Non-profit organizations present a challenging technology environment. Most have no professional IT support, an ad-hoc heterogeneous LAN, and limited IT resources and budgets; however, IT needs are the same as as any other corporation. OffstageArts functions well, and at minimal expense, in such an environment.
OffstageArts.org maintains a community of a variety of IT and non-profit consultancies. Organizations interested in using OffstageArts typically retain the services of a consultant from one of these organizations. This consultant will be the organization's primary contact for all things related to OffstageArts: training, technical support, connectivity, data conversion, initial and on-going customization, upgrade recommendations, troubleshooting.
OffstageArts was designed from the ground up to minimize the amount of consultant time required to successfully deploy and support it. This goal has been achieved through a number of innovations:
OffstageArts is designed to work well with databases hosted over the Internet. No database software needs to be installed or maintained by client organizations. OffstageArts database hosting can be provided by a professional hosting company for a nominal fee.
OffstageArts is a "zero-install" system: no installation or configuration on the desktop or LAN is required. The system is normally launched via Java Web Start; bug fixes and updates are seamlessly pushed out to client desktops as required. Consultants can provide their clients with a small, easy-to-build, pre-configured launcher by email.
OffstageArts consultants can provide all required services remotely over the Internet and telephone. That greatly increases consultants' abilities to serve clients in an efficient and cost-effective manner.
Customizations and configurations for OffstageArts are designed to require minimal consultant time to accomplish. Complete database setup, data import and customization for a new client can be accomplished in as little as two hours, depending on the client.
