API Integrations within Volare

Before discussing which modules we commonly use for integration lets first look at why we decided to use the api to integrate some features of Volare

We have seen first hand how unhappy customers can get when a certain feature does not suit their needs.

If the feature is not altered, then this can look to them changing their entire software system for one that seems to have the feature they wanted. Quite often this can then lead to them being unhappy as they have gained one feature on a module but maybe lost a few different features they used to use.

Add to that to the time and expense of changing your entire software suite and it is not a pleasant scenario.

That is one of the reasons during our initial planning that we decided we would offer a complete working trial that is available to download so that you can try every feature and integration we offer for a time limited period.

By using the API we are able to use other companies software which can talk in both directions and update each other to keep all the data synced.

This means that if you have a preferred piece of software that you use for a certain task there is a chance that you would be able to continue using that and also benefit from the timing features of Volare.

There is software that does not use an API though so not all packages are compatible but the use has become more frequent by software developers.

The easiest way to find out is speak with us or your supplier and we will do some initial checks for compatibility.

A question you may be considering is “Why don’t you write your own modules ?”

Simply put we are very capable of hard coding our own modules into the Volare suite but skipping back just a little it would mean you would be limited to the features we develop as and when we develop them.

There are companies who dedicate their time and resources into developing a specific type of software. We fall into that category for Timing Software. If we all develop our own part at the same time, then the benefits go to the end user. That is you.

So I will break the API use down into 2 sections , Software and Hardware

Software

Here are the most common used features that we have already seen in use with Volare

• Online Booking
• Marketing
• Point Of Sale
• Online Leaderboards
• Online Registration

Online Booking

We currently have 2 active integrations within Volare and will be adding more in the future. If you currently use a booking service we may be able to add it into the integration.

Each supplier has their unique benefits and pricing structure. You can contact the compaines directly or feel free to contact us to ask our opinion for your uses.

The workflow for Online bookings is as follows.

• A customer will browse your site to place on online booking and pay for the sessions as per setup. Each supplier has their own supported gateways for payments.
• They will recieve order confirmations via email for thier bookings.
• The API will instantly fetch the data from the booking site and add it into the schedule within Volare. This gives you a display of what bookings have been made.
• A placeholder is used for the amount of bookings made for each race so you can see how many places are used and available.
• When the customers arrive you simply select the placeholders and update them with a click for the people in the registartion queue.
• We also mark the people Paid if the booking has been paid in full.
• The booking software provides a portal for manually adding or editing bookings. If any changes are made the API will pick up the changes and alter the schedule.

Marketing

There are  different integrations for email marketing and again each of the companies have their own features and pricing.

The latest, Mailjet, has been added recently to offer an alternative pricing structure.

Where the majority of suppliers now charge for the amount of contacts you have stored with them, Mailjet charges per amount of emails sent per month.

In order to save costs we also recently added a feature where you can choose to only update the contact lists with customers who have chosen that option during registration. This prevents adding a customer to a list that you would not be able to use for marketing purposes. If you were generating a CRM listing then it would be better to disable this and add all of your customers.

I have linked each site and you can vist them by clicking the company below.

The wokflow.

Each provider has different data sets to upload so I will use Mailjet as a workflow and example but each provider will differ.

• Customer registers on the Volare registration page and we store the customers data in the Volare database.
• As a customer is added into the database we check the options they have selected. We store their consent to recieve marketing emails and transactional emails seperatley as per GDPR regulations.
• For customers who want marketing we will create them and add them to your contact list using the API .
• On each customers visit we will also update their last visited date and number of races along with any other changes to the contact list automatically.
• To send an email campaign you will use the editor in the marketing software and select what criteria to use from the data
• Delivery and status reports are available from within the marketing software portal.

Using the criteria from the uploaded data it is possible to create automated emails for

• Initial registration
• Pre Birthday
• Post Visit
• Race number Milestone

Point of Sale

Point of Sale or EPOS is simply an electronic register of transactions that you have made. These could be cash or card transactions for sales of Karting, Food or goods you sell.

One of the reasons we did not include our own in the suite is that a large amount of customers still prefer to use a manual till for registering all of their transactions.

Epos can have benefits such as membership management or loyalty programs and as will all out integrated software they each differ in features and costs.

There are 2 packages currently integrated but with the rise in cloud and tablet based epos systems we will see this grow. We currently have a stand alone software which is a buy once and a cloud based software which is a monthly fee to cover each need. 

Each software package can work independantly as just a stand alone point of sale program or the integration will allow you to send cusomers that are in the schedule across to the point of sale program for payment. Once paid they will be marked as paid in the schedule.

Online Leaderboards and Registration

We even use our own API. For these modules it is used as a method of security.

Instead of having your main computer open to the internet we relay the information securley through our hosted servers.

This means that there is no direct access making the system very secure and prevents security issues that could otherwsise come from malicious activity from the internet.

This means that you can have a portal on your own website that will show up to date leaderboard information or have customers sign up to your registration without ever having direct access. 

Hardware

Another use of the API is to talk to hardware that is installed at your venue. The API enables us to trigger certain things based on events that have happened.

This includes items such as

• Timing Decoders
• Safety Lights
• LED Scoreboards
• Race Start Sirens and Lights
• Shutdown Transponders
• Kart Tracking

We are continually looking for new innovations to include as an addon to the Volare suite. 

I hope from reading this blog you can start to see the advantages of allowing external programs to interface to Volare.

The idea from our side has always been to provide end users with choices that make it easier for them to manage their business.

If you are new to timing software it will allow you to choose more effectivley which software suits your needs but at the same time existing users can choose to keep the software they have been using and possibly the loss of was preventing them from changing to a timing software with better features than their current one.