The Royal Shakespeare Company's new Box Office and telephone system will be up and running from 8 June 1999. Awarded as part of a grant from the National Lottery, the new BOCS system will revolutionise the speed and efficiency with which the RSC Box Office and Sales team service over 600,000 customers, selling over 1 million tickets each year.

Handling over 1,000 telephone calls daily, demand for tickets outstripped supply at the current Box Office. New telephone lines will dramatically reduce the queues of callers waiting to speak to an RSC operator. A new and more memorable telephone number for the Box Office, 01789 403403, will be in operation from 8 June. The end result will be a greatly improved telephone and Box Office service to RSC customers.

The BOCS ticketing system, used by many leading arts venues all over the world, will also aid the RSC's Marketing department in streamlining their direct mail operation. More reliable data tracking will ensure that customers will receive more accurate and targeted information about productions that will be of specific interest to them. In the not too distant future, the new system will lead to direct links with web-sites of other arts and entertainment venues and ticket agencies, making global internet shopping for RSC theatre tickets a real possibility.

RSC Head of Marketing and Sales, Kate Horton said:

"We are delighted that the National Lottery Award has allowed these long-awaited new Box Office and telephone systems to be installed. The RSC is renowned for the excellence of its productions and we can now aim to match this standard in our service to customers".