Internet
Strategies for Venue Enablement, Database Integration and
Building Quality Patron Relationships
Part I
A year
ago we examined the impact of information technologies upon traditional methods of
ticketing, marketing and donor management. Since
then, many “dot-com” businesses have lost their panache, but we found that the
specialists in our survey have been quite successful in continuing to develop markets,
enhance products, improve processes and provide services for the arts entertainment
industry. A major reason for this success is
that companies have integrated the Internet into traditional business models rather than
relying solely on web implementation to meet revenue targets and enhance patron
management.
There have been a few important changes in corporate strategies with acquisitions and new partnerships as you might expect under tight economic conditions. It is clear that the frenzy of Internet ticketing has matured into a stable industry and radical innovations are not as important as making incremental improvements in all areas including revenue generation and expense efficiency. The key concepts are: creating new revenue opportunities through venue enablement, database integration and building quality relationships with patrons. As Paciolan CEO Jane Kleinberger says, “Our goal is to empower the organization from front office to back, with affordable, leading-edge technology.” Kleinberger emphasizes that “success in the ticket industry depends upon the ability to introduce e-commerce through logical extensions of age-old processes, providing a wholly integrated infrastructure that puts venues in direct control of managing their own ticketing operation with customized software.”
This update focuses on new developments and innovations in ticketing systems especially in the realm of marketing and donor management. We’ve surveyed the industry and contacted savvy managers who represent the major firms making a variety of ticketing systems available to help organizations increase their ticket sales. There is a growing list of major venues including museums, orchestras and performing arts centers that have adopted integrated systems for ticket sales, marketing and development. Many have gained significant benefits from the products featured here, ranging from Windows-based software running on local networks to complete turnkey systems with a full range of products and services large enough to handle the most complex multiple-venue, multiple-event system.
We asked basic questions
such as: What are your principle and most popular products? How
have your products changed in the past year? How
do your products satisfy the needs of ticket sellers and patrons? 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? What special features address patron management
and donor development?
The results indicate that there have been major changes in the past year with many innovative and surprising product developments making ticket sales and customer care easier than ever. Kleinberger points out, “Internet ticketing and donor management is still a growth market. Paciolan has contracted with 240 top-tier entertainment organizations generating $100 million in ticket sales a year, out of a total of 23,000 organizations.” The figures indicate that slightly more than 1% of organizations handle approximately 24% of the $425 million tickets sold.
Last year there were two companies in our survey, Astor Street and New Concepts, that focused marketing efforts on stand-alone PC-based ticketing systems running on local networks. However, according to Kristen Weber, Director of Product Development for Astor Street, “The ability for arts organizations to offer ticket sales via the Internet is becoming increasingly important for attracting new customers.” Both companies have developed Internet features to expand their reach. Astor Street’s principle products are Box Office in a Box™ and ADAM (Arts Donor Activity Manager) sold separately or in a popular deluxe combo with their Thermal Ticket Printing Package. Astor Street has plans to offer an Internet component called “Box to Go,” an add-on program to facilitate off-site sales via laptop, and another new product designed specifically for advanced data mining and manipulation.
Monty Boleyn, President
of New Concepts, was very pleased to announce a new joint marketing agreement with
CyberSEATS™,” a value-added ticketing service that brings your box office to the
Internet, so venues can sell tickets in real time online. This partnership will
significantly expand the reach of NCS’s Tick-It!
2K software, a product that previously could run only on local networks.
Astor Street entered the market in 1996 and is one of the smaller companies, but Weber declares, “This allows us to provide more affordable software and a more personal touch with our clients.” Weber points out that “Astor Street software is designed to be easy to set up and run with standard operations that are graphically-based point and click, making it easy to quickly train new users and set up venues and seasons. Knowing the dependence of arts organizations on volunteers, the software follows a familiar Windows feel.” Weber adds, “Internet sales will increase year to year, but there will always be subscribers who require a human touch.”
