The Stained Glass Museum
The Stained Glass Museum is the only museum dedicated to the art of stained glass in the UK. The collection spans over 800 years and is located inside Ely Cathedral. This project came about because of the opportunity that the COVID 19 pandemic created. It was paid for via the Arts Council ‘Cultural Recovery Fund’ and carried out whilst the museum was forced to close for almost twelve months during 2020. The importance of online user experience and sales for all organisations has became apparent for many visitor attractions over the last two years, and The Stained Glass Museum decided it was time to update their manual processes for the new era.
We worked with their dedicated team to source and implement new retail POS and an admission system. Research is a big part of what we do and sourcing appropriate solutions within budget happens to be our forte.
The Brief:
This project aimed to conduct a review of the museum’s ticketing, retail, membership and fundraising management.
Recommend and implement improvements to the management, procedures and processes.
Recommend and implement new IT software and CRM / EPOS systems in order to enhance the museum’s audience data and development, retail, membership management and fundraising.
Train staff in how to use new systems.
The Proposal:
We proposed the following schedule and methodology:
Initial kick-off meeting with The Stained Glass Museum (social distancing rules observed) to meet with the team, understand site layout and processes, and gather requirements.
Creation of Request for Proposal (RFP) documents to send to long list of vendors to initiate quotes and project plans from software suppliers.
Creation of board report with summary of longlisted suppliers and recommendations for shortlisting and demonstration of appropriate software.
Management of supplier relationship through demonstration and project handover phase.
Implementation guidance and support through to go live of new system in March 2021.
The Process:
Initially, we worked out what the museum need us to do. We visited and talked to people at different stages of both the visitor experience and behind the scenes organisation. This included admissions, stock management and e-commerce.
We then wrote a clear RFP and published across the appropriate channels.
We found the perfect online partner in 'Art Tickets' from Art Fund for the new admission system, and Shopify for e-commerce and helped the museum to install these systems across the organisation, including the set-up of software on Ipads - allowing staff to work more efficiently when moving around the site.
The Outcome:
The new Shopify system has been crucial for:
improving stock management accuracy which was previously done manually
the team being able to learn the new system quickly due to the intuitive content management system this software provides
The Art Tickets solution now allows The Stained Glass Museum to sell online which improves the overall customer experience. This includes:
retail products
advanced ticket entry
pre-bookings for workshops, children’s activities and talks.
The Verdict:
“Carly helped us source and implement new retail PoS and admission systems. She researched and sourced a variety of supplier options, helped us select the most appropriate one (within budget and thinking of ease of use/long-term affordability) and was on hand to help us iron out any teething issues.
Throughout the project Carly was communicative and delivered the project to agreed objectives and timescale without cutting corners. She was very experienced and knowledgeable.”
—Jasmine Allen, Curator, The Stained Glass Museum
