01/17/2002
Houston Ballet Foundation, a large and innovative ballet company, recently became the latest licensee of Tessitura Arts Enterprise Software. Tessitura is a proven enterprise-wide, fully graphical and fully integrated management system in use by major North American arts organizations including The Metropolitan Opera, the Kennedy Center, San Francisco Symphony and other leading organizations.
Andrew Edmonson, Director of Marketing for the Houston Ballet, commented, "We wanted to upgrade to an enterprise software system that not only handled the box office, but was also a feature-rich fund raising application and an advanced marketing and customer relationship management program. We felt that Tessitura would allow us to enhance significantly the high level of service our customers have come to expect. After an exhaustive evaluation of the providers in this market, we concluded that Tessitura met all of our criteria. We were impressed with Tessitura's user-friendly, intuitive approach and their successful implementation for very demanding clients."
Tessitura, originally developed by The Metropolitan Opera for its own use, was implemented in 1998 and replaced multiple separate systems that handled ticketing functions, fund raising, marketing, customer care and performance reporting. Other performing arts organizations, after seeing the powerful features asked if they could license the product. Smeeta Sharon, who is responsible for Business Operations at The Metropolitan Opera indicated, "We saw that many other arts organizations were just as frustrated as we were with the path that most of the ticketing software companies had taken to concentrate less on maintaining an integrated application approach and more on expanding outside of the arts world into sports, rock concerts, colleges and other unrelated areas to performing arts. We decided to offer Tessitura to capable arts organizations who needed the features as much as we did and were rightfully concerned about the focus and financial stability of many of the other software providers."
Jack Rubin, who handles marketing for Tessitura, commented, "We have a low key approach and have been very gratified with the strong interest in the product by a growing number of arts organizations. After experts at the Met spent three years designing and building this premiere software application, it has performed flawlessly for multiple seasons and The Metropolitan Opera is truly giving something back to the arts community with its unique business approach. We welcome Houston Ballet to the network of Tessitura users and are appreciative of their confidence in the software."
About Tessitura
Tessitura is an enterprise software application that enables an integrated approach to "constituent management" for arts organizations. Using a single database of information, the system empowers the user organization to record, track and manage all contacts with its constituents, conduct highly targeted and cost-efficient marketing and fund raising appeals, handle all ticketing and membership transactions and provide detailed and flexible performance reports. Besides seamless providing efficient business and ticketing operations, a key benefit of the system is its ability for relationship managers to have a full view of each constituent - their history, preferences and all contacts with the institution. Tessitura is owned by Impresario, L.L.C. which is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Metropolitan Opera.
About Houston Ballet
Houston Ballet is America's fifth largest ballet company, an ensemble of fifty-four dancers who have been hailed by The New York Times as "one of the nation's best ballet companies." The company performs an extensive repertoire of works, ranging from the great nineteenth century classics (Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, and Giselle) to cutting-edge pieces by some of the world's most exciting young dance makers (including Trey McIntyre, Stanton Welch, and Natalie Weir). Houston Ballet performs on tour across the world, and at home in the magnificent, state-of-the-art facility, Wortham Theater Center, in downtown Houston.
Tessitura Software Contact:
Jack Rubin
214.265.1908
jrubin@tessiturasoftware.com
Houston Ballet Contact:
Kay Massman Lobb
713.535.3224
jrubin@tessiturasoftware.com