Recent updates have focused on usability. The inclusion of many more keyboard shortcuts and the streamlining of processes have improved the overall user interface. Astor Street’s easy-to-use software coupled with a dynamic set of reporting and analysis tools provides many advantages in a self-contained system. The ADAM donor management program features a dynamic database that makes it easy to locate, organize, segment and manage all your mailing list and resource information. Onscreen tools let you track pledges and payments, monitor yearly targets and analyze giving trends using a suite of statistical and analytical reports.
When used in combination, Box Office in a Box and ADAM offer an integrated, centralized database. Weber says, “There is no redundancy in list management, allowing you to leverage both ticket buying information and donation history for powerful analysis as well as targeted mailing appeals. An organization can more completely target their patrons, leveraging ticket buying and giving trends to maximize both ticket sales and contributions.”
Attendance and revenue reports are available at the touch of a button. ADAM now includes a user-definable group report for donations allowing the user to define demographic or item data for sorting. You can capture marketing data per transaction by creating your own queries using a number of relational criteria. In addition, several new quick reports have been added to Box Office in a Box. Address labels for patrons who attend a particular event or performance are available at a click of a button. Extensive audit features have been added to virtually every section of the software automatically tracking many system events and settings changes.
Last year Astor Street’s virtual ticket window offered general and reserved for up to six venues. Now there are numerous scalable options including unlimited general and reserved seating venues and multiple, unlimited seasons. There is easy processing and reporting of sales by subscriptions, passes, single tickets, comps, groups, pass, special, house seats and non-ticket items like processing fees, parking fees, refreshments and souvenirs. The package includes 19 ticket layouts and on-screen seating charts showing ticket type and patron name at a glance with subscription seat auto-blocking.
Box Office in a Box and ADAM automatically tag all transactions and modifications with the user name, date and time. A full cash drawer reconciliation process includes balancing, deposits and withdrawals. An Audit Trail report can be run to view the history of monies received, reconciled and deposited by the organization. In addition, several sales and attendance reports are available to assist in the reconciliation of sales and house audits. Subscription Reports identifying subscribers who have not utilized subscription or pass seats also assist in auditing patron activity. ADAM includes amount due reports which allows you to track the progress of pledges. A complete donation audit is provided to allow for the correction of miss-posted pledges and payments. All adjustments are automatically notated providing a complete audit trail of what has transpired.
Both Box Office in a Box and ADAM contain numerous standard reports plus “wizards” that let you create your own report definitions based on any combination of criteria. Additionally, Excel spreadsheet file creation (Deluxe version only) is available in most sections of the software for export to other products for advanced manipulation.
Box Office in a Box and/or ADAM can support 1 to 10 simultaneous users. Primary clients include small to midsize symphony orchestras, universities, music festivals, repertory theatres and theatre companies.
The basic Box Office in a Box software package costs $800. That price includes software on CD-ROM, printed User and System Administrator manuals, unlimited technical support and free software updates for one year. The top tier product costs $4100 and includes Box Office in a Box/ADAM Deluxe Thermal Ticket Printing Package which includes software on CD-ROM, printed User & System Administrator manuals, Practical Automation Thermal Ticket Printer, printer cable, 2,000 blank thermal ticket stock plus unlimited technical support and free software updates for one year. (All prices for single user systems. Network, multi-user systems are priced accordingly).
Tick-It! 2K was
originally designed to run on your own network using Novell or Windows NT, and now their
product can put your box office window on the web “without losing revenues or
control” according to Boleyn. This is
accomplished through benefits gained from the new marketing agreement with
CyberSEATS™, making it possible for ticket sellers to seamlessly guide the
customer’s interactive experience during the ticket purchasing process. The patron can view your available inventory in
real-time, select his or her seats and purchase them online quickly and easily.
Your ticketing
system continues to function as it did before with no additional screens to navigate and
no additional commands to remember. The Internet links the customer to your venue’s
onsite box office ticketing system and also to the pages on the Internet module working in
the background quietly bringing your ticket inventory to your Internet customers. Your
patrons will feel like they are on your website for the entire process, although the
payment pages are handled through external servers. You can use your merchant bank account
for deposits from online ticket purchases.
