Overview
 Building a web portal to sell discount student, youth and teacher cards.

The Client
 STA Travel, the world's largest student and youth travel company is the sole distributor for ISIC (International Student Identity Card), IYTC (International Youth Travel Card) and ITIC (International Teacher Identity Card) in North America. The ISIC Card is the only internationally accepted student ID card. These discount cards provide access to a global network of affordable and specialized student services.

Challenges and Requirements
Build a web portal for student, youth and teacher discount card holders
Enable consumers to purchase discount cards over the web

Build a business-to-business interface for card issuing offices to securely order supplies and marketing toolkits from STA Travel.

Provide an avenue for Discount Partners to automatically update their discount offerings.

The Solution
 XYKA had discussions with the stakeholders on the requirements and inter-relationships. After thorough analysis and design, XYKA offered an integrated solution that met the requirements of all stakeholders, improved internal processes and greatly increased online discount card sales.

The web services implementation of the discounts module helped customers view discounts offered worldwide.

Multiple Card Purchase options greatly enhanced the card buying experience.

Although the site serviced three distinct types of customers (card buying customers, issuing office personnel, discount providers), the consistent user-interface and page designs provided a seamless flow.

The wealth of information and the user-friendliness have endeared the website to the student community.

A transparent interface was built with the backend order fulfillment and accounting system.

An online user account management system was created to approve and manage card holders, issuing offices and discount providers. The system also provided automatic email updates to the customers.

A comprehensive Content Management System was created to manage the web site content efficiently and without any expert intervention.

A role-based security module allowed secure access to different pages in the web site.

Technology
 .NET Framework, .NET Web Services,
Visual Studio .NET, C#, XML,
SQL Server 2000