Hi Cristiano
First off, I should make it clear that, no, I haven’t tried your system and therefore have no direct experience of it - so should apologise if I appeared negative about something I haven’t tried. That wasn’t my intention - I was making a general point.
[ And yes, I’d like to try it - and would be delighted to be proved wrong ]
But: in my experience - and ** I’m not talking now about Qi but in general ** - IT systems that try to be everything to everybody: CMS, CRM, DMS, ecommerce, ticketing, whatever - *usually* end up:
1) being expensive to procure, maintain and change because of the enormous complexity that they represent
2) putting organisations at risk of having a single, potentially quite risky, point of failure
3) being “ok” at all of those bits, but not excellent at any single one of them
You’re right - there are risks the other way too. Duplication, redundancy, all of that - these are real problems that will probably never go away. But you often get the same data issues in a monster does-it-all system, surely? You also mention organisations getting stuck - surely they’re much *more* likely to get stuck if they’ve got a 100-ton system that runs everything than if they’ve got 10 systems that do each of the separate bits? What if the owner of that system ups the license fee by 400%? Or goes bust? Or decides they’re not developing their system any more? What then?
Personally, I prefer having loosely knitted, fit for purpose bits that have a joining principle, rather than a monolithic, central thing. But hey, as I said earlier, that’s a personal view. It comes from my extreme (and probably irrational) hatred of enterprise IT :-)
Would love to hear what everyone else thinks!
cheers
Mike
_____________________________
Mike Ellis
Thirty8 Digital: a small but perfectly formed digital agency: http://thirty8.co.uk (http://thirty8.co.uk/)
* My book: http://heritageweb.co.uk (http://heritageweb.co.uk/) *
On Tuesday, 11 February 2014 at 17:33, Cristiano Bianchi wrote:
> On another note, Mike, may I ask you why loosely would connected bits be in
> general better than an integrated system? Isn't the case that as soon as
> you upgrade or change one of the bits, in most cases you break the
> connections and have to also recreate those?
>
> In my experience, whilst it is true that APIs are an absolute priority (and
> often the only way to integrate) for everything and far too many systems on
> the market should not be excused for not having one, it's all too easy to
> put together something that works as long as you don't change anything.
>
> Though as soon as you add or modify one of the components, your entire
> infrastructure falls - which is why many organisations never challenge
> their software systems, despite the many technical and functional advances
> in newer applications: such systems are simply too fragile and easy to
> break as they glue together many pieces with very little provision for
> change.
>
> Besides, in that scenario, your data would be all over the place -
> duplicated, out of date, very challenging to make sense of. Some of your
> event data would be in your own CMS, another bit in the events management,
> some more on tickets.com (http://tickets.com) - these often overlap, the overall picture is
> missing and it's very hard to understand where authority for information
> lies.
>
> Best regards,
> Cristiano
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 11 February 2014 17:15, Cristiano Bianchi <[log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask])>wrote:
>
> > Hi Mike,
> >
> > I always read your contribution with great interest, as you very often
> > bring up fantastic ideas and produce excellent work.
> >
> > I am slightly surprised by your comments about Qi (disclaimer: we are
> > Keepthinking and produce and maintain Qi) - as far as I am aware you
> > probably have not seen it nor tried it.
> >
> > I would be very glad to give you a personal demonstration of Qi, so maybe
> > you can have a better understanding on its capabilities before discarding
> > it - then perhaps you can make recommendation (good or bad) based on first
> > hand experience?
> >
> > Do not hesitate to get in touch if you'd like a demo.
> >
> > With best regards,
> > Cristiano
> >
> >
> > On 11 February 2014 17:05, Mike Ellis <[log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask])> wrote:
> >
> > > FWIW, American Museum (one of our clients) are going down the tickets.comroute.
> > >
> > > I believe - but not 100% sure of the FOH bit - that there will be till
> > > integration and so on.
