Software for the Agile Business. A star is born: Sydney Theatre Company debuts its online ordering system “We wanted to offer our subscribers a better way to do business with us. I don’t think Company Profile anyone at the Theatre was The Sydney Theatre Company is a major force in live Australian drama, under the illusion that we with a reputation for presenting acclaimed performances from would suddenly increase our Australian and international playwrights. Generally regarded as one of the leading theatre companies in the city, the Sydney Theatre overall subscriber base – that Company was formed in late 1978 and opened its first production on 1 wasn’t the point of the January, 1980. exercise. We were more concerned that we had this Operating out of The Wharf Theatre, on Sydney’s harbour, and the loyal base of people who Drama Theatre and the Playhouse of the Sydney Opera House, the wanted to subscribe to our Theatre also tours productions across Australia and internationally. shows and we simply had to There are currently plans underway to move the Company into a new offer them a better way to do theatre by 2003. it.” Pip Sprott, The Theatre is assisted annually by grants from the Federal Marketing Manager, Sydney Theatre Company Government through the Australia Council and the New South Wales Government through the Ministry for the Arts. STC is also supported by Organisation various sponsorship and donations from the corporate sector and Sydney Theatre Company private individuals. However, around 80 percent of the Theatre’s funds are raised through ticket sales, and,in particular, through its loyal Web Site subscriber base. www.sydneytheatre.com.au Business Scenario The Annual Subscription Season features up to eleven plays including Industry recent or new Australian works, as well as interpretations of theatrical Entertainment classics. By becoming a subscriber, theatregoers are able to get first option on the best seats for shows, at a discounted price. This Business Scenario Summary commitment to rewarding customer loyalty has led to a regular Faced with a paper-based system subscriber base of over 17,000 people, making up around 50 percent of for handling subscriber requests, the total annual audience attending the theatre. the STC felt it was not projecting the sort of up-to-date image it The process of subscribing was completely paper-based and involved desired. By not having the filling out a form making choices about which shows to see, choosing capability to accept subscribers dates and backup dates, and finally mailing the whole bundle back to over the Internet, the Theatre felt the theatre for manual processing. As Sydney Theatre Company’s it was not meeting the needs of Marketing Manager, Pip Sprott, says, “In this day and age, where the Web generation. people expect to be able to go online to do their banking and their shopping, book holidays and trade shares, the idea of having to fumble around with bits of paper to book a night out just seemed so old- 1 Sydney Theatre Company debuts its online ordering system fashioned. Here we were, trying to attract new people to live theatre – especially young audiences – but the process of subscribing was not Business Solution Summary keeping up with the expectations of these people.” Within 15 weeks, the Sydney Theatre Company moved from a Although it is possible to order tickets on a one-off basis through the paper-based system to online via Theatre’s Web site, that process is handled by having an external link its Web site, providing patrons to Ticketek, a third-party booking service. There was nothing in place with a greatly improved way to to meet the needs of the regular subscribers, many of whom attend ten submit subscriptions to the or more shows per year. The Sydney Theatre Company decided it was booking office. time to address this situation. Overall, it has led to improved Business Solution levels of customer satisfaction, a The goal for the Sydney Theatre Company was to create a convenient, better opportunity to appeal to online booking service to accept orders from its valued season subscribers. The idea was to allow them to prebook seats to an entire younger theatregoers, and a more series of shows, much the same as the existing paper-based system, modern image for the Theatre. except it could all be done via the Web – raising the Theatre’s appeal to its younger, more tech-savvy patrons. It’s all about Customer Service Says Sprott, “We wanted to offer our subscribers a better way to do business with us. I don’t think anyone at the Theatre was under the illusion that we would suddenly increase our overall subscriber base – that wasn’t the point of the exercise. We were more concerned that we had this loyal base of people who wanted to subscribe to our shows and we simply had to offer them a better way to do it.” A surprising response The system went live in September 2001, after only 15 weeks of development time. After four months of operation, the system has been responsible for handling 16 percent of the Theatre’s 17,000 subscribers, a result with which Sprott is extremely pleased. “To be honest, we never expected the take-up rate to be that high, that soon,” says Sprott. “We really didn’t even promote it that heavily to start with, but the response has been quite overwhelming.” At the moment, the Web-based subscription service is essentially an improved, high-tech version of the old paper process. The Web solution delivers the requests to the box office staff who still allocate seats and tickets manually using the existing booking service. However, the new system has been designed to allow for future development of integrating the Web interface with the legacy booking system. Ensuring success with a Microsoft Certified Partner Like most performing arts organisations, the Sydney Theatre Company has a number of valued corporate sponsors. One of those sponsors is Accenture, the world's leading management and technology services organisation and a Microsoft Global Partner. When the STC began thinking about ways to bring its online subscription service to reality, they naturally turned to Accenture’s Sydney office for help and advice. Steve Hayr from Accenture says, “We were really pleased to be 2 Sydney Theatre Company debuts its online ordering system approached by the Theatre to help them set up the new system – after all, we had been a sponsor of the Theatre for a number of years, so Partner Details this was a nice way to actually get involved and put some of our Accenture technology expertise into their operations as well.” Tel: (02) 9005 5000 Email: [email protected] Sprott is full of praise for the Accenture team. “We were amazed at Web: www.accenture.com how well the whole project came together under their guidance. They were very professional. In fact, due to the tight deadlines we had set Benefits ourselves, we actually went live with the system without a pilot As well as some worthwhile cost program – it came straight out of development and was placed directly savings, the STC is pleased with online as a fully functioning system. Naturally, when you do that, you its new capability to appeal to expect there to be a few glitches along the way, but the team from subscribers via the Web. Accenture were magnificent. They just made it all happen.” Within four months, the system Benefits had captured 16 percent of its The most obvious benefit to the Sydney Theatre Company is their 17,000 regular subscribers, a enhanced image as a forward-thinking, modern company. Says Sprott, result with which the Theatre is “If you don’t offer this sort of online service, people see you as being extremely happy. old-fashioned and not keeping up with the times. And that’s certainly not the image we want for the Theatre.” Saving money There are other benefits, of course. When the annual subscription season starts, the Theatre gets flooded with subscription applications and usually needs to employ a number of casual staff to help cope with this peak load. By utilising the Web site to gather people’s subscription requests, Sprott expects that the number of casual staff required will be reduced significantly. The only business benefit that really matters However, the most important benefit is for the Sydney Theatre Company’s subscribers. It’s important to remember that subscribers are not just customers – they are long-term, repeat customers, the sort of customer that every business wants to gain and retain. By clicking onto the Theatre’s Web site, potential subscribers can now check information about shows, browse the upcoming performance schedules, choose the dates and times which suit them best and, when they are happy with their final choices, complete the transaction online using a credit card. No more fiddly forms to fill out, and no more stamps and envelopes to worry about. Judging by the rapid uptake of users to the new system, the convenience of being able to manage this process online from anywhere is creating some very happy customers. And a happy customer is one of the best business benefits there is. Technology The engine behind the solution is Microsoft® Windows® 2000 and Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000. It also makes use of IIS 5.0 and the new generation of Active Server Page technology. While the current solution has been a great benefit to the Theatre and 3 Sydney Theatre Company debuts its online ordering system its subscribers, Accenture’s Hayr sees it as the first phase of an even bigger project.
Details
-
File Typepdf
-
Upload Time-
-
Content LanguagesEnglish
-
Upload UserAnonymous/Not logged-in
-
File Pages4 Page
-
File Size-