Frequently Asked Questions about Trak Pro
Is Tick-It! Trak Pro Right for You?
Check out this Q&A session and see for yourself!
Trak Pro Brochure in Adobe Acrobat PDF format
Venue / Seating Diagram Questions:
Q: My House is rather
large. How big a House can Tick-It! Trak Pro handle?
A: There is no practical limit as to the size of the house that
Tick-It! Trak Pro can handle. Our sample data includes AAA ballparks with
over 20,000 seats.
Q: My organization operates
more than one venue (house). Can Tick-It! Trak Pro handle multiple seating
arrangements?
A: Yes. We routinely test Tick-It! with multiple seating
arrangements. Using the Venue Designer in the ADMIN Module, you can create
as many seating arrangements as you require.
Q:My seating diagrams that I already have printed up use a certain color
scheme. Can I make Tick-It! Trak Pro match my pre-existing colors, so that
everything is consistent with my literature that my customers see?
A: Yes. Tick-It! Trak Pro allows you to "Custom Tune"
the colors used to represent the sections of your seating chart. You can even
select the colors that represent SOLD, EMPTY or HELD seats.
Ticket Sales and Pricing Questions:
Q: We operate in an area
where we must apply both a state tax and a local tax. Does Tick-It! Trak Pro
allow for multiple tax rates?
A: Yes. You can create as many tax entries as required for
you locale. You can also tack on per ticket or per transaction surcharges
that are either flat fees, or a percentage of the sale as well.
Q: We would like to be
able to offer tickets for sale on our website. Does Tick-It! Trak Pro allow
for Internet sales?
A: YES! NCS has developed an ASP application that allows
the direct sale of your tickets over the Internet.
You can check out a variety of demonstration Internet ticketing websites being run
on
Box Office
Avenue
, or if you wish, we can direct you any of our LIVE customer websites.
Q: We offer pre-paid coupons
at a special price that are redeemable for future events. Can Tick-It! Trak
Pro do this?
A: Yes. Tick-It! Trak Pro allows you to tender "Gift
Certificates", which can be in any denomination, towards the purchase of tickets
or concessions.
Q: Can I sell multiple
tickets for multiple events or performances to a single customer in one transaction?
A: Yes. You can even mix events that Reserved Seating and
General Admission, and even events that take place at different venues.
Q: We need to sell both
reserved seating and general admission seats. We have multiple pricing structures,
with pricing varying by performance date (i.e., Preview, Opening Night, weeknight/matinee,
weekend evening) and several season ticket pricing structures that apply differently
to the various evenings. Can Tick-It! Trak Pro handle this?
A: Yes. Tick-It! Trak Pro handles both reserved seating as
well as general admission sales, and you can MIX seating modes in a single event.
Events can have a limitless number of ticket price schedules.
Ticket Printing Questions:
Q: I want to primarily
print large batches of tickets at a time using my Laser (or Inkjet) printer.
Can Tick-It! Trak Pro do this?
A: Yes. Check out the
sample tickets
.
Q: We mostly take phone
orders. We want to be able to "turn ticket printing off", and then
at the end of the day, just print the tickets that we sold today. Can Tick-It!
Trak Pro do this?
A: Yes. Tick-It! Trak Pro has a batch ticket printing feature
that would allow this. In fact, you can select a date range, and even select
a particular operator, so you could print out only the tickets that Susan sold today,
or last week, or last month!
Q: Can I have Tick-It!
Trak Pro number tickets as I sell them?
A: Yes. Tick-It! Trak Pro actually assigns a unique serial
number to each and every ticket printed. This enables complete ticket validation
and redemption possible, and makes counterfeiting much more difficult. In
fact, you can have this unique serial number printed on your ticket with barcode,
so that tickets can be "scanned" upon entry for automated gate control.
Q: I own a Thermal Ticket
Printer that uses the Friendly Ghost Language
to define tickets. While I love the speed and reliability of the printer,
I really hate programming in FGL to design tickets. Do you have anything that
can help?
