 33 have integrated SAM to the Wave2 Apollo on-line advert make-up system. This allows trade users to make-up a complete “Production” advert on-line and submit the resulting PDF output direct as complete artwork.

Software Hardware Requirements

SAM is a fully functional secure Internet solution. The system, hosted from your web site (and service provider, if applicable), requires access to a Windows 2003 .NET2 server, hosting an authentication database. The web site and Authentication database server access your Windows 2003 .NET2 Miles 33 Business Logic server and your FutureProof advertising and CMS3000 database servers through secure firewalls. An on-line Credit Card Payment Service (e.g. WorldPay, SecPay, Verisign) is also required.

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