Jan 16, 2012
2011 marked the beginning of the second decade of the unique cooperative business model of the Tessitura Network. The company experienced a record year of new license holders, including, among dozens of others, Arizona Science Center, Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, Sydney Theatre Company, Royal New Zealand Ballet, National Geographic Society, the Spoleto Festival USA and Theatre By the Lake (UK). The Tessitura Network also announced a new technology infrastructure of their continually updated flagship product, Tessitura Software, and an innovative business intelligence tool to aid in operational excellence.
The term CRM is thrown around a lot in this industry and few companies really deliver complete functionality. Since 2001, Tessitura actually has been delivering a truly integrated single solution that encompasses ticketing, marketing, subscriptions, CRM, philanthropy, memberships, web capabilities, data mining, reporting and much more. The Tessitura Network, a non-profit company, was established by the original software users to provide support, education and learning resources, but over the past decade has taken on an even larger role to enable knowledge-sharing within arts and cultural community in the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland and the United Kingdom.
The Next Generation
It is only fitting that the Tessitura Network is raising the bar again in 2012 with the first release of Tessitura Software with “Next Generation” technology. “Next Generation” refers to the utilization of a newly-designed services architecture which will provide the Tessitura platform with greater flexibility, scalability and interoperability with third-party programs, today and into the future. The new version also offers an enhanced relationships model to mirror how society functions today, a new web reporting system that can be accessed either inside or outside of the application, advanced search options, a flexible Constituent record header and a refreshed user interface for easy navigation. This new technology is being delivered to Tessitura Network organizations in an evolutionary method: The same database will be used for future releases, and migration tools are provided (including ample documentation, migration scripts and recommended best-practices) to ease the transition. This release represents the first step in a multi-year roadmap that promises to keep the Tessitura Network as the major provider of software for non-profit performing arts and cultural institutions.
The release follows a deliberate and careful research process to identify best practices from the various functional disciplines involved with the operation of a successful arts and cultural organization. The users themselves—via online forums, regional user groups, an international summit, and the annual Tessitura Learning & Community Conference— define what functionality is included in this release as well as the product roadmap for future upgrades. The Tessitura team supplemented with input from some of the leading minds in technology and review of trends and capabilities from other industries. As a result, Tessitura Software continues to deliver what the users determine as important to their business practices and organizations that use Tessitura are assured of having the capabilities to meet their missions for decades.
Importantly, the new version of Tessitura Software will be delivered to the 380+ existing Tessitura Network organizations at no cost, and future Network members will be able to utilize the new technology immediately upon obtaining a License.
Business Intelligence
The Tessitura Network is also proud to announce the next layer of its business intelligence stack, Tessitura Dashboards™. These complement the 200+ traditional and highly configurable reports, and the T-Stats data mining tool that are included with every Tessitura Software license. User-configurable Tessitura Dashboards are for strategic use to highlight key performance indicators and other critical information. The Executive Director can look at panels on the home screen showing season comparisons, sales for key events, fundraising campaigns and a number of other options; the Marketing Manager can be looking at sales trajectories by performance, comparisons of performances to other performances and other statistics, including those from outside data sources; the Development Director can see real time streams of donations above certain levels and other indicators that important to their area of business. In accordance with the Tessitura Network business model, there is no charge to member organizations for Tessitura Dashboards.
About the Tessitura Network
The Tessitura Network is comprised of more than 385 of the world’s premiere arts and cultural organizations united by a common technology in order to achieve operational excellence. Network Members include museums, theatres, orchestras, performing arts centers, festivals, dance companies, opera companies, and university arts affiliated departments and venues. Tessitura-powered organizations range in size from less than 10 staff members to well over 500, with annual budgets spanning under $1.0M and over $200M. The Tessitura Network is a non-profit corporation governed by an elected Board of Tessitura users.
Tessitura Licenses are perpetual and there are no fees for upgrades, no per-transaction fees due to the Tessitura Network or any other third party, and an unlimited number of users allowed for no additional cost. Tessitura Software can be run on in-house hardware or can be accessed via the internet with the Tessitura hosted option, Remote Access Managed Plan (RAMP™). Print-at-home ticket capabilities are included with the system and scanned access control is available with the N-Scan™ product. Tessitura users can create an unlimited number of e-mail lists and the e-mail deployment method is entirely up to the organization, however two low cost fully-integrated e-mail deployment options are available.
Because more business happens on the web than by any other sales channel, the Tessitura Network proudly offers the most flexible options for interacting with consumers online. There are comprehensive web capabilities for license holders to personalize their web operations and tie to Tessitura in an infinitely flexible manner for web transactions, or to use a Tessitura Network TN Express Web™ Service to achieve integration at a low cost but still with many customization options. Select-your-own seat online is available for all license holders to implement how they choose.
Tessitura Network’s support services and development programs are guided by a team of highly-qualified industry professionals based in every continent where it has Members. The non-profit organization is focused on improving how it can best serve its users rather than a profit motive. For more information, please explore www.tessituranetwork.com.