Madeira Story Centre

When the Madeira Story Centre required an integrated admissions, booking and retail management system, they discovered that the Gamma LeisurePOS system fitted their exact requirements.

Background
The Madeira Story Centre opened in April 2005, an initiative by "FUN, Centros Tematicos do Funchal, Lda", a member of the Blandy Group, in partnership with Etergeste, represents an investment of €7 millions, partially financed by SIVETUR.

The attraction was conceived to explain, in an entertaining, cultural and interactive form the history and stories of Madeira from the volcano that give birth to the archipelago, the discovery of the island by Joao Goncalves Zarco, the golden period of Sugar, Tourism and the history of the Archipelago in the 20th century through to current day. Madeira Story Centre is located in the old Sta. Maria Cinemas and Cooperativa Agricola buildings, which were specifically restored and adapted.

Madeira Story Centre includes permanent and temporary exhibitions, recreating period environments of high cultural and entertainment value.

International visitor attraction consultants, the Petersham Group, had responsibility for project, managing the development of the Madeira Story Centre on behalf of Blandy Group. This included writing the tender for procuring the management information system and ticketing solution for the new attraction and managing the tender response.

Keith Thomas of the Petersham Group said, ‘We were looking for a system that was user friendly and which successfully integrated ticketing, retail point of sale and stock control, as well as venue sales in a single package. We also needed the chosen system to interface with the client's main accounting system, enabling them to access and import management information from the attraction.’

Solution
At the conclusion of the selection process, the Gamma Dataware LeisurePOS product was selected to provide fully integrated admissions, ticketing, retail point of sale, stock control, purchase ordering, bookings and event management systems. In addition, Gamma Dataware also undertook to develop extend the LeisurePOS system to export data that could be imported directly to the client's accounting systems.

Gamma LeisurePOS is a fully integrated, modular system providing visitor attractions, museums, heritage sites and theme parks with complete operational management tools.

Designed specifically for the visitor attraction market, LeisurePOS modules cover all aspects of operations from front end admissions, ticketing, retail and catering point of sale, to back office bookings, event management and membership, including links to many accounting packages. Each of the modules can run independently, with the ability to add further modules at any time.

Optional hardware includes touch screen, PC based point of sale units, souvenir ticket printers and hand held sales units.

In addition Gamma Dataware provided project management, installation and training services as part of the project. The company also provide Madeira Story Centre with ongoing technical support and product updates.

Keith Thomas continues, ‘what particularly impressed us about Leisure POS was that not only did Gamma offer us the right solution at a competitive price, they were also able to demonstrate its successful usage in a range of comparable situations. When we asked for further modifications to adapt Leisure POS, including making the system available in the Portuguese language, Peter Ferguson and his team were extremely helpful. When it came to installation and training staff who did not have English as their first language or any previous experience of the industry, the staff from Gamma showed great patience and flexibility, ensuring that Leisure POS was up and running with the minimum of fuss.’

Joana Lomelino de Freitas of Madeira Story Centre added, ‘We found the Gamma Dataware LeisurePOS system was really adaptable and flexible and as a result, it was able to be quickly modified to take into account the demands of the different working environment in Madeira. We worked very closely with the team at Gamma in order to translate the LeisurePOS system into Portuguese and we found them to very helpful and supportive throughout this exercise. Since installation, we have been able to rely on them for technical support and have been able, with their help, to implement further small modifications as necessary to ensure that the system consistently delivers the level of service that we require’

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