Introduction to Spektrix Connect

Spektrix Connect lets your organisation sell tickets for Event Instances held in another ticketing system through your own Spektrix system. Your team and customers can select tickets through your usual sales channels, while the other system controls availability, prices and supplies the barcodes used for admission.

What can I use Spektrix Connect for?

You can use Spektrix Connect to sell tickets on behalf of another organisation you have agreed to work with.

For example, you might be:

• A festival selling tickets for participating venues
• A resident company selling tickets for its performances at a venue
• A touring company selling tickets for performances at different venues
• A central Box Office selling tickets for partner organisations

Your organisation sells the tickets through Spektrix, while the organisation providing the tickets continues to manage them in their own system.

What is Spektrix Connect?

Spektrix Connect lets your box office staff, and customers on your website, buy tickets for another organisation's Event Instances as if they were your own.

Spektrix Connect builds on the existing Agency API functionality in Spektrix.

There are two systems involved in a Spektrix Connect sale:

The source system always stays in control of:

• Availability: which seats are free, held or sold.
• Prices: what each Ticket Type costs in each Price Band.
• Barcodes: the barcode printed on each ticket, so tickets can be scanned at the venue.

Types of Source System

You can connect to two types of source system:

• Spektrix: another organisation's Spektrix system. You'll need their System name, plus an API user and API key from an Agent Customer Record they create for you.
• HTTP Connector: a third-party ticketing system. A developer builds and hosts a small web service, called an HTTP Connector, that translates between Spektrix and the other system. You'll need the connector's Base URL and an authentication header. Developers can find everything they need in the Spektrix Connect guide on the Integrate Portal.

How does Spektrix Connect work?

To set up a connection between two systems using Spektrix Connect, there are four steps:

1. Connect: Two systems are connected using API credentials to prove that the request is authorised. If you’re connecting to a non-Spektrix system, a developer needs to build and host a HTTP connector. 

   TIP: To connect two systems they must use the same currency.

2. Import: You import the source system's Events and Instances into your system (the Agent system). Your system will check for changes and update Instance details every hour.
3. Map: Spektrix uses Mapping to translate each sale between the two systems. Before selling, you must match the source system's Ticket Types, Price Bands and Lock Types to your own.

Once the connection is set up, you can sell the imported Event Instances in the Sales Interface and on your website. Every seat sold in the Agent system is checked, held and confirmed live in the source system.
 

Connecting Spektrix as a Source System

If you want to make your Spektrix system a source system using Spektrix Connect, you will need to set up your Agent system as a Customer Record in the same way as any Agent using the Agency API. To do this you can follow the instructions in Setting Up Agencies.

When your system is the source system:

• The Agency API must be switched on. If you haven't used it before, contact support.
• For each organisation you want to work with, create a separate Agent Customer Record, with its own API key. This lets you give each Agent a different Commission Structure, allocation and invoice them separately.
• Within the Agent Customer Record, check that the Api Credit Limit comfortably covers the sales you expect between invoices. Sales that would take the Agent over this limit will fail.

• You will need to provide your Agent with your client name, the API user and API key from the key generation tool for them to set up the connection.
• The Agent system can only import and sell Instances that are Visible and On Sale to Agents. To give the Agent an allocation of seats, you can use Agency Locks. Take a look at Setting up an Event for sale through the Agency API to learn more.
• Let the Agent know when you add a Ticket Type or Price Band, because they’ll need to map it before they can sell it.
• Each sale will appear in your system as an ordinary Agency API Order. Sales are recorded against the Agent Customer Record and will appear as paid by Agent Credit. The Details Supplied by Agent section will show the customer's name, the first line of their address and the Agent's Order ID. Tickets carry your own barcodes, so they scan at your venue as normal.
• The Agent can't pass your Event Instances on to another system. Each organisation must connect to your system directly to sell tickets on your behalf.

What information is imported into my Agent system?

When Events and Instances are imported from a source system, copies of the source system’s Events, Instances, venues and Seating Plans will be available in the Agent’s Spektrix system.

The Seating Plan for an imported Event Instance will look like one of your own, with a few differences:

• Under the Instance's on-sale details, a message shows which source system it was imported from, for example Imported from source system 'salesdemo_thecircle'.
• Seats that are unavailable in the source system are shown with an X. These might be seats the source system or another Agent has sold, or seats that are held or locked. You will never see this symbol on your own Event Instances.
• Seats you've sold through your own system are shown as grey seat icons, the same as for your own Event Instances.

Spektrix keeps a copy of the structure of the source system's Event Instances, but never of their availability or prices.

Everything else about an imported Event, such as its description, images, website content, Attributes, Ticket Design, Commission Structure and Tax Code, are set in your own Agent system.
 

What is mapping?

You’ll need to match the source system’s Ticket Types, Price Bands and Locks to the equivalents in your Agent system. This is known as mapping.

For example, you might match an Adult Ticket Type from the source system to a Full Price Ticket Type in your Agent system.

Mapping tells Spektrix which of your items matches each of the source system's items.

Spektrix uses mappings in both directions:

• When displaying a Seating Plan, it shows your Ticket Types and Price Bands against the source system's live prices.
• When a ticket is added to the basket / cart, it tells the source system which of its Ticket Types to sell.

You only need to set up mappings once for each source system. They apply to every Event Instance you import from it.

Seats in an allocation that haven’t been matched to a Lock Type in the Agent system won’t be available for sale. And, for each Price Band the default Ticket Type must be mapped for the Instance to be able to be sold.

How are availability and prices kept up to date?

The Agent system will request availability and prices from the source system when needed. This information is separate from the Event information copied during an import.

