Ticket Systems, Marketing and Donor Management Alternatives Utilizing PCs and the Internet
Patrick M. Finelli
In the Internet age, we no longer wonder whether information technologies will have an impact on the traditional methods of selling and distributing tickets. We don’t have to question whether the Net will really change everything, it already has. At its basic level, a ticket is a paper slip or card indicating that its holder has paid for or is entitled to a specified service. While you’re selling those paper tickets in today’s market, you can manage your patron database and integrate your development and donor duties with the same system. Dot-com hype is a media staple today along with politics, celebrities and sports, but many of the companies in our industry continue to be successful by creating dynamic ticket and marketing systems for the Internet.
According to Dwayne Cooper, e.Venue Development Manager at Paciolan, "The Internet is the largest sector of our business." Customers purchasing tickets online have the ability to find the best available. Craig McIntyre Senior Director of the Business Development Group at Pegasus Internet observes "Prospects on the Internet are excellent and continually growing, some of our client organizations are seeing more than 50% of total ticket sales coming from the web. In addition, in some cases, up to 75% of these sales are coming from individuals new to the ticketing organization."
We’ve surveyed the market and contacted key managers who represent companies making a variety of ticketing systems available to help organizations increase their ticket sales. Together they form an impressive list of the major arts venues, major symphonies and performing arts organizations that have adopted integrated systems for ticket sales, marketing and development, virtually changing the landscape of the ticket business. The products offered in our market survey range from affordable, high quality, management software specifically designed for the performing arts to complete turnkey systems with a full range of products and services large enough to handle the Olympics.
We asked basic questions such as: What are your principle and most popular products? When did you enter the market? Who are your major clients? What about pricing, service and support? And more complex issues such as: What are the special features that distinguish your products from others? What do you think patrons expect? What is the present state and what are the future prospects for selling tickets on the Internet?
The results indicate that there are many innovative and exciting products that can help to make ticket sales and customer care easier than ever. These packages give you the tools you need. Most consist of multiple modules with optional enhancements available. You can start with a basic ticketing module and then expand to seamlessly integrate other functions such as mailing lists, donor management, auditing and reports. A centralized database makes it easy to locate and organize mailing list and patron resources.
We estimate that many organizations are working with off-the-shelf general business software. If this is your current practice and you have plans to begin new services, you can easily export your existing documents. Integration with reporting programs is important, and many of the packages either come bundled with Seagate Software’s popular Crystal Reports or are compatible with Microsoft products. Jo Garfein, Communications Manager at TicketWeb, says "Clients have access to a variety of reports, including customer transaction reports, number of tickets purchased, event summary reports that identify cumulative sales, account summary reports for multiple events, and pre-show and final settlement reports. These reports can be easily imported and viewed as text files in Excel and Access directly from the TicketWeb system."
For the purposes of our survey, we’ve conveniently divided our products into two categories: PC based and Internet. There is some overlap as there are Internet products that integrate with PC systems and PC systems that connect to the Internet.
PC based
There are two companies in our survey, Astor Street and New Concepts, that concentrate marketing efforts on stand-alone PC based ticketing systems. Astor Street calls its software "Box Office in a Box™" and it is available in single user and network versions. Monty Boleyn, President of New Concepts, says the strongest point of his Tick-It 2K software is the user interface. "It offers the slickest way to pick and sell seats in a smooth sequence of steps." Both companies’ products feature reporting and donor management tools with mailing label capability. Both companies offer seating chart and ticket printing options for high speed dot-matrix or thermal ticket printer. New Concepts FGL Designer allows the user to design or layout their own custom ticket format for thermal printers. This utility is optional because not every customer will be using a thermal printer, and thermal printer language is so unique.
Astor Street
Astor Street’s virtual ticket window offers general and reserved for up to six venues in proscenium, thrust or round configurations with numbered or lettered rows, sequential, odd or even numbering (left or right) in up to 40 sections with 375 seats per section. If you place mouse cursor over a sold seat, you’ll display the name of the patron who purchased that seat. Membership fields are predefined by the software including subscriber, ticket buyer, volunteer, artist, donor, media, staff and 40 completely user-definable categories with a library of icons included to represent them. The client may define the performance schedule by answering questions using graphically-based buttons and classify events to facilitate analysis or bundle complex season ticketing plans. You can download a demo version from their website (www.astorstreet.com) for a tour of how the programs look and feel.
