Ticketek Reduces Point-of-Sale Deployment from Weeks to Minutes Using Amazon AppStream 2.0

Leading event ticketing company Ticketek wanted to make its point-of-sale (POS) system and enterprise tools simpler for its customers to access to support its global growth and attract new business. Originally, Ticketek had to set up and manage its own virtual private network (VPN) for each of the venues that it served, requiring the company to spend a significant amount on labor, equipment, and travel to send its team onsite to set up hardware. 

In October 2020, the company began exploring other solutions for remotely delivering its POS system through Amazon Web Services (AWS), and it adopted Amazon AppStream 2.0, which provides secure, reliable, and scalable access to applications and nonpersistent desktops from any location. Using Amazon AppStream 2.0, Ticketek has reduced its application deployment from weeks to minutes, decreased compute costs, and enhanced the reliability and accessibility of its services for its customers.

Owned by TEG Pty Limited, a global leader in live entertainment, ticketing, and technology, Ticketek has provided innovative ticketing services to sports and live entertainment companies around the world since 1979. Each year, the company sells 30 million tickets to more than 20,000 events at some of the world’s most iconic venues. 

Before migrating to Amazon AppStream 2.0, Ticketek required all its customers to access its POS system and ticketing applications through a VPN. In most cases, Ticketek would send its IT team onsite to install supporting hardware, and its customers could only connect to the VPN from PC devices using specific web browsers. “Our previous system was prohibitive in terms of access,” says Amy Mackie, head of product at Ticketek. “We needed a solution that would provide flexibility for our partners and internal staff to connect that also facilitated speed to market for new feature releases.” Additionally, Ticketek was looking to reduce upfront investments in hardware. 

While looking for an alternative solution, the company turned to AWS because of its long-standing history of using AWS solutions. Ticketek has been working on AWS since 2014, and in 2020, the company decided to adopt Amazon AppStream 2.0 because it would maintain the same interface for its POS systems and applications while reducing the need to provision and manage infrastructure. “We want consistency in terms of our operational management from a technology perspective,” says Tane Oakes, enterprise architect at TEG. Moreover, using Amazon AppStream 2.0, Ticketek’s customers can connect to the company’s POS system regardless of their devices or locations.

In July 2020, Ticketek began testing Amazon AppStream 2.0 and set up a continuous integration and continuous deployment pipeline on AWS. Later that month, the company piloted the new solution in Australia and New Zealand, Asia, and Europe, and it concluded beta testing by September. While trialing the solution, Ticketek found that it could test and deploy applications with greater speed and efficiency. “Before using Amazon AppStream 2.0, we would have to do multiple deployments in different AWS Regions,” says Oakes. “We’d also have to ensure that all our customers had downloaded the latest versions of our tools.” Using Amazon AppStream 2.0, the company has improved its ability to respond to changing business demands and quickly release new applications without traveling to venues. Further, Ticketek has reduced its deployment time to all regions from weeks to less than 40 minutes. 

The company initiated a full rollout of the new solution across the countries that it tickets throughout Asia Pacific and Europe in August 2021. After completing the rollout, Ticketek began enhancing the features it offers to customers. Notably, the company improved security by setting up multifactor authentication. “Now that we have multifactor authentication, we can manage our user profiles and access in a more streamlined way,” says Mackie. The company has also been able to provide a more consistent experience to its customers. Previously, some customers had difficulties connecting to Ticketek’s VPN, even with specific hardware from Ticketek in place. Now its customers can connect to the company’s POS system and ticketing applications with ease using their own hardware while experiencing virtually no interruptions in service. “Amazon AppStream 2.0 has significantly improved our customers’ ability to connect to our applications nearly 100 percent of the time,” says Mackie. 

Since adopting Amazon AppStream 2.0, Ticketek has seen a significant increase in cost savings as well. Not only has the company reduced the need to purchase specialized hardware for some of the venues it serves, but it has also reduced the amount of labor that is involved in the setup. For instance, Ticketek was able to establish a new regional division in the United Kingdom that includes 12 different venues without sending any of its IT team onsite. Additionally, the company only pays for the resources it provisions on AWS. “We only pay for what we use,” says Oakes. “Now we are only incurring infrastructure and management costs for the time that the venue is actually using the solution.” Further, the company has found that using Amazon AppStream 2.0 has given it a competitive edge. “The simplicity of connecting to our POS system through Amazon AppStream 2.0 is part of our flexible service offering when securing new business,” says Mackie.

Ticketek is now working on innovating and enhancing its services for both its teams and customers. Its efforts include the development and rollout of a new application called ClientHub, which will provide its customers with a single interface for accessing all their applications and tools. To help develop this new service, the company has begun using Amazon Cognito—which lets businesses add user sign-up, sign-in, and access control to their web and mobile apps quickly and easily—as a scalable identity store for user profiles. Ticketek is also exploring the possibility of using machine learning to add to its market-leading analytics capability and personalize its services on AWS. “We are able to constantly innovate and use technology to drive better experiences in live entertainment on AWS,” says Oakes.