A: Yes. The ADMIN module includes our popular FGL Editor,
which will preview FGL thermal printer instructions. While it does not completely
remove the need for FGL programming, it will make designing tickets for those notoriously
difficult Thermal Printers much easier!
Q:I just want Tick-It! Trak Pro to record my ticket sales, but not actually print
tickets. Can I conduct sales with Tick-It! and NOT print tickets?
A: Yes. A number of our customers use Tick-It! Trak Pro in
just this fashion. Usually, it is because they have special tickets hard printed
for their entire season.
Q: I require Multiple
different ticket stocks for my operation. For Example, we print general admission
events on yellow stock, and reserved seating events on blue stock. Can Tick-It!
Trak Pro automatically select the right ticket stock for me when I am printing tickets
for my various events?
A: Yes. Tick-It! Trak Pro supports multiple ticket printers
per station as well as the rather exotic Boca Dual Mini Ticket Printer, which allows you to load
up two different ticket stocks. Tick-It! can then select the appropriate ticket
stock based on any of the following criteria:
By the Event. For example Phantom of the Opera prints on blue stock, Oklahoma!
prints on yellow.
By the Ticket Type. For example, Adult Tickets print on blue stock, Child
Tickets print on yellow.
By the Day of the Week. For example, Fri, Sat and Sun Tickets print on blue
stock, other days on yellow.
By Seating Type: For example, Reserved Seating Events print on blue stock,
General Admission Events print on yellow.
Q: We have never used
a Thermal Printer before. Can you give us some general prices for these printers?
Does NCS sell thermal printers?
A: Thermal Printers are highly specialized pieces of equipment,
and are rather expensive when compared to generic computer printers such as inkjets
and laser printers. While they have the same engineering and support costs
to produce, manufacturers sell a lot fewer of these printers than HP sells inkjets,
so the cost per printer is higher. Plan on spending in the neighborhood of
$1000 for an entry level ticket printer. Currently, NCS does not sell thermal
printers, or any other hardware for that matter. You may get additional information
about thermal printer models and pricing by visiting the respective manufacturer's
websites: Boca Systems
Datamax
Practical Automation
Networking and Internet Questions:
Q: What network environment will Tick-It! run in?
A: Tick-It! Trak Pro will run on high speed local area networks and fast Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).
Q: We would like to be
able to offer tickets for sale on our website. Does Tick-It! allow for Internet
sales?
A: YES! NCS has developed an ASP application that allows
the direct sale of your tickets over the Internet.
You can check out a variety of demonstration Internet ticketing websites being run
on
Box Office
Avenue
, or if you wish, we can direct you any of our LIVE customer websites.
Q: I have remote sales
locations that have fast Internet connections (such as DSL or Cable Modem or Dedicated
Leased Line) Can I use Tick-It! Trak Pro over a VPN (Virtual Private Network)
WAN?
A: Yes. As long as the various modules of Trak Pro can communicate
with your SQL Server via TCP/IP, you can use a VPN for wide area network deployment.
Note that you will need a high bandwidth for optimum performance.
Customer Database / Reporting Questions:
Q: Can I produce Mailing
Labels from my customer Database?
A: Yes, any one of several ways:
(1) You can use one of the built in reports
that ships with Tick-It! Trak Pro.
(2) You can create a custom report using Crystal
Reports
(3) You can use MS-Word and directly mail merge
from your database
(4) You can use MS-Access and directly produce
reports from your database
(5) You can use MS-SQL Server and directly produce
reports from your database
Q: I already have a database
with my customer list. Can this data be imported into Tick-It! Trak Pro?
A: Generally, yes. Tick-It! Trak Pro allows you to import customer records that are in flat ascii, comma delimited text files. Most
programs that maintain lists of people are capable of generating such files.
Even if they are not, often, MS-Access and SQL Server are capable of reading the
files they do generate, and that still gives you an import path.
Q: Can I create specialized,
custom reports?
