Data is always about something. In the arts it describes creative outputs, other products and services, and how well an organisation is doing in connecting a wide range of people to them. In order to enable arts organisations to build these relationships in a way that makes sense for them, Innovation agency Golant Innovation (formerly known as Golant Media Ventures) and contemporary arts support organisation Artsadmin have created a ‘culture edition’ of an open source CRM solution. KIWI is tailored to capture and track the complex relationships and data unique to arts organisations':

• Ticket Bookers
• Artists
• Funders
• Donors
• Programmers
• Touring Partners
• Hirers
• And more...

The Task

In the current economic and funding climate, there has never been a more urgent need for cultural organisations to derive additional value from all their assets. But this isn’t just about efficiency or enterprise, however important they are. Insight into people and two-way conversations are also key to building relationships and to enhance people’s experiences of your creative work and other services. The challenge is to create a unified view that encompasses casual visitors to your building, ardent supporters of your work, ticket buyers at your ‘home’ venue as well as all the audiences you didn’t sell a ticket to... and to recognise that each individual may be in several categories.

The Project

Our starting point was to look at what kinds of data are important to cultural organisations. We created a model that reflects the diverse array of people beyond ticket-buying audiences – and the wide range of ‘stuff’ that a cultural organisation can connect them to. We then looked at how to turn these diverse kinds of data into ‘assets’ – capable of generating future value. Obviously, in the arts, the value is often a mixture of public benefits and social value together with earned revenue or other funding. We identified an open-source solution, SuiteCRM, which allowed us to use existing functionality license-free whilst offering us the flexibility to configure new features specific to the needs of cultural organisations.

Relationships with professionals, for example, develop over a long period of time and can span their roles within many different organisations and networks. Again, over time, casual visitors become audiences, become donors, become supporters… perhaps all at once. And the development of creative projects is not like selling a ‘widget’ – creative concepts and teams are developed in parallel to funding, touring and other public engagement. The resulting solution is tailored to support each team and their core functions.

The Outcomes

KIWI combines data from your relationships with the public and with other professionals to create a richer view of your networks.

Current features and integrations

• Integrations with box office and email marketing solutions (Spektrix and Mailchimp)
• Bespoke modules to handle data on cultural projects, artistic works, venues, festivals, events, artist support packages, etc.
• Ability to record both B2B and B2C relationships
• Tag, group and list contacts in order to target more effectively
• Cloud-based (can be accessed by staff anywhere)
• Templated reporting functionality
• Customised module tracks Projects from concept to evaluation
• Ability to import and export data or reports
• Collates information on funders and tracks progress from application through to reporting
• Easy to set different levels of user access

Features and Integrations to be developed in the next phase with our R&D partners

• Calendar
• VOIP (linking to internet phone systems)
• Wi-Fi login data capture
• Customised dashboards
• Integrated forms
• And more…