The Cango Caves, one of SA`s top tourist attractions, is reaping the benefit of a ticketing and advanced booking system developed by Progress independent software vendor Sys-Net.
Sys-Net`s ticketing system, Entry, is a fully functional point-of-sale (POS) system with a customisable back-office marketing and financial control database.
Cango Caves receives an estimated 240 000 visitors a year, 30 000 in a busy month, and up to 2 500 a day. "We needed a system to help us control the number of daily visitors to the caves," says Hein Garstner, manager of Cango Caves and Resort. "Sys-Net`s system has an embedded capacity control warning mechanism, which notifies our staff when the maximum number of tickets for any given period has been sold."
Only once booking details captured on the system have been validated by a predefined set of business rules is a printed confirmation slip generated. Booking details are printed off a custom ticket printer onto personalised tear-off sheets. Visitors who book in advance are given 14 days` grace to pay. Bookings may be made via e-mail, telephone, or fax. Booked tickets can be printed out in advance, once payment has been confirmed or on arrival. "The system is also easy to use and manage: it took our staff only four days to learn to use it," adds Garstner.
"The system has helped speed up the booking and selling of tickets, and has replaced the manual processes that delayed accounting activities such as day ends and month-ends. Where daily cashing-up used to take four hours, it now takes half a minute," he says.
"Entry`s flexibility enables price changes such as escalations or specials to be done in a day, while categories can be added with ease." Boy Adams, assistant manager at the site, says Cango Caves is not considering e-enabling the Web site at this stage, as Internet banking enables visitors and travel agents to transfer payments directly into the Cango Caves bank account.
"Our client requested a ticketing system with rapid customisation and 100% uptime guaranteed and that is exactly what we provided," says Jonathan Starke, director of Sys-Net. "In addition, because our systems are developed using the open source Progress database, we are able to provide systems that do not become redundant as technology requirements increase."
"At a time when South African tourism is at the beginning of a steep development learning curve, with the promise of great rewards, Sys-Net`s ticketing system adds a world-class touch of professionalism to any tourist attraction," says Rick Parry, MD of Progress Software SA. "Sys-Net clients such as Cango Caves and Resort can be assured that the system will deliver excellent return on investment at a very low total cost of ownership due to the ease of management provided by Progress`s development environment and database.
"In the long-term, the non-proprietary, future-proof character of Progress will ensure cost-effective, easy upgrades and integration into any other back-office or marketing systems," he says.
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