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Incentive programs that motivate and reward employees are a significantpart of any human resources program and a key contributor to performance. Giftcards are fast becoming the solution of choice. However, it can bechallenging for employers like Sodexo and the clients they work with to createand manage incentive programs because of their large and geographicallydispersed workforce.
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"We wanted to create a program that would work well for all employees,regardless of location, but that would stand out in their minds and provide amemorable shopping experience. Too often, open loop gift cards are spent onnecessities like gas or groceries," stated Vincent Hillenmeyer, President,Sodexo Pass USA. "eCommLink's filtered merchant gift card program provided theperfect balance of freedom and control."
As a filtered merchant prepaid debit card, the Esteem Pass allows Sodexoto specify the exact merchants and even locations that can accept the EsteemPass. eCommLink's flexible platform enables Sodexo to select any number ofmerchants greater than one and less than ubiquitous. For Esteem Pass, Sodexopartners with 25 nationally recognized merchants, including Macy's, HomeDepot(R), Borders, Gap, Inc. and Marriott(R), representing more than 20,000locations. What separates a filtered merchant gift card program from a closedloop program is the fact that it is branded as a Discover(R) Network card. Aslong as the selected merchant accepts a Discover Network card, they can bepart of the Esteem Pass network -- no specific POS system or processorrequired.
"Filtered merchant gift cards are really a win-win-win situation.Employees have the freedom to redeem the card from the stores they love,employers provide a memorable incentive, and merchants enjoy a powerfulmarketing tool that pushes business to their store without requiring a changeto their payment infrastructure," stated T. Jack Williams, CEO, eCommLink.
Sodexo is selling reward and recognition solutions and products to theirexisting client base and to companies throughout the U.S., utilizing theEsteem Pass as an internal incentive program. After the first few months ofthe program, there are already over 20,000 Esteem Pass cards in circulation.
eCommLink is licensed by AEIS to offer these capabilities.
About eCommLink, Inc.
eCommLink, Inc. (http://www.ecommlink.com) creates value added prepaidsolutions that succeed in the marketplace for financial institutions andprogram managers. The Company built upon over 175 years of combined paymentcard experience to create a new payment processing platform fully dedicated toprepaid cards. The result is a solution as secure and reliable as any legacyprocessor, but with the ability to build customized programs to include thelatest prepaid innovations for the physical, virtual and mobile spaces.eCommLink supports the full array of prepaid debit programs from general spendcards for the world's underbanked to teen cards for the newly banked, as wellas unique gift, payroll, travel, government and loyalty cards.
About Sodexo
Sodexo, Inc. (http://www.sodexoUSA.com) is a leading integrated food andfacilities management services company in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, with$7.3 billion (USD) in annual revenue and 120,000 employees. Sodexo, Inc.serves more than ten million customers daily in corporations, health care,long term care and retirement centers, schools, college campuses, governmentand remote sites. Sodexo, Inc., headquartered in Gaithersburg,
