Reimagining Business Processes Ahead of Your Tessitura v16 Upgrade

Part 1 in our three-part series on what to do before, during, and after your Tessitura v16 upgrade. Already upgrading, or thinking about how you can optimize now that your organization is on V16? Check back soon for the other parts of this series!

As organizations prepare to transition to Tessitura v16, much of the focus naturally falls on technical readiness—data mapping, training, and compatibility with other systems. But there’s another side to this transformation that’s equally critical and potentially even more impactful: the opportunity to reimagine and improve your business processes.

The migration to v16 isn’t just a lift-and-shift—it’s a once-in-a-decade chance to step back, reflect, and realign your operations with your current strategic goals. Here’s how to make the most of it.

1. Start with a Fresh Look at Your Strategic Goals

Before diving into configuration updates or breaking customizations, consider how the system can support the goals in your organization’s strategic plan . What are you trying to accomplish over the next 3–5 years, and what does that suggest should be prioritized for process and system updates?

Ask yourself:

• Are we prioritizing patron experience? Revenue diversification? Member retention?
• Have our audience segments evolved?
• What new programs or services are we offering that didn’t exist when we last restructured Tessitura?

Having clarity at the strategic level helps guide the decisions you’ll make about operational changes.

2. Understand Your Current State

Every organization adjusts their database set-up and how they use it over time. This is especially true as organizations change programs, face staff turnover, or seek to address system limitations. V16’s new capabilities offer an opportunity to re-evaluate and improve the “we’ve always done it this way” processes.

Examples:

• Are you struggling to bring aspects of your work, like Relationship Management, into Tessitura?
• Do you manually administer membership benefits that could be automated?
• Are you using multiple workarounds for reporting that a standardized dashboard could replace?

Take this moment to prune what’s no longer necessary—and simplify wherever possible. Create side-by-side comparisons of your current and desired state across major functional areas. This exercise helps you uncover inefficiencies and guide conversations about what success looks like.

This isn’t just a system upgrade—it’s a redesign opportunity, and chance to bring your whole organization onto the same page.

3. Explore What v16 Offers Natively

Tessitura v16 includes enhancements that could replace or streamline previously manual or customized processes. These might include:

• Streamlined Steps to replace CSIs and reminders, for greater visibility into constituent interactions
• Enhanced user interfaces for faster training and adoption, like more easily managing discounted memberships or viewing contribution totals at a glance

Before rebuilding custom solutions, explore what’s now possible out-of-the-box.

Final Thought: Don’t Just Migrate—Transform

The Tessitura v16 migration is the perfect inflection point to re-align your operations. Rather than replicating your existing setup in a new system, use this moment to ask: What would we do if we were starting from scratch today?

With thoughtful planning and cross-team collaboration, and a focus on continuous improvement, you can emerge from this upgrade not only with a modern platform—but with business processes that truly support your organization’s growth and impact.

Want help mapping your current processes or identifying opportunities to streamline? We’d love to work with you. Let’s make the most of this transition—together.

Steph Venskoske

About Steph Venskoske Steph’s passion is making non-profit organizations better by finding data solutions to meet clients’ needs and supporting operational processes that work. They are invested in helping clients...