Bracknell BID I WORK Loyalty Card: digital transformation from a physical card to a measurable platform

From the March product-design milestone to release-ready iOS and Android package delivery in July 2026, Bracknell BID delivered a digital successor to its manually administered employee loyalty-card scheme.

The delivered platform combined cross-platform mobile applications, an HTTPS REST API, a relational database, cloud communications, and a web administration portal serving employees, participating businesses, and Bracknell BID administrators.

Project at a Glance

A full product-design and full-stack build delivered in a single phased programme.

Delivery profile

Client: Bracknell Investment Group Ltd, trading as Bracknell BID
Product: Bracknell BID I WORK Loyalty Card
Sector: Business Improvement District and employee benefits
Delivery period: March to July 2026
Platforms: iOS, Android, web administration portal, and HTTPS REST API
Mobile technology: Flutter, Dart, secure platform storage, native push notifications
Web/API technology: .NET 6, ASP.NET Core, Entity Framework Core, SQL Server, DevExtreme
Security technology: ASP.NET Core Identity, JWT bearer tokens, cookie authentication
Cloud services: Azure Communication Services Email and Azure Notification Hubs
Result: Release-ready mobile packages supported by an integrated API, database, and administration portal

Client Context

Bracknell BID needed to retain the simplicity of a loyalty card while gaining measurable digital operations.

Why the platform was needed

Bracknell Business Improvement District supports investment, local inter-trading, and prosperity across Bracknell's Western and Southern Business Areas.

Before this project, Bracknell BID operated a physical Loyalty Card scheme for employees working within the BID area. Cardholders could access exclusive offers from participating businesses, but the physical process imposed operational and reporting limits.

Issuing and administering cards required ongoing manual work
Scheme-wide usage tracking was limited, making offer performance difficult to measure

The Brief

Design, build, test, and deliver a complete digital loyalty service for three user groups.

User-group requirements

Employees

A simple journey to register, confirm eligibility, discover offers, and redeem digitally.

Participating businesses

Tools to manage business information, submit and update offers, support in-store redemption, and review offer performance.

BID administrators

Central oversight of eligibility, accounts, businesses, offers, communications, usage, and aggregate scheme performance.

Core Challenges

The project required connected service design and engineering decisions, not just a digital card visual.

Problems to solve

Controlled eligibility using approved work-email domains or individual approval
Role-based permissions for employees, business users, and BID administrators
Trusted and fast in-store redemption with auditable records
Flexible offer types: in-store, online, and combined
Central administration without direct database operations
Correct reporting boundaries between business-level and BID-wide visibility
Cross-platform parity across iOS and Android including native integrations
Reliable communication for verification, recovery, and broadcasts
Measurable usage data for registrations, redemptions, and service interactions

Solution Delivered

A complete platform connecting employee journeys, business self-service, and central administration.

Platform capabilities by audience

Employee mobile experience

Account creation, work-email verification, and secure sign-in
Offer discovery with category filtering and validity details
Actionable business contact details and map links
QR-based in-store redemption with configured offer instructions
Online offer use via code, link, or email instruction
Profile editing, preference management, broadcast reading, and redeemed-offer history

Participating business workspace

Business registration, verification, and profile management
Offer creation and editing across in-store, online, and combined models
Offer activation and deactivation controls
Branded business QR display and sharing support
Linked employee management and status controls
Redemption reporting with per-offer and period comparison views

BID administration portal

Management of users, businesses, contacts, offers, categories, and services
Approved-domain maintenance with CSV import support
Broadcast creation and communication controls
Monitoring dashboards for registrations, active offers, redemptions, and service usage
Comparison of current activity versus the preceding reporting period

Architecture and Security

A .NET 6 backend and SQL Server data model underpin the mobile and web experiences.

Technical foundation

Mobile and API

Flutter and Dart delivered one maintainable iOS and Android codebase, while .NET 6 and ASP.NET Core provided HTTPS REST endpoints with consistent JSON contracts.

Employee and business registration
Authentication, session validation, and password recovery
Offers, categories, redemptions, and redemption history
Profiles, notifications, broadcasts, and reporting endpoints

Identity and authentication model

ASP.NET Core Identity for account and password management
JWT bearer tokens for mobile sessions
Cookie authentication for web administration sessions
JWT issuer, audience, signature, and expiry validation
Production middleware including HSTS and centralized exception handling

Eligibility and data rules

Server-side normalization of website and email domains
Approved-domain checks against a centrally managed register
Duplicate prevention for business names and domains
Validation of required business and contact fields
Automated user association to businesses by work-email domain

Cloud Communications and Native Capabilities

Cloud messaging and native integrations supported high-friction workflows reliably.

Communications and platform integration

Transactional email and push

Azure Communication Services Email for verification and recovery journeys
Azure Notification Hubs for iOS and Android push delivery
Broadcast persistence with notification routing via broadcast identifiers

QR and mobile features

Server-side generation of business and user QR assets
Camera scanning for in-store redemption flow
Secure credential storage on iOS and Android
External actions for maps, phone, email, and websites
Business logo handling and QR sharing workflows

Delivery Timeline

Phased delivery moved from validated prototype to release-ready packages ahead of the original launch window.

March to July 2026 milestones

March 2026: Design and prototype

Approved requirements were translated into branded employee and business journeys, with an initial working shell covering authentication, offers, scanner, dashboard, and core redemption.

A Figma prototype was also produced so Bracknell BID could simulate and interact with the planned app experience before full production build-out, helping validate usability and workflow direction early.

April 2026: Core mobile build and integration

The prototype advanced into an API-connected service including registration, profiles, offer management, redemption history, analytics, support content, and password recovery.

May 2026: Backend and administration platform

The .NET 6 API, SQL Server model, and web portal enabled central management of users, businesses, services, domains, offers, categories, and broadcasts with measurable dashboards.

June 2026: Production hardening

Data rules, verification, domain validation, redemption behavior, and push routing were aligned to production, alongside email and notification cloud integrations and store preparation.

July 2026: Refinement and release outputs

Final workflow refinements, reporting updates, and privacy documentation were completed, and release-ready iOS and Google Play packages were produced.

Quality, Release, and Handover

Release readiness focused on high-risk end-to-end workflows across mobile, API, database, and administration.

Reviewed workflow scope

Employee and business registration with eligibility and domain validation
Email verification and password recovery
Authentication and invalid-session handling
Offer creation, validity rules, and redemption frequency controls
QR generation, scanning, in-store and online redemption, and history
Reporting comparisons against the previous 30-day period
Approved-domain administration and CSV import flows
Administrator account controls, broadcast persistence, and push routing
Database persistence and migration review
Release-ready iOS IPA and Android App Bundle generation

Outcome

By July 2026, Bracknell BID had a release-ready digital platform to replace the physical-card scheme.

Delivered impact

Long-term adoption data was not available at delivery, and no usage figures were invented. The platform instead provides the technical basis to measure real registrations, engagement, and offer performance post-launch.

A unified employee journey for offer discovery and redemption
Eligibility control via centrally managed domain rules
Structured redemption records tied to user, business, offer, and time
Business self-service for profiles, employees, and offers
Support for online, in-store, and combined offer journeys
Central BID administration of users, businesses, services, domains, and broadcasts
Operational dashboards for registrations, offers, redemptions, and service activity
Cloud-backed verification, recovery, and notification workflows
A maintainable full-stack foundation for future enhancements

The Bracknell BID I WORK Loyalty Card project transformed a manual card scheme into a measurable digital service with role-based mobile journeys, secure backend controls, and central operational reporting.

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