RFP #15-11-20 Ticketing System Addendum No. 1 Shawnee State University December 7, 2015 Please note the following clarifications to RFP #15-11-20. Question 1: How many tickets does the Center sell per year? Please provide a breakdown by type subscription, single, online, box office, phone, etc. What percentage are comps? Answer: 18,700 Primary box office 2,860 Internet 440 Mobile/outlet/phone agent 22,000 Tickets printed, of which: 4,200 Comp (19%) 2,800 Subscription tickets 15,000 Single tickets Question 2: Please provide the most recent year's revenue numbers, including all tickets, merchandise, subscriptions, ticket/transnational fees, etc., but excluding donations. Answer: $530,000 Question 3: Have your sales increased, decreased or stayed the same over the last few years? Do you have revenue growth goals? Answer: Subscription sales have shown a slight decrease in the past three years. Single ticket sales have remained steady with some events increasing. Question 4: Are there any major renovations or anything that could interrupt normal business volumes during the initial two-year term of this ticketing agreement? Answer: No. Question 5: Do you handle phone sales in house, or will your new provider provide call center services? Answer: We handle phone sales through our primary box office, but our current provider also offers a 1-800 phone option. We do not anticipate the need for a call center. Question 6: What is the breakdown, by percentage, of delivery methods (Print at Home, Mail, Will Call)? RFP #15-11-20 Page 1 of 7 Addendum 1
Answer: Approximately70% mail, 25% will call, 5% print at home Question 7: Do you handle all of your own fulfillment (printing & mailing), or does your current ticketing provider do that? Answer: We handle all printing and mailing in house. Question 8: How many season ticket accounts (excluding comps)? Answer: Approximately 204 accounts. Question 9: Do you offer any membership programs? Answer: None currently; however, there is the potential for alumni or athletic booster memberships. Question 10: Do you sell tickets for any other events outside of your facility? Answer: Yes. Question 11: How many events a year are ticketed? Answer: Approximately 73. Question 12: What is the average price of a single ticket? Answer: It is difficult to determine an average due to the wide range of ticket prices offered by the Center and the Center s renters. The range is typically from $3-$80, with an average of approximately $40. Question 13: Please describe your subscription/membership program and benefits. Answer: We offer a full season subscription that includes all specified (typically, nine) events. The advantage to this package is reduced pricing, as well as securing specific seats for the entire series. We also offer mini-series subscriptions, which break down into three categories Broadway, Variety, and Classic. These are preset mini-series and offer the same advantages as the full season. Lastly, we offer a flex series, in which the customer can choose a minimum of five events, to create their own package at a reduced rate; however, they are not securing the same seats for every event. (Please refer to the Series Order Form, at the end of this Addendum.) Question 14: Should pricing for the James A. Rhodes Athletic Center, the Planetarium, and the University Center be included in our response, or are those considered add-ons, for a later time? If included, please provide annual sales volumes for each. Answer: The areas named above are contemplated as later add-ons; however, it would be helpful for respondents to include them in the proposal, as an option. A sense of what the cost would be to do so should be noted, as a separate line. Part of the goal of implementing RFP #15-11-20 Page 2 of 7 Addendum 1
the system is to provide a greater degree of organization and tracking. Current sales volumes are not available. Question 15: Is this campus wide? Including athletics? Answer: Potentially, yes. Question 16: What percentage of tickets will be sold to sporting events, and what percentage to performing arts events? Answer: Likely, 90-95 percent to performing arts events and the remainder to sporting and others, initially. The goal is to grow these programs and their use of the ticketing system Question 17: Do you currently scan barcoded tickets for validation at the gates? If so, how many handheld scanners do you use, and do you own the scanners? Answer: We do scan tickets and currently use five handheld scanners, which we do not own. Question 18: At how many access points are you scanning tickets, and are they indoor or outdoor? Answer: Indoor only and there are three access points both side entrances and one in the main lobby. Question 19: Do you use automated selling Kiosks? Answer: No. Question 20: Please describe your hardware requirements and the make and model of your current hardware PC's, scanners, ticket printers, etc. Answer: Currently there are two sales stations with printers and a Box Office Manager station without a printer. The box office manager s station is her primary desktop, therefore the ticketing software needs to be available on her pc. Computers are currently running Windows XP, and we recognize that an upgrade is necessary. The printers and scanners are owned by our current ticketing company and will need to be replaced. Question 21: How many ticket printers do you need? Answer: Two. Question 22: How many workstations do you need? Answer: Two workstations, possibly three, or the option of software download. Question 23: Does the University s IT staff support the Center? Answer: Yes. RFP #15-11-20 Page 3 of 7 Addendum 1
Question 24: How do you handle marketing, including email marketing, for the Center? Answer: An overall marketing plan is created for the season and revisited quarterly. Execution of the plan is handled internally by staff. Question 25: What type of service charges/fees are on your tickets (per ticket, order, tax, etc.)? Answer: No tax, $2 per value ticket fee, and $.50 per comp ticket fee (both absorbed by the renter). Question 26: Do you sell any merchandise or concessions? Answer: Yes, but neither passes through the ticketing system. Question 27: What is your current fundraising system? Answer: In terms of software, none. Question 28: Approximately how many unique customer records would you need to convert to a new ticketing system? Would you need seat of record or just a patron list? Answer: There are approx. 