PRE-PUBLICATION DRAFT
STAGE DIRECTIONS
COPYRIGHT 2001
AUTHOR: Patrick Finelli
CATEGORY: Software Upgrade
TITLE: Tick-It! 2K and the Web
There is no doubt that in the Internet age, upgrading the computer software for your theatre means exploiting the powers of the World Wide Web. The evolution of New Concepts’ Tick-It! 2K box office management software provides an excellent example of what happens when a product developer answers client needs by adding online features. Tick-It! began its PC product life as a ticketing system based on DOS, a PC operating system prior to Windows. NCS developed a new version, Tick-It! 97 (SD, March 1998), to take advantage of the Windows 95 and Windows NT environment, using 32-bit programming for faster processing of customer data. It offered something new - network support for multiple workstations in your theatre box office. Tick-It! 2K featured new reporting donor management tools with mailing label capability, seating chart and ticket printing options for dot-matrix or thermal ticket printers.
Monty Boleyn, President of New Concepts Software, has always emphasized the cost-effectiveness and convenient user interface of his software. "It offers a smooth way to select and sell seats in a seamless sequence of steps for the best price/performance ratio among ticketing products." Tick-It! 2K has been able to operate on your own network using Novell or Windows NT for four years, and now New Concepts’ recent joint marketing agreement with CyberSEATS™ takes box office software to the next level, giving you the option to expand your capability with a value-added ticketing service that brings your box office to the Internet, so you can sell tickets in real time online. Major ticket sellers like Tickemaster and Tickets.com have been doing this for years, and now your theatre can put a box office window of your own on the Web without losing revenues or control. CyberSEATS™ is a provider of seat mapping services for Tickets.com along with a wide range of customers from the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team to small independent theatre companies.
In this new innovative approach, you have the ability to create a new software Internet gateway for your theatre’s box office, providing your patrons and venue with numerous benefits and higher levels of functionality, productivity and service. Dave Miller, Vice President of Business Development at CyberSEATS™, describes the ticketing process as a "pure experience for the customer." The seamless integration guides the customer’s interactive experience during the ticket purchasing process. The patron can view your available inventory in real-time, select his or her seats and purchase them online in a matter of minutes, similar to the customary way we purchase airline tickets through Travelocity or other online travel service.
Your ticketing system continues to function as it did before with no additional screens to navigate and no additional commands to remember. The Internet links the customer to your venue’s onsite box office ticketing system and also the pages on the CyberSEATS™ system. The CyberSEATS™ module works in the background and silently brings your ticket inventory to your Internet customers. CyberSEATS™ content and distribution is transparent. Your patrons will feel like they are on your website for the entire process, although the payment pages are handled through CyberSEATS™ servers. You can use your merchant bank account for deposits from online ticket purchases. CyberSEATS™ charges a modest $2.00 per ticket to process the transaction. There is also a one-time set-up fee which varies according to the size of your venue.
There will be no need to consign seats since the common seat inventory database is kept at the box office. You can keep track of your inventory and tie multiple stations into one database used with the NCS box office reporting system. Sales are recorded in real time and accounted in the system. The database files are compatible with office suite software such as MS Access and Excel.
You can customize an Internet browser front end to interface with your ticketing system. If you already have a web site it can be integrated with those existing web pages, or CyberSEATS™ will develop one for you. An especially innovative feature lets you place digital pictures of views from a variety of seating sections so your customer can actually experience the view from a particular location and pick the best available seat. CyberSEATS™ will take your seating chart, digital pictures of section views, account information and web URL and their engineers will set it up. Your theatre box office can create a web presence with a home page, calendar page, individual event page, ticketing page, "about us" page or "thank you" page. You can keep statistics, prepare FAX surveys, automate season ticket renewals and develop a powerful targeted e-mail management plan, where you can use direct e-mail messages to keep your patrons and subscribers informed of upcoming events and special promotions through customized e-mails.
Among the other advantages gained through going out on the Internet with your ticket operations are: 1.) unlimited maximum number of events; 2.) seating charts; 3.) multiple venues (e.g. auditorium, playhouse, black box, studio); 4.) multiple performances of different shows (e.g. Broadway tour series) and 5.) multiple outlets (e.g. downtown and branch ticket office).
The $849 base price for a single user version of Tick It! 2K includes your first house map, customized according to information you provide when you purchase the software. Each additional house map costs $100, or you can purchase the House Map Creator Utility for $100 and create your own layout. This is especially handy if you operate a theatre with multiple seating configurations. The optional Crystal Reports software lets you write custom invoices and reports. It uses the MS Access database file format in order to facilitate interface with MS Office Suite programs or export to your accounting G/L. The optional FGL Thermal Ticket Designer Utility ($75) allows you to design or layout your own custom ticket format for thermal printers.
If you would like to preview the program yourself, you can download a working demo version from the New Concepts website which expires in 30 days. If you do not have access to the Internet, they will send you a CD and information pack for a pre-paid charge of $10.00, which is applied to the purchase price if you buy Tick-It! 2K.
SERVICE
The single user copy includes a user manual; for 30 days. New Concepts offers 4 hours free phone support for 30 days from date of purchase and free 24-hour access to Internet-based customer support.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Tick-It! 2K requires the following equipment to run correctly:
Bare Minimum
Pentium 200MHz
32 MB RAM
60 MB available disk space
VGA 640 x 480 resolution
Dot Matrix Printer (for tickets)
Recommended
Pentium II, Pentium III
400 MHz or Faster
128 MB RAM or More
100 MB of available disk space
SVGA 800 x 600 or 1024 x 768 resolution
Thermal Ticket Spitter
Serial Cash Drawer or Pole Display
Operating Systems
Windows 95/98/2000
Windows NT 4.0 Workstation
Windows NT 4.0 Server
Supported Networking Software
Novell Netware
Windows NT
Windows 95/98/2000
CyberSEATS requirements
24/7 Internet connection (DSL, Cable Modem, T-1)
IP address for ticketing server, must be accessible by CyberSEATS™ server
E-merchant account with bank for online credit card processing
Online process account with VeriSign or other comparable service
For further information:
New Concepts Software, Inc.
Post Office Box 688
Roseville, Michigan 48066-0357
E-mail: sales@ncsoftware.com
Internet: www.ncsoftware.com
Phone: 810-776-2855
Fax: 810-776-7433
Toll Free: 877-800-0222
CyberSEATS™
5100 E. La Palma Avenue
Suite 202
Anaheim Hills, CA 92807
Phone: 714-693-1171
Fax: 714-693-3625
E-mail: info@cyberseats.com
Internet: www.cyberseats.com
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© Copyright 2001 by Patrick M. Finelli. All rights reserved. These pages are protected by United States and international copyright laws. Copying or distribution by any means is strictly prohibited. Please send e-mail to finelli@arts.usf.edu