Theater of the Stars

About the Theater of the Stars

Theater of the Stars celebrates 56 years as one of the nation’s premier Theater companies. A civic not-for-profit cultural treasure, Theater of the Stars is dedicated to presenting and producing the best in musical theater. Since founding in 1953, Theater of the Stars has produced or presented more than 700 productions in Atlanta, across the country, and around the world. Theater of the Stars has called The Fox Theater home for the past 20 years.

Business Issue—Challenge

As part of Theater of the Stars’ (TOTS) long range plan, they were looking to leverage a more centralized ticketing and customer relationship management solution. With the goal to develop the subscriber base of approximately 5,000 to 7,000 annually, TOTS needed to investigate the requirements and technical specifications of making such a change. They also wanted to expand their current Microsoft Exchange Services to have remote access. Items for consideration included security, support, reliability and ease of use. After review of several firms, TechBridge was selected as the technology provider of choice.

Solution

TechBridge worked with TOTS to identify the various options for transitioning to the new software package. Essentially, what was needed was an overall technology upgrade along with some customization to make the program work with TOTS’ processes. TechBridge recommended a hosted environment for the new application as well as for hosting their email. The TechBridge project plan showed TOTS how they would accomplish their goal at a reasonable price point without sacrificing security and reliability. “Most nonprofits don’t have IT staff, so it’s helpful that they explain what they do and why,” said Grant Anderson, CFO, Theater of the Stars.

With TechBridge’s technical expertise and methodical process, TOTS transitioned to TechBridge’s Hosted Exchange environment enabling them to access email any place that has an Internet connection. The service provides use of personal Microsoft Outlook client from anywhere which gives the user a seamless email experience. TechBridge trained TOTS employees on routine network maintenance to streamline some internal processes.

Transitioning to the new ticketing solution was a bit more complicated; however, TechBridge worked with the various parties including Ticketmaster, the Fox Theater and Cbeyond to ensure a seamless implementation. With the strict security guidelines of The Fox Theater and unique usage requirements of TOTS, TechBridge custom configured the application to adhere to the necessary specifications. The added security and redundancy offered by hosting the ticketing application at a data center enhanced the overall solution.

Results

The hosted solutions allow TOTS to focus on developing their subscriber base versus maintaining, monitoring, and securing ticketing and email applications. “TechBridge brought us into the 21st century,” said Grant Anderson, CFO, Theater of the Stars, “Now the show manager can travel from show to show and log expenses which help us keep more timely financial information. The simple, yet progressive solution gives us centralized accounting data that expedites our processes.” The new ticketing application allows TOTS to track sales, subscriber history and preferences. The wealth of data being tracked, stored and maintained is invaluable to the success of TOTS.

Read about other TechBridge customers.

Read more about TechBridge's Website Solutions .