Astor Street contains features such as an address book for patron contacts, providing quick and simple access to important database information in order to generate calling lists of donors, subscribers, volunteers or a combination. Membership fields allow quick updating for dozens of mailing lists, posting pledges and donations. Reporting functions include tracking revenue trends, attendance, membership, donations and demographic statistics.
Astor Street’s ADAM donor management program has powerful searching, categorizing, tracking and reporting tools at affordable prices. Each can be purchased separately or used in combination, sharing a single master database. The basic Box Office in a Box starts at $475, a single-user version of ADAM is priced at $850, combination packages start at $1175. There are other enhancements such as thank you notes and receipts or "Ticklers" used by the system and users to remind staff of tasks they need to complete (e.g. pledge reminders, balance fiscal and calendar year, close fiscal and calendar year, year end statements, phone calls, meetings).
New Concepts
New Concepts’ Boleyn told us "Our philosophy is to empower the customer by providing tools to allow them to become independent instead of paying fees for planet-wide infrastructure that they don’t really need." Many of his clients sell tickets in box offices under their control or through consignment to other box offices. Boleyn believes "Clients should be able to go on the Internet without losing control or a significant portion of revenues to a third party" and admits "We are in fact in the design stage of a new multi-tiered product that will provide layered Internet deployment options for the client." A custom Internet browser front end will provide the capability of running multiple stations several miles apart. Even in its current configuration, Tick-It 2K can operate as a virtual private network provided the client implements a high speed WAN (wide area network).
New Concepts will customize your main seating plan according to information or drawings you provide when you purchase the software. The $949 base price for a single user version includes one seating plan, and the "House Map Creator" permits custom color house sections for those customers who operate multiple venues or change their seating layout. I’ve reviewed two previous implementations of Tick-It 2K and the latest version has many enhancements including: 1.) a re-designed user interface with support for touch screens; 2.) voice prompts for training; 3.) package plans now allow seven prices keyed off patron type (e.g. Adult, Child); 4.) ticket counters for each performance; 5.) flex passes to "pre-pay" for any show in your season which can be revoked at the end of your season or allowed to accumulate; 6.) ticket stock inventory tracking. Each time a ticket is printed by the program, inventory levels of your ticket stock are updated. Users are warned at log-in if the ticket stock is dangerously low and needs to be re-ordered. Another key feature of Tick-It 2K is the ability to export your transactions to your accounting G/L. Sales figures can be exported to a flat ASCII file readable by many popular accounting packages, such as Peachtree Accounting.
New Concepts offers 30 days free service and support. After the initial period, a service contract may be purchased for $720 annually or $75/hr on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Web based
Generally, companies that provide Internet ticketing systems are larger, their products more expensive and hardware requirements more advanced, but options abound and rewards are great.
Paciolan Systems
Paciolan Systems is a highly successful developer of integrated ticketing systems for colleges, professional sports, performing arts, museums, aquariums, zoos and attractions. The company took its name from Luca Pacioli, who published the first printed text on double entry bookkeeping in 15th century Italy. Founded as an accounting firm, Paciolan originally looked at ticketing systems as an accounting subsystem. Paciolan has been in the ticketing business for twenty years.
According to Cooper, "The entire operation should be controlled by the venue, it is all about finding ways to become closer to the customer." He believes "Venues are looking for a way to compete more effectively for the entertainment dollar and the ever-increasing demand on the patron’s free time." "The Internet is in its infancy," Cooper observes, "in some cases it is no different than a box office out the window, selling single tickets to anonymous customers. It is the same chain of business." He suggests that "It is possible to reduce overhead, to take some of the burden away from the customer. Done right it can be a much better experience." Cooper says "A good example is in the renewal process. Traditionally the patron writes the check and mails it in a business reply envelope. The client opens it, makes the deposit and adds the information to the database. Paciolan can customize the client’s Internet site to take some of these steps out that have no value. Customization fully integrates marketing, donation and fund raising in the patron database."
