Fringe box office system provider goes titsup
Tragedy of errors
Posted in Management, 21st August 2008 07:02 GMT
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The software outfit behind the chaotic implementation of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe’s box office system has gone titsup.
A spokeswoman at Glasgow-based Pivotal Integration Ltd confirmed to The Register that the firm has gone into administration. However, she said the company was unlikely to be issuing any further statement at this time.
Fringe director Jon Morgan said the group was aware of the turmoil at Pivotal Integration Ltd but insisted that the administration process "will have no impact on ticketing services during the last week of the Fringe", which ends on 25 August.
It is understood that Kenny Craig of Tenon Corporate Recovery is the software company's administrator.
Meanwhile, Fringe organisers will carry out a detailed post-mortem into the box office system cock-up that cast a shadow over this year’s event.
The group plans to conduct independent inquiries into the technical problems the Fringe suffered following the botched implementation of a new ticket booking system in June this year.
A committee, including local government bodies, will produce a detailed report on procurement, installation and operation of the 2008 Fringe box office. The Fringe expects the inquiry process to be completed in November when the report's findings will be published.
A Fringe spokesman told El Reg that an "independent IT company is to investigate [the findings] and report on the best options for a box office system capable of handling the complex needs of the world's largest arts festival."
Assembly director William Burdett-Coutts hit out at the Fringe board for its handling of the box office snafu. “Fundamentally, a very basic flaw has happened that has brought us very close to commercial death and I think the board need to recognise that,” he said at the organisation's AGM last week, according to luvvie rag The Stage.
The Fringe launched its new Liquid Box Office electronic system, supplied by Pivotal Integration Ltd, in June. However, it failed to cope with customer demand for the festival’s 2,088 shows, and organisers were forced on several occasions to completely suspend sales until the computer system could be fixed – much to the frustration of Fringe punters and promoters.
Pivotal Integration Ltd was founded in 2002. It specialised in business frameworks and development tools and had customers in the public, legal, finance and telecoms sectors. In 2006 it won a debt management services contract with Glasgow City Council.
El Reg also asked the Fringe if it was facing bankruptcy following the box office system cock-up – some members of its own board had claimed the group was on the brink of financial ruin – but it declined to provide comment. ®
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COMMENTS
Its come to a pretty pass ...
When in this day and age no one can produce a simple ticketing system. That works. For next to nothing. That requires no maintainence?
C'mon ...
@ Bruce Rowe
"The people who make the decisions are usually composed of administrators, accountants, a lawyer, and someone who claims to be computer literate."
Once again the MBA mindset rears its ugly head and acts as though humans are fully fungible. Expertise, experience, knowledge, learning, education, insight, imagination, creativity: all these qualities are discounted in favor of status, self-proclaimed importance and nonsensical academic credentials.
Everyone knows now that accountants, lawyers, administrators, and their ilk are far, far more important to the process of making Important Technical Decisions than mere technicians.
How to recognize if an organization of any kind has its shit together: are the accountants kept in small cages in the basement and required to wear muzzles? Ditto for the lawyers? Did the administrators rise through the ranks or were they parachuted in from some failed venture they previously presided over?
If you wonder why Hollywood is creatively bankrupt, why Ebay is getting out of its original line of business, why the MPAA has such hysteria over freeloaders? Why, just look at the beancounters and legal types who've taken over; are these changes any surprise under the circumstances?
This is more common than you would think
Here's what will happen:
1. Public announcement of an inquiry
2. The Committee convenes and discusses matters. There is some initial acrimony and finger pointing. At this point, The Committee agrees that the public should be excluded (for its own good).
3. The Committee agrees that they could not have been responsible. The cause of all the trouble was the vendor. The vendor gets duly castigated in public.
4. New members join The Committee. Everyone agrees that things are going to be different.
5. The New Committee pats themselves on the back and starts looking for a new vendor.
I work for a software company that creates software for internet ticketing. In our 20 years of business, we have seen the same pattern many times. The people who make the decisions are usually composed of administrators, accountants, a lawyer, and someone who claims to be computer literate. Conspicuous by their absence, is anyone who has experience on the front lines.
Here's what happens with the New Committee:
1. The New Committee figures its budget, creates a list of requirements, and invites bids.
2. Vendors do their presentations (the dog and pony show).
3. The winning bid goes to the vendor that meets the following requirements:
- a) The highest affordable price
- b) Most attractive salespeople
- c) Most buzzword compliant
4. The New Committee pats themselves on the back and disbands
5. People on the front lines wonder how they are supposed to work with such lousy tools.
And the cycle starts again.
You've been a very naughty boy, MIKE MCHALE Account Manager, brightsolid?
"IMHO "brightsolid" also sounds like one of those trendy media "luvvie" names thought up over one too many bottles of Moet ..." .... By James Posted Thursday 21st August 2008 09:26 GMT
Whenever one reads the brightsolid Case Study. Pivotal Integration
MARCH 2007 .... it would appear that they were offering only the Internet and dressing it up with Spin and Guff and misrepresenting themselves as is evidenced in "and I’m pleased to say, that by using our tailor-made infrastructure it was able to meet all of these.” ...... http://www.brightsolid.com/assets/files/casestudy_pivotal.pdf
You know what they say ..... Too many bottles of Moet in, and the Wit goes out delivering Plonkers to the Champers.:-)
Well I for one know where they will be working
I can guarantee for a fact that one of them will be working at a large financial institution that made around £600m loss in the same country. I wouldn't be surprised if the whole team made it across there for the jollies.
Mines the one with the white collar....
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