Top Entertainment Producer Celebrates Lower Costs, Increased Efficiency with FileMaker Management through IT Solutions

CTO World Entertainment Productions is a music entertainment production company that prides itself on creativity and experience. CTO strives to constantly offer unlimited possibilities to assist clients in creating one-of-a kind special events. Since 1987, CTO has created over 6,000 incredible events with their exclusive bands and their extremely talented vocalists and musicians. The company has performed at presidential inaugurals, state inaugurals, and locations like the Waldorf Astoria in NYC & Premier Cruise – Formally Disney’s Big Red Boat.

Another area of pride, particularly for CTO founder and CEO Carmen Tomassetti, is the FileMaker-based data management solution he has built and customized over the years for the company. The “Event Pro Database” helps the team manage just about every aspect of data for the company, including events and events services, clients, artists, and the sales activities of CTO’s consultants. Along with pertinent and up-to-the-minute details about these critical data points is more complex system functionality such as commissions for artists and staff, security features, and activity reminders to keep consultants current on lead tracking. While for many years the company was able to keep costs low by maintaining database development in-house, re-cently the requirement for hosting the system began to become a burden to manage and fund. The cost to purchase and maintain servers and related laptops for all of the staff, most of whom work remotely the majority of the time, began to outweigh the benefits of the hardware and office Internet connectivity. In addition, Tomassetti was spending less and less time in the Philadelphia, PA, headquarters, but he needed consistently reliable access to the system hosted there, which wasn’t always a sure thing. So CTO began a search for a consultant that could advise them on a better, more cost-effective way to host and manage data.

CTO originally contacted FileMaker Partner and Authorized Trainer IT Solutions to help brainstorm a better way to con-figure the network for optimal remote access to the FileMaker system. After learning that ITS offered secure remote hosting network consulting support to its extensive expertise in FileMaker consulting, CTO knew they had found the right company. Over the course of a weekend to minimize downtime, ITS’ SharedVision team was able to effectively move CTO’s File-Maker server and FileMaker system to its secure, managed hosting facility. And by Monday morning, when Tomassetti and his team were ready to start work, the system was ready, too. From that day on, Tomassetti has been able to turn his attention away from hosting and connectivity challenges and toward projects that make the FileMaker system and the business in general better. With help from the ITS Development team, he has accomplished a number of FileMaker initiatives that previously would have been particularly difficult to complete without the external expertise.

With the FileMaker system safely housed, monitored, and backed up by ITS, CTO is able to access and update data at any time and from any place they have an Internet connection. And as the company grows, more users can easily be added without the hassles of purchasing and configuring new equipment. New functionality combined with the help of ITS has increased efficiencies and given CTO more fuel to further distinguish itself from the competition.