A powerful back-office system plays a major role in lottery operations. It helps you control lottery operations and take critical decisions even while on the move with the help of real-time analytics.
Let’s divulge into some of the critical factors you should look for in a lottery back-office system:
Location Tracking: The latest trend of selling lottery tickets is for the agents to roam streets rather than having a fixed lottery booth. The lottery management would like to track these agents to achieve better efficiency. The best way you can monitor these agents is through a location-tracking feature in your back-office system. You cannot only track them but also check their route as well apply geo-fencing so that they remain within their assigned area and sell.
Credit Limit: Lotteries in emerging markets depend heavily on commission-based agents to sell tickets. Majority of these are cash transactions. Lotteries need a system to apply a certain limit to each agent depending upon their credibility and past performance. As soon as the agent is approaching the credit limit for sales the management is alerted by the system. The money collector goes and collects the money from the agent to restore their credit limit in order they can continue selling tickets. This is one of the most efficient ways to control the cash flow as well minimize the risk of losing the money from absconding agents.
Security: In an ever-changing risk environment, security is the main concern for lottery management. It is vital, therefore, that a lottery management develops and maintains a clear and documented security environment in order to achieve and continue public confidence in its operations. As a result, a single, suitably designed back-office system should have encryption for all its financial transactions, securing customer sensitive personal information and defending fraud for operators. Also, e-ticket and receipt systems should be tamper-proof, which means nobody can alter results of their lottery tickets, which reduces the possibility of fraudulent activities. The lottery software defines the required practices for an effective security management structure by which a lottery may maintain the integrity, availability, and confidentiality of information crucial to its secure operation.
Pre-paid Agents: Usually, lottery agents sell the tickets to players by accepting cash. Such cash accumulated is being collected by the lottery at the end of each day. However, the trend is changing where to minimize the initial risk and spread the agent network, lotteries look for a pre-paid wallet system for the agents. Agents deposit the money upfront in their digital wallet and in turn, are allowed to sell the tickets till there is sufficient balance in their wallet. This way lottery does not need to worry about collecting the day’s accrual and bear the risk of absconding agents.