Modern Message has taken its Community Rewards platform beyond just paying rent and reporting maintenance issues for apartments.

The Dallas startup solved a logistical nightmare for EdR, a company that owns and manages collegiate housing. Every new resident gets a gift card mailed to them when they move into the EdR’s housing units. Historically, it required about 250 man hours to send out the gift cards.

Modern Message and EdR were awarded the 2017 Best Off-Campus Vendor/Operator Solution at the Student Housing Business Innovator Awards, which were given earlier this month at the Interface Student Housing Conference in Austin.

By using the Community Rewards program, the gift cards can now be sent out electronically. The company no longer pays delivery fees and gets credit back for gift cards that aren’t redeemed.

“This program paid almost immediate returns through efficiency and improved customer experience,” said Scott Casey, EdR’s chief technology officer and senior vice president of strategic business development. “The automated gift card system was easy to implement across all our properties, is generating revenue, and we are projecting that it will save the company tens of thousands of dollars annually.”

Delivering what’s new and next in Dallas-Fort Worth innovation, every day. Get the Dallas Innovates e-newsletter.