Road map

[BarkingDog]

Do you have a road map of features you plan to implement?  3-4 months ago, all my hotspots were happy with the pre-paid ticketing.  Now the feedback I am getting is that several user have asked for a post-paid system.  The system involves them providing their credit card details upfront and agree to the TOS and provided the cost per hour, on the captive portal page, and once they are directed onto the Internet the time starts ticking.  When they log off, or loose connection, their credit card is debited for the time used.

eg.  the rate is $10/hour and the customer uses it for 15 minutes, the the credit card is debited $2.50.

[WorldSpot]

It is funny, I thought about this feature some time ago, and planned it for later, because I thought using that using the actual pre paid system would be faster to do.
But I wonder if I won't make this first, as it is possible to do that quite easily with the paypal API authorization and capture.
The user has to give an authorization for a certain amount and a time after which he will be charged. Then if he uses less at that time, he wil be charged only the amount he used.

I would also add a degressive rate.

The (small) problem is that paypal guarantees the capture 3 days after the authorization, but makes it possible for 30 days after.

[BarkingDog]

Take your pick which one you want to do first.  I was only enquiring, because I'd been asked by several Hotspot hosts about this feature, as they are close to a "multi-national restaurant chain starting with "M" " who is offering a "pay as you go" service".  I don't plan to offer this type of service in the near future, but if I'm loosing customers, I may have to compete with them.

I do think a road-map of planned features might be handy for those (like myself) who are planning to pay for the service.  For me timeline is not important (at this stage), but priority is.  What features, do you believe, need to be implemented before it moves to a full production service? 

[WorldSpot]

I think worldspot is ready for production already. I still have to add reporting features.

I was planning to charge for the service in a few weeks.
I took lot of time trying to use the paypal API. Now it works fine.
I'm now thinking hard about how to implement the pricing structure.

I'm wondering if you need a solution for automatic renewal of the service, or if you have to always pre-pay for n months.

I also have some difficulties about the per ticket usage pricing. The problem I have is that some hotspots are using an established base of long term customers (in marinas for example). If there are only 5 customers, this would make only 5$ per month for a very active hotspot.
One solution I was thinking of was to count how many tickets are used per day. But now the problem is that if your user will use 10 minutes per day on its 1h ticket, it will cost you 6$...

If you have a solution for that problem, please give me some suggestion, otherwise I will have to replace that pricing with online billing with 70% revenue sharing (maybe post paid... ;-).

Once worldspot will become commercial and online billing is done, there will be some feature enhancements like the reporting.
I will then work on the worldspot customized firmware to simplify the setup and offer a better availability.

I also have plans for the more long term future:
- Revenue sharing (or not) ticket system with roaming equivalence between all worldspot hotspots.
- Roaming partnership with other hotspot operators or aggregators like trustive or boingo.

[BarkingDog]

For my current needs, there are two weak points:

Reporting - we have already discussed this
  and
Ticket Creation - If I need to have a separate access profile type, for each hotspot, I will 21 access profiles, which may look a little ugly when listed.  If I could select the Hotspot (similar to the session history page) and from that list only the access profiles that are applicable.  The other issue I have with the ticket creation is it not remembering my preferred configuration (8 characters, letters+digits, ticket prefix, etc).  It would also be nice if it would remember what ticket number I was upto.  I would like to get to a position where authorised people could go and generate new tickets, without having to "think" too much.

Having roaming tickets could possibly be a reporting nightmare for me.

First up, I give 10% of the sale to the hotspot, where the ticket is bought.
Then I must track where that ticket is used and allocate applicable funds to each hotspot.  I would need a report which showed

As for pricing, I'll leave that for another day.  I need to think about it first.

[WorldSpot]

For my current needs, there are two weak points:

Reporting - we have already discussed this
  and
Ticket Creation - If I need to have a separate access profile type, for each hotspot, I will 21 access profiles, which may look a little ugly when listed.  If I could select the Hotspot (similar to the session history page) and from that list only the access profiles that are applicable. 

I can add a hotspot validity field in the ticket display. Is that what you would like?

The other issue I have with the ticket creation is it not remembering my preferred configuration (8 characters, letters+digits, ticket prefix, etc).  It would also be nice if it would remember what ticket number I was upto.

What would you think about that solution:
In the mass creation form, you would enter the prefix, then click on a new 'getBundle' button, then it would reload all the previous settings from that bundle with the last number. Then you would just have to set the quantity.
But do you create tickets that often?

  I would like to get to a position where authorised people could go and generate new tickets, without having to "think" too much.

this is planned. You would 'attach' another existing account name to one of your hotspot, and this account would get full rights on this hotspot.
Question is:
I one additionnal account sufficient per hotspot?
Do you need to set specific permissions to these accounts for specific tasks...?

Having roaming tickets could possibly be a reporting nightmare for me.

First up, I give 10% of the sale to the hotspot, where the ticket is bought.
Then I must track where that ticket is used and allocate applicable funds to each hotspot.  I would need a report which showed

With the new ticket system I have in mind, the roaming won't be a problem anymore. I can't talk about that yet. If you are interrested to know please send me a PM.

As for pricing, I'll leave that for another day.  I need to think about it first.

That would be nice to know users opinions, this is important for me...

[BarkingDog]

I've been thinking of what sort of report would be nice:

A report for each Hotspot, which showing the total number of each access profile, started (sold) the previous day.  (So I can get up in the morning, see how things went yesterday.)

A running monthly report for each Hotspot, so that I can project monthly income, perhaps even showing previous months totals.


As for having other people login, it would be nice if:

The owner/manager, where the hotspot is installed, could log in and see a couple of reports, such as a simplified session history, for their hotspot only.  This would be used if a guest returns the ticket, complaining they couldn't get on and demanding a refund, the owner can log in and check the ticket hasn't been used.

The owner/manager, where the hotspot is installed, could login and create tickets for their hotspot.  I normally provide pre-printed tickets, but I would like a fail-safe procedure for the owner, in case they run out.

As for this devil of a subject:  PRICING.

I think you need to review competitor offerings, compare their features, and develop a pricing structure that you believe is fair for both yourself and your customers.  See my PM (arriving shortly)