There will be no
need to consign seats since the common seat inventory database is kept at the box office. You can keep track of your inventory and tie
multiple stations into one database used with the NCS box office reporting system. Sales are recorded in real time and accounted in
the system. The database files are
compatible with office suite software such as MS Access and Excel.
You can customize an
Internet browser front end to interface with your ticketing system. If you already have a website it can be integrated
with those existing web pages, or they will develop one for you. An especially innovative feature lets you place
digital pictures of views from a variety of seating sections so your customer can actually
experience the sightlines from a particular location and pick the best available seat.
Among the other advantages gained through going out on the Internet with your ticket operations are: 1.) unlimited maximum number of events; 2.) seating charts; 3.) multiple venues (e.g. auditorium, playhouse, black box, studio); 4.) multiple performances of different shows (e.g. Broadway tour series) and 5.) multiple outlets (e.g. downtown and branch ticket office).
The $849 base price
for a single user version of Tick It! 2K includes your first house map, customized
according to information you provide when you purchase the software. Each additional house map costs $100, or you can
purchase the House Map Creator Utility for $100 and create your own layout. This is
especially handy if you operate a theatre with multiple seating configurations. The optional Crystal Reports software lets you
write custom invoices and reports. It uses
the Microsoft Access database file format in order to facilitate interface with Microsoft
Office Suite programs or export to your accounting G/L. The optional FGL Thermal Ticket
Designer Utility ($75) allows you to design or layout your own custom ticket format for
thermal printers.
If you would like to
preview the program yourself, you can download a working demo version from the New
Concepts website which expires in 30 days. If you do not have access to the Internet, they
will send you a CD and information pack for a pre-paid charge of $10.00, which is applied
to the purchase price if you buy Tick-It! 2K.
Internet ticketing and
patron management
Last year there were four companies in our survey category with
Internet-based ticketing systems: Paciolan, Pegasus
Internet (now MSGi Interactive), TicketWeb, and Tickets.com. This year we have contacted each of those
companies and added two more: Intelitix and 2b Technology.
The results indicate that there are too many new developments to cover at
once. Therefore, we will consider the
innovative and exciting products of Paciolan and Intelitix right now, and follow-up with
the other four one in a future issue along with a chart displaying pertinent data for each
company. These packages give you powerful,
easy-to-use tools for ticketing, centralized database management and full-featured
marketing modules. The integration of
enhanced patron management techniques may increase the productivity of your
organization’s fundraising department.
Paciolan
Paciolan’s robust, tested, full-featured software includes two basic components, Back Office and Internet with a Windows-based graphical user interface. The company is a technology infrastructure provider focused primarily on leveraging the brand value of the venue or organization through highly integrated ticketing, development, accounting, and e-commerce software. According to Kleinberger, Paciolan’s corporate philosophy includes “enabling new means of communication and service with open connectivity for our clients.” She embraces the “control your own destiny” business model that offers ticketing solutions with potential for sustained profitability. The result is the ability to provide comprehensive ticketing, fund development, Internet and accounting solutions engineered to help you sell more tickets and solicit more donations with automated efficiency.
Last year we highlighted Paciolan’s dependable e.Venue™ advanced technology platform, a feature-rich and flexible product that puts the control of ticket distribution in the hands of the venue, and their TX2 module, handling reserved seats and general admission and providing 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 fundraising (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. Although Paciolan supports their earlier products, they regularly upgrade and have developed enhanced features in two new products: tRes for reserved seat ticketing and credit authorization and tFund for fund development, membership and fundraising. Kleinberger says in this way you will “know more about your patrons via intelligent marketing.”
Paciolan specializes in large-scale project management enabling
organizations to sell tickets on their own branded e-commerce sites. They have signed multi-year deals with major
venues indicating that clients have confidence in the direction they are taking with their
technology. One client, a major-league
baseball team, proclaimed, “We are pleased with their performance, Paciolan delivered
what their people promised. We were impressed
with the company, its 20-year history and its technical roadmap. But it was Paciolan’s people that really sold
us.“ Even with many big-ticket
customers, Paciolan’s primary core products are directed at the 70% of clients who
are non-profit; and fundraising is still the largest sector of their business. Klienberger
stresses, “Our primary growth market is performing
arts.” In the middle of a tight
financial market, Kleinberger recently closed a deal for more funding to provide growth
capital to leverage new opportunities.