Paciolan’s e.Venue is the Internet-enabled gateway to PSI's ticketing applications. This software, coupled with PSI's ticketing software, allows automated access to the Internet and third-party ticket distribution while retaining complete control of inventory, customer service and key marketing data. The advantage is that you can run everything on one system. Paciolan clients include the Krannert Center, the San Francisco Ballet (www.sfballet.com) and the American Museum of Natural History with 100 users. The e.Venue software runs on an RS6000 server with IBM’s AIX operating system. They will supply complete a turnkey system including an on-site server, software and terminals for around $100,000.
Paciolan’s TX2 module handles reserved seats and general admission. TX2 provides a complete visualization of the venue in color. Color-coded pricing sections, seat status and user-defined hold codes create a selling process that is simple, flexible, and intuitive.
Separate modules handle fund raising (donor and solicitation), pledge processing, accounting (with G/L interface) and an integrated central patron database. Additional add-on modules include middleware such as Paciolan ODBC which allows your desktop report-writing tool (e.g. Excel, Impromptu, Crystal Reports) to communicate directly with your Paciolan database.
Paciolan offers a full range of service and support with a 24/7 call center, website and e-mail support. Internal call tracking ensures that confirmation is sent back to the customer. Professional services also include training, education, auditing, and marketing consultation.
Pegasus Internet
Pegasus Internet, founded in 1995 by current CEO Robert Bourne, is a boutique web development company consisting of thirty professionals with expertise in marketing, business process, design and software engineering. Craig McIntyre, Senior Director, Business Development Group for Pegasus, proclaims "We have developed and managed some of the most innovative online resources on the web for a world-class group of clients, representing business sectors from entertainment to financial services to not-for-profit to retail." Among their clients are: Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Denver Center for the Performing Arts (www.denvercenter.org), Guthrie Theater and the Boston Symphony Orchestra (www.bso.org). McIntyre adds "We work with clients to define internet objectives, and develop an online strategy that will enable web site communication between our clients and their customers. Basically, the goal is to assist our clients in finding technological solutions that increase revenue, streamlines internal and external business processes and enhances relationships with customers."
Pegasus is a leading provider of advanced tools for custom content delivery, event management, online marketing and e-commerce. McIntyre observes that "Fine and performing arts organizations are using the Internet to better serve customers, generate new revenue streams, reduce costs and extend their reach to new audiences."
Pegasus works with clients to provide complete website development services, including brand development, design, marketing tool development and reporting, and high-end interactive features. Pegasus’ technological expertise helps to satisfy the needs of sellers and buyers in the ticket industry. McIntyre notes "Our software enables automated updating of concert and performance sales, and therefore schedule information, on the organization’s web site. Ticket sales data can be automatically uploaded as often as needed. This application provides close to real-time access to updated ticketing information for the audience member."
McIntyre continued "A website equipped with an integrated ticketing application provides users with live ticket availability using customized software that queries a ticketing system directly. Once the software has queried the mainframe, it creates a customized order form based on the user's request, which is then submitted directly to the ticketing system. These applications are designed for organizations that anticipate a high volume of user traffic on their web sites, and a high demand for online ticketing." The Ravinia Festival provides a good example of this leading-edge technology (www.ravinia.org).
Pegasus works with clients every step of the way, from identification of online ticket sales objectives, to event calendar and ticketing application development, to ongoing application maintenance and site uptime assurance, to sales reporting, and ongoing technology upgrades.
TicketWeb
TicketWeb began serving consumers in the San Francisco Bay Area in December 1995, and became a full-service, national ticketing agency in 1996. Since then, they have experienced a rapid global expansion thanks to the Internet. The company has 70 employees and has sold over 1 million tickets this year.
TicketWeb’s software, TicketWeb 2.1, is the fundamental system that allows clients to administer their own ticket selling operations over the Internet, including ticket printing and reserved seating. There is no special hardware or software required and no set up fees for clients. All that is required of clients is a personal computer, a secure Web browser and Internet access. TicketWeb is more of an online distribution product than a walk-up, point-of-service product. Tickets for general admission and reserved seating events are sold online (www.ticketweb.com), via telephone and at various retail outlets across the country. The TicketWeb system prints physical tickets and mails them to ticket buyers. Garfein notes that "Clients have full control of their own box office operations online. Customers begin by entering the data, selecting options. Then it is a simple matter to click on the button and then choose from a list. It is that quick and easy." There is no hardware or software required, and no set-up fees for clients who use TicketWeb software and services. If clients choose to print tickets in-house, they will need a BOCA printer and blank ticket stock, both of which TicketWeb offers for purchase to vendors and promoters.
