Meet the new SystemOne mobile app for booking agents & artists

You're at a festival talking to a promoter between sets, and the deal comes together. Until now, that booking often went into WhatsApp, Asana, or email so you could retype it into SystemOne when you’re back at your desk.

But that workflow is about to change. We launched a completely rebuilt mobile app. It's the third version of our SystemOne mobile app and the first built for booking agents, not only the artists and crew on the road.

We chatted to the core team who worked on the revamp:

• Ioana, our UI/UX designer
• Roxana, our lead mobile developer
• Kevin, one of our dealmakers
• Martijn, our co-founder who leads product
• Bartho, our co-founder who leads sales and support

What booking agents can do in the new SystemOne mobile app

Our native iOS & Android apps aren’t just coated in some fresh paint. They’re packing powerful features our customers requested:

• See every artist's shows and travel in one calendar view, filtered by type, artist, or status.
• Add new shows and change show details on the go.
• Update company details and look up contacts in the full address book.
• Upload and share files, and manage guest lists.
• Check show info offline when the signal drops.
• Switch between light and dark mode.

From view-only for crew to read-and-write for booking agents

The previous app was built for the road. Booking agents loved it for keeping their artists and crew updated on shows and touring info. But it was view-only, and it was organized around one artist at a time.

Agents asked for two things above all: to add and change information, and to see the whole agency's schedule in one place instead of starting from one artist.

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Ioana gathered those requests from two directions. Our sales and support team shared the biggest pain points they heard from customers, and she interviewed customers herself. Then she mapped both into affinity maps, and one thread ran through all of it.

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The feature we wouldn't launch without

Adding and editing shows was the non-negotiable. Kevin, Dealmaker at SystemOne, drew the line. As Roxana remembers it: "Kevin was like, 'Okay, we're launching the new app, but first we need to add and edit the show. We're not launching without it.'"

It's Roxana's favorite feature, and it wasn't simple to build:

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Users with editing permissions can now change set times, dates, drivers, and other show details directly in the app, and add a new show the moment a deal comes in. Nobody needs every detail on the spot, either.

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One underrated detail: company details are editable in the app, too. When a promoter's company information changes, you can update it on the spot instead of saving it somewhere to deal with later. SystemOne stays your agency’s single source of truth.

Complex workflows, one thumb

Booking agency workflows aren't simple. A single booking can involve contacts, companies, venues, promoters, and requests, and every agency splits that work a little differently. Roxana saw it up close when we met some of our customers at our Porto, PT team retreat earlier this year:

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Ioana's job was to fit all of that onto a phone screen without hiding what matters. She kept asking herself the same three questions:

1. Does the user really need to see this right now?
2. Does the user need to have this action one tap away?
3. Can we simplify this interaction by removing something?

The answers didn't come on the first try.

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Phones bring their own puzzles. There's no cursor to hover with, and iOS and Android handle certain components completely differently—for example, the date picker. This always adds another layer of considerations when designing the UI/UX.

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Built with the desktop platform, not beside it

The SystemOne mobile app is built on the same internal API as the desktop platform, so both work from the same data.

But who cares? How does this benefit you? Here’s how: desktop to mobile updates are instant, so you’re always enjoying the latest version of SystemOne wherever you’re working.

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Our new features, like guest list approvals, are being designed for both platforms at the same time.

What the new mobile app means for your booking agency

For Martijn, it boils down to one moment: "You’re at a festival. You’re talking to a promoter. Boom. You can add the deal immediately." You don't need to wait until you're back in the office to add the details. The show is your office now.

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Roxana sees the same shift from the build side:

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And yes, there's dark mode. Bartho calls it "the cherry on the cake." ;)

The app doesn't do everything the desktop platform does yet, and our team is already working on more: adding travel on the go, adding contacts and companies, and making changes to the tour, all from the mobile app.

Already on SystemOne? Download the new mobile app from the App Store or Google Play.

Still weighing it up? Book a demo to see how SystemOne fits the way your agency works, or request a trial and try it yourself.