A: Yes. Tick-It! Trak Pro is compatible with Crystal Decision's
Crystal Reports, version 8 or higher so that you can create virtually any sort of
report you might need. You can also use MS-Access or SQL Server, if you own
it, to create custom reports and database functions. We post new reports on
our website for customers to download.
Ease of Use / Support Questions:
Q: Is Tick-It! Trak Pro
easy to use? We have student / volunteer staff that has a fairly high turnover
rate, and training would be an issue. We need a user-friendly interface.
We're talking about something that runs on Windows with a "point 'n' click"
interface and no "command lines" !!!
A: Yes. Tick-It! Trak Pro is very user-friendly.
First time users are capable of selling and returning tickets in minutes without
specialized training. The context sensitive on-line help system gives needed step-by-step
instructions for any task, just by pressing F1.
Tick-It! is DESIGNED
from the ground up to be a Windows Program. Virtually the entire sale can
be conducted via the mouse. (well, you do have to type in people's names
for reserved seating sales, if they are not already in your database).
Q:
What about documentation? Do your programs come with clear, easy to understand
manuals? Can I see them before I order?
A: Yes, you can access the manuals on-line prior to purchase. We no longer ship printed manuals. Manuals are available on-line for free. We think
that they are clearly written, and we are sure you'll agree. You can view Documentation and Manuals in the popular Adobe PDF format to preview them, if
you like, or to replace lost or outdated manuals.
Q:
Tell us about the Tech Support Options. What about the "on event or occurrence"
telephone support, how is that billed? I presume that somebody will want a
credit card number, or do we make an advance deposit, or must we buy a year at a
time? What is your average response time?
A: When you buy Tick-It! Trak Pro, you get 30 days of free phone
support, to help you get set up and running. After that, you can either:
a) Buy a year of unlimited support for $1200.00
b) Buy pre-paid blocks of time in $75.00 (hourly) increments
c) Pay as you go, giving a credit card when you place a tech support call.
Now, we are not support Nazis, and for quick, simple questions, we don't usually bill the user. It's just that we don't want to spend three hours on the phone remotely setting up your network for you, or writing your custom reports on the phone. That's what manuals are for. So the prospect of being "stung" with a fee helps encourage users to be a little more self sufficient, and to only call with genuine problems, and not because they are not motivated enough to look the answer up in the Help or Manual, or by trying one of the included examples. I hope you understand this position.
Typically, we try to respond to support calls the same day, or by the next business day when there is a significant time-zone difference. We are open Mon - Fri 9:00 - 5:00 est. We have occasional, but non-standard Sat hours.
We also have a 24 hour, 7 day a week support database on our website, where you can look up articles addressing common problems that users have experienced. This service is free. You can check out the support database at this address: Product Knowledge Base
Ordering Questions:
Q: Our Organization (school
district, college, university, city government) issues purchase orders for capital
items such as this. Does New Concepts Software accept P.O.'s?
A: Yes, NCS accepts Purchase Orders from Schools, Universities
/ Colleges, City, State and Federal Governments, as well as large companies and
established customers.
Q: Once purchased, what
is your estimated delivery time for Tick-It! Trak Pro?
A: That varies depending upon the size and complexity of your venue,
whether there are special interfacing requirements for unique equipment, such as
entry and exit turnstiles. A sales representative can best advise delivery
times when all the details of your situation are known.
Miscellaneous Questions:
Q: Does Tick-It! Trak
Pro have yearly renewal fees? In other words, will Tick-It! Trak Pro stop
working after a year unless we pay you more money?
A: No. Once you purchase Tick-It! Trak Pro, you are licensed
to run it forever. Future upgrades of the product will be offered to existing
customers at a substantial discount over the standard price, but there will be no
obligation to purchase future upgrades. There is no "time out" kill
switch in the software.
Q: Can I print Lottery
Tickets with Tick-It! Trak Pro?
A: Yes, but none of them will win.
Trak Pro Brochure in Adobe Acrobat PDF format