The price of each ticket comes from the source system:

• If the source system adds a commission to its tickets, it's included in the price you see through Spektrix Connect.
• You can then apply your own Commission Structure to imported Instances, in the same way as you would for our own Instances. You keep any commission you add on top of what you pay the source system.

For example, if the source system's price, including their commission, is £20.00 (£19+1), and you add a £1.50 commission, your customer pays £21.50. When reconciling, you pay the source system £20.00 and keep the £1.50 commission.

What happens during a sale?

When you sell a ticket in an Agent system to an Event from the source system:

1. The customer selects tickets through your website, or your team selects them in the Sales Interface. Current availability and prices are requested from the source system.
2. When added to the basket / cart, the same tickets are held in a corresponding basket / cart in the source system. Changes made before purchase, such as removing tickets or changing Ticket Types, are passed to the source system. The source system can also update prices when an offer applies.
3. The customer pays and their Order is confirmed in your Spektrix system.
4. The Agent system requests the source system to confirm the Order and return the ticket barcodes.

The customer’s order is confirmed in the Agent system first and then the source system.

A seat can become unavailable between being displayed and being added to a basket / cart. If someone else has bought it, the customer will need to choose another seat.

A promo code can be passed to a source system but that system needs to accept it. This means that the promo code must be set up on the Source system for it to be valid.

Where does the customer information go?

The customer relationship and full Customer Record stay with the Agent system where the customer makes the purchase. The source system receives the customer’s name, first address line and Agent Order ID for fulfilment.

Who receives the money?

The Agent takes the customer’s payment. The source system organisation must invoice the Agent system organisations invoice and the payment must be settled separately outside of Spektrix.

What can Agent systems do with imported Event Instances?

As an Agent system, you can manage sales for source system Events within the following ways.

You can:

• Sell tickets in the Sales Interface.
• Sell tickets on your website or Subsite (web sales are switched on by default).
• Apply Promo Codes, as long as they are created in both the Agent and source system.
• Change the Ticket Type of an imported ticket after it has been added to the basket / cart.
• Print tickets with the source system's barcodes.
• Apply your own Commission Structure.
• Record returns in your system.
• Run Analysis and Accounting reports against imported Events and Instances.

You can’t:

• Override ticket prices
• Create Reservations for imported tickets
• Add Ticket Donations to imported tickets.
• Use Best Available or View from Seat selection through the API.
• Sell imported Event Instances onward to your own Agents through the Agency API.
• Run Sales Reports for imported Event Instances.
• Automatically record returns in the source system. Returns must be manually communicated.

How do customers receive tickets that work at the venue?

Tickets for imported Events use barcodes supplied by the source system. This means that customers can present tickets which can be scanned and recognised as their own tickets in the Scanning Interface.

The ticket designs and delivery methods you use need to be tested as part of setting up the connection between systems. This includes checking that the venue can scan and accept the tickets.

PDF tickets, physical tickets, Dotdigital emails and Digital Passes each need their own checks.

How do I get started?

Contact our team to discuss the organisation you want to connect with and the tickets you want to sell.

Before starting, you’ll need to agree:

• Which organisation will provide the Events.
• Which organisation will sell the tickets.
• Whether the source system uses Spektrix or another ticketing system.
• Which sales channels and ticket delivery methods you plan to use.
• Which Events, Ticket Types and allocations you can sell.
• Pricing and commission
• How often the source system organisation will invoice the Agent system organisation. Organisation’s must invoice each other and settle separately outside of Spektrix.
• Which ticket delivery methods you’ll use.

Our team can help you establish the next steps for your connection.

If you’re working with a developer to connect a third-party ticketing system, you can share the Spektrix Connect developer documentation on the Integrate Portal.

Once you are ready to get started, follow the steps in How to set up Spektrix Connect.
 

Example scenario: Setting Up Spektrix Connect for an Arts Festival

In the next section we’ll cover an example of how Spektrix Connect can be used and look at an example with an arts festival where two venues and a central festival box office each have their own Spektrix system, but customers can buy tickets for everything from the festival box office.

The scenario

Three organisations take part in the festival. Each is a separate legal entity with its own Spektrix system.

The festival wants:

• Customers to be able to buy tickets for every festival Event Instance from the central festival box office, in person and on the festival website.
• Customers who walk into Venue A's box office to be able to buy tickets for Venue B's Event Instances, and vice versa.
• Each venue's website to sell only that venue's own Event Instances.

Whichever system sells a ticket takes the money and keeps the customer. The customer's name, first address line and Order ID are passed back to the venue only for fulfilment, for example so the venue's box office can help the customer on the night.

Who is the Agent and who is the Source?

Each venue is a Source System for its own Event Instances. A system that sells another system's Event Instances is an Agent of that system.

• System 1 publishes its Event Instances to System 2 and System 3.
• System 2 publishes its Event Instances to System 1 and System 3.
• System 3 publishes nothing. It only imports.

Systems 1 and 2 sell each other's Event Instances at their box offices only, so they take imported Instances off sale on their websites. System 3 sells everything at its box office and on its website.

The Source System

Each venue follows Setting Up Agencies for each Agent it publishes to, plus the extra steps in If your Event Instances are being sold.

Giving each Agent its own Customer Record means each venue can:

• Give each Agent a different Commission Structure and API Credit Limit.
• Use Agency Locks to hold back an allocation for one Agent only, for example a block of seats for the festival box office.
• Run a separate Agent Invoice for each Agent.

The Agent system

Each system that sells another system's Event Instances follows Adding a Source System, then Importing Events from a Source System and Mapping Ticket Types, Price Bands and Lock Types.

TIP: The festival box office can map both venues' Ticket Types to the same Ticket Types in its own system, for example both venues' Adult to its own Full Price, so staff and festival customers see consistent names across the whole festival.