GILBERTSVILLE, Pa. — The National WWII Museum in New Orleans has chosen Gateway Ticketing Systems and their Galaxy software as their ticketing and admission control solution of the future; reaffirming the Museum’s 17 year client relationship with Gateway and Galaxy.

The National WWII Museum tells the story of the American experience in the war that changed the world—why it was fought, how it was won, and what it means today—so that all generations can understand the price of freedom and be inspired by what they learn. Through exhibits, multimedia experiences, and thousands of personal accounts, the Museum takes visitors on an immersive tour of World War II in every theater of war.

The Museum, designated by Congress as “America’s National WWII Museum,” is the #1 attraction in New Orleans on TripAdvisor, and accordingly, serves as a catalyst for cultural tourism to strengthen the economic and community development of New Orleans and Louisiana.

The museum had been using Galaxy for years before going to RFP to investigate other solutions.
 
“Our goal in shopping ticketing systems was to combine an already robust website and sales effort with a ticketing platform that would drive growth in online ticket sales without breaking the bank.  As we all adjust to new consumer buying habits and an unprecedented decline in revenues due to temporary museum closures, an efficient platform pricing model along with enhanced online sales tools will prove critical in the next couple of years ,” observed Becky Mackie, Sr. VP & COO at The National WWII Museum. 

Kelly Bules, a former employee of the Museum and now their Account Manager at Gateway, had this to say: “Having worked at the Museum for so long, it was especially important to me that they found the solution that worked best for them and their business. Of course, I hoped it would be Galaxy, but assured the team that we would help them succeed, regardless of their choice.”

“When the competitive RFP extended beyond the Museum’s renewal, we offered them a quarterly bridge agreement,” says Peter Wolf, Director of Sales and Marketing at Gateway. “We were more than happy to work with the Museum to extend their annual agreement to a September 30, 2019 deadline, which is when they would have needed to invest the time and effort to upgrade their web store to our latest version.”

“Around that deadline, the Museum reached out to us,” continues Kelly. “They wanted to upgrade their web store. They had ultimately decided to stay with Gateway!”

Kelly and a team of Gateway employees were in New Orleans within the week, meeting with the project team and decision makers at the Museum to work through the needs and requirements moving forward. Particularly, they addressed the chart of accounts, ensuring a more effective and seamless revenue structure for financial reporting. This led to restructuring the product system, simplifying new ticket and event creation and eliminating over a decade’s worth of extra ticket types and outdated products. And they showed them the most effective way to deep link on their web store. The Museum is in project right now to implement these changes.

The team is also working to onboard the Museum to Galaxy Connect™, Gateway’s award-winning cloud-based platform that will allow them to sell live, gate-ready tickets through any number of distributors like TripAdvisor or Groupon with just a single integration. There are similar solutions in the marketplace, but Galaxy Connect offers the premier solution to increase revenue and reduce manual labor hours.

“The team ultimately was also very appreciative that Galaxy is one system that unifies all their required functions within one software,” concludes Peter Wolf. “They also know to be successful they need one unified company with a sales, support and implementation team that works together as one core group.”

“I am incredibly proud of our 17 year partnership with the National WWII Museum,” comments Michael Andre, President and CEO of Gateway Ticketing Systems. “In many ways, our two organizations have grown up together. When they opted to explore other ticketing systems, I was disappointed but ultimately supportive of the transition as I look forward to seeing the Museum continue to grow. But now having them stay on board with Gateway and Galaxy only reaffirms our commitment to their success and their future.”

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