Artifax (or other event management system) Integration

Hi Bec,

What kind of things are you looking to do in tandem with both systems?

We're currently using Artifax v.3.35 and Tessitura v.14 (I think?) and have had the link between the two set up at various times during the decade we've had both. I'm the Artifax person on our team so I'll mostly be speaking to that aspect.

The easiest/quickest thing to do with the link is to pull Entities/Constituents across from one system to the other in order to cut down on data entry. We have some programmes that start in Tessitura with an order (and payment) before we need to put that information in Artifax, and so it's been helpful to pull from Tessitura into Artifax. However, for the most part the overlap between our Tessitura constituents and our Artifax entities is small, so this hasn't necessarily been the boon we hoped it would be. When we make a tweak to either database that ends up having an unintended effect on the link, it could be months before anyone notices because so few people use it.

Where we did find the connection between the two systems to be impressive was in terms of building events in Artifax, pushing them to Tessitura, and then pulling ticket buyer information back into Artifax so that we could further manage the event with details about those visitors. When we were successful at this, it was because we had a user who was proficient in both Artifax *and* Tessitura, who knew our organizational processes well, and whose events were managed in both systems within her own department. For the bulk of our events, though, this would never work because the teams involved each use only one of Tessitura (box office) or Artifax (event production) -- with no expectation or intent for them to learn both -- and so both responsibilities and knowledge are divided between teams, which makes it really hard to correctly implement something that can get pretty complex, process-wise.

It really is important that the person doing the work in Artifax understands Tessitura, and we just aren't staffed in a way that allows for that kind of deep overlap in understanding. The staffing piece is something that I think is worth taking a hard look at before going down the integration road; in our case, our ability to integrate the two pieces of software in a meaningful way was contingent upon having a staff member who not only had the aptitude to do it but also the personal interest, and those people don't grow on trees. They also leave a fairly large void if they leave the organization, so the sustainability of the processes around using the integration is something you need to consider.

I don't know if Artifax v.4 has any new features or improvements on this front, so I can't speak to whether all of the above becomes easier in the next version.

-- Elizabeth

Hello!  I am the Tessitura person at Harbourfront Centre, and had written a response as well.  Though there may be some overlap in our answers, I think this adds a bit to what Elizabeth says:

"At Harbourfront Centre, we have been using Artifax for about 10 years, and Tessitura for 14.  We chose Artifax in part because it integrates with Tessitura via a link that can pass some constituent info and performance info back and forth, but I have to say that we have not found it a particularly useful feature.  We use both databases quite robustly, so I don’t think there are any regrets about the software choices, but the link has not contributed much for the following reasons:

1.  It often goes down, so too much staff time needs to be devoted to maintaining something that doesn’t return enough value.

2.  The link can be pointed to Live or Test, but not both, making it difficult to troubleshoot.

3.  Constituent synchronization (pushing name and address from one database to the other) was the most useful tool for the two departments that used both systems (to sell/manage school visits and boat rentals), but the link was down enough that people developed work-arounds.

4.  The event info part of the link (where you can build the production info in Artifax, push it over to create a performance in Tessitura and then see sales info flow back to Artifax) just didn’t work the way we needed it to.  We tried with one specific program for one season, but didn’t see any measurable benefit given the extra work involved.  It is supposed to minimize double-entry of data and allow programmers to see/report on sales for their events in Artifax, but there is actually very little event double data entry covered by the link, and scheduled sales reports from Tessitura worked almost as well.

We have hopes that the link will be rewritten at some point to be more stable/flexible/comprehensive, but have not built any of our business practices around it in the meantime.

 Hope that was helpful, and good luck in your search!  Catherine"

Hello!  I am the Tessitura person at Harbourfront Centre, and had written a response as well.  Though there may be some overlap in our answers, I think this adds a bit to what Elizabeth says:

"At Harbourfront Centre, we have been using Artifax for about 10 years, and Tessitura for 14.  We chose Artifax in part because it integrates with Tessitura via a link that can pass some constituent info and performance info back and forth, but I have to say that we have not found it a particularly useful feature.  We use both databases quite robustly, so I don’t think there are any regrets about the software choices, but the link has not contributed much for the following reasons:

1.  It often goes down, so too much staff time needs to be devoted to maintaining something that doesn’t return enough value.

2.  The link can be pointed to Live or Test, but not both, making it difficult to troubleshoot.

3.  Constituent synchronization (pushing name and address from one database to the other) was the most useful tool for the two departments that used both systems (to sell/manage school visits and boat rentals), but the link was down enough that people developed work-arounds.

4.  The event info part of the link (where you can build the production info in Artifax, push it over to create a performance in Tessitura and then see sales info flow back to Artifax) just didn’t work the way we needed it to.  We tried with one specific program for one season, but didn’t see any measurable benefit given the extra work involved.  It is supposed to minimize double-entry of data and allow programmers to see/report on sales for their events in Artifax, but there is actually very little event double data entry covered by the link, and scheduled sales reports from Tessitura worked almost as well.

We have hopes that the link will be rewritten at some point to be more stable/flexible/comprehensive, but have not built any of our business practices around it in the meantime.

 Hope that was helpful, and good luck in your search!  Catherine"