Mobile Sales Stations Recommendations

Patty Paterek
Patty Paterek
Fifth Anniversary Name Dropper Facilitator 1 December 2023 Challenge: Season of Giving
in Blackbaud Altru® General Discussions

We had a great year with our iPad mobile stations, except that not all Altru functionality is available on our iPads. Are you using mobile sales stations? Can you tell me about the hardware you are using and if you have implemented the EMV chip readers for credit card processing? Do you use a hotspot to ensure network access? Our WIFI on our 13 acre outdoor site is spotty.

I would appreciate any information and recommendations you can share.

Thanks.

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Comments

  • Olivia Pekkala
    Olivia Pekkala
    Fourth Anniversary Name Dropper Facilitator 1 December 2023 Challenge: Season of Giving

    @Patty Paterek any more luck? Do you scan tickets with the camera in the iPad or how?

  • Patty Paterek
    Patty Paterek
    Fifth Anniversary Name Dropper Facilitator 1 December 2023 Challenge: Season of Giving

    @Olivia Pekkala we have not found another option. In fact, we had to switch off making any remote sales through our iPads due to PCI compliance. We had to move all sales back to computer stations with network connections to use P2PE devices for credit card account number encryption.

    We switched to only using our iPads for remote ticket scanning. We have Bluetooth hand scanners connected to our iPads. We have not tried using the iPad camera for scanning, but will be looking into it shortly. We find that scanning is troublesome when using 5G when we have larger crowds for events. When everyone is trying to use 5G to access their tickets, etc., the response time for scanning is slowed dramatically. We do not think this is a factor of Altru performance, but rather the bandwidth of the mobile service usage in a small space. We are still asking customers to print tickets so that if the entry lines are too long, we can take the hard copy and scan at later, slower time. I wish there was clear cut suggested hardware for remote sales and scanning that would address the PCI compliance matters and mobile connectivity. We purchased Altru because it was stated that our operations with on-grounds and remote sales would be fully and easily supported.

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