“Softjourn’s pragmatic approach spotted potential blockers early on, ensuring we stayed on track.”
Spektrix Link: Using Serverless Azure Infrastructure to Build a Scalable and Customizable Booking Portal
Spektrix Leverages Azure to Deliver a Scalable, Customizable Booking Portal Tailored for High-Traffic Events
ABOUT THE CLIENT:
Challenge
Spektrix needed to enhance its white-label booking solution for clients lacking the technical expertise to customize their booking flows, handle traffic spikes, and implement custom branding. The goal was to simplify the process while maintaining a scalable, cost-effective system.
Solution
Softjourn developed a serverless architecture using Microsoft Azure, providing a scalable, easy-to-maintain platform. The solution included a portal for custom branding, automated workflows, and optimized handling of high traffic spikes to ensure smooth performance.
Results
The new platform enabled Spektrix to onboard 200+ new clients, improve the user experience with easy branding customization, and ensure scalability during high-demand periods—all while keeping costs in check with Azure’s built-in features.
Introduction
Spektrix, a leading ticketing and CRM solution for the cultural industry in the UK and Ireland, as well as the fastest-growing provider in the US and Canada, sought to improve the experience for its clients—venues and event organizers.
Their white-label online booking solution previously needed to be integrated by each client into their own website but many of their users lacked the resources and/or technical skills to implement the required changes.
The Challenge
While the Spektrix ticketing platform provided robust capabilities, many of their clients lacked the technical expertise to fully implement and customize their own booking flows. Additionally, managing large spikes in traffic for events and maintaining a scalable architecture, were proving too complex for some of their clients.
Spektrix turned to Softjourn for a solution that would provide an alternative to each client building their own custom integration, simplifying the process for those users, and providing a highly scalable, easily maintainable, and Azure-based architecture that could handle high traffic loads while remaining cost-effective.
Softjourn was asked to leverage its Solution Architecture and DevOps expertise to craft a reliable and future-proof infrastructure on the Microsoft Azure platform.
—Richard Bates, Director of Product, Spektrix
The Solution
After gathering requirements and analyzing the challenges, Softjourn developed a solution centered around scalability, flexibility, and user experience. Our Solutions Architect, with deep expertise in ticketing systems, collaborated with Spektrix to design an architecture leveraging Microsoft Azure’s powerful cloud services.
The key requirements were:
- Scalable infrastructure using Microsoft Azure
- A portal for branding customization and easy booking website management
- Serverless architecture to minimize ongoing infrastructure maintenance
- Efficient handling of high traffic spikes with cost-effective Azure services
Softjourn built a proof-of-concept (POC) using Azure services, addressing traffic routing complexities, branded URLs, and ensuring a seamless client experience. The portal enabled Spektrix clients to customize their website themes, branding, and booking flows while maintaining high performance, even under traffic spikes.
Important Architectural Features:
- Serverless Infrastructure (Azure Functions): Event-driven architecture reducing manual infrastructure management.
- Azure Blob and Table Storage: Scalable, cost-efficient storage solutions for client data.
- Azure Logic Apps: Workflow automation for data synchronization.
- Cloudflare CDN Integration: Enhanced content delivery and traffic routing for faster response times.
- Custom URL Mapping: Seamless domain mapping for branded client experiences.
Building the Solution
With the architecture solidified, a dedicated team of six engineers began building the portal. During the initial configuration and troubleshooting of the setup of the new environment within Spektrix's internal infrastructure, Softjourn worked closely with their team, providing guidance to ensure a smooth setup.
The focus remained on creating a scalable, user-friendly, and easy-to-maintain system. Softjourn handled the technical complexities while Spektrix refined the user experience.
The Benefits
The collaboration between Softjourn and Spektrix resulted in a solution that exceeded expectations, both in terms of functionality and scalability. By streamlining the customization process and enabling clients to brand their booking pages easily, the new platform opened up opportunities for Spektrix to reach new markets and acquire more clients.
Key Benefits:
- Expanded client base: Positioned Spektrix to onboard 200+ new clients over the next two years.
- Improved client experience: The white-label solution enhanced the customization experience, making it more accessible to non-technical users.
- Efficient branding: Clients could seamlessly apply their branding, including custom URLs, improving their customer experience.
- Scalable infrastructure: The platform can now handle large traffic spikes during high-demand periods.
- Cost Control: Azure’s built-in scalability and cost-control features ensure a low-maintenance, elastic infrastructure that adapts to load spikes.
Richard Bates, Director of Product at Spektrix, highlighted the impact of the solution:
“It’s opened up new clients we wouldn’t otherwise have been able to access. The feature allows us to focus internal resources more effectively on other technological priorities. If we’d had to hire a team to build and maintain this project, it would have been much more time-consuming and costly.”
Ongoing Support
Softjourn continues to provide ongoing maintenance and support for the platform. Our current team, consisting of a developer, a DevOps engineer, and a QA specialist, ensures the system runs smoothly, with minor enhancements being implemented as needed.
Conclusion
Spektrix’s partnership with Softjourn resulted in the successful creation of a highly customizable, scalable booking platform tailored to their clients’ needs.
By leveraging our expertise in cloud solutions and architecture, we helped Spektrix offer a solution that is easy to use, maintain, and scale. As a result, Spektrix can continue to grow its client base and offer exceptional experiences to its users.
Partnership & Recognition
