Optimize Your Cyber Cafe

Smartlaunch 4.0 is a professional software package designed to deliver a complete management solution for gaming centers and internet cafés. Smartlaunch® 4.1 introduces a wide range of features including computer booking, license management, financial and statistical reports, integrated POS system and advanced security. All together Smartlaunch 4.0 reduces the costs of technicians and software licenses, enhances your customer handling and provide you with essential information on how to optimize your business.

In addition to the managerial benefits, Smartlaunch 4.0 maintains an intensified focus on the customer experience. Gaming from home has through the past couple of years experienced a massive increase, which has made it a necessity for gaming centers to deliver a high quality of customer service. Customer related features such as personal user accounts, Client-to-Administrator product ordering and an interactive user interface bring the customer experience and service to a higher level.

Features

Games and Applications

Application Wizard
This guide will help you through the process of setting up all your games and applications with all directories, paths and executable programs.

300+ Game Presets
Smartlaunch includes more than 300 game presets. This means that only a minimum amount of information is required before Smartlaunch can handle the set-up process automatically.

License Management
The built-in license management system distributes available license key when requested. This feature will greatly reduce your software expenses as you only need to buy the number of licenses equal to the estimated maximum of concurrent users.

Application Utilities
Determine whether your computers have all applications installed or launch programs directly from the Smartlaunch Administrator.

Games Images
Images of games and programs are updated periodically to support new software titles.

Age Rating Support
Prevent under-age customers from playing age-inappropriate games. Support for both the ESRB (USA) and ESPA (Europe) rating standards.

Point of Sale

Product Sales
Sell all types of products including time, products and offers directly from Smartlaunch. The POS system offers an unlimited number of product slots and support of standard POS equipment such as barcode scanner, cash drawer and receipt printer.

Computer Layout Groups
Sort your computers into layout groups, which for instance could be a group called “1st Floor” or “Basement”.

Fingerprint Support
Assign fingerprints to user accounts. By assigning a fingerprint to a user account a customer can log in using a finger instead of a username and password. If you don’t have a fingerprint on all computers you can have a single scanner on the Administrator computer used to lock/unlock user accounts.

Multiple Administrators
Reduce waiting time by using more than one Administrator at the front desk – or use an Administrator to view the status of your café or view financial reports from home.

Waiting Line
Smartlaunch has an integrated waiting line that allows you to add people to a queue. No more confusing “manual” waiting lines. If you have a waiting line, free computers will be limited to customers in the waiting line.

Stock Control
Prevent empty supplies of candy or other products under stock control. Receive a warning email when a product stock gets below a level of your choice.

Print Monitoring
Monitor print jobs automatically and charge them directly to a customer’s account. You can specify individual prices for black & white and colour prints.

Offers
Create all kinds of offers. For instance, you can create an offer which includes 3 hours and a soft drink for a fixed price. You can also create offers only available in a fixed period of time – which for instance could be a “night gib” event.

Manual Timers
Use manual timers to track usage of external equipment such as laptops, consoles or other computers not connected directly to Smartlaunch.

Receipts
Design your own receipts to contain detailed information about the sale. You can print receipts regardless of the printer type just as long it is supported by your Windows operating system.

Cash Drawer Support
Smartlaunch supports standard cash drawers to open every time you receive cash or other payment types.

Barcode Scanner Support
Use a barcode scanner to sell products in a quick and easy way.

Sales Tax
Specify up to three different taxes, which can be set individually on products or product groups.

Product Order System
Your customers can order all products such as soft drinks, chips and candy directly from the comfort of their own chair. Ordered products will automatically get charged to the customer’s account. The employee must accept the order before it is charged to the account.

Booking System
One of the latest additions in Smartlaunch is a built-in booking system, which keeps a list of reservations of people coming to your gaming centre.

Employee Management

Shift Manager
Make a complete employee shift with cash register reports and product reports in just a few minutes. Check-in and check-out time is also registered and included in the shift report.

Employee Logins
Issue a personal username and password for each of your employees. This will allow Smartlaunch to track transactions made by each employee.

Security & Restrictions
Define what areas of the entire Smartlaunch System that your employees should have access to. Predefined access levels can help you decide the areas your employees should have access to.

Employee Reports
Generate reports showing all sales your employees have made during a period of your choice.

Smartlaunch Client – Features & Security

Personal User Files
Customers equipped with a personal user account can save their own game configurations, save games or documents and have them transferred automatically between computers in the cyber café.

Taskbar
Running Smartlaunch on your client computers won’t remove the Windows® taskbar functionality from the interface. Besides the standard taskbar features and functionality, the Smartlaunch taskbar has a box showing the account balance and a button used to order products.

Customisable Client Categories
Define your own game and application categories in the client interface. You can create as many categories as you like.

