Together with easycash Loyalty Solutions GmbH and Ingenico Hungary, Hungarian payment provider Metapay has made the idea of the new Hungarian Festival Card a reality: Thanks to the support of these two companies of the Ingenico Group (Euronext: FR0000125346 – ING) 100,000 cashless payments were made during the seven days of the Sziget Festival in August 2010. Ingenico Hungary provided the stand operators with Ingenico iCT220 card terminals and TeliumPASS contactless readers while easycash Loyalty Solutions processed the payments at its German data processing center. The innovative card solution was developed in collaboration with the Hungarian partner Metapay for its client, the festival organiser Sziget Management Ltd. Visitors to music festivals and other festivals can use this innovative card for quick and secure cashless payments.
The Cooperation of Specialists
For the cashless processing of payments at the annual Sziget Festival, one of the largest open-air events in Europe, and a smaller festival at the lake Balaton, a combination of flexibility, quick application and feasibility was required. This was achieved thanks to the cooperation of specialized partners. Ingenico configured the 300 units of iCT220 card terminals connected to TeliumPASS contactless readers in order to guarantee the acceptance of a prepaid contactless chip card at the festival site. Together with Metapay, these terminals were allocated to the retailers present at the festival. Metapay was responsible for managing the services on-site, the logistics of over 30,000 cards that were handed out, from the distribution and topping-up processes right through to the return of the cards.
The processing of payments was carried out using the easycash Loyalty Solutions systems. Alongside the processed transactions, reports of blocked cards recorded by the Metapay staff at the festival (lost/stolen cards) are gathered centrally in the back-end and then transmitted back to the terminals. The information gathered by all terminals over a certain period of time was regularly used to compile reports by Metapay, which also enabled the Metapay to ensure that merchants promptly receive their revenues. Ingenico Hungary was also responsible for the on-site installation and the maintenance of the POS system.
“With this cross-border solution, easycash Loyalty Solutions is demonstrating its ability to provide sustainable solutions,” states Jochen Freese, Managing Director of easycash Loyalty Solutions GmbH. “This cooperation represents globalization in the best sense of the word and opens up new opportunities, not only for festival organisers but also for visitors and retailers.”
Mr. Zsolt Nyitrai, State Secretary in Hungary in charge of info-communication in a interview reportedly evaluated the IT solutions of Sziget first class emphasizing the cashless payment system, as a convenient way of payment. “The government – working on the info-communication strategy of Hungary – is counting on the experiences of Sziget’s IT solutions, especially for the cashless payment as this was the largest and widest usage of such a system”.
“We used the synergies of the international Ingenico Group for the Balaton Sound and Sziget Festival Cards creating a unique payment solution,” adds István Berei-Nagy, the Country Manager of Ingenico Hungary.
“easycash Loyalty Solutions and Ingenico have proven themselves as the ideal strategic partners. The teams have made a huge development and a successful project in a very short timeframe,” explains György Páris, Managing Director of Metapay in Hungary. “This cooperation ran completely smoothly and looking back at two successful festivals with a fantastic response here in Hungary, we look forward seeing more developments of the Festival Card.”