If you are considering centralizing your corporate tickets, you may find some resistance when gathering information from stakeholders, especially if you have tickets currently managed in local markets. This situation is not uncommon and can easily be resolved. As with many companies, the decision concerning which customers or prospects should be entertained is sometimes best left to local markets – who know them best. You may also hear legitimate concerns regarding logistics and relationship-building with customers, such as the possibility of not being able to fulfill last minute ticket requests or losing the ability to personally deliver the tickets and meeting face-to-face with the customer.

On the flip side, there are important and valid reasons for centralizing tickets, including transparency, accountability, and efficiencies. Then there is the issue of how to best use the tickets. First and foremost, whether acquired through sponsorships or as an outright buy, tickets are assets of the company and should be treated as such. To maximize ROI and ensure the greatest ticket usage, a company must be able to analyze who is being entertained and why. This is best accomplished by having a centralized repository for all related data from which to generate reports. By taking this one step further and integrating that data with a CRM system, you now have a data set that can help you strategically align your entertainment assets to produce the best results.

So the question becomes, how does a company achieve the benefits of centralizing tickets and still keep decision making in the local markets? Cendyn developed their Ovations corporate ticket management solution to accomplish both.

Ovations is highly configurable software through its unique architecture. Features, such as, ticket allocation, a robust approval routing module, and the ability to have specific data fields for a region or department, were created to address the concerns for those in local markets while still providing the data needed to achieve the objectives of centralization. Another innovative feature of Ovations is the ability to obtain data that is only relevant to a local market and keep it hidden from other markets while still including the data in rollup reports for management.

With the ability to accommodate workflows specific to your company as well as workflows for a local market, Ovations offers a unique method for the local markets to control usage and approvals. Physical tickets can be kept in the local markets so sales employees will continue to have another touchpoint with customers and last minute requests can be accommodated. Simultaneously, checks and balances are created with the Ovations solution to ensure data is captured and processes are followed.

In summary, centralizing tickets with the Ovations tool easily provides the data collection necessary for compliance and audit purposes, streamlines processes, creates efficiencies, and maximizes ROI. At the same time, local markets retain control and are more strategic in their decision making process.