Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
Read through the questions and answers on this
page. If you don't see the answer to your question visit our
Feedback page and ask away.
-
Other Configurations ...
-
Credit Card Authorization ...
- Sales Blurb
Information Field ...
-
Accounting Links ...
-
Importing Databases ...
- Add On
Modules ...
-
Network Licensing Costs ...
-
Accessing System Files ...
-
Maintenance Plans ...
- Purchasing
This Software ...
- Delivery
Time ...
- I Don't Want To
Change The Way I Sell Tickets ...
- Can I Design
My Own Seating Maps ...
- Why Don't
the Seats On My Maps Change Color When Sold ...
- Do I Have
To Use Your Ticket Blanks ...
- Will Ticket
Prices Increase ...
- Demo By Mail
...
- Demo Life ...
- Is This a
BETA Version ...
- Will You
Give References ...
- What's that flag
about ...
- How much
does your annual "support" plan cost?
- What do
we do if something does go wrong?
Q: Can the
system be configured for other
countries date and financial conventions?
A: Yes, instantly. Any country currently
supported by Microsoft Windows platforms.
Q: Can
the system handle on-line credit card
authorization?
A: Absolutely. BOW works hand in hand with
X-charge, a third part software package, verifying credit cards and debit cards
(Canadian users are not able to use debit cards at this time). Click on the
"Credit Card Verification" tab for complete details.
Q: Is there an information field for
sales blurb for Box Office staff - you know "Tell the
patron the musician is a Nobel-prize winner"?
A: Yes. Click on the Main Menu Event Title.
Q: Is there a link to any accounting
systems? If so which?
A: Financials are in Microsoft Access
databases. All data is ASCII exportable and can be used by almost any Windows
accounting package. However, in-program financials are proprietary and encoded
to protect against tampering. This ensures the reports are always accurate.
Further manipulation by other packages will not effect the accuracy of the
original data.
Q: Can we import existing customer data
(address details.) We are using Microsoft Access.
A: Sure. We’ll import your data on system
purchase. After that, the system itself will provide that database to your other
applications for future addresses and seating details. Please note that there
might be a charge for this service.
Q: Do you have a room-hire (or resource)
rental module?
A: No. BOW! is dedicated to Box Office
Management and Patron Information Management. Other programs do rental
agreements really well. We don't pretend to know anything about hotel
management.
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Q: What does it cost for your basic
"stripped down" version?
A: BOW! is licensed as a complete system, there
are no add-on modules to cost you extra money. Our users receive the same
package if they have one hundred seats or five thousand.
Q: How much is a two user license?
A: Same as a 1 user license, or a ten user
license. No extra charge. We don't care. BOW! is network ready.
Q: Can other computers, in other locations
on the same internal network see the software? Can they use the program? Can
they get status reports for their offices?
A: Only a computer on which BOW! is installed
can sell tickets on the network (we recommend the establishment of a small
Workgroup for box office operations so that others on the network are unable to
access and possibly damage your event files.). BOW! Reports and reconciliations
can only be issued from the machine designated as the box office server..
Q: What maintenance plans
are required by
you?
A: None. After your payment of the one-time
license fee, tickets blanks are your only continuing cost, as you require them.
We provide application support for a defined time period at no extra cost.
Software updates are made available on this web site again at no cost.
Q: How do we set about purchasing from you?
A: Simple. Send your venue’s details. We'll do
an initial quote and send along a questionnaire. Your return a detailed floor
plan along with answers to our questionnaire, … and a cheque.
Q: What kind of delivery time are we talking
here? How soon can we be selling tickets?
A: World-wide System delivery is via UPS. Our
turn-around is normally a maximum of fourteen days from receipt of payment or
confirmed order. This is a customization prepared exclusively for your venue. It
could be ready in as little as 3 days depending on programmers' schedule at
Canadian Theatre Software.
Q:
I’ve been selling tickets since Olivier was an
usher. I know what I’m doing. I don’t want to change the way I sell tickets.
A: You won’t have to. There’s a key ingredient
in the BOXPRO Family of Systems - it’s called experience.
BOXPRO "4" was ticketing venues 20 years ago. The features you expect have
been seamlessly integrated into a complete and comprehensive package. We know
there’s a logical process to selling a ticket. That process, the same one you’ve
been using for years, is exactly the process BOXPRO Systems use to make a sale.
Our systems are not re-jigged inventory
programs, or database managers, or modified point of sale applications. There
are no underlying commercial applications running a visual shell. BOXPRO Systems
are built from the ground up by people who have managed box offices. We know
what the patron can demand of your staff. And we know the tricks of the trade,
so the systems are secure. The files are proprietary, meaning that no other
program can modify your data, or snoop around your financial totals, or make use
of your customer database without your permission.
You’re still in charge. It’s your box office,
not the computer’s. You’ll find your experience is a great fit with the
experience of hundreds of other managers who have contributed to the design, the
feel and the implementation of all BOXPRO Systems.
Q:
The custom seating plans you deliver with the
system are great. But why can’t I design my own maps?
A: You can … if you really want to. Send us
another drawing. We’ll make it into a computer graphic. Or send us a bitmap
file, the way you’d like to see your venue pictured. However, as you might have
guessed, your BOXPRO maps are more than just pretty pictures. They’re actually
part of the program. They contain secure control codes and important information
about your venue. So send us what you want to see and we’ll convert it to a
BOXPRO map for you.
Q:I've
installed the BOW! demo package on my computer and I can "sell" and print a
pretend ticket. But the seats on the maps don't change color like they're
supposed to. What's wrong?
