Emma - Electronic Museum Management & Analytics is a 360° museum management system. Emma's main purpose is to optimize the experience of managing museum activities by means of a single flexible and modular system. The platform offers a series of web based services, accessible from desktop, and is integrated with a mobile app which, by scanning and recognizing barcodes, makes sales and cataloging processes simpler and faster, as well as allowing parallel and distributed use of services. The modularity and scalability of the software allows us to offer a customizable and adaptable service to cultural realities of all sizes and levels, supporting them in the process of automating, simplifying and optimizing processes. Among Emma's features, each of which can be individually added or removed depending on the museum's needs at each reactivation of the purchased plan, there are: the physical ticketing service, accessible both via web interface and mobile app, designed to facilitate the sale of tickets and items on site by museum operators; the module dedicated to managing the cataloging of items on sale at the bookshop, which can also be used both from the web and from mobile and designed as a tool for recording orders and purchases made by the museum towards suppliers and for consulting the inventory, with updates in real time; the event creation and administration service, which can be integrated with the museum's Facebook page; the booking service, with a control panel dedicated to operators; the online booking service, with an interface for visitors; the module for managing shifts and staff; the administration section of the online ticket office which, combined with the interface dedicated to visitors and customers, allows the museum to sell tickets and items via the web; the data analysis & visualization service, which can be integrated and expanded with an innovative visitor tracking system within the museum; the "museum network" module, which allows the shared management of sales and admissions by multiple museums belonging to the same network, providing everyone with always updated reports and stocks.
The innovative aspects of the Emma project are different in genre and relevance.
Designed to make technological innovation accessible to museums of any size and level of turnover, the first innovative element compared to existing systems lies in the accessibility of the cost of the package of services that can be purchased, which can be assembled according to the specific needs of the museum and can be customized in time. The sales format will be that of subscription services, and the composition and subscription to the service package will be renewable quarterly.
As the only platform capable of offering multiple integrated services, Emma will relieve museums from managing relationships with different suppliers and will free them from the imposition of adopting selected hardware, allowing the use of its services via any desktop computer and mobile device already in their possession.
In addition to the functions strictly related to management, Emma provides for the integration of an innovative visitor tracking system within the museum itinerary, by means of tags which, communicating via UWB technology with anchors arranged inside the museum, allow the continuous localization of the visitor and the consequent collection of data relating to the visit experience, as well as the reporting of failure to respect distancing, if required by current regulations.
Finally, the flexibility of the system will allow developers to expand over time and continuously improve Emma's offering with ever-new modules, in response to new problems and requirements collected by users.