West End Cinema is a state-of-the-art multiplex. When it opened its doors to the public in March 2002, the cinema had three box office sales points and three retail sales points in the large foyer.

Savoy Systems replaced the existing Box Office system with Oscar in February 2007. After initial installation, a three stage upgrade was implemented in order to take advantage of new technology and additional sales channels, as follows:

• The first stage was the introduction of Chip and PIN credit card processing, allowing them to qualify for the most competitive Card Acquirer charges, and putting an end to the charge-backs suffered over the previous five years.
• The second stage was the installation of Oscar Web for internet sales, as Savoy Cinemas’ Nottingham site had already greatly benefited from its introduction. A Pickup Point was installed in the foyer to provide fast self-service ticket retrieval for customers with advance bookings.
• The third and final stage was the addition of further Retail Sales Points, each of which supports Ticket-at-any-Till. Combining box office and retail sales in this way has allowed the cinema both to maximise retail sales during busy periods and to reduce staffing costs at quiet times.

The cost of installation was kept to a minimum by installing Oscar on the cinema’s existing hardware. Almost all of the hardware (including IBM SurePOS terminals, Windows 98 PCs, electronic cash drawers and customer displays) was re-used.

Oscar has completely revolutionised the way we do business. It was the first automated box office system we installed and it has made a huge difference to our ability to track sales figures and understand our business. The people at Savoy Systems are always open to our suggestions on improving the software and we’ve had many useful upgrades through the years.

Cassie Birtwistle
General Manager, Phoenix Cinema, London