A: Nothing terrible, you just need to "tweak"
your video display settings. BOW! can be run with a video card running in 16
color, 256 colors, or 24-bit True Color mode. There is one other mode it doesn't
like; 16-bit High Color. If the seats aren't changing color as you sell or
reserve tickets it's likely you're set to use this mode. Either switch down to
the 256 color mode, or up to the 24-bit True Color mode. The Windows Help File
can tell you how. It's easy. Then use "Map Display Options|Show All Active
Seats" to re-draw your seating plans.
Q:Do
I have to use your ticket blanks? Can I print my own ticket blanks?
A: No, you don’t have to use ticket blanks. You
can continue to use hard tickets, although we wonder why you would want to
considering the cost and inconvenience. You could even use the system with plain
paper and a trusty pair of scissors if you want to.
The physical design, layout and functionality
of BOXPRO ticket blanks are the copyright property of Canadian Theatre Software.
In order to control cost and quality there is only one licensed manufacturer.
Apart from the illegality of it, you simply wouldn’t be able manufacture a
comparable blank for less unless you’re prepared to pay up front for several
millions of them.
The plain financial facts are that the sale of
ticket blanks underwrites the cost of program development and client support.
Your continued patronage accounts for the extremely reasonable initial license
cost of the system. We could have taken another route and charged much more for
the software and left you to fend for yourself. We didn’t. This way, each venue
pays an absolute minimum for software and gets free support. Whether your venue
is 3,000 seats or 300 seats, your cost of consumables per patron is exactly the
same. And that cost is very low.
Q:OK
- So we're using your blanks. How do we know you won't raise the price and make
the system really expensive to use?
A: We don't know anyone who can predict the
future however our policy has been and will continue to be that we will provide
ticket blanks to our users at the lowest possible cost. In fact we have had
only two ticket price increases since we started selling over twenty years ago. In that
same time the savings that we have realized through volume purchases have
allowed us to cut prices to our users several times. Our current ticket
price is lower than the fee we were charging in 1998! How many products
do you know of that have that distinction??
Q
I don't like downloading demos from the Internet. How much will you charge
me for a demo delivered by mail?
A: The Internet is a great way for us to hold
the line on prices. If you're not quite up to speed on downloading files, give
us a phone call at (613) 521-9006 during office hours (9:00am to 5:00pm EST) and
we'll be pleased to send a CD to you. How much you ask? For the CD,
nothing. Our pleasure. For delivery by regular mail? Nothing. For couriers and
such, let's talk.
Q
How long will your demo work? Two weeks? A month?
A: The demo is a full working installation.
It'll work forever. If you want to pass it along to another venue we'd
appreciate it. The test venue in the demo is purposely short a few prime seats,
but otherwise, if you want to build a venue that matches the seating plan and
call it the "BOW! Test Venue" and put on two Events called "A Demonstration
Event" and "A Second Demonstration" you've got us beat. The demo will work just
fine.
Q:
Is "BOW!" the real finished product or are you "Beta Testing"?
A: The tests on BOW! were
completed in April of 1996. Then, and only then did we release it for sale. We
have an advantage over other vendors. We've done this before. BOW!
is the third edition of the software we developed in 1987. We know what
features you need in secure, reliable box office software. That being said, we
didn't get where we are by standing still. If there's something you want added
to BOW!, just contact us. We'll do our best to make the system
work for you right now, not a year from now.
Q:
What about references? Is there someone I can talk to who uses your software?
A: We're proud to furnish references. Our
clients are all nice folks. We can likely find someone in your area. Give us a
call at (613) 521-9006 and we'll see if we can't get you together with a few for
coffee.
Q:
What's that flag in the lower left corner of the main screen? Why is it there?
A: The flag is there to indicate the country
your Windows system is configured for. If you are in the USA you will see the
American Flag, in Great Britain the British Flag and so-on. It's a handy
confirmation for you to ensure that your data is being saved in the format
specific to your area. BOW! treats some information differently depending upon
where you are - for instance a theatre in Scotland sells tickets priced in
pounds while an Canada that same ticket would be paid for in dollars. Other
areas of difference include telephone numbers and postal/ZIP codes. It's all
automatic as long as your computer is configured correctly.
Q: No really, how much does your
annual "support" plan cost?
A: Nothing. Zero. Zip. And it isn’t
annual. It’s on-going. We’re ready to help whenever and wherever we can. But, …
(there’s always a "but" somewhere) … we can’t fix your computer, your Windows
installation or your network. We can tell you exactly where and how our systems
interact with your computers. The "System Protection Alert" safety traps built
into our systems will catch anything before it happens. After so many years of
use "in-the-field" if you’re getting strange crashes and weird error messages,
there’s something wrong with your machinery. Honest.
Q: Okay, so it’s "reliable"
software. What do we do if something does go wrong?
A: If our software senses a problem, all
of our "Operator Warning" message boxes have very specific titles and extensive
descriptions of the difficulty our software is encountering, plus explicit
instructions as to how to proceed. The BOW system makes a notation of the
incident in its own log file which you can review at anytime through the [F1]
Help Menu.
There is a distinctive difference between our safety traps and a "Windows
Error" message box, which is very terse, and rather industrial looking. If it’s
one of our "System Protection Alert" messages and you’ve looked in the current
on-line help file
or manual and you just can’t figure out
what to do next, by all means, give us a call or send us an email.
Make certain you have
downloaded and installed the edition of
the software available on this web site before you contact us so we can work
through the problem together. We always simulate with the current release
version. If you’re even one edition behind us, the programmers will not be able
to accurately reproduce your problem.
Just be aware that if it’s a "Windows Error" (those terse and very unhelpful
little boxes) sometimes we can help, and sometimes we can’t. Everyone’s
operating system is unique. The possible variations within Windows are just too
complex to handle over the phone. Your best bet is the person who installed the
OS and hardware.
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