A technology platform that can help the culture industry get back on its feet
The cultural industry, particularly in the regions, has been hit hard by the crisis, yet the public is in great demand for artistic consumption. How can technology help cultural organizations meet this demand? Introducing the Liens Mutuels project, created by Sandrine Berger. Encounter.
Recently, the Premier of Quebec announced $400 million in investments to revitalize the cultural industry. The crisis has had a major impact on these organizations, which were already struggling to find funding. But public demand for cultural content exploded during the downturn. The problem? The latter are not always properly referenced on the Web, and therefore not easily accessible to the average citizen who won’t look below the second link proposed by his or her search engine. For Sandrine Berger, director of production, distribution and development at Rimouski’s Paraloeil cinema and production center, the issue is certainly one of content discoverability, but also one of preserving the workforce. She explains: “There are a lot of new technologies that allow us to improve work efficiency and automate certain processes, so that our precious and limited human resources can concentrate on doing tasks that have a greater impact on the organization in the long term”.
Dedicated to Quebec’s NPOs and cultural cooperatives, Liens Mutuels’ tool is a customer relations software (or CRM) directly integrated into the organizations’ showcase site to help them, on the one hand, improve their productivity, and on the other, make better use of their online data.
CRM and structured data: a winning combination?
The aim is to ensure that data entered into the CRM is “pushed” onto the organization’s website in a structured way. In this way, data entry would be centralized in one place, and the data would appear attractively on the website for the user, as well as being formatted to be read and referenced by Google’s algorithms.
Sandrine explains: “It’s like a library where all the sides of the books are blank. You have to open them one by one to see what they are about. With structured data, we’re going to add a title, a summary and an author to each of the books, thus promoting discoverability”.
The team is collaborating with FAVA (Film And Video Arts Society of Alberta), which has already developed a CRM tailored to the needs of film production centers. Sandrine adds: “We want to take this tool a step further, so that it meets the specific needs of cultural and artistic organizations. We’ll be adding modules based on the issues identified by the community.
Initially, the aim is to integrate the customer relations software into the Paraloeil website for a prototyping and testing phase. “At Paraloeil, to check if a piece of equipment is available for rental, you have to check your email or cell phone, then go to a shared calendar where the information isn’t always up to date. It’s an obstacle course,” Sandrine explains. The solution she is proposing will greatly simplify their process. At the same time, the team will ensure that the data entered into this tool is structured when it appears on their website, so that it can be easily accessed by search engines.
“If cultural organizations understand the importance of structuring their data and apply it, they will, in fact, be easier to find on the Web by citizens who want to see exhibitions, performances or read. At the same time, the staff of cultural organizations will be able to concentrate on other tasks, as data collection and processing will already be automated”.
Co-building technology with Quebec cultural organizations
Lien Mutuels is one of six new projects in the fifth cohort of Culture pour tous’ Lab Culturel. This year’s projects come from four Quebec regions (Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Bas-Saint-Laurent, Capitale-Nationale and Montreal), and cover a wide range of disciplines, including music, theater, digital art and film.
“We’re aiming for a consultation with six organizations in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region, and then with 10 to 20 organizations in Quebec. The ultimate goal is to propose an open platform adapted to their needs, rather than the other way around. We’re currently working on securing funding from various backers to implement our needs in the tool and translate it for subsequent phases,” Sandrine explains.
Unlike a more traditional CRM offered by private companies, Liens Mutuels’ will be much more affordable in terms of costs, as storage (cloud) and maintenance will be shared by all users. A refined, up-to-date version of the tool is due to be released by March 2021.
