4D Shines Onstage - Mum Puppettheatre

Over the past sixteen years, Mum Puppettheatre has been touring and performing around the world, entertaining audiences of all ages. In addition, through Arts-in-Education Residency Programs, Mum Puppettheatre members have worked one-on-one with over 5,000 special-needs children annually. With critical missions such as these, Mum Puppettheatre’s data management needs have ranged anywhere from keeping track of patron donations, to updating mailing lists, to printing and selling tickets. As a not-for-profit organization where efficiency truly matters, a database solution that is affordable, easy to implement, and easy to use has always been a high priority.

Flexible, Scalable, Affordable

Like many other organizations, Mum Puppettheatre had a diverse set of requirements for its database solution. After experimenting with a number of other software programs, Robert Smythe, Artistic Director of Mum Puppettheatre, realized that the ideal solution would resemble software that is specifically designed for the theatre industry, but would not be limited by box office administration, as theatre-specific software programs generally are. According to Smythe, "There is little existing software to integrate the needs of theatre companies. Ticket sales data is generally not available to other departments in the theatre. The leading ticket sales software in the country does not allow administrative staff the ability to send mail to the company’s best customers. Box office staff cannot be alerted when a major contributor to the theatre comes to a performance. Consequently, many organizations end up creating databases within each department, needlessly duplicating effort, wasting time, and becoming less efficient. And small arts organizations cannot afford to waste anything."

In essence, the ideal solution for Mum Puppettheatre would be flexible, scalable, and affordable. Smythe needed a solution that would be flexible enough to work along with the intricacies involved in the theatre business, one that would give him the creative freedom he needed in developing a 4D application, and one that would also accommodate any demands that the theatre may have in the future. "Our company runs like no other business we know, not even other theatres," said Smythe. "The idea of having to work around some engineer’s idea of how a business should run was not at all appealing or workable. Our database solution needed to be responsive to our needs and not force us to work around it."

4D Provides the Customized Capabilities

With 4D, Mum Puppettheatre has created a solution that efficiently serves the entire organization from the box office attendees to the grant writers. The solution is powered by 4D and 4D Server 6.7.1, as well as various 4D plug-ins.

The theatre staff uses 4D Write, a word-processing and document management 4D plug-in, to accomplish a number of everyday word-processing tasks. Through simple confirmation windows and buttons, 4D Write provides the theatre staff with streamlined, automatic processes, and certain types of correspondence can be automatically generated from available data. A ticket buyer’s name and address information is collected upon ticket purchase. On any given day, 4D Write will automatically generate membership renewal letters based upon renewal dates for that day. In addition, once a donation has been recorded for patrons, personalized "thank you" letters are generated as well.

Backups are scheduled automatically with 4D Backup, a backup and application-restoring 4D plug-in that is included with 4D Server. According to Smythe, "When cashing out the box office, clerks reconcile their cash drawers, print box office reports, and back up the day’s data with a single mouse click."

The theatre staff runs 4D Compiler, a machine-level compiler for 4D applications, every time new code is added to the application. "4D Compiler helps us make sure that we aren’t accruing programming errors while simultaneously ensuring that the compiled code lets our machines run as fast as possible," said Smythe. "4D Compiler allows our already fast applications to run at blazing speeds since the applications are running machine-level instructions. We get our stuff running quickly on both Macs and PCs, and 4D Compiler enables us to increase the time we can spend working on our data instead of waiting for it."

Finally, 4D Insider helps Smythe as a developer tool for cross-referencing, documenting, reusing, and managing application code and objects. "Since our needs change from season to season, and from month to month, 4D Insider enables us to rename database methods or forms to achieve consistency so that anyone looking at our code will understand it," notes Smythe. "We also use it to move lines of code around so that a handy routine from one version of the database can be used in other places."

For Smythe and the rest of the theatre staff, their various needs are accommodated by the diversity of features presented by the 4D solution that has been implemented. "Like Mum Puppettheatre, 4th Dimension is never the same thing twice," said Smythe. "Depending on who is using it, 4th Dimension can be a straightforward data entry program in the box office, a powerful number crunching engine for grant writing, a flexible word processor for generating contracts and schedules, and much more."

4D’s Graphical User Interface (GUI) gives the theatre staff the complete control they need over the look and feel of their customized solution, as well as the freedom to adapt any features or functions both quickly and easily. "We like having absolute control over what things look like and how they function," said Smythe. "Best of all, we have control when we want it; 4D’s default settings work just great when we’re in a hurry." As for specific features such as creating crucial reports from raw data, 4D technologies enable the staff to manage and access data efficiently through its various "environments." 4D operates as a multi-threaded environment that supports the simultaneous design and use of 4D databases through three different environments, namely the User, Design, and Runtime environments. Using the Runtime environment, information can be collected according to the theatre’s specific needs. By switching to the User environment, this raw data can then be accessed, and data can be sorted and queried, or data reports created using the Quick Report Editor. "At any given moment we can quickly look at the raw data, find what we need, and then create a report based on it," continues Smythe. "Saving the information is easy and quite useful when we find ourselves making the same reports to many different government and private agencies."

A Solid Network Brings Greater Ticket Sales

The networking capabilities of Mum Puppettheatre have increased tremendously. Now the theatre staff can share important information on donors and ticket sales without experiencing errors caused by duplicated data. In addition, 4D’s renowned ease-of-use enables any staff member to make a ticket sale. "4th Dimension’s networking power means that anyone in the office can pick up a phone and sell, print, and ship tickets from their own desktops," notes Smythe. In one instance, the ticket-selling process was changed during an intermission. "When we became aware of small changes we could make to streamline our box office process, we programmed new features during intermission and used them in the second act," continues Smythe. "As soon as any member of our staff comes up with a suggestion for improving how we work, we can implement that change as easily as we can reach for a pencil." All members of the staff have access to the latest information on contracts, grant applications, and ticket sales. With a solid network provided by 4D, shared information is reliable and performances will never be oversold.

As for future plans, Mum Puppettheatre plans to bring ticket sales online, and Smythe remains confident that 4D will continue to grow with the needs of his organization. "There is not a single aspect of 4D that is not a positive one for us. I know that however fast we grow, and in whatever direction, 4D will be right there with us."

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