Offshore firm makes cinema ticketing easy

The Easy group of companies is considering increasing its dependence on offshore technology firms following the successful development of an online ticketing system for easyCinema.

The company turned to Indian software company Wipro to develop the system for its latest business venture.

According to Easy group chief technology officer Phil Jones, Wipro was able to offer savings of 45 per cent compared to the cheapest onshore bid for the contract.

'Managing an offshore company is not as easy as managing an onshore company, but the savings were significant enough for us to want to do it,' Jones told Computing. 'We also felt that it was strategically important to get experience managing offshore companies.'

Film goers at the easyCinema in Milton Keynes can buy their tickets online or from terminals at the cinema.

At the time of purchase customers are issued with a bar coded ticket that is printed out and scanned by readers at screen entrances to allow entrance, eliminating the need for human intervention.

Payment either be made using standard card methods or with cash that is put into a machine at the cinema and exchanged for online tokens. Customers can also charge up accounts with online tokens to allow children for example, to pay for tickets.

Jones said it is difficult to gauge when the organisation will achieve a return on its investment because easyCinema is a start-up company, but he is convinced that savings are substantial.

'We've implemented a system at substantially less than we've implemented systems for previous businesses,' he said.

Jones believes it is now essential that companies planning major development projects consider offshore companies.

'Any company wanting to do development work can ill afford to ignore work offshore,' Jones said. 'For any major development work we undertake we obviously seek suitable solutions from onshore and offshore companies. Ultimately it's a cost based decision.'