Key concepts

A handful of concepts underpin the entire ECARD platform. Understanding them saves you time on every page that follows.

Organization

The organization is your main account (your company). It groups all your users, templates, contacts and settings. Billing and global settings live at this level, under Organization settings.

Space

A space is a sub-unit of an organization — for example a subsidiary, an agency or a department. Spaces let you partition users, templates and permissions. An organization can have a single space, or several (depending on your plan).

Example: the "Acme" group creates an "Acme France" space and an "Acme Belgium" space. A Manager of the France space only sees and manages the users of that space.

See Spaces.

User

A user represents a person in your organization. They carry the information that identifies them — name, job title, company, phone numbers, social links — and that information automatically feeds their profile page, their vCard, their email signature and their Wallet card.

Users are managed under Organization → Users.

A user doesn't necessarily need dashboard access: you can manage the information and materials of a colleague who never signs in.

Administrator

An administrator is a person with credentials to manage your ECARD account from the dashboard. Each administrator has a role (Owner, Admin, Manager, Member, Viewer) that determines what they can do.

An administrator isn't necessarily a user who "carries" a card or signature, and vice versa. Administrators are managed under Organization settings → Administrators. See Users & roles.

Template

A template is a shared, reusable blueprint:

• Profile page — the public page.
• Email signature — the signature inserted into emails.
• NFC card — the printed card design.
• Wallet — the Apple/Google Wallet card.
• Contact file (vCard) — the downloadable .vcf file.

Templates guarantee brand consistency: you design once, and every relevant user inherits it. When you edit a template, the update propagates to the users who use it.

Variable

In a template, a variable (e.g. {{user.firstName}}) is a dynamic field replaced by each user's real information at display time. This is what lets a single signature template produce a personalized signature for every team member. See Signature variables.

Entity

An entity is a set of shared data — address, website, colors and logo, company social networks, legal mentions… — that you define once and insert freely into your templates (signature, profile page, vCard). An entity is not attached to users: you choose where to insert its information. Its benefit: centralizing this common data and updating it in a single place.

In practice: fill in the company address, website and social links once in an entity, then insert those fields wherever you need them in your templates. An address or website change? You fix it once on the entity, and every template that uses it is up to date.

Entities are also handy when several brands or subsidiaries coexist: each has its own set of data, which you insert into the relevant templates. See Groups, tags & entities.

Group and tag

To organize a large team, two complementary axes:

• Group — a set of users (by team, department, site) used for targeting: assign a template or an order to a whole group at once.
• Tag — a free label to segment users and contacts.

Roles

Dashboard access (for administrators) is governed by five roles:

See Users & roles.

Good to know

• A user isn't necessarily an administrator. You can manage a colleague's information and materials without giving them dashboard access.
• An entity avoids re-entering everything. Shared data (address, website, social links, colors) is defined once in an entity, then inserted into the templates where you need it.
• A profile page is independent of the card. Replacing a lost card affects neither the public page nor the contacts already collected.
• Templates take precedence over one-offs. Design your templates first, then add exceptions as needed.

See also

• First steps — step-by-step setup.
• Organization & team — users, roles, spaces.
• Glossary — every term at a glance.