The Big Picture

The Big Picture 215 E. Washington Street Appleton, WI 54912

The Big Picture is a large format movie theater that boasts a six story tall viewing screen. The Big Picture holds typically 7 screenings per day, 7 days a week, with a projected annual paid attendance of over 200,000 patrons.  There are two primary Box Office POS Stations. There are two concession stand POS stations in the theater that serve hot dogs, popcorn, soft drinks and other fare typical of snack bars. Additionally, they run a small gift shop POS Station, and several "back office" stations for advance sales and school/group reservations.

State of the Art New Theater, State of the Art New POS System

For their 2005 opening season, The Big Picture wisely chose to integrate ALL ticket, concession, retail and Internet sales by deploying NCS's system, Tick-It! Trak Pro.  The Trak Pro system provided a Point Of Sale (POS) for serialized ticketed entry, ticket validation and redemption, census head counting and transaction reporting. With the anticipated high volume of transactions and issued tickets, The Big Picture made use of Trak Pro's ability to utilize Microsoft SQL Server as the back end database, providing a robust environment for data storage and security.

Benefits from Deploying Trak Pro were:

• Direct Internet Ticketing using NCS ASP Web Applications
• Improved Cash Flow, as Revenues from Tick-It! Trak Pro sales are available right away.  No waiting for a 3rd party to release funds.
• More Detailed reporting for Marketing and Accounting usage
• Merging of Customer, Prospect and Volunteer Databases with the Ticketing Operations.  Repeat customers are processed quickly.
• Recording and Tracking Souvenir and Concession Sales with Tick-It! Trak Pro
• Reduced Man-hours for processing On-Line Internet, phone and mail order sales
• Gift Card Loyalty program with Mercury Payments free Gift Card system.

Epilogue:

Sadly, the Big Picture Theatre is no longer in operation.  18 months of very poor ticket sales led to the decision to close the doors and look for another theater operation company to purchase the assets.  New Concepts Software had a very cordial and friendly relationship with the principle owners of the Big Picture, and this turn of events saddened us greatly.  We very much enjoyed working with Mr. and Mrs. Bork, we wish them well, and hope their future endeavors meet with greater success.

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