Online & SMS based resource management tool
AVBooker.com is a subscription based website that gives the AV industry a new way to find freelance technicians and a way for those freelancers to easily find more potential customers. Octavia have been AV Bookers’s technology partner since the company was founded.
The AV industry relies heavily on freelancers to fulfil the graphics, video, sound, lighting, production, set and staging and post-production elements of the industry. The booking of those freelancers has traditionally been managed by "bookers" across the entire industry; with no centralised resource management system.
The owners of AVBooker.com, who were both AV professionals themselves, recognised the efficiency savings that could be made by utilising a central, web based, resource management tool across the entire industry and, realising a business opportunity, decided to launch AVBooker.Com.
Jamie Shiels, founding partner of AV Booker commented:
"The primary objectives of AVBooker.com were to help freelancers organise their bookings with minimal effort and allow bookers book their freelancers without spending days on the phone, the fact that they can search for new clients/freelancers is a bonus.
Key to the success of AVBooker.com was the choice of a true technology partner who could work closely with us to develop a tool that would fit the needs of the industry and come up with imaginative solutions. Only this would enable us to quickly grow our client base and revenues. After an exhaustive tender " selection process, we selected Octavia IT Services as this partner.".
System requirements
After contract agreement, we entered a phase of joint software design with AV Booker. The, high level, core requirements were:
- A self registration and membership facility for freelancers and bookers.
- The facility for freelancers to record their AV skills and upload a CV or portfolio of work
- A diary/planning system to allow freelancers to record their availably and details of jobs undertaken
- A complex search tool to allow bookers to search for freelancers based on skills and availability.
- Taking of credit and debit card payments for ongoing membership
- A "buddy" referral system to help increase membership levels
There was, however, one major problem that AV Booker felt could hinder the success of the system: the nature of the work, means that freelancers in the AV industry often find it difficult to have regular internet access or even mobile phone conversations (freelancers are often in theatres, events or other "quiet" environments).
SMS Text message interface
Our solution to this problem was to design a text message based interface to the system for the freelancers. Utilising an SMS gateway service, we developed a series of SMS short-codes that could be used by freelancers to:
- Query their diary for a single or a range of dates
- Be immediately passed booking requests
- Accept or decline booking requests
Implementation
Octavia took full ownership for the system implementation. We designed and developed a system utilising Microsoft's SQL Server 2005, and .NET technologies. We managed the test and acceptance programme with the customer and configured the production environment which was located in a managed data centre.
A success story
AVBooker.com launched in February 2007 and has been an immediate success. There has been wide uptake and positive feedback both from the AV freelancer and booker communities. Jamie Shiels from AV Booker commented:
"Octavia have helped us quickly and cost effectively realise our ambitions. They have been our key supplier during our start-up phase and it is a privilege to call them a true business partner."
