May 26, 2010
IMA Update
IMA to Participate in the Upcoming Tessitura Network User Conference
Interactive Media Associates will attend the upcoming 3rd Annual Tessitura Web Developer Forum on August 8-12 at the Gaylord National outside Washington, DC. This event is the world's largest gathering of Tessitura web implementation experts, which includes a developer-focused roundtable and the opportunity for Tessitura users to interact with one another, as well as network with web service providers. This year's conference will be entirely focused on Tessitura web development topics, which is a subject IMA knows a great deal about. If you are going to be at the conference, we would like to meet you and learn more about your challenges and concerns. New Site Releases IMA and the Metropolitan Opera Guild Launch OPERA NEWS “I love the new, energized www.operanews.com; this is true cyber-elegance,” said one reader on the site’s new blog.
IMA and the Metropolitan Opera Guild's OPERA NEWS staff significantly re-organized the original content to provide Opera lovers with a truly accessible OPERA NEWS online version, pairing their new architecture with a stunning new design that elevates their site to Web 2.0 sophistication. The site’s homepage calls out different sections of the publication, giving readers a glimpse of the rich content located deep within each publication. Users who want to subscribe to the publication are a single click away. Also clearly featured on the homepage are links to exclusive online content, enriching the Web experience. The site’s multimedia options, both audio and video, have been greatly enhanced.
Interested advertisers have a variety of placement options, from the run of the entire site to picking a specific section, while the stylish layout prevents the page from ever feeling crowded.
The site was developed using the Ektron content management system (CMS), enabling staff members to focus on their editorial mission of promoting the Opera art form rather than wrestling with technology. This was particularly important not only because the publication appears monthly, but because news items relevant to the Opera world are published online on an ongoing basis. Ektron’s smartform technology was extended to enable the client to enter content in one spot, and have it disseminated in different flavors on various pages throughout the site – for example, on the homepage, in the table of contents, and on the departmental landing pages.
“The revamped operanews.com is a major step forward in how our established readership, as well as newcomers to opera, interact with the magazine,” online OPERA NEWS editor Adam Wasserman said. “The design, at once inviting, efficient, and functional, highlights the breadth of content featured on the site and in the print edition. It is truly the opera-lover’s home on the Internet.”
The Boston Ballet School Registration Module Launches
IMA recently released the Boston Ballet School’s registration module, allowing parents and adult students to sign up and pay for classes online.
Visitors to the Boston Ballet School can learn about the School’s various programs, ranging from classes for children, pre-professional dancers, and adults, which are offered in four different Boston-area studios: Newton, Norwell, Boston’s South End, and Marblehead. A comprehensive Student/Parents Services section offers everything from dress code to wellness tips to career services, as well as a Parents Association. School events are included as part of Boston Ballet’s comprehensive Calendar functionality, where users can see a filtered view of school-only events. Working together with Boston Ballet IT and School staff, IMA was able to re-architect the entire school section to enhance the user’s experience, enabling them to find what they are looking for quickly and easily.
Chief among the new achievements of this rollout was the ability to automate Boston Ballet School class inquiries, registrations, and placement. Previously, Boston Ballet School staff utilized a manual paper process to register all students. Each student or parent was required to fill out and send in a form, which the staff would then need to key into their backend systems. This system was prone to user error and absorbed enormous resources in staff dollars, time and aggravation.
The new online registration system is completely automated with Boston Ballet School’s backend systems, which allows staff members considerably more time to organize the coming term. Parents and students have instant confirmation of the classes they have enrolled in, or are put on a waiting list if the class is full.
The registration system is built on the foundation of IMA’s Enterprise Performing Arts Framework, which integrates content management, eCommerce, and box office software into a single system, leveraging each tool for its own particular strengths. By creating a family profile – in which parents can add multiple children – the system automatically recognizes each student’s training level and offers only the appropriate classes. Classes are further filtered by the location selected. Students who are new to the school are given specific class options based on the student’s age, which reduces their trepidation about selecting the wrong class. Both classes and profiles are dynamically compiled from the Tessitura box office system, which means that site visitors are seeing only the most up-to-date information. And finally, parents can opt to select one of three payment options – including an off-line option – to enroll students in classes.
|
|
|