IMPORTANT NOTICE!
Client
End Users
Project Overview
This case is a significant example of how the “hard time” could be turned into an opportunity. COVID-19 disrupted many industries and businesses, but for some, it became the starting point for breakthroughs. Our client modernized its nightlife app and gained market recognition by providing additional value to end users.
Booked It is a company that provides booking management software to the hospitality, leisure, and entertainment industries. They successfully developed their application and catered to their clients until COVID-19 shifted the industry landscape and prompted the players to seek more effective solutions. Booked It founders caught the wave of demands for cutting-edge industrial solutions. They decided to update its platform to make it more flexible to cater to its diverse customers’ needs.
Licklist (founded in 2012), a social marketplace for nightlife & music festivals, was the first platform the company developed and entered the market. It allows users to plan every aspect of their night-out, from finding the best bars and clubs to booking tickets to events. Licklist, as a nightlife app, allows users to connect with other nightlife enthusiasts and share their experiences.
The company is headquartered in London, UK, and has over 6,000 listed venues across the UK.
Licklist offers a variety of features that make it a valuable resource for nightlife enthusiasts. These features include:
- A searchable database of bars, clubs, and events
- The ability to book tickets to events
- The ability to create and share lists of favorite venues
- The ability to connect with other nightlife enthusiasts
- The ability to leave reviews of venues and events
Licklist is a valuable resource for anyone who enjoys nightlife. It is a great way to find new and exciting places to go out, and it is also a great way to connect with other nightlife enthusiasts.
Challenge
The challenge that unicrew engineers addressed was that the platform (Licklist) was developed long ago and did not meet modern usability standards. The existing solution was limited to a specific type of venues and could not be easily adapted to new markets.
Licklist was tailored as the solution for nightlife providers and was the best-in-class platform for that purpose. But the COVID-19 experience prompted founders to regard the industry widely. They started to validate the solutions that could address the challenges of more industry players, like the festival organizers, leisure centers, etc. For that purpose, the founders decided to create a more universal platform with rich functionality and scalability.
The client requested a highly adjustable platform that could replace the current solution or be used separately for a new market and target audience. Other challenges included:
- A wide variety of conceivable venues with different offers for end-users.
- The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the client’s vision, and new features and workflows had to be adopted.
- The scope of the end application and the number of features required from providers and venues changed.
Solution
01
Highly adjustable platform
Solution is suitable for multiple types of venues and easy to adapt from one market to another.
02
Cloud Migration plan
Financial reasonings (FinOps) and technical specifications regarding the requirements of scalability and security.
03
Adaptive UI
Venue owners can switch between the different types of events within a few clicks
04
Migration to AWS
unicrew's engineers managed whole process of the safe migration to AWS.
unicrew development team had to devise a solution suitable for multiple types of venues and easy to adapt from one market to another. The engineers developed an adaptive UI that allowed venue owners to switch between the different types of events within a few clicks, thus allowing them to modify their platform for new markets quickly.
unicrew’s engineers developed the first version of a highly adjustable platform that provides functionality for all types of users: administrators, venues, and customers. This platform can be easily adapted to almost any new type of venues and end-users. The engineers used Laravel and React.js to develop the solution.
To ensure the platform’s scalability, unicrew’s engineering team developed the Cloud Migration plan that included the financial reasonings (FinOps) and technical specifications regarding scalability and security requirements. After the client’s approval, engineers completed the migration to AWS.
Result
Booked It now has a much more universal platform that caters to all their customer’s basic needs. The platform has attracted over 600 businesses currently using it, which have seen a 19% increase in bookings and a 13% increase in spend per head on average. unicrew’s solution has enabled Booked It to expand its customer base, offer more features, and provide a better, more user-friendly experience for its users.
