As I hope you've all heard, work on the Tessitura Next Generation project inception phase is starting in July. We've selected our development partner for the inception phase and plans for a requirements gathering summit are in full swing.
But let's also take advantage of the discussion tools that we have here and start a public forum. This forum will be ongoing, but this period leading up to the start of inception phase is a particularly important time for all of us to share our thoughts. Think of it like the public comment period at the city council meeting.
We'll be seeding the forum with questions over the next few weeks so take some time to join the conversation. First up--
"A trend or shift in my industry that the Next Generation software will need to anticipate and address is..."
Your thoughts?
My thoughts ...
SaaS (Software-as-a-Service), Cloud computing, RIA (Rich Internet Apps) are the trends in building new generation of enterprise software. I don't want to be too technical here but anticipate three aspects of software which will be needed in nextgen Tessitura. A nextgen Tessitura should be easy to install, maintain and provide rich and easy interactive experience to users, customers, partners and decision makers.
1. Services such as Webapi, TN Express Web, SYOS, Kiosks, TPHATS, N-Scan, TMS, T-Stats .... should be optional parts of Tessitura instead of separate product. IT Administrators should be easily able to add or remove features by using checkboxes and following wizards. See Image.
2. It may be easy to predict various upcoming technologies but it not easy to predict human behavior. There is no way to know if most tickets will be brought by using cell phones or computers or TV or something new in next five or ten years. Tessitura web interface should be accessible on small screen and provide rich interactive experience on medium and big screens. It should have tools which can help to generate organic demand, site traffic and leads. It should be able to store and deliver content like flash, videos, pdf, documents pertaining to performances. One thing is for sure that Web scalability and growth will happen and RESTful (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_State_Transfer) interface similar to Google, Amazon API will help developers.
3. I would like to think nextgen Tessitura not as software but a platform which can be scaled and extended by developers. With changing business needs it becomes harder to align software with customer needs and company goals as time passes by. At present Tessitura business logic is complex and it takes years for a developer to understand. It would be nice if the Entity Relationship and Business Logic are not inside triggers and stored procs but available as Workflow, E-R diagrams to Tessitura community.
Thanks for listening.