TicketWeb offers an easy-to-use, cost-effective system for both clients and consumers. TicketWeb products and services are ideal for venues such as museums, zoos, nightclubs and small professional theatres that are seeking a fast and easy way to distribute tickets online for general admission and reserved seating events. Their client list includes: the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Louvre Museum in Paris, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Museum of Modern Art (NY), San Diego Zoo, San Francisco Symphony, Second City (IL), Six Flags Magic Mountain (CA) and the Whitney Museum of American Art (NY).
In addition to ordering tickets online, TicketWeb has a fully trained staff dedicated to assisting consumers with phone order processing. TicketWeb’s friendly staff provides support between 8AM and 6PM PST Monday through Friday, and emergency support 24 hours a day.
Tickets.com
A leader in ticketing technology, Tickets.com offers a broad portfolio of specialized
in-house systems designed to meet the needs of arts, entertainment and cultural
organizations. Randall Oliver, Director of Communications & Investor Relations, notes
that Tickets.com is known for "state-of-the-art ticketing solutions." The client
list includes Ruth Eckerd Hall (Clearwater, FL), the Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.),
the Laguna Playhouse (CA), City Center (NY), the Emerson Majestic Theatre (Boston) and
both the Sydney and Salt Lake City Olympics.
The company touts itself as a form of banking network for entertainment tickets; a Web-based ticketing alternative where customers can take advantage of live Internet ticketing on the client’s website, the Tickets.com website or at a ticket outlet. If your box office is only open during limited hours or patrons have difficulty getting through on busy telephone lines, the flexibility and convenience of Tickets.com might be the solution, expanding the reach of your box office window. The client can maintain complete control of ticket inventory with a program such as TicketMaker, yet have the ability to exploit the full potential of ticket sales on the Internet. Tickets.Com processes and authorizes all sales on the Internet. The ticket buyer receives instantaneous confirmation of the sale. Settlement is usually provided on a weekly basis.
Are you ready to go online with your ticketing inventory? If your box office is only open during limited hours or patrons have difficulty getting through on busy telephone lines, the flexibility and convenience of Tickets.com might be the solution. Tickets.com is not a ticket service, essentially it connects your in-house ticketing system to a large ticketing network using the Internet. Tickets.com provides a portal on the Internet for your box office.
Can Tickets.com help you sell more tickets? Will this increase the sales in your area? The company firmly believes in this approach. The promise is that they will aggressively promote its website and that new partnerships with other sites will draw traffic.
Anyone doing business on the Web must insist on the secure settlement of transactions. You should always make sure your credit card transactions take place under a secure certificate. All information through Tickets.com is transmitted using SSL (secure socket layer), an accepted standard for secure transmission of data on the Internet. Your customers also expect the timely delivery of tickets. Since your own box office normally fills the orders made on the Web, you can fulfill the sales at a convenient time with the option of mailing the tickets to your customers or holding them at Will Call.
Tickets.com provides the expertise and software solutions to connect your ticketing operations to the Internet. All you need is a dedicated business level connection from your in-house ticketing system to the Internet. There is no charge for connection or subscription fees. An exclusive contract is not required. Once you are connected the ticket inventory is available for sale at your web site 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Customers who go to your web site will be able to buy tickets to your events in real time using the Tickets.com selling screens and never realize they have left your site.
Your in-house program ordinarily provides a means to issue tickets and control seat inventory while handling accounting, reports and tracking of patrons. You continue to sell tickets directly from your box office, but you’ll be able to add ticket outlets, call centers and websites through Tickets.com. It can provide round-the-clock promotion for your events while opening up new markets for your tickets. It will automate ticketing, inventory control and service functions while capturing the valuable patron purchase history you need to build and retain your audience base.
