“The great thing about ProVenueMax^™ is its ability to adapt to our way of work, it is much more than just an admissions system - we use it to handle memberships and sales for a whole variety of events including concerts, touring productions and even ice skating!”

-Jacquie Cassidy, Ticketing Development and Systems Manager

Background
When Historic Royal Palaces, the organisation that cares for the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace and Kensington Palace, sought a ticketing system to manage admissions  they wanted a system that would not only process sales to their visitors but also grow with the business and offer new and improved ways to deal with the ever increasing demand for tickets.

The original system install took place in 1995 and saw PASS installed at the Tower of London, Kensington Palace and Hampton Court Palace.  At the time of the original installation ticketing was the main requirement – with a need fora front desk system which was capable of printing admission tickets quickly and efficiently.

Since this time visitor numbers have constantly increased and with them so have the business needs of Historic Royal Palaces. Subsequently the requirements placed upon the ticketing system have also changed and Historic Royal Palaces upgraded to ProVenueMax^™ in 2003 to help them meet these new challenges.

Key Benefits
Like many Tickets.com clients one of the main reasons Historic Royal Palaces chose the software was because of the flexibility offered and the level of functionality. ProVenueMax^™ allows Historic Royal Palaces to explore new areas of integration, most recently launching a Membership Scheme across all three palaces. Using the Fund module within ProVenueMax^™, Historic Royal Palaces is able to enter details of their new members and manage their Direct Debit instructions, and renewals as well as printing customised membership cards. With each member entered onto the system Historic Royal Palaces builds a more detailed image of their customers, allowing for a greater depth of analysis and helping guide communication strategy.

Another key benefit for Historic Royal Palaces is the Gift Aid functionality within ProVenueMax^™. Members can automatically be flagged as having consented to Gift Aid so that they can be easily recognised and reports detailing the Gift Aid income are provided for in a format accepted by the Inland Revenue. As a venue with charitable status Historic Royal Palaces were able to claim Gift Aid on Admission tickets until April 2006 and ProVenueMax^™ provides a quick, easy way to capture the required information. The ability to process these types of transactions enabled Historic Royal Palaces to increase their revenue by over £100,500 in 2005.

The Future
Despite managing historic sites, Historic Royal Palaces are always looking to the future and seeking to embrace the latest technology in a way that complements their brand identity.

For the last four years they have sold Admission tickets online, using Tickets.com’s real time online ticketing solution ProVenueOnline^™. To speed up the ticket collection process, kiosks are available onsite so that customers can insert their payment card to print out their tickets instantly. In the near future it is planned to upgrade these kiosks to allow advance sales and also to implement an integrated Access Control solution to minimise queuing and allow patrons to take advantage of paperless ticketing (Tickets@Home^®) available from Tickets.com.

Historic Royal Palaces attract around 3.5 million visitors each year and recognise the need not only to increase attendance by maximising accessibility to purchasing opportunities but also to understand their visitors better and find ways to help them engage with Historic Royal Palaces on multiple levels. Tickets.com is proud to be working with Historic Royal Palaces to provide the best in ticketing technology while helping to conserve some of the most beautiful palaces ever built.

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