Frost & Sullivan Applauds CARDFREE for its Solution that Empowers an Intelligent Product Platform for Mobile Merchant Commerce

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., March 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on its recent analysis of the mobile merchant platform market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes CARDFREE with the 2013 North America Frost & Sullivan Award for New Product Innovation. CARDFREE leveraged advanced computing capabilities to design a superior, integrated system where merchants can access functions that are otherwise difficult to host on a common platform. CARDFREE's solution allows merchants to create digital payment cards (prepaid) that are compatible with the majority of point-of-sale (POS) systems in the market and ensures higher return on investment.

"Unlike competing solutions that are limited by integration challenges, CARDFREE serves as a "one-stop" technology platform for capabilities such as mobile payment system, loyalty system, channel partnering systems and analytical systems," said Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Sathya.

Significantly, CARDFREE has a unique Geo-Location feature, which helps identify the customer's proximity to the merchant. The technical capability of the Geo-Location option allows implementation of advanced applications, such as user tracking and user-need analysis.

CARDFREE incorporates cloud and virtualization capabilities in the card payment system through vSphere Operating system for flexible platform integration. The use of advanced web technologies ensures ease of navigation and integration with supporting systems.

The data analytics platform of the CARDFREE technology offers merchants easy access to customer data, helps in deriving a competitive intelligence and trending information, and aids with instant analysis and strategic decision-making. CARDFREE uses highly secure one-time authentication systems for protecting user transactions and customer data so that the user does not have to deal with multiple authentication systems.

As CARDFREE is easily integrated with social media platforms, it assists with the analysis of customer requirements and, consequently, product improvements. CARDFREE has also implemented an order-ahead system for quicker delivery of orders and pattern analysis, which enhances the system's ability to interface with the majority of the existing POS systems.

"In addition to the unparalleled visibility for the user, the CARDFREE solution also delivers significant cost benefits to merchants," noted Swapnadeep, Research Analyst with Frost. "Another noteworthy aspect of the CARDFREE system is its ability to innovate functionality for merchant-specific business needs."

As a white label technology partner, CARDFREE allows its clients to use their own brand name, while simultaneously enhancing their feature sets. This step-by-step enhancement of the feature sets helps clients avoid a one-time bulk payment for the solution. While the cost benefit appeals to small and medium enterprises, large merchants, focused on speed to market and definable ROI, acknowledge the system's ability to iterate and gain immediate insights into customer behavior in the mobile medium.

"CARDFREE's Omni-channel platform can seamlessly integrate with any payment system—mobile, online or commonly used POS," remarked Swapnadeep, "This unique functionality will attract an even larger customer base in the coming years."

Recognizing the large, untapped potential of the food industry, CARDREE is fostering close customer relations with participants in the fast food/casual restaurants sector. As the majority of pre-paid gift cards are utilized at fast food centers around the world, CARDFREE recently added restaurant science into its portfolio through a partnership program that provides detailed business intelligence reports on food and beverage consumption.

CARDFREE is also focusing its efforts on the retail sector. The unique data analytics aspect, which enables incremental visits of the customer and a more meaningful engagement with clients, will encourage several merchants across industries to integrate the CARDFREE solution with their payment system.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has developed an innovative element in a product by leveraging leading-edge technologies. The award recognizes the value-added features/benefits of the product and the increased ROI it offers customers, which, in turn, increases customer acquisition and overall market penetration potential.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.

About CARDFREE

From the team that deployed the two largest mobile commerce initiatives in the U.S., CARDFREE offers merchants a one-stop solution to mobilize and enhance the customer experience for maximum ROI. Sharing a track record of bringing innovative solutions to market, our team has a unique 360-degree perspective coming from large merchants, mobile, financial services and payments.

CARDFREE offers complete, integrated solutions for merchants from mobile and online through POS. Our award-winning platform provides end-to end capabilities to engage customers via merchant-branded interfaces such as mGifts, messaging, offers, loyalty, payments, order ahead and social media integration. 

CARDFREE is headquartered in San Francisco, with portfolio companies in Boston, Denver and Atlanta.

About Frost & Sullivan

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SOURCE Frost & Sullivan