Welcome from the Tessitura Next Generation Board Steering Committee!
We will be very focused on ensuring we have significant membership input throughout the Next Generation Software development project, and our hope is to foster creative thinking, to be forward-looking and visionary.
In that vein, over the next few weeks we'll toss out some questions to spur dialogue and to engage your thoughts in creative directions. Here are a few questions that have been on our minds as we have gone through the process of envisioning this project. We would love to hear your ideas and thoughts, so please share them through this forum:
How would you define a "ticket"?
How would you define an "event"? (consider all types of events, including fundraising and education events, not just performances).
In answering these questions, consider the ways our organizations might be packaging the various 'items' we sell. Does a ticket do more than get you into a performance? Can a ticket be good for more than one person or more than one 'item'? Can a ticket by "reused", used for multiple items and or entries? Can it include merchandise, food, drinks, parking, online access/activities? In what ways could contribution and memberships affect a ticket?
Think 'out of the box'!
Thanks to everyone for the very thoughtful responses to the first set of questions. We're going to take a first stab at consolidating all the thoughts into a concise and organized "definition" of "ticket" and "event" as they might exist in the Next Generation platform. In a few days, we'll run those definitions by you to make sure we captured everything and for further refinement.
In the meantime, here is another set of questions to respond to. This may be a slightly more challenging exercise. Here goes:
What else is part of handling a contribution, solicitation, or ticket sale that is not currently part of entering the ‘discrete transaction’ in Tessitura? Are there multiple discrete transactions or tasks that link together to form more of a process, perhaps even tasks that cross different people or departments, and involve Tessitura and non-Tessitura functions? What is the difference between “processing discrete transactions (a ticket sale, a contribution)” and actually managing patrons relationships and experiences? What tools or capabilities would help you manage the entire process(es)?
Let's hear your thoughts!
Alan
When processing contributions, it would be helpful to have a "Solicitation" tab, similar to the events tab. Then you could update the solicitation status, tasks, make notes, etc to the existing solicitation for the campaign into which the contribution is processed. This way, you wouldn't have to have two sets of tasks- entering the contributions for a set of constituents & then reviewing the solicitations related to that same set of constituents. Also, since institutional giving awards often come with generic language, you can identify the intended designation based on the original proposal or other noted coorespondance.