| |
| |
NEED |
| |
The objective of this project was split into two categories: Website and Reservation System. Vineyard Fast Ferry's original website had little web presence and was not attracting many customers. The need was to give the website a contemporary look that could add to the branding. The second need was to build a reservation system that would allow external customers and internal employees the ability to reserve and purchase tickets to travel on board the Vineyard Fast Ferry. The company wanted this application to improve their branding and presence on the web and to make reservation and ticket production much more efficient.
The need was to build a basic reservation system. This system would allow customers the ability to book passage on the Vineyard Fast Ferry called the Millennium. The system was required to have the following functionalities:
 |
Making reservations |
|
Monitoring Inventory |
|
Accepting payments (multiple) |
|
Managing System values |
|
Generating Reports |
| |
|
|
| |
Challenges |
| |
This was a big project that encompassed a lot of complicated functionalities in order to create a successful online reservation system and its execution. The task was to develop a system that should allow web users to reserve tickets including cargo and pay for it online. At the same time people would be allowed to purchase tickets at the terminal. In both cases it would be better if both were treated as orders that contained reservations. The reservations made at the terminal were to be immediately converted to tickets for the trip and reservations made online were to be converted to tickets when the customers brought in their reservation slips. The system was to have limits based on the boat that would also be configured for each individual trip. Some elements were to be available on the web and some exclusive to the terminal operators.
Then administrators were to be given the ability to configure and change all of these settings. One of the key challenges was hardware integration that was resolved strategically by our qualified development team. |
| |
|
| |
SOLUTION |
| |
The Program Managers along with the Software Development team discussed at length the tasks that needed to be accomplished. It was concluded that reservation system should have the Online Reservation Process, the Terminal Process, and Website Reservation.
The project involved different functionalities depending on the user, terminal operator, and administrator. For example, the user would be allowed to create and view order whereas the terminal operator would be able to authenticate unique users, complete orders, print tickets and so on. So the tasks were many and complicated and they involved many logics. The terminal system was developed to interact with Cherry Keyboard, Datamax Ticket Printer, and Cash Drawer. Also different interfaces were designed such as Website Reservation Interface, Application Interface, and Admin Web Interface. The team at Netsmartz worked day and night to accomplish the tasks effectively.
At the end the following tasks were accomplished successfully:
|
Vineyard Fast Ferry Website |
|
Web reservation system |
|
Terminal reservation system |
|
Admin Interface |
|
| |
|
| |
TECHNOLOGIES USED |
| |
– Programming languages: ASP.NET, VB.NET
– Database: SQL Server 2000 with service pack 3
– Platform: Dot Net Frame Work
– IDE: Visual Studio.Net2003
– Platform: Dot Net Frame Work
– Web Services: .Net Web services using SOAP protocol
– Documentation: Microsoft Word, Microsoft Visio
|
| |
BENEFITS |
| |
|
The website made its presence felt impressively. |
|
The website contains complete information regarding the tours, schedules, services, rates, and everything related to bookings. |
| |
|
The number of people visiting the website increased. |
|
The reservation system developed was user friendly. |
|
The customers could make fast reservations. Reservation of a ticket takes less than 30 seconds. |
| |
|
VFF reservation system is designed in such a way that future conversion to touch screen mode would be easy. |
| |
|
Bookings at VFF are completely safe. |
|
Contains different access levels for users, terminal operator, and admin. |
|
|
|
