If your business uses legacy tech, there’s only so much we can do

The Event Hub team is happy to assist its customers. But, be warned, trying to integrate 2022 technology with a system created in 2012 will probably end in tears

Scott Hyde, Event Hub co-founder

What I’m about to convey might come across as contentious, so let me start with an analogy.

Imagine that one day the engine in your 1980 Holden Torana blows up. Rather than replace it with another (primitive, polluting and petrol-guzzling) Torana engine, you put a Tesla engine in your car.

Unsurprisingly, the Tesla engine doesn’t integrate well with the rest of the vehicle. Perhaps you can now accelerate to 300km/h in a matter of seconds, but the old-fashioned brakes in your Torana mean that if you do reach that speed, stopping quickly is out of the question. That means you need to rip out the existing braking system and install a new one.

If you’re a rational person, you accept the problem is of your own making. After all, you’ve dropped a cutting-edge engine with a vehicle that rolled off the production line back when Malcolm Fraser was Prime Minister. Furthermore, you understand that you can’t reasonably expect Holden or Tesla to accept responsibility for fixing your problem.  

That all probably sounds reasonable enough. But I can assure you many people see things differently when you swap ‘Holden chassis’ and ‘Tesla engine’ for ‘my business’s legacy tech stack’ and ‘Event Hub’s software’.

Legacy systems + state-of-the-art tech = big trouble    

As I’ve explained in previous posts (see here and here ), Event Hub’s solution was built from the ground up by boundary-pushing developers used to working in a SaaS 2.0 world. Even if I do say so myself, Event Hub provides the Tesla engine of venue-and-event-management software.

If the rest of your business’s tech stack is Tesla quality, there are unlikely to be any problems integrating Event Hub’s SaaS solution with it. If there are any problems, the Event Hub team will be happy to help you resolve them. What the Event Hub team can’t do is not only supply a new engine but also then go on to replace the equivalent of the brakes, steering and suspension on your existing vehicle.

If Event Hub did do this – and I’ve come across plenty of potential clients who expect us to – it would be impossible to provide a premium product at a reasonable price. My team and I would end up being the digital equivalent of those specialist car mechanics who spend their days retrofitting modern braking, steering and suspension systems into vintage cars.

(Rest assured, finding a developer who can get your business’s existing tech stack to play nicely with our solution isn’t difficult. However, your business will need to organise and pay for this.)      

A brief note on APIs
You might have heard of APIs – Application Programming Interfaces. You can find a good explanation of how APIs work here. But, for the purposes of this post, all you need to understand is that an API (or webhook) facilitates the integration of a SaaS solution, such as Event Hub’s, with a tech stack. The API allows data to be shared and synced within the different components of a tech stack, which results in everything running smoothly.  * No more spreadsheet sharing or expenive highly coupled integrations.

For instance, your business may operate a football stadium with a parking-management SaaS solution. In a best-case scenario, it will be straightforward to get a readily available API – such as those that can be sourced from API platforms such as Postman – then integrate Event Hub’s venue-and-event-management SaaS with the parking SaaS. But if it’s not a best-case scenario, your business may have to pay a developer to make sure the two SaaS solutions work well together.

Teams, codes and venues that have integrated Event Hub’s solution

You may be wondering if it’s worth investing in Event Hub’s solution at this point. So, let me stress that (a) if your business isn’t using creaky old tech this will be a complete non-issue (b) if your business is using lots of creaky old tech, it’s either going to have to get used to paying developers to graft on sophisticated SaaS solutions or invest in a root-and-branch upgrade.

A growing number of teams, codes and venues – The Parramatta Eels, The Western Sydney Wanderers, the new Allianz Stadium, McDonald’s Stadium, the T20 World Cup, the NRL, the Sydney Kings, the Melbourne Renegades, Melbourne United, Cricket Victoria, Qudos Bank Arena, the SCG, ICC Sydney, Optus Stadium and GIO Stadium Canberra – now use Event Hub’s SaaS solution. They do so because Event Hub guarantees it can provide a cheaper and better venue-and-event-management solution both short-term and long-term.

If you’d like to have a confidential, no-strings-attached chat about what Event Hub can offer your organisation, please make an appointment here.

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