“Since using Priava we have doubled our performance project productivity in a short period of time” says Darren. One of the key areas that has seen a major transformation is staff training. “When we need to introduce a new user, training only takes half an hour and unlike more complicated solutions, users do not have to possess IT credentials to pick it up. It is straightforward to administer and new users rights can be set up quickly and securely, without having to put extra pressure on our in-house IT team” According to Darren, the Priava solution makes the faculty’s venue management completely autonomous, so there are no delays in adding users or taking advantage of new functionality in the latest upgrades.

Darren says, “Relieving our need to be dependent on the IT department is made possible due to the fact that Priava is completely cloud-based. This is a big win for us. We no longer require servers which translates into capital savings as well as time-savings in maintaining, managing and replacing on-site equipment. With the old system, upgrades simply weren’t being done so we weren’t able to take advantage of new features. Now with Priava we are always on the latest version and we don’t even have to think about it. All back-ups are taken care of too, so there is no need to worry about weekly database archiving, this is all done for us and stored remotely. “With many part-time and casual staff, the fact that we can access the system at any location is also a huge benefit and is essential if you need somewhere quiet to focus on event scheduling, event documentation and operating budgets.”

Producing budget reports is a critical part of Darren’s role due to the high volume of different type of costs that are involved with each space and event. Darren explains how Priava plays a crucial part, “To put it into perspective, we have an annual casual staff budget of $1million that may cover 70 events, but within the University’s main finance system, this may only be represented by a single GL (General Ledger) code. With Priava we can see clearly where the money is going and provide third parties such as the finance team, senior management and heads of department with fast and detailed reports that provide a snapshot of what it costs to run any event or performance project.”

“Previously it was very difficult to share information on the detail of events, but with Priava everyone is in the know. For example without Priava, the finance team would just see a list of names on the casual payroll but have no idea who was working on what. The faculty may have nine different casual salary levels from carpenters through to costume makers, so it’s essential to be able to record this type of information and log against specific events. For example two events each week might show the hourly rate of a Sculpture coordinator or Music Theatre Production Coordinator. We recently completed a production of 42nd Street which included data on the various costs involved from casual salaries through to performance related expenditure such as lighting, set builds, and costumes. Other documentation is non-financial and includes Venue schedules, Correspondence and Event risk documentation. In our current year we are managing 175 project events from Performing Arts to Film & TV. Using Priava, all budgets can be easily tracked and if necessary different hourly rates can be applied across a number of events, so these do not have to be done individually, saving vast amounts of both time and effort. We can now put together staff budgets in a short amount of time by just repeating the event function, whereas in the past it used to take forever. The finance team in particular are astounded by the level of detail that Priava can deliver and comment that they have never seen this quality of information before here at the faculty in relation to our performance projects.”

According to Darren the Priava system is proving popular across the faculty, not just with the finance team but also with academic staff and senior management. Reports can be created quickly for senior management so they can see what’s required for what subjects and each department is given all the information they require for staff or project modelling or to view what events are coming up. I am often simply asked, ‘Send me a Priava report’ with the inference that this will tell them all they need to know.”