Stadsschouwburg De Harmonie, located in Leeuwarden, has been working with Yesplan since 2013. The entire organisation benefits from the system, including the doormen and marketing department.
Rijno Ernsten, Event Manager and Silvie Drees, Ticketing sales, website & database coordinator are excited to tell us about how Yesplan has been welcomed with open arms and how their enthusiasm about the system is still through the roof today.
Silvie: By the end of 2013, we were looking into new systems to connect our ticketing sales with our website. We heard about Yesplan through other cultural venues and decided to attend the event in Rotterdam. We were enthusiastic about the many integrations and ways to connect other systems, such as ticketing systems like Afas. Later on, we attended the second presentation in Amsterdam, given by Jeroen, where several user cases were being explained…
Rijno: … and our enthusiasm grew even more (laughs). That was our call to invite Jeroen to our venue in Leeuwarden. The entire team of De Harmonie joined, from accountants to board members, and every one of them would agree that Yesplan could offer so many advantages for our organization.
Silvie: We immediately noticed that Yesplan would be very user-friendly. While using our previous system, we often struggled for the most basic tasks such as retrieving information. Yesplan is well-structured thanks to the intuitive use of the tabs. Those specific tabs allow users to quickly find out what is important for them on that day.
Silvie: Together with Chris, we drafted an extensive guideline. He helped us examine our work processes to determine which ones could be structured even more. His input, suggestions and our needs blended perfectly and resulted in our personalised Yesplan system.
Rijno: Our heads of administration and catering were thinking along to keep track of the financial side and the effective implementation of our catering schedule.
Silvie: We particularly appreciated that Chris had provided us with a time schedule that gave us a great overview of the phases of implementation, how long they would take and when everything could be set up. His estimations were quite accurate which allowed us to organise our time accordingly.
“We particularly appreciated the time schedule that gave us a great overview of the phases and duration of the implementation.”
Rijno: After setting up the system, I let every department know that they could come by my office at designated times to ask for more information or pose questions about the system. That way, I wanted to tackle issues as fast as possible and resolve them on the spot. We also gave a presentation to explain the ins and outs but since the program is intuitive, almost all employees found it easy to work with from the very start.
Silvie: For me, scheduling our events and shows correctly is most important, as well as ticketing sales and the financial data I gather from Yesplan.
Rijno: What I do, when opening Yesplan, is checking the schedule for our commercial partners, so everything revolving around introductions, workshops, congresses… We are both admins in Yesplan and I can say for the both of us that we know the system like the back of our hands.
Rijno: I think almost everyone is a daily Yesplan user: our cashiers, doormen, marketeers, catering staff… they all benefit from it. I made it very clear to my team that every aspect could be modified to fit their specific needs, but I didn’t have to modify much over the past years. So, I can presume that everyone is satisfied with the system at this point.
Silvie: New employees always follow a presentation about the use of Yesplan and the specific tasks that can be facilitated with the system.
Silvie: The big advantage for me is the data views module. I use it frequently to make lists with all the data that I need. We are also saving the information for our seasonal leaflet in Yesplan. This makes it easy to export later on and determine the schedule. Simple as that.
“The big advantage for me is the data views module.” - Silvie Drees, Stadsschouwburg De Harmonie.
Rijno: I am a big fan of the team planning within the system. It lets you see who is where and when. Overall, I like that the entire organisation is centralised. Staff can retrieve information because they know everything can be found in Yesplan. And if we notice that relevant information is missing, we don’t shy away from optimising the system.
Silvie: At the moment, we are considering integrating our website with Yesplan. This way, showtimes and break times can be adjusted easily and automatically.
Silvie: The user day in Utrecht provided us with useful new information about the data views module and its opportunities. We were shown little tips & tricks to install the views in the most efficient way, such as ways to use the filters or structure rows and columns. And of course, we enjoyed meeting other Yesplan users to exchange our experiences and learn from theirs.
Rijno: I like that you meet so many people working in the same sector, but they are all using the system in their own way. This is so educational and lets you take home new insights for your own organisation.
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