Ticketing systems and the Arts

Written by Cat Leaver

Tuesday, 20 September 2011 00:00

The arts and culture industry is increasingly recognising the need to implement an efficient ticket booking system to streamline ticket transactions, CRM, and administration, thus remaining competitive.

There are a number of companies offering advanced ticketing system technology, such as Tessitura Software, and Blackbaud with its Patron Edge product, to name but a few.

These technologies are products developed specifically for the arts and culture industry, offering an integrated database for online ticket booking, donating, fundraising,

and other forms of online transactions, whilst monitoring customer activity and marketing amongst other tasks. Sophisticated software allows visitors to select a seat of their choice for shows, whilst the ticketing system simultaneously updates seat availability information. This technical capability creates real-time updated results for staff and customers alike and enhances overall synergy.

Here are our top 5 tips when implementing your ticket booking system:

Think about the future now! Will you want to integrate any future website seamlessly with the ticketing system?
If answer to above is yes, choose a ticket booking technology that provides a fully accessible web API (application programming interface). This will provide yourself and your web agency with a lot of flexibility in regards to both style and functionality, and give you the best chance of a seamless integration process.
Always have a plan B! There is more than one way to skin a cat, so if a seamless integration is not available there will be some other way of doing what you require. Whether it is passing value via session variables between the systems or via URL – always have a backup plan.
Make sure that the ticketing system providers offer a good level of support and full documentation for any chosen system. This will prove invaluable when implementing any integration, and if both booking provider and website provider can work side by side and communicate, the chances of project success are greatly improved.
Keep it simple and re-usable! If you develop a bridge between any CMS and a particular booking API then this can be re-used over and over with many different clients, with only a few parameters needing changed each time.

Alienation Digital is Tessitura web capable and has experience integrating Blackbaud’s Patron Edge ticket booking system with website design and development. If you have any questions about any of the above, please feel free to contact us.

Leave us a comment and we'll get back to you!

What have you found most challenging about integrating a ticketing system and box office technology into your website?

Is there anything more these technologies could offer you to facilitate these processes?

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Ticketing systems and the Arts