UniversityTickets, a ticketing and box office software provider for colleges and universities, is giving its clients the option of offering mobile tickets for their events.

Basically, clients of UniversityTickets can let customers enter a mobile number and have their tickets sent securely and instantly. The tickets can be validated via a unique 2D bar code at the venue directly via the mobile device’s screen.

“Our clients are predominantly colleges and universities – hotbeds of tech savvy consumers addicted to their mobile phones,” said Derek Mitchell, director of client services at UniversityTickets, New York.

“Enhancing our box office software to include mobile ticket delivery was a natural evolution of the service, eliminating any obstacles from the ticket buying experience,” he said. “Further, it is an opportunity for us to help lessen the burden on our end users – those box office managers working hard to sell and fulfill hundreds of ticket orders every day.

“Every ticket delivered to a mobile phone takes another customer out of a will-call line, and streamlines the night-of entry process.”

UniversityTickets clients include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern University, Cornell University, Colorado State University and McNeese State University.

Bar code benefits
The company said that 2D bar code technology improves ease of scanning in high traffic situations such as event admission, making it a no-brainer to offer the service to clients.

Available now, the UniversityTickets mobile ticketing service relies on handheld 2D ticket validators that are reverse compatible, capable of scanning 1D codes currently used on thermal and eticket prints in addition to new on-screen mobile tickets.

Paper tickets are easy to lose, destroy or forget.

The night of an event, every forgotten ticket consumes the time of box office staff as they look up an order, verify the customer’s identity and reprint their tickets.

With mobile ticketing, that service time is eliminated, making the box office more efficient and getting an event attendee into their seats even faster.

Everyone has days when they might forget their wallet, car keys or tickets – but humans have developed such an addiction to wireless devices that they are rarely without them.

“We’ve taken advantage of that and ensured that customers always have their tickets at their fingertips,” Mr. Mitchell said. “The convenience is tremendous.”

With mobile tickets there is no waiting in line at will-call, no searching for paper or a replacement ink cartridge to print tickets at home – customers simply provide their mobile number and their tickets arrive instantly.

Mobile tickets are also easy to transfer to a friend. Can’t attend? Just forward the MMS message to a friend and the ticket is theirs.

“With 2D bar code scanners, our venues retain the same access control and ticket validation capabilities they’ve been accustomed to, while making it even easier for customers to secure tickets,” Mr. Mitchell said. “In addition, we’re proud to play even a small part in protecting the environment by decreasing consumption of paper-based tickets.”

Smartphones and feature phones
UniversityTickets targets both smartphone and feature phone users with the new technology.

The company did not want to limit the technology to just smartphone users.

“We didn’t want it limited to only smartphone users – if we had, we could have used simple email to send the 2D ticket bar codes,” Mr. Mitchell said. “Instead, we developed the system with MMS messaging, helping us to ensure our box office clients could offer mobile delivery to the most customers, even feature phone users.

“With the ease of acquiring prepaid phones and service from most mobile carriers, we were able to test the service on a wide-range of providers and devices, from national carriers to those regionally based,” he said.