The company employs 130 personnel with 80% technical. They use a consultative, ROI-based sales approach
targeting top-tier organizations with high volume and complexity. Professional services
include marketing consultation, education, auditing, documentation and custom operator
guides. Paciolan offers an outstanding
curriculum for customer education.
Another unique offering is the result of a new collaborative marketing agreement with VAST for the innovative ATTM Automated Ticketing and Teller Machines. Web-based products such as print-at-home tickets, web-based phone order entry and digital ticket transfer are among the technologies Paciolan has in the pipeline.
One of Kleinberger’s concerns is that “Many organizations haven’t done
everything they could. They keep traditional channels wide open as they try to get greater
effectiveness by directing buyers to the Internet, where they may charge higher fees than
at the walk-up window, when the costs of maintaining that window are higher than for an
Internet transaction.”
Among Paciolan’s special features is the patron database.
Kleinberger listed several aspects of its functionality in reaching the patron, such as
packaging online series or matching subscribers for two blockbusters and four more
challenging productions. “We offer new
ways of managing contacts,” she says, “the database lets the venue keep track of
past reminders and has invitation and RSVP products built in for bringing a new prospect
into the system.”
Paciolan recently announced the launch of the company's e.Venue
marketing services program. "We recognized that our clients needed more than the
best technology solution. They need complementary marketing tools that enable them
to increase their online ticket revenue and deliver the best possible service to their
patrons," said Kleinberger. The e.Venue marketing services program features three
distinct components: 1.) An advisory program with one-on-one consultative meetings and
"how-to" workshops; 2.) E-mail marketing by means of branded messaging for
special promotions to target groups and 3.) Online affiliate marketing partnerships to
attract qualified traffic to the venue's site that could consist of banner advertising or
reciprocal links.
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.
Representative clients are: Bass Performance Hall, Boston Ballet,
Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, North Shore Music Theatre, Arizona Diamondbacks,
Colorado Rockies, St. Louis Rams, Philadelphia Phillies, Ohio State, UCLA, the University
of Tennessee, University of Nebraska, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, San Francisco Ballet,
Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Graceland and the American Museum of Natural History.
"Patron needs and expectations continue to evolve at an increasing rate, so the competition for the leisure dollar is higher than ever," said Wade Hughes, founder and CEO of Intelitix. "This competition has made it even more critical for organizations to focus on managing relationships with their donors and securing patron loyalty."
Intelitix seeks to provide new revenue opportunities, cutting
operational costs and conducting proactive, e-commerce marketing by integrating patron
information across the organization. The expected result is in high-impact, productive
interactions between patrons and the organization.
Intelitix provides state-of-the-art customer relationship management
(CRM) tools and transactional engines-delivered via the web-designed specifically for the
arts industry. As an application service provider (ASP), Intelitix enables performing arts
organizations to collect and store patron information in a secure data center. As a
result, users have access to comprehensive customer data in real-time. Intelitix's current
product offering includes: iDonor™ Donation Processing, iTix™ Intelligent Ticketing, iMine™ Customer Data Warehouse, and
iRev™ Revenue Enhancement.
iDonor is a processing system that facilitates comprehensive gift
campaign management, including fund set-up, rapid gift entry, portfolio management, gift
packaging, relationship reporting, acknowledgement and appeals. iDonor enables users to
improve loyalty and life-long giving by personalizing contribution packages and helping
manage the sales process.
