ACS – Focus on CYCLOS – Online and Mobile Banking Software

More research this morning has led to Cyclos – Online and Mobile Banking Software.  This is much infomation here and many hours will be needed testing and evaluating.  This seems to be a fairly popular and used software product for:

• Banking
• LETSystems
• Clearing Systems
• Time Banks
• E-Commerce
• Finance
• Barter
• Local Currency

Do the research for your self and if you’d like to get involved in the International One People Eternal Essence Network (I-OPEEN) then send me an email (angel_lucci@ymail.com).

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Posted from:

The Cyclos project

http://www.cyclos.org/

Cyclos is a project of STRO, a leading organisation on monetary innovations. Cyclos offers a complete on-line payment system with additional modules such as e-commerce and communication tools. The Cyclos platform permits institutions such as local banks and MFI`s to offer banking services that can stimulate local trade and development. Cyclos is also used by many organizations and communities to provide community currency services.

STRO’s objective is to provide payment software that is easy to use and maintain, flexible, secure, and highly customizable. The Cyclos structure is entirely dynamic. It is possible to ‘build’ a monetary system from scratch or to extend existing software providing addtional features. Organizations that want a standard system can use the default database that comes with basic configurations and can be easily enhanced. Cyclos contains many features that are useful to stimulate economic development and job creation.

With the latest version it is possible to roll out mobile banking services such as SMS banking and apps for smartphones. Cyclos is published under the GPL (open source) license meaning that it can be downloaded for free and used at no cost. Cyclos is currently available in ten languages and new languages are added with each release.

Features overview

Cyclos can be accessed via different channels (e.g Web and Mobile). The features depend largely on the type of access channel. For example, the SMS channel has a more limited set of features than the on-line (web) access channel. A complete list with all the features can be found at this page.

On-line banking

• Register on-line (optional registration agreement)
• Home (dashboard) page with status overview, quick access icons, message board
• On-line client profile (client information, images)
• Payments (normal, installments, scheduled, authorization levels)
• Payment request to mobile user (requires confirmation by SMS)
• Invoices
• Loans (view open closed loans, repay loan)
• Loan groups (micro finance)
• Account summary / history, print & export payments lists
• Personal alerts & notifications
• On-line request forms (e.g. loan request)
• Personal documents, group documents (managed by administrators or agents)
• Manage account operators (a user can create operators and give them permissions to do specific tasks)

Mobile Banking

• Sign-up via mobile
• Payment to other users or administration
• Payment request (two-way payment)
• Retrieve account information / browse through transaction history)
• Info texts (texts managed in Cyclos can be retrieved by mobile)
• Notifications & alerts (personal alerts and general alerts & notifications)
• Mailings (from administration and agents)
• Bank and Telecom provider independent
• Optional OTP (One Time Password) for all commands
• Custom operations (programming interface that allows adding new operations)

Supported mobile channels

• SMS banking Banking operations via SMS messaging
• Smart phone app For Android, Iphone, Windows and Blackberry phones
• IVR (Interactive Voice Response) Operations for mobile phones and landlines
• USSD module Menu based operations supported by high and low end mobile phones

Cards / POS (Point Of Sale)

• Debit / credit card support
• Different security options PIN, security card code
• On-line card management (activate/cancel/block card, reset/block PIN)
• POS (Point Of Sale) cash-in cash-out payments
• Daily transaction overview & print on POS
• Receipt printer support for WebPOS
• Print transaction reports for specific POS operators
• Manage POS devices on-line (activate, deactivate, block)

E-commerce

• Market place (offers & wants)
• On-line (rich text) editor
• Advertisement matching alerts
• Member directory
• Contact list
• Messaging module
• Brokering / agents module
• Business referrals and transaction qualifications

System administration & configuration

• Dynamic system configuration (support for various economic models)
• Define custom fields for users, advertisements, loans, payments, member records
• Account & user management
• Import tools (users, advertisements)
• Content management (translations, pages, images, styles)
• System alerts & logging
• Reports & Statistics
• System tasks (e.g. set system offline, indexing)
• Easy maintenance (all data stored in database)
• Automatic upgrades (version check on initialization process)
• Strong security (bank level security implementation)
• API (application programming interface) for communication with third party software.
• Plugins available for integration with the Joomla CMS

Complementary Currency Systems

This is a list with some of the organisations that use Cyclos for complementary currency systems.
(If you are using Cyclos and are not mentioned in the list please let us know. It is important for the institutions who finance the Cyclos project to have an idea of the number and the type of communities / organisations that use Cyclos).  I’ve listed the Corporate USA butmany other countries are represented and listed at the link:

Cyclos Users:  http://www.cyclos.org/cyclos-users

USA

CFS Clearing House Nevada	www.cfsnv.com	Complementary currency
Global Community Initiatives	www.global-community.org	Time bank
Lovebank	www.carewheels.org	Time bank
Merrymeetingshares	www.merrymeetingshares.com	Time bank

Mobile banking with Cyclos

Cyclos is the only professional open source online banking software that offers a complete mobile banking platform. Cyclos has a rich set of home banking functionalities, business banking features and additional communication and e-commerce tools. For a complete overview of all the functionalities, please see our feature list. Cyclos is published under the GPL (open source) license, which means that it can be downloaded for free and used at no cost.

The Cyclos mobile banking services are build for (regional) banks, microfinance institutions, remittances, barter systems and complementary currency systems to stimulate local trade and development.

Mobile banking features

• Sign-up via Mobile
• Payment to other users or administration
• Payment request (two-way payment)
• Retrieve account information (optional browse through pages)
• Info texts (texts managed in Cyclos can be retrieved by sending an SMS with a specific words/alias)
• Notifications & alerts (personal alerts and general alerts & notifications)
• Mailings (from administration and agents)
• Bank and Telecom provider independent
• Custom operations (programming interface that allows adding new operations)

The following mobile banking channels are supported, or being worked on:

• SMS banking  Banking operations via SMS messaging
• Smart phone app  For Android, Iphone, Windows and Blackberry phones
• IVR (Interactive Voice Response)  Operations for mobile phones and landlines
• USSD module  Menu based operations supported by high and low end mobile phones

FAQs

• http://www.cyclos.org/faq

DOCUMENTATION

• http://www.cyclos.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

DOWNLOADS

• https://www.cyclos.org/download
• http://www.cyclos.org/Smartphone-app

Smart phone application

The mobile phone app does allow basic operations such as payments, retrieving account and transaction information, searching for users, viewing user profiles and adding users to (Cyclos) contact list. Later advertisements and messaging functions will be added.

An on-line demo of the mobile app can be seen at this page.

http://www.cyclos.org/mobile_app/simulator.htm

You can enter with the demo user and password or with your own demo account.

The mobile app is compatible with Cyclos version 3.7_RC1 and higher. It is currently available for the following platforms:

• Android: Download here at the Google Play app store.
• Iphone: Download here trough itunes.
• Blackberry: Download here trough BlackBerry app world.

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