For those within a consortium, is your IT management for Tessitura done in-house or through a third-party organization? How is this working out for your consortium and do you face any challenges or issues? Any other comments are appreciated.
We would also be curious for answers to such questions! Especially if anyone has any particular thoughts on cost sharing (or lack thereof) regarding work time and product when working with in-house and/or third-party.
Hi Stephanie,
We are part of a Consortium, and use a third party for our internal IT needs. We are not the hub organization. The hub organization does the heavy lifting for the database servers as well as upgrades and data customization and reporting. The hub organization also sets up all of our performances and packages. They have a fully staffed IT department.
As a consortium member, I communicate with the hub organization's IT department several times a week. Sometimes, I communicate daily, and we have been on the system for over ten years. I can't imagine a third party IT management being as responsive as an on-site IT department. Our third party IT guys are responsive, but they do not have the sense of how important a request is, while the hub organization, being in the same business, does. I can see where a third party would save money, but I think it would be a sacrifice of time and attention - at least for us.
Susan
Thank you for your comments, Susan. Is there ever any need for cross over or communication between your 3rd party IT company that handles your internal needs and the consortium IT department? Or are the responsibilities of each clearly segmented?
Cross over/ communication is pretty rare. The only place that there is possible crossover is when there is a network communication issue between our network and the network that Tessitura is on. Otherwise, the two are pretty well siloed. There hasn't been a crossover issue in the year that I have been here, but that is not to say it couldn't happen.
Stephanie,
We are part of a consortium (Pittsburgh Cultural Trust) and are responsible for managing Tessitura (Application & Infrastructure) in house. We do work with a few third party companies but on a as needed basis. We work closely with each of the other organizations and have regular meetings with all of the organizations similar to a TUG. If you have any questions let me know.