Beyond the sale, how is your POS measuring up?

"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." Stephen Covey

In the unique vertical of timeshares and guest service operations, there are those that "re-sell" attraction tickets. For years the only way to do this was by purchasing hard tickets from whole sellers or if your volume was high enough the attraction themselves. 



These days, more and more attractions are moving to online web portals, where re-sellers can print on demand turnstile direct tickets for their customers. This where confusion creeps in on the term integration. Many feel that by merely going to the web portal that you are in fact now integrated into the theme park, and partially this is true.

However, the more exciting thing is when these parks open up their web portals with an API that allows software developers to integrate the parks web portal into the developers software. Disney was one of the first to do this.

The question I have is what does it mean to be integrated with Disney? Well there are a few ways to get to the Disney Ticket Interface:

1. Direct Integration (preferred)
2. DTC- Most common and typical among re-sellers. This platform is for those whom cannot integrate their Point of Sale to DTI through a Direct Integration.
3. Direct Connect For those contracted with Disney to sell rooms in addition to tickets. Stand alone ticket sales are not available. 

The key here is that iTicket provides a better gateway to DTI. While DTC gets you there, it lacks the controls many operators are looking for when it comes to controlling multiple locations or sites.

Is it enough to merely produce a ticket for the theme park while in the sale? If so, then this would be an open and shut case for many software developers(sadly it is true for many). But this not the doing the right things; it is like running your Point Of Sale without ever balancing at the end of the day. The fact is businesses operate on profit and the business needs some basic accounting practices to formulate what that profit is. 

So what if the integration included that ultimate piece of reconciliation and reporting? This would be doing the right things.

At iTicket, we take our integration's beyond the mere ability to produce a ticket, we include things like automated reconciliation, so that you can balance what was sold against what was billed. Our direct integration with The Disney Ticket Integration is just that, a closed loop tight integration. 

So what is the difference? Well here are just a few:

• No transactions outside of the POS
• No more un-selecting unwanted options
• No more trying to sort through a stack of paperwork.
• Balancing is done through one system
• Automated processing of Disney Next Day files for reconciliation.

So, how does your POS measure up? Your POS may be doing things right, but is it doing the right things?

If you are a multi-site or multi-location business trying to track sales and reporting from numerous locations, you understand how time consuming this can be. Just imagine running your next day Disney file and reconcile 50+ locations with just a few mouse clicks! We understand it take more than the production of ticket to make for a successful integration, it must include reporting and reconciliation as well.

Currently the team at iTicket is excited about our next integration with the Sea World EZ Ticket system, where you be able to send your guests to the theme parks with tickets right on their smart phone.

If you would like more information on iTicket POS, be sure to check us out online at www.iticketpos.com