Tickets.com has a major Internet presence, but also offers in-house software licensing products for patron management. The three products range from the "out-of-the-box" TicketMakerÔ Professional that runs on a Pentium PC and will support up to 10 user terminals on a local area network to the server-based, Internet-ready PASSâ Ticketing System (The J. Paul Getty Museum, Smithsonian Institute, Colonial Williamsburg, Seattle Opera) and Prologueâ Ticketing System (Sydney and Salt Lake City Olympics, Major League Baseball, Detroit Symphony), which will support over 200 terminals.
Conclusion
Our market survey revealed exciting possibilities for ticket sales and marketing, especially considering the potential of the Internet. Will this overwhelm the patron, or will it simply provide you faster, more competitive ways of dealing with customers?
We still drive cars to go to theatres and performing arts complexes, patrons walk up to an usher who tears the ticket and hands back the stub along with a program before using a flashlight to show us our seat. The Internet offers something more. By the time someone walks up to the window, he already knows much more about your organization and you know a lot about him. You are already closer to the customer.
Ticket selling organizations need to think in terms of systems, not products. The significance of the Net goes beyond E-mail and websites. Something that’s cool isn’t the same as something that’s successful and profitable. It takes a combination of practical applications and utilities, managing information and databases to make it more than just convenient. Ultimately, these new technologies will have to work for you, they will have to do things you want and need, not merely do something that we think is neat. As Paciolan’s Cooper puts it "Ticket systems must fit into a way that the patron finds valuable and necessary."
As far as the future of selling tickets on the Internet, Pegasus’ McIntyre says "Based on our five years of experience watching online ticket sales increase steadily, and with the ongoing advances in technology that continually improve the ease and accuracy of online ticket purchasing, we are confident that the outlook for continued growth in this area is good. During the initial life of events-based ticketing on the Internet, web sites were used primarily as enhanced marketing brochures, providing consumers with access to real-time event information. Revenue-generating mechanisms such as online ticketing and merchandising, which were in their infancy as recently as two years ago, have developed from intriguing applications to profitable realities."
TicketWeb’s Garfein concludes "On the lower end, ticket sellers are looking for easy, cost-effective methods for selling tickets. On the higher end, ticket sellers are looking for integrated ticketing and donor management. More and more consumers will opt for the convenience of purchasing tickets online, especially with Ticketmaster’s option to purchase, download and print bar-coded event tickets from home or office PCs. Tickets are ideal products; consumers don’t need to try them on or see them before purchasing."
With Internet ticket sales heating up, you don’t want to be left in the cold.
Please refer to the ticketchart for a comparison of features in the systems reviewed here.
The people interviewed for this article can be reached at:
Astor Street
Nancy Ryan
Director of Client Services
Astor Street, LLC
929 North Astor Street, Suite 2106
Milwaukee, WI 53202-3489
www.astorstreet.com
414-276-6100
New Concepts Software, Inc.
Monty Boleyn
New Concepts Software, Inc.
Post Office Box 688
Roseville, Michigan 48066
Phone: 810-776-2855
Fax: 810-776-7433
www.ncsoftware.com
Paciolan Systems
Dwayne Cooper
e.Venue Development Manager
2875 Temple Avenue
Long Beach, CA 90806
(562) 595-1092
fax: (562) 595-7900
Pegasus Internet
Craig McIntyre
Senior Director
Business Development Group
333 7th Ave. 19th Floor
New York, NY 10001
917-339-7284
fax: 917-339-7169
TicketWeb
Jo Garfein
Communications Manager
TicketWeb
510-704-4448 x162
fax: 510-649-9218
jgarfein@ticketweb.com
Tickets.com
Randall Oliver
Director, Communications & Investor Relations
55 Anton Blvd. 12th Floor
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
www.tickets.com
714-327-5612
fax 714-327-5410
Patrick M. Finelli is Professor of Theatre at the University of South Florida where he teaches in a traditional classroom and on the World Wide Web. He holds the Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. His academic and professional performing arts experience spans a wide variety of stage and arena productions, including drama, dance, opera, symphony, jazz, summer stock, television, film and political debates. He has served as editor and author of textbooks, CD-ROMs and over 300 articles and software reviews. He is a partner in Finelli/Lee Theatre Consultants and is the founder of the Theatre Arts website, Connectedcourseware.com. You may contact him at pmf@pfweb.com
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