Ticketing system consultant

Image: A ticket for an event with King George V and Queen Mary at the Centre Pavilion, St James' Park, Newcastle upon Tyne from the North East Museums collection

In April 2025 North East Museums took on the management of three more venues. This increased the number of venues we manage with admission ticketing to three, plus one venue that has admission ticketing for its exhibitions.  We also deliver ticketed events across the full venue portfolio.  

Ticketing and admissions are now a significant revenue stream and there is potential to grow this. We also have two capital developments planned at venues with admission tickets (Hexham Old Gaol and Segedunum Roman Fort) - both will lead to increased pressures on ticketing as we grow the audience.  

We are currently using several platforms for different elements of ticket sales (online and at the till and across admissions and events) which is inefficient and doesn’t provide a smooth user experience for the customer. We are also paying very high fees for the ticketing systems we are using.  

We would like to procure a new ticketing system which could also potentially incorporate a CRM database to support marketing and fundraising. Our current CRM database (Raiser’s Edge) has very high annual support fees and doesn’t integrate well with other systems e.g. website / current ticketing platform. 

We are seeking to appoint a consultant with relevant experience to work with us from the research phase through to implementation of a new ticketing system. The number of days / hours contracted is to be agreed within the scope of the budget.  

The consultant will support North East Museums’ Communications & Development Manager to: 

• Consult with key internal departments about requirements for ticketing and CRM. 

• Research cloud based platforms that meet those requirements to compile a list of companies to approach to invite to tender. 

• Develop a brief and tender documents and co-ordinate the tender process (following North East Museums’ procurement processes).  

• Work with the appointed company and key North East Museums’ staff to develop a strategy and process for ticketing / CRM and a plan for implementing the new system including integration with other North East Museums’ systems / platforms e.g. website, epos etc. 

• Ensure guidelines / training is in place for staff to embed the new system and processes. 

Once appointed, the successful consultant will work closely with North East Museums staff throughout the project. 

To ensure we can keep to our timetable for implementing a new ticket / CRM strategy and to meet the conditions of our grant funding, the process for procuring the new system will need to be complete by 30 January 2026.  

The consultant will mostly be required to work remotely using their own equipment (e.g. IT etc.), but a desk and meeting rooms can be made available as and when needed at one of our venues. 

Draft delivery timetable: 

• 19 September 2025: Deadline for consultant applications 

• Week commencing 22 September: Shortlisted consultant interviews 

• 30 September 2025: Deadline for appointing consultant 

• Week commencing 29 September: Project initiation meeting  

• 31 October: Complete scoping research with NEM and research into potential platforms  

• 13 November: Brief and tender documents finalised 

• Week commencing 16 November: Issue new ticketing / CRM tender documents 

• Week commencing 7 December: shortlist tender applications 

• Week commencing 4 January: Ticketing system company interviews / new ticketing system selected 

• 30 January 2026: Ticketing strategy developed. Implementation plan and staff guidance / training developed (working with NEM and the appointed company).  

• 1 February – 31 March: Initial implementation period. 

The consultant may need to be flexible about timescales, but this would be discussed to ensure any requests for extending the timeframe was reasonable and did not impact on their other work commitments. 

The consultant will be required to supply a copy of all documentation in a digital format. 

Budget: 

You should provide a fixed price quotation for the work, not exceeding £25,000 and including all fees and expenses. Please also provide a daily rate. We require the consultant to spread their time across the period to be able to oversee all project milestones outlined.

Please download the request for quotation information in order to supply a quotation.