> > >
> > > We’ll be building the necessary bits into the Wordpress backend of the
> > > website - it’ll basically be custom fields on events so staff at the museum
> > > can fill in a unique id per event - then users will head off to
> > > tickets.com (http://tickets.com) to purchase.
> > >
> > > I’d personally be very wary of something like the Qi system which claims
> > > to do everything. Rather than going for “one system that does everything
> > > from CMS to ticketing” I’d look at loosely joined bits.
> > >
> > > Happy to put people in touch with the American Museum - ping me off-list
> > > if you need an intro.
> > >
> > > cheers
> > >
> > > Mike
> > >
> > >
> > > _____________________________
> > >
> > >
> > > Mike Ellis
> > >
> > > Thirty8 Digital: a small but perfectly formed digital agency:
> > > http://thirty8.co.uk (http://thirty8.co.uk/)
> > >
> > > * My book: http://heritageweb.co.uk (http://heritageweb.co.uk/) *
> > >
> > >
> > > On Tuesday, 11 February 2014 at 16:51, Sarah McHugh wrote:
> > >
> > > > Good afternoon from a snowy NI. This enquiry is of particular interest
> > > to
> > > > us too although we are only at an intial stage of developing e-commerce,
> > > > booking systems (Ticketsolve) and reviewing our existing collections
> > > > management system (in-house).
> > > >
> > > > Qi looks interesting:
> > > > http://www.keepthinking.it/qi-the-universal-content-management-solution.
> > > >
> > >
> > > I
> > > > have no experience of using it and the add-on elements could work out
> > >
> > > to be
> > > > expensive, particularly for ourselves, a smaller museum service. Would
> > >
> > > be
> > > > interested in any feedback on this or other alternatives.
> > > >
> > > > Sarah
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > *Sarah McHughManager - Museum ServicesFermanagh County
> > > Museum*Enniskillen
> > > > Castle Museums, Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, N. Ireland, BT74 7HL
> > > > Tel +44 (0) 28 6632 5000
> > > > Email: [log in to unmask] Web: www.enniskillencastle.co.uk (http://www.enniskillencastle.co.uk) (
> > > >
> > >
> > > http://www.enniskillencastle.co.uk)
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > On 11 February 2014 15:55, Rick Lawrence <[log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask])(mailto:
> > > [log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask]))>wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > A good afternoon from the soggy south west to everyone!
> > > > >
> > > > > At present we use several different systems to book rooms and
> > > resources
> > > > > for events, sell tickets online, take corporate room bookings and
> > > >
> > >
> > > capture
> > > > > visitor information.
> > > > >
> > > > > We are looking at a system that will do all of this in one package.
> > > The
> > > > > aim being to get better value for money and greater efficiency. It
> > > >
> > >
> > > must
> > > > > link till tickets sales with online ticket sales.
> > > > >
> > > > > Has anyone tried this system? http://www.e-s-p.com/index.php
> > > > >
> > > > > Or can recommend a system suitable for a medium sized museum?
> > > > >
> > > > > Thanks in advance
> > > > >
> > > > > Rick
> > > > >
> > > > > Rick Lawrence | Digital Media Officer
> > > > > Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery | Bradninch Offices |
> > > > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > Bradninch
> > > > > Place | Gandy Street | Exeter | EX4 3LS
> > > > > (t) 01392 265303 (f) 01392 421252
> > > > > (e) [log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask])
> > > > > (w) http://www.exeter.gov.uk/ramm
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> > > > >
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> > --
> >
> > Cristiano Bianchi
> > *Keepthinking*
> >
> > 43 Clerkenwell Road
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> >
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> >
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> >
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Cristiano Bianchi
> *Keepthinking*
>
> 43 Clerkenwell Road
> London EC1M 5RS
> tel +44 20 7490 5337
> mobile +44 7939 041169 (UK)
>
> [log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask])
> www.keepthinking.it (http://www.keepthinking.it)
>
> ---
>
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> VAT 831 1329 62
>
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