First published: October 13 2015
More than 7 years of ticketing software development has given us a professional name in the entertainment industry. As the options for having fun grow, so do new technologies for making that fun more accessible. Such companies as IMAX movie theaters and a US box office ticketing company asked Softjourn to come up with ticket-scanning solutions to make the customer experiences smooth and enjoyable.
The Need
Reducing the time spent waiting in line, for attendees to actually get into the venue, is the goal of any venue owner and thus the goal of any ticketing vendor. While waiting in line to buy your ticket can sometimes be a social part of the process, there are times when things need to go faster and easier.
With this in mind, a New York-based entrepreneur, approached Softjourn to determine how we could help him both cut down the time that it took to buy tickets and the time it took to get clubgoers into the club.
The Solution
What is the app going to do
Sometimes defining your app and what you want it to do is the hardest part. Writing specifications can seem like an overwhelming task. Softjourn excels at working through, together with our clients, what problem they are trying to solve and what is the best way to solve it. Then really drilling down to the details of how your new application is going to work for each of the different types of users.
An application for promoters
After discussion of the entrepreneur’s situation and doing a little analysis of how venue owners work and the types of clubs that were a target for this service, the decision was made to focus on an application for promoters to use to scan tickets at the gate, including ticket look-up and reporting.
Barcode scanning feature
Because all tickets are bar-coded, there are no mistakes involving duplicated or counterfeit tickets. The ticket taker scans each ticket’s barcode with their iPhone camera. The data is transmitted wirelessly to the backend ticketing system server, which confirms the validity of the ticket in real time.
A real-time alternative if someone's lost their ticket
On the other hand, if the patron lost or forgot their ticket, the application lets the promoter look up the individual ticket using several different criteria, including: attendee’s name, purchase number, or credit card number. Future versions allowed for swiping credit cards for ticket up using the Linea Pro device from Infinite Peripherals.
Direct sales opportunity
There were two types of users of the ticket scanning/sales app; ticket takers and promoters. Promoters were able to sell tickets right at the door, when their box office was closed or backed up, providing another ticket sales point for their patron. at an event by filling in purchase information, sending it to the server for processing, and receiving confirmation or denial of sale right on their iPhone.
Technologies&Tools
Programming language: Objective C SDK: iOS
The Benefits
- Waiting lines move constantly, even during rush hour.
- Revenue up by adding a new ticket sale point.
- Reduce fraud due to counterfeit or duplicate tickets
- Concentration on providing ticketing services by letting Softjourn prepare the definition and design of the new application.
- Convenient sales and entry information available at a glance on a mobile device.