iTix is a ticketing system with full e-commerce and channel
management capability, including: inventory,
product packaging and pricing flexibility; real
time credit card processing; customer and patron transaction tracking; a seating engine
and event and program management. iTix integrates all of a performing arts organization's
ticket distribution channels, offering patrons the most up-to-date information about
ticket availability whether they are purchasing tickets through the organization's
website, by telephone or at the box office. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has fully
deployed iTix to automate all aspects of its ticketing process, from subscription renewal
and box office sales to add-on product sales and donations made through the subscription
renewal process. "iTix is enabling the CSO to do business in an entirely different
way," said Jane Quinn, vice president of marketing and communications for the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra Association. "We will be able to integrate all of the Symphony
Center's ticket distribution channels, offering patrons the most up-to-date information
about ticket availability whether they are purchasing tickets through the CSO's website,
by telephone or at the box office."
iMine is a secure, yet fully accessible, database that provides a
view of patron activities, demographics, preferences, segments, transactions and other
critical data. iMine also serves as the storehouse for all product offerings, such as
tickets and subscriptions, memberships, gift funds, sponsorship packages and merchandise.
It may be accessed anywhere within an internal or extended organization through Intelitix
transaction engines or directly via secure, web-based views. With all of the customer and
product information centralized, organizations have a firm foundation for analyzing the
lifetime value of patrons, as well as the daily, monthly and seasonal results of all
marketing, development and educational campaigns.
iRev is the primary decision support tool for the Intelitix
enterprise system, enabling demand-based forecasting, patron lifetime value analysis,
real-time pricing and promotion implementation, revenue reporting and key indicator
calculations. iRev is an analytical engine that allows performing arts organizations to
make inventory and pricing decisions, and then implement those decisions in real
time.
Intelitix allows arts organizations to better serve their patrons by
“providing a comprehensive picture of every patron, helping organizations communicate
with and service them on a one-to-one basis," said Hughes. "Organizations like
the Chicago Symphony Orchestra have adopted this holistic approach because they understand
the value of each patron and the benefit of better serving them over an entire
lifetime."
In addition to the CSO, Intelitix serves several of the nation's most
prestigious arts organizations, including Chicago Symphony, Houston Symphony, San
Francisco Opera, Woodruff Arts Center, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Hollywood Bowl, New
Jersey Performing Arts Center and New Jersey Symphony.
Conclusion
Managing revolutionary change was on everyone’s mind last year,
but this year there are other goals that take precedence such as improving operational
efficiency, increasing profitability and developing new
revenue streams through patron relationships. Internet
ticketing and donor management are now in an evolutionary stage.
While we might be fascinated by the
possibilities for digital purchase and transfer, there are other issues that have
become increasingly important in the post-September 11 world. Astor Street’s software supports multi-level
password security which is sufficient for PC-based systems.
However, as Paciolan’s Kleinberger says: “When you take these
robust functions and expose them to the Internet, it requires paying attention to
security.” Payment processing
services simplify e-commerce by providing payment connectivity over the Internet between
online customers, venues, organizations and the financial networks that handle money
transactions. Secure Internet
strategies include encrypting online transactions, securing organizational intranets and
authenticating your website. This is extremely important. Secure server IDs are used to authenticate
websites and enable SSL encryption technology. The Internet companies in our survey
will tell you everything you need to know about encrypting your server transactions for
serious online security.
Please refer to the chart
for a comparison of features in the systems reviewed here.
For further information, please contact:
Kristen Weber
Director of Product Development
Astor Street Software
929 North Astor Street, Suite 2106
Milwaukee, WI 53202-3489
414-276-6100
www.astorstreet.com
klweber@astorstreet.com
Monty Boleyn, President
New Concepts Software, Inc.
Post Office Box 688
Roseville, Michigan 48066
Phone: 810-776-2855
Fax: 810-776-7433
www.ncsoftware.com
Joni Ybarra
17305 Von Karman Ave.
Irvine, CA 92614
Phone: (949)-476-1212
Fax: (949)-476-1199
www.paciolan.com
Intelitix
2221 Peachtree Road, NE
Suite D #645
Atlanta, GA 30309
866-383-6827
404-876-8300
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
© Copyright 2002 by Patrick M. Finelli. All rights reserved. These pages are protected by United States and international copyright laws. Copying or distribution by any means is strictly prohibited.