Disconnection Protection
Your customers’ activities will not be affected if a client somehow becomes disconnected from the server.

Block Drive Access
Prevent your customers from accessing the drives you specify ranging from A: to Z:.

Disable Internet Explorer Functionality
Control actions allowed in Internet Explorer such as View Source or Save As.

Block File Downloading
Prevent your customers from downloading malicious software and files to your hard drive.

Programs Blocker
Close all unwanted programs or windows by specifying a window title or just a part of the title. The feature can for instance be used to block access to the command prompt or notepad text editor.

Messenger Security
Disable file transfer and auto-update.

Disable Hotkeys
Prevent user from using hotkeys to access information on your computers.

Windows® Functionality
Prevent access to vital windows functionality such as the Control Panel, Explorer or Task Manager.

Security Changer
You can easily disable security from the Administrator if you have a customer with special tasks or needs.

Product Order System
Your customers can order all products such as soft drinks, chips and candy directly from the comfort of their own chair. Ordered products will automatically get charged to the customer’s account. The employee must accept the order before it is charged to the account.

Customise the Skin on the Client Computers
Create your own skin, or use one of the existing skins that match your corporate identity.

Reports & Logs

Financial Reports
Generate financial reports showing all sales per product and total taxes in a user specified time span.

Cash Register Reports
Cash register reports are generated at every shift. You can always go back and view or print old reports.

Advanced Statistical Reports
View all kinds of different statistical reports such as occupancy ratio, customer usage and game and application usage. Every report is customisable in period and scale, such as year, month, week, day or hour.

Employee Sales Reports
Generate reports showing all sales your employees have made during a period of your choice.

Complete Log Report
Extract all actions and transactions made with information such as time of day, amount, employee etc.

Error Reports
Export a list of all active error reports in your cyber café.

Stock Reports
Make a report of the current stock level.

Receive Reports Directly to Your Inbox
Receive an email every time a new error report is made or when a product has reached the stock warning level.

Management & Utilities

Error Reporting Centre
Make an error report when you discover a defect on a computer. This will make it much easier for your technician or system responsible to locate and trouble-shoot any defects in your cyber café.

News and Event Centre
The News and Event Centre is used to add and edit news and events which are displayed on the welcome screens of the client computers.

Screenshot Viewer
Monitor your client computers directly from the Administrator. Grab screenshots from one or more computer in just a few clicks.

Computer Control
All computers in your cyber café are controllable from the Smartlaunch Administrator. You can boot/re-boot/shut down all computers at one time or select computers individually.

Website Status
Display the current status in your cyber café directly on your website. Compatible with both Windows® and Linux web servers.

Wake-On-LAN
Wake your computers in a single click. Please note, that this feature requires a Wake-On-LAN supported network card.

Language Editor
If your language is not included by default, you can make your own language file using the language editor.

Prepaid Time Functionality

User Accounts
Create a user account for your customers and load it with prepaid time. It is possible to have different prices depending on membership etc.

Prepaid Tickets
Generate a prepaid ticket to contain either time or an offer. Each prepaid ticket has a username and a password to be entered at the Smartlaunch Client.

Generate Multiple Tickets
Create an unlimited number of tickets in advance for sale at any time. Each ticket is equipped with a barcode used to scan the ticket when you sell it to a customer.

User Account Management
View all information about your customers having a user account. View previous sessions, personal log, change the user group etc.

Pricing
Create any type of pricing structure suited to your cyber café. Differentiate prices between peak and off-peak or give customers with a membership a reduced price compared to walk-in customers.

End Session Options
When a customer is finished you can choose individually what should be done with any remaining balance. For instance, you can choose to save the money for the next session.

Play & Pay Pricing

User Accounts
As described a user account can have prepaid time, but you can also choose to use it as a Play & Pay account. Charge time and products as you play and pay when you leave the cyber café.

Credit Limit
When customers have an account used for Play & Pay you can set an individual or group based credit limit. If a customer reaches the credit limit he/she will not be able to use the account until the bill is paid.

Basic Pricing Structures
Use a simple pricing structure as an hourly rate and a start-up charge to the account. You can also set a minimum charge limit.

Advanced Pricing
The possibilities with the advanced pricing are almost limitless. You can for instance reduce the price when you have reached 300 minutes or grant the customer the fourth hour for free. These price possibilities are also available in prepaid time mode.

Time of Day Pricing
A lot of cyber cafés have different prices depending on the time of day. For instance, with Smartlaunch you can reduce the price with 20% between 10 AM and 2 PM and raise the price Friday and Saturday evening. These price possibilities are also available in prepaid time mode.

End Session
When a customer is finished you can choose individually what should be done with any remaining balance. For instance, you can choose to save the money for the next session or withdraw the remaining amount.

SmartLaunch 4.0 server + client + .Net framework + skin source

Read the rest of this entry »