With up to 80,000 visitors, the Würzburg music festival "Umsonst und Draußen" (U&D) has made a name for itself beyond the borders of the region in the 33 years of its existence. Managing the festival from the beginning: Co-initiator Ralf Duggen. Since U&D was registered as an association in 1995, he has been responsible for the implementation of the festival with a half-time position as managing director until today.

Cumbersome processes with Filemaker and Excel

4 days, about 50 bands, around 150 helpers and up to 80,000 visitors — the organization of an event of this magnitude together with an extensive supporting program requires a lot of effort and extends over the whole year.
There are countless addresses and contacts to manage, helpers to hire and coordinate, dates and performance times to plan, contracts to conclude, accounts to prepare and much more.
For a long time Ralf Duggen had done a lot with Filemaker and Excel. However, the insufficient possibilities of synchronization, teamwork and mobile use prompted him to look for an alternative. In the process, he came across Ninox.

Ninox as PMS, CRMS, HRMS and CMS

Thanks to the easy start-up, the switch from Excel and Filemaker to Ninox was quickly completed. All data and functions were immediately available to all members of the organizational team on different platforms. This enabled efficient collaboration in all areas right from the start. For example, in the selection of bands from several hundred applications or in the compilation of the festival program.
In the process, Ninox even serves as a website CMS: via the release function, every update is automatically transferred to the festival website. Helpers are also managed with the solution and organized according to areas of operation. Cash payment transactions can be recorded directly digitally on site in the cash book via mobile devices and all accounting for bands and stand operators is also carried out with Ninox.

Key Features

• Project management

• Personnel management

• Content management

The reason for the change to Ninox was the desire for a central, always up-to-date database, efficient collaboration in the team and flexible use of the software on various end devices, including mobile. These expectations have been fully met for Ralf Duggen and his 20 colleagues. Whether band selection, program planning, personnel management or finances: It makes joint organizational work immensely easier when everyone involved has access to the same, always up-to-date information. Both during the lengthy preparation and during the event. And, of course, also afterwards, when many accounts have to be prepared and evaluations have to be made. At the same time, all functional areas of the solution are precisely adapted to the requirements and processes of the organizers.