Hi folks,
We're curious on how other organizations divide up their oversight of Tessitura. I.e., which departments are involved and who might do what? Are there any Tessitura specific positions that exist or were created to help with administration and which department they might fall under.
Here at the aquarium, we have a group of "super users" from a variety of departments that meet weekly to discuss projects like upgrades, new builds, new uses or features coming into play, but we don't have a specific person or department in charge of the software.
What is working and not working for other folks out in the museum/zoo/aquarium world?
Melanie
I am the CRM Specialist for the National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City. This position was created as part of the Tessitura implementation. During the implementation phase, I acted as a conduit for all Tessitura knowledge and sat in on all the training. Since we went live on May 1st of last year, I've become a resource for all departments active in Tessitura. If they have a question about where to find something, if they need to contact support, if they want to change the way something is configured or anything related to Tessitura I am the person they ask. I arrange all version upgrades, live-to-test copies, work with Tessitura on customizations and more. This structure works well for us, though it keeps me very busy. As time goes by, we develop more "power users" in each department.
Let me know if you have any questions!
Mike Dorsey
CRM Specialist - National WWI Museum and Memorial
mdorsey@theworldwar.org
At the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, TX, we made it a point to be deliberate in our staffing/set-up responsibilities when we transitioned to Tessitura in 2015. In our old system, we had two legacy users. Then one retired and we were down to one power-user. We vowed that we would not get into that situation again. Now, we have a main Database Systems Analyst who dives deep into tables and is the main supporter of Tessitura. Additionally, each Department has a power user. We also have a once-a-month Advisory Meeting where we share projects and desires and try to steer new processes that we may want. Should a power-user leave, there is enough knowledge overlap between areas that we can get by until someone new is hired and trained. I see our set-up as a wheel, with our Tess Admin at the center knowing all the pieces with every other department as the outer wheel. While our Admin can do everything, all power users share the responsibility to set-up their pieces - for instance, we are about to build our next fiscal year, which as we all know is 365 General Admission performances - takes a while!. I oversees our theater too, so I build out the 3,000+ perfs for the upcoming year. Someone else builds out our traveling exhibition. We try to break it up, so that no one person (our Admin) must build everything. Our set-up works for us and keeps everyone involved and on the same page.
We're getting to the point where Tessitura users feel comfortable and we've been planning a regular meeting for "power users". What you have in place is our ultimate goal, and now that the first year is nearly behind us, we're taking the next steps toward achieving this level of engagement among users.
Thank you Mike!
Thanks Mark!
Melanie,
Hi! Our IT Department has the most oversight of Tessitura. We do have super-users in each department. And my position was changed to include a lot more Tessitura duties. I have taken on more of project management duties and being the #1 power user under our IT manager to go to with questions on the system.