Box Office Ticketing Systems – Compare Options Available

These days, the majority of people seeking to purchase tickets for events expect they will be able to purchase them directly off the event promoters own website or if not, via a third-party ticketing agency. So if you are considering setting up a box office ticketing system, as a first step, you'll need to consider what options are currently available.

Whilst they are an ever-increasing number of systems being offered, it is perhaps easiest to firstly categorise these as follows:

Stand alone software with no online ticket sales capability

In this case, the software is purchased outright and installed on the organisation's computer where it is used exclusively by that organization. Where no online ticket sales capability is included, the box office ticketing software allows the recording of all sales, provides detailed reports and gives the ability to print customized tickets.  It may also offer the ability to choose seats from an interactive seating chart.
In some cases, a hybrid system may be offered, where an online ticketing module is “bolted” on to the box office system. But it is important to check that any added module is fully integrated into the main software and does not require duplicate entries to be made for the online component. 

Stand-alone software with online ticket selling capability

With this option, the software is again purchased outright and installed on the venue operator’s computer but with the added functionality of enabling online ticket purchase and credit card payments via the venue operator’s payment gateway and merchant account.

With some systems you may be limited to using the system on just a single PC or ticket outlet, but with other systems it will be possible to use or install the system on multiple box office outlets. However many software vendors will charge additional fees for each additional outlet. For online ticket sales, the software may allow selection of tickets from an interactive seating chart or may only offer the ability to select seats on a “best available” basis.

Web-based fully hosted system

In this configuration, the ticketing software is owned, maintained and managed by the company offering the box office ticketing system.  Although the main database is located in a remote location, the venue operator will have full access to all administrative functions including the customer database. Generally, tickets can be sold through multiple outlets by any number of distributors or resellers, provided they have access to an Internet connection.

The online ticket selling function is normally achieved by inserting a line or two of computer code into a web page “template” which may either be located on the venue operator's website or on a third party website  which keeps the look and feel of the venue operators own website. 

With some systems, the main customer database and maybe the ticket server may be operated by the venue operator rather than the software provider.
 
The fee charged for using this type of service is normally either a fixed dollar amount per ticket or a percentage of the ticket price.

Fully hosted ticket selling services

Prior to the availability of user operated ticketing software, the most common way of selling tickets online was to use the services of a specialist ticket booking agent. Such organisations handle the ticket sales for multiple organisations and typically all events are posted on a single page on the service provider's Web site, or will be categorised by venue, event, or location. With such systems, the venue operator does not normally have access to the customer database but receives regular reports on ticket sales. With this particular system, the service charges may be quite high, although the service provider may offer value added services such as allowing telephone bookings, and mail out of tickets.

Within all the above options, of course there are many different permutations, options and features which may be unique to any particular box office ticketing system. Unfortunately of course this makes the task of choosing a ticketing system much more complicated, so ideally you should make a list of which features you feel are essential for your particular organisation and then seek out a system which best meets your specifications.