As Tessitura RAMP access is down for the second time this month and fourth time since we put tickets on sale in January, I'd like to hear what if any contingency plans others have set up for system downtime. We've only had one instance of being down during our actual Festival, but we did have a few hours during our Donor Presale that we were down and it was a nightmare.
Yuck!
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I'd rather our site not be available at all until everything is confirmed to be working.
This is my main concern. I don't have the ability to get to the shut off switch to update the messaging that Luke referred to above, so what should the set up look like to redirect the DNS to a generic message page is my next problem to solve.
The intent of this post was not a pile on to the issues; we are genuinely trying to outline a solid contingency plan to ensure we have an MVS operation should the system be down for an extended period of time. Right now, here is our preliminary outline:
- Update website to alert visitors attempting transactions of issue (define messaging for Tess down versus TNEW and next steps depending on timing of festival)
- Notify all staff of issue and move Box Office team into down mode
- During high volume times, begin automatic distribution of seating reports three times a day to ensure we can give reasonable information on ticket availability over the phone
- Secure 1-2 functional CC terminals that can be sent to high volume walk up shows at remote box offices (we don't own any of our venues and open a remote box office before each performance)
- Complete training and testing for home box office agents on manually processing payments through web payment portal
- Establish editable pdf forms that can be completed and submitted for processing later for use during down time for tickets, contributions, and/or special events that are standardized and collect the appropriate information.
Obviously this isn't completely vetted and we have details to work through, but we are working to get this done prior to our Festival. Other opinions and/or ideas are definitely appreciated.