Hannah Price, Commercial Manager
West Midlands Safari Park.

"From a business perspective we don't welcome surprises, especially when it comes to monitoring what's happening commercially around the site. Fortunately, we work very closely with Intelligent Business Systems, who supply our pos technology and ticketing systems for the Park. Our involvement with them helps minimise the risk factor and keeps things running like clockwork.

As my responsibilities include retail, admissions and wristbands, I liaise with senior project manager Mark Bagnall and the IBS team several times a month to ensure the Park runs as smoothly as possible from both pos and ticketing perspectives. It's a long-standing relationship built on mutual trust and one of the great things about them is that they always respond quickly to queries and issues. I can manage most things on the system but occasionally need help with things like reclaiming VAT or connecting one-off promotional offers to the journal or creating special reports.

You always get the impression they are genuinely interested in what we're doing and what we're trying to achieve. One of the things I really like about them is that they are also very proactive and take a consultative approach to the way they carry out their business. For instance, IBS designed and installed the ticketing system for the ten ticket kiosks to the Park's entrance. This system needs to be able to seamlessly accommodate up to 10,000 visitors per day when the Park's at full capacity during bank holidays and summer season peaks. After all, we are busy marketing the Park throughout the year - and have numerous awards to prove the success of our efforts, which are handled by our internal marketing and creative team. We advertise on television and billboards around the Midlands, send out a quarter of a million direct mail pieces from our database, release numerous press and media stories - and run lots of special incentives to drive repeat business.

Another beauty of the system designed by IBS is that we have a real time snapshot of exactly how many people are in the Park at any one time and the income we're generating. The information appears on the computers of senior staff so the likes of General Manager Ashley Gillam and Director of Wildlife Bob Lawrence can see how we're doing hour by hour. We're introducing new-style driver-sided kiosks over the coming months to try and speed up entrance to the Park so visitors can spend more time with the animals rather than waiting to get in. As part of this process, IBS worked with us to help develop an e-ticketing solution so visitors can purchase tickets on-line with printed vouchers scanned in at the kiosks. Like the innovation of driver-side kiosks, e-ticketing will give us the opportunity to boost sales through making purchasing easier and quicker for our customers who come from Wales, Birmingham, Leicester, the Midlands and the north. Visitors can use the tickets anytime they want during the relevant season. IBS has also made its presence felt in the Plaza retail area, home to our African Trading Post shop and pizza and ice cream parlours. We use PC POS terminals and StockLink software in the shop.

The system is easy for staff to use so they can concentrate on looking after customers while the sales reporting and stock control informs us about which popular lines to reorder and when. The shop's packed full of DVDs, gifts and brilliant, high quality cuddly toys, including our own specially commissioned white lions. These are unique to us and many of our visitors like to take away a really special souvenir. After all, we were the first wildlife park to introduce a pride of rare white lions in 2004 - and we were also delighted to have been able to announce the first ever white lion cubs to be born in the UK. The arrival of four cubs then doubled our white lion population, which now numbers 20. Whether they are real or toys, we're always striving to reach the highest standards with everything we do. That includes the day to day running of the business. Here the likes of IBS are helping us perform to our potential. However, we know in an increasingly competitive leisure and entertainment market, we can never stand still so visitors can look forward to even more attractions and further enhancements to our technology courtesy of IBS as we grow together.