Creating a System to Sell Sporting Event Tickets

1. Creating a System to Sell Sporting Event Tickets Alex Popoutsis Final Project CS 403

2. Mission Statement • To provide a positive experience to consumers looking to purchase tickets to sporting events, an experience which will make them want to return in the future.

3. Objective Statements • We will provide the simplest and most efficient ticket purchasing experience to our users. • We will offer tickets to as many sporting events as possible. • Our service will be secure and trustworthy. • Unlike larger ticket services, we will not charge extensive additional fees for doing business with us. • We will offer exceptional customer service. • Our pricing will be competitive with similar services

4. Competitive Strategies • We will focus on sporting events. Unlike larger companies, we cannot provide tickets to all types events, so we will have a niche. • We will focus mainly on sporting events in the United States to start, until we can build to the point where we can expand elsewhere. • We will focus on affordable tickets. The best, highest-priced tickets are often difficult to obtain and sell.

5. Competitive Strategies (continued) • We will make our system easier to use in order to differentiate the service we offer and gain repeat customers. • We will not charge hefty additional fees, helping to make our prices even more competitive with the bigger services. • We will sell advertising space in areas of the website as an additional revenue stream. • Users can print their own tickets from home, saving us extra overhead costs.

6. Business Functions • Planning • Deciding which markets and sporting events to focus on • Designing the web site • Marketing • Making the service appeal to potential customers • Sales and Support • Processing transactions, dealing with credit card information, refunds, etc. • Customer support for users having issues • Finance • Managing revenues • Purchasing additional ticket supplies • Maintenance/Security • Keeping site running smoothly • Securing customer information

7. Data Entities • Events • Tickets • Customers • Orders • Suppliers

8. List of Information Systems to be Developed • Accounts Payable • Accounts Receivable • Inventory • Customer Data Processing

9. IS Planning Matrices

10. Preliminary Feasibility Report • This would be a feasible e-commerce system to set up. It would take some time to build the system up and make it competitive with bigger companies. However, it could be started small with room to grow. Off-the-shelf software also could be used for portions. There would be some initial costs, and it would take some time to recoup those costs, but relatively speaking, this is a project worth taking on.

11. Tangible Benefits • Revenue from tickets • Revenue from advertising • Physical footprint is small • Customer growth through word of mouth and repeat customers due to site’s design and usability

12. Intangible Benefits • Users can save time by printing their tickets from their computers • We can measure demand trends for various events

13. Benefits Increased revenues Small physical footprint Customer growth Convenience and ease of use for customers Easily measure and target certain industry trends Costs Significant initial investment (time and money) Expansion will have to take place slowly Competitive industry All Benefits and Costs

14. Break Even Analysis

15. Break Even Analysis (continued)

16. Break Even Analysis (continued)

17. Baseline Project Plan Report The expectation is that this project will take a little over a year to complete. Initial costs to create the Information System are estimated to be about $500,000. We will spend at least six months in the planning and analysis stages, because we plan on using this system for a long time. Once we have a firm grasp on exactly what we want and what is achievable, we will send out a Request for Proposals. Once we select a company, we will work with them for several months to make a firm plan. Finally, after revisions have been completed and the

18. Baseline Project Plan Report (continued) design is approved, implementation will begin. Several months will be allotted to the actual programming of the Information System, and then a significant of time (roughly six months) will be spent rigorously testing the system to verify that it is stable, secure, and able to handle a sizable volume of users. Once the system has been adequately tested, it will be released for public use. Maintenance costs from that time on are estimated at $35,000 per year.

19. Gantt Chart

20. Part Two

21. Interviews • Interview with Manager/Owner/Client • Five goals • Ease of use by many users with varying experience • Security • International Support (flexible user interface with reusable code) • Operates well across browsers/screen resolutions/connection speeds • No fee for users

22. Interviews • Interview with Manager/Owner/Client (continued) • Takes 6-8 months to solicit ideas • Key Components • Human/Computer Interaction (GUI) • Database Structure/Connections (Search engine?) • Security (Payments, login information, protection from hackers) • Help and Support • Communication/Feedback

23. Interviews • Interview with Systems Developer • Challenges • Meeting schedules • Coordinating between the client and the development team • Important aspects of development • Having firm requirements in writing • Compromising with the client in terms of planning • Code reusability • Testing

24. Interviews • Interview with potential user • Five requirements • Variety of events • Reasonable prices • Ease of use – search engine is very important • Security • Readily available customer support • No additional fees were an appealing idea • He almost always buys his tickets online • Online ticket sales clearly are a growing market that would be good to get into

25. System Requirements • The following is a list of ten items that will be absolutely necessary in the development of this information system • Easy to use • Low-maintenance • Secure • Can handle large amount of users online (up to several thousand concurrently) • We want to make sure we have room to grow • Likewise, can handle large database of events and tickets

26. System Requirements (continued) • Can support several online payment options • Uses off-the-shelf components where available • Highly reliable • Tested rigorously • Expandable and customizable • Built to last at least five years, hopefully more

27. System Constraints • We have several constraints that a system developer must agree to. • The system must be developed in no more than 15 months. • Our budget is $500,000 and the development costs for this system should not exceed that amount. • If it becomes necessary, we would be willing to exceed our budget by no more than 5% • We have a limited staff for maintenance • We cannot afford high maintenance costs

28. System Constraints (continued) • We cannot afford for the system to be built completely from scratch • We won’t be able to replace this system in the very near future, so it needs to be long-lasting • We cannot afford the most expensive database software available, such as Oracle • We cannot afford the latest technology, so it must be able to run well on current technology for awhile without massive upgrades • We do not have many computer-savvy employees • We cannot afford to pay a full fledged support team, so any problems that come up must be easy to resolve, and the system must be reliable so that we don’t have to face many support calls