Connecting Best-of-Breed Systems to Create a Super Platform
January 8, 2021
Institutions are all so unique, that’s what makes them intriguing, and there is no one size fits all solution when it comes to managing your institution. Every cultural institution and attraction must maintain their own unique brand and seamless operations while also being reliant upon the synergies between multiple platforms in order to successfully run their business. Open API access helps them break out of limiting parameters to achieve a premier interactive solution customized to their brand and image. Using open APIs, ACME can plug into many different best-of-breed platforms to create a rich ecosystem—a super platform, if you will. For example, this may include tying ACME’s online ticketing expertise to Salesforce’s CRM mastery, enabling a two-way, open flow of data, unobtrusive to the end user. By utilizing an open platform, you can seamlessly connect all the most critical functions together – ticketing, membership, finance, retail, donor management, and more.
There are many benefits to using an open, cloud-based platform: it’s cost effective, flexible, allows for endless customization, it’s accessible from anywhere, creates visibility and insights via comprehensive data, and dramatically increases productivity and revenue.
Increase Revenue
Amidst the pandemic, we are all exploring new ways to find alternative revenue streams and reach a larger audience. Many cultural organizations have utilized 3rd party ticket resellers for some time, and others are considering it for the first time. TripAdvisor, Expedia, Groupon…. the list goes on. If this is something that you have considered or are considering for the first time, ACME is here to help.
ACME’s platform will allow your organization to manage Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) and marketing integrations via our open APIs, creating a platform to:
- support increasing reach to domestic and international travelers accustomed to planning for cultural activities in this manner
- manage 3rd party bookings out of the same inventory as guest bookings through direct methods thereby ensuring proper capacity management and eliminating the risk of overselling
- provide a seamless process for revenue recognition and reconciliation alongside traditional booking and selling
- enable real-time reporting and settlements for all vendors
Improve Guest Experience
An open platform is extremely valuable, but even more so now when institutions are being forced to quickly and cost effectively transform the way they do business. Specifically, for institutions looking to reopen and update for modern health and safety, contactless entry and services are a must. We have partnered with leading providers including softtouch.io, Museum Anywhere, Cuseum, Guru and Digonex in order to help limit interactions with guests. Utilizing ACME’s open REST APIs you can build customizations that include:
- No Touch Entry
- Automatic Ticket Validation
- Automatic Ticket Rebooking
- Digital Tickets
- Digital Membership Cards
- Advanced Sales
Data and Insights
In order to develop strategies that will help you retain and gain new memberships and visitors, your software needs to provide you with strong and sensible analytics about your guests’ interests and habits. A comprehensive technology strategy will allow you to better collect, store, and analyze data that you receive from ticket sales, membership sales and your guests overall activity and interaction with your institution.
Additionally, connecting to a leading CRM and analytic tools like Salesforce, Raiser’s Edge, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and Dexibit will allow you to liberate growth and operational innovation, manage member benefits, update account information and so much more – all in real time so that you can easily and more efficiently connect with your guests. This means smarter mass messaging through personalization leading to higher conversion rates and ultimately more engaged supporters.
ACME provides an in application report building interface designed for the every-day user–no coding skills required. Advanced users and developers can unlock additional data analytics opportunities by querying ACME transactional data via API. Reports can be created, edited, deleted, run and downloaded to CSV or PDF from the command line (CLI) or your favorite integrated development environment (IDE). Additionally, data can be queried without creating a report and written to a local file, sent to email, or to a data warehouse. The opportunities are endless.
It is clear that technological innovations for museums will continue to be important for the long run, and it’s incumbent on all museums to adapt and benefit from forward technical thinking.
ACME’s Robust Ecosystem
ACME’s ecosystem of applications that utilize the API layer include:
- Back Office web application
- Consumer web application buying flows (pick calendar, event, place order with tickets and inventory add-ons)
- iOS Point of Sale (POS) application
- iOS Access Control application (scanning to check-in or manual check-ins)
This distinguished ecosystem enables API users access to the same functionality as ACME’s applications with which to create tailored-to-their-needs applications.
Delegating Your Way to Innovation and Growth
Organizations can focus on important branding and operational initiatives, while delegating other critical functions of their ecommerce site to specialists such as ACME, a platform that in turn, connects to every other system in the organization: financial, CRM, retail, etc. So, if someone donates thousands of dollars to the museum, and that donation flows into Salesforce, it will also flow into ACME, eliminating the need for the organization to hire a full-time data entry employee.
In sum, ACME’s inter-application connectors and open APIs remove the barriers that have hobbled data sharing goals in the past. Simplifying data sharing with other enterprise applications enables cultural institutions to select the best, most cost-effective applications tailored to their business functions. By doing so, organizations not only improve their agility and performance, but they also catapult their competitiveness in a world with elevated expectations in regard to innovation, speed and overall service.