FNAC-BILLETEL Migrates to MySQL Network

come from: http://www.mysql.com

France's largest show and event ticketing organisation improves the performance of its booking system with the help of leading open source database

Paris -- July 11th, 2006 -- Billetel, the IT subsidiary of FNAC Spectacles, France’s largest entertainment ticketing company, has selected the MySQL open source database to run its new online ticket reservation system.

FNAC is the number one distributor of entertainment tickets in France -- offering a selection of more than 6,000 cultural events and a total of almost 50,000 individual performances a year. The Billetel software solution used by FNAC SPECTACLES was launched in 1990. Today, it is installed in all 350 FNAC ticket offices in France, Belgium and Switzerland, and also controls the company’s direct sales via the Web and by telephone. Billetel is also the solution used by the Carrefour and Geant hypermarkets.

Billetel booking is a centralised system, providing real-time management of all activity in the in-store ticket offices as well as telephone and Internet purchases. It makes tickets immediately available through any sales point, regardless of payment method. The feature-rich Billetel information system is behind the sale of over 12 million tickets per year and is subject to a set of demanding operational requirements, including:

• Scalability – when new events go on-sale, attracting a very large number of users at once,
• Performance -- the sales process must be quick and smooth, even under high loads,
• Uptime -- to ensure online sales remain available 24 hours per day.

The computerised ticketing management system has two main missions:

• Sell and print tickets while managing the inventory of available seats,
• Interface with the disparate software systems used by venues and event promoters.

When planning the modernisation of the Billetel system, the challenge was to guarantee system flexibility to show events information, put tickets on sale more quickly, and to affordably tackle the scalability issues of activity peaks due to new events going on-sale – all while managing an increased number of new events, venues and tickets added every year.

Apart from wanting to reduce licensing costs and stay within budget, BILLETEL selected MySQL because it is a stable, upgradable DBMS with an engine capable of supporting transactions at very high performance levels. It handles high data volumes effortlessly and also fulfils the uptime goals for BILLETEL's information system. MySQL also gives management better control over business processes such as customer monitoring, reporting, etc.

According to Laurent Benintende, manager of BILLETEL, the FNAC SPECTACLES subsidiary: "MySQL's ease of use has made it simple for us to manage and upgrade the system very quickly. We have also subscribed to the MySQL Network platinum service and sent staff to MySQL’s professional administrators course so we always have support available to us and can strengthen the skills of our team in new technological solutions. Lastly, we appreciate the way MySQL France has been involved in the preparation phase of our project, which greatly facilitated the adoption of this tool."

Bertrand Matthelié, MySQL AB's director of marketing for EMEA, states, “We are extremely proud to count this FNAC subsidiary among our customers. MySQL Network is ideally suited to mass retail operations, a sector in which we have recorded growing adoption from both traditional sales firms and online e-tailers. MySQL’s ability to perform very quickly and scale-out on affordable hardware can significantly reduce the TCO of a company’s IT infrastructure."

About MySQL

MySQL AB develops and supports a family of high performance, affordable database products -- including MySQL Network, a comprehensive set of certified software and premium support services. The company's flagship product is the MySQL Server, the world's most popular open source database, with more than 10 million active installations. Many of the world's largest organizations, including Yahoo!, Alcatel, The Associated Press, Suzuki and NASA are realizing significant cost savings by using MySQL to power high-volume Web sites, business-critical enterprise applications and packaged software.

With headquarters in Sweden and the United States -- and operations around the world -- MySQL AB supports both open source values and corporate customers' needs in a profitable, sustainable business. For more information about MySQL, please visit www.mysql.com.

###

MySQL is a registered trademark of MySQL AB in the United States and other countries. Other product names may be trademarks of their respective companies.