12,000 records that were transferred from the previous system to the current system. Ticketing history is not included for all of those records. The only pertinent history is subscribers, so that we may retain their information and carry over their seats and ticket types. There are approximately 204 subscribers. Question 29: 4.4.1 states that, Online and/or telephone support must be provided 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Would it satisfy this requirement, if a company were to offer customer support for 'business as usual' questions or consulting from 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. EST, Monday through Friday, from 4 a.m. - 4 p.m. on the weekends, and emergency support 24/7 for those instances where the system is unresponsive or down? Answer: Yes, this would suffice. Emergency support 24/7 is the crucial component. Question 30: Let s say a respondent does not directly provide hardware, such as ticket scanners or printers, but does have partners that can provide hardware at a preferred price. This hardware is supported by the respondent for troubleshooting and installation, in addition to the manufacturer's support, but warranties are subject to the package purchased by the University from the respondent s vendors. Does that satisfy the intention of the requirement stated in 4.4.3? Answer: Yes. Outside, third-party vendors will be considered, provided the University has contact information, should a problem arise. Question 31: 4.9.7 The system should be customizable, in order to handle user-defined charts of accounts. Please clarify. Answer: Please refer to question 33, below. RFP #15-11-20 Page 4 of 7 Addendum 1
Question 32: 4.10 states that the term of the agreement will be two years, with a renewal term of two years. Will SSU consider an initial and renewal terms that are different than those specified in the RFP? Answer: The University s preference is stated in 4.10, but other terms will be considered. Question 33: 5.2.8 asks us to describe the system s ability to store various sort codes (accounting codes) customizable by user. Can you elaborate? Answer: The University s accounting system assigns a 14-digit code to each general ledger account on campus (e.g. 01-2345-6789-1234). Respondents should describe their ability to associate custom general ledger accounts (or codes/identifiers) to each event for accounting purposes. The Center is currently using 4 of the 14 digits to track how much money should be attributed to each event. That number may increase, to include all 14 digits, as ticketing expands to include other areas (i.e., athletics, events and conferences, etc.). Describe any limitations your system may have accommodating a 14-digit accounting code. Question 34: 5.2.26 asks, What is the scalability for the system modules should needs increase (i.e. adding sales sites, increased need for CRM and database reporting)? Are you referring to on-sale scalability (i.e., transactions per minute)? Please elaborate. Answer: We are referring to being able to add sales locations, or expand CRM and database functionality, either in terms of adding additional users in other departments or upgrade to add features. Question 35: 5.3.4 Can data records be added without any transaction or donation transpiring? Please provide an example. Answer: Can we add people to a database or mailing list without them actually having purchased anything, so we can include them in communication about upcoming events, solicit donations, etc. Obviously a way to identify these entries needs to be possible to extract contact info for everyone who bought tickets last year plus every new address added since X date. Question 36: 5.3.6 What ability does the vendor have to accommodate transition and data import from other systems? Are you referring to importing data from your current ticketing system? If not, please provide an example of what you are trying to accomplish. Answer: Yes, both from our current ticketing system and importing things like donation records from other databases. Question 37: 5.7.3 Can the ticketing system accommodate multiple sets of financial data without mixing them? Please elaborate or provide an example. Answer: Generally, being able to keep data from the performing arts center separate from events and conferences, athletics and the development foundation. RFP #15-11-20 Page 5 of 7 Addendum 1
Question 38: 5.7.7 Describe the system s ability to accommodate remote processing from multiple locations, not always part of the computer s data network? Are you referring to operating from a WiFi network? Please explain. Answer: Yes on a WiFi network or if we were at a remote location that either lost WiFi or didn t have it. Could we process general admission type ticketing transactions and have the information update when we were back in contact with the network? Similar to how Square Reader allows you to take payment offline, except we would also need the system to print tickets. Obviously, to prevent overselling, we would only use one terminal. Question 39: 5.8.10 Provide a copy of the warranty agreement for the proposed ticketing system. Please elaborate. Answer: Assuming the proposed ticketing system has a warranty, a copy of that warranty should be included with the respondent s proposal. Question 40: 5.10.2 Describe any mag stripe standards supported and used by the system. Is mag stripe ability integrated with the ticketing software or an add-on component? Please elaborate. Answer: Does your system support mag stripe technology? If it does, is it integrated into the system or an optional, add-on component? Question 41: 5.10.5 Describe your system integration capabilities. Does the University wish to integrate with a specific system? Answer: Respondents may ignore 5.10.5. Question 42: 5.11.1 Describe the ability your ticketing system has to save or retrieve financial information from a variety of accounting systems in real time. Provide an example. Answer: Respondents should focus on the issue of real time. Can we immediately see the sales numbers and have immediate access to reports? Question 43: 5.11.2 Describe the ability your ticketing system has to save or retrieve financial information from a variety of information through batch processing, which may happen at multiple times throughout the day. Please provide an example. Answer: Currently when a clerk logs out for the day, they print an audit of their transactions. Then the next person logs into the computer and eventually does the same. At the end of the day, those audits are compared to the drawer. Question 44: 5.12.2.1 How frequently can reports be generated? If reports are available upon request over the Web, clearly define. Please elaborate on the latter half of the question. Answer: Which reports, if any, must be requested either online or via phone, and how current will the data be for each of those reports? RFP #15-11-20 Page 6 of 7 Addendum 1
Question 45: 5.13.8 Does the web interface provide basic processing and transaction information, or does it require a deeper level of control from the ticketing system? Answer: Respondents may ignore this question. Question 46: Is the "Second Street" mailing address to be used for overnight delivery? Attention: Pat Carson? Answer: Yes. Mailed or overnight deliveries should be addressed to: Shawnee State University, Contract Management & Strategic Sourcing, 940 Second Street, Portsmouth, OH 45662-4344. Respondents may also add Attention: Pat Carson, if they wish. THE END RFP #15-11-20 Page 7 of 7 Addendum 1