Subscription control
Overview
Konnect Soft’s subscription control system enables information providers to control
access to content delivered to the end user via the web.
Subscription management and control functionality allows the information
publishers to create subscriptions for users, whereby subscribers are able
to search and view the content of their subscription.
Content that end users can access can be designated as follows:
- Ability to classify content in the system as being available free of
access control on the web
- Ability to classify content as being available on the web to
subscribers only
- Ability to charge for access controlled content (content accessed by
end users) - e-commerce
functionality handles purchase, payment and billing
Subscriptions
A subscription designates access to full or partial content and includes:
- Price
- Specified
subscription start periods
- Expiry
date, or number of days valid from signup date
- Dates of
reminders to re-subscribe
- Product
details – definition of authorized data sets/product sets
- Etc.
Access to products or “sets” of content
Content can be divided into different products (i.e. one does not
necessarily need to offer access to all data – a publisher can designate
sub-sets of the data as different products).
Subscriptions to these products are then sold to the customer, who then
has the ability to search, view,
and print the relevant content.
Expiration and auto-reminders
When the subscription is about to expire the subscriber receives an e-mail
reminding them to re-subscribe. The publisher defines the date or
number of days before expiry, at which point the user is reminded by
e-mail to re-subscribe.
All user subscriptions are automatically checked by the system to
determine if they are about
to expire or have already expired. An e-mail is automatically sent to:
- Each user whose subscription is
about to expire (e.g. a defined number of days before expiration)
- Or whose subscription has already
expired (e.g. a defined number of 15 days after expiration)
The e-mail contains :
- Either a pre-expiration reminder, if sent before expiry
- Or a post expiration reminder, if sent after expiry
.... with a link taking the user to a subscription
renewal page, where they can renew their subscription.
Automatic renewal
Automatic renewal of subscriptions can be activated as required.
IP address access management
Validation of IP address allows organizations with static IP addresses or
ranges of IP addresses to be authorized to access content without supplying any login
details (where enabled).
The system can enable access by individual IP addresses or by ranges of
IP addresses. The administrativor backend allows:
- IP
addresses to be assigned to organizations and subscriptions
- IP
addresses can be blocked
Logging of IP addresses accessing the system
- The IP
addresses of users accessing the system are logged
- Reports can
be generated showing which IP addresses have accessed the system
Trial or demonstration subscriptions
Trial or demonstration subscriptions are essentially treated in the same way as
normal subscriptions but:
- Without
payment being required
- Providing
only partial access to content (the criteria for which are specified by the
client) i.e. the demonstration set of content
- Or providing full access to content, but on a time limited basis
Users accounts
A list of users who have subscribed to or otherwise purchased access to
the content is maintained.
An account is associated with each user containing relevant details with
administrator functionality allowing one to create, delete or modify user
accounts.
A user account typically includes:
- Login
details
- Contact
details
- Usage
details
Administrator backend
Easy-to-use, intuitive cloud based backend allows non-technical staff to administer
subscription control functionality.
Purchasing access to web based content
Overview
Payment functionality is supplied to support “charging for content”
giving
users the ability to automatically purchase access to online content.
A user registers by providing appropriate contact details and can then
order online, or alternatively purchase via an offline purchase method.
Access to content delivered over the web is normally controlled by these
login details to verify identification.
Purchases are selected from the product price list, which are then added
to the shopping cart for check out and purchase.
Once access for the applicant has been enabled (following
fulfilment of payment criteria), login details are then forwarded to the end
user.
Customer accounts database
Customer account records are created automatically when a customer makes
an order for the first time, and include order details and purchase history.
These accounts can also be created or edited by the site owner from the
administrator backend.
More details
For more details and a demonstration of the system,
contact us now.