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In the first part of this blog I covered how selecting the right event software is key if you are looking to integrate with your internal office systems. In this post we will be looking at integration into back office applications.

When you are planning an event all parts of the business need to be informed and kept informed, from selection of the delegates to sending out the invites to them confirming their presence online to receipt of payment. You need to be sure that you document EVERYTHING in all your systems. If you were to integrate your event system into your internal business applications, then it will ensure you offer relevant and update to information and stats on your event, this means that the event manager can make more strategic and sounder financial decisions when setting up future events

It is all good and well telling you that it is beneficial to you to integrate all your internal back office systems, so here are a few clear benefits of doing it:

·         Immediate access to up to date data (event, delegate etc)

·         Reduce administration through automation of many event processes

·         Your event data can be positioned, viewed and analysed from a single location

·         Creates a all inclusive event CRM system

·         Integrates with back office system for authentication on costs/discounts/prices etc and all delegate data

·         Full control over all areas of your event

·         Ensures you have clean and up to date information on your delegates

CRM Integration with your Event Processes
How great would it be if you could have more control over your customer/delegate data and be more efficient and targeted with your event marketing? Well by integrating your in-house CRM with your event software you are able to realise this, meaning that the contact and company details, alongside your event booking and attendance records would be pooled between the two systems allowing for event bookings and event amendments to be made straight from its own contacts records, allowing the CRM user absolute control of customer event interactions.

Finance Integration with your Event Processes
How do you currently manage payment of your events? This is always a tricky one as there can be no room for error. Through integration of your finance application with your event solution will let payment information and details to be passed seamlessly between the two systems. Invoices and credit notes that are directly related to the event and can be created and distributed in either the event system or in your internal finance system, at all times ensuring a seamless and secure payment journey for you and for your delegates.

Event managers have a tough and demanding job but have started to realise that through the integration of their online event software into all their internal business systems, they are able to access critical and relevant data and stats on all areas of the event, this will make it easier for them to make improved strategic and financial decisions when planning events.

For further information on integrating your event software with your internal back office solutions then please contact the evocos team.

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I think a better question would be, why wouldn't you integrate your event software with your back office systems? Having data that is up to date, accurate and clean is crucial for all event managers and having the ability to target the right delegate to the right event is becoming more and more difficult. So integrating your event processes with your business strategy can only help increase your event efficiency and success.

Whether you organise events or not it is very important as an organisation that all your internal business applications integrate seamlessly, ensuring you have a streamlined and efficient business (and event) process. Ask an event manager and they will tell you that having accurate data is important, but having the ability to view and then analyse this data from one location is vital. By integrating your event software with your CRM and finance applications means that all data that relates to delegate attendance, payment and other such activities are automatically sent to the CRM system from the event system making sure your contacts with in the CRM are kept up to date with real time data. This will in turn make sure that you decrease the impact on your business and your organisations technological infrastructure but still ensuring you target the right delegates.

However saying this, for a few organisations, purchasing and implementing a system to help manage their events is more that sufficient, but for an ever increasing number of event businesses the need to include their event management processes with their internal business systems is becoming a bigger requirement. Having the ability to integrate with your CRM solution can help your data stay accurate, ensuring all marketing efforts for your event are as efficient and effective as they can be. As we all know the events market is a tough market and event managers are starting to see that and appreciate the need to plan, manage and run events, as well as keeping up with the competitive event market, is becoming harder and harder.

Being told that you should integrate your event solution into your back office systems is all good and well but first you have to select the right event management software system, this is key, make sure the solution has the ability to develop and adapt as your business grows and technology develops. CRM solutions, finance packages and HR solutions all include the data that will need to be updated with their most recent activity, the finance system will need to process any payments and the HR solution will need to ensure employee records have been updated (if the event involves staff attendance).

In the second part of this blog we will cover integration into back office applications, CRM and finance in more depth.

In the meantime if you require any further information then please contact the evocos event team directly.

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In the first part of this blog we covered what the cloud actually means and what it means to an event manager, starting with Google Docs. The second part of this blog covers a cloud based event management software and how this can play a key role in the organisation and management of events.

Event Management Software
More and more event managers are starting use event management software within their organisation and incorporating this into their day to day event processes. Comprehensive event management softwre includes features such as:

• Website Integration: Seamless integration with your website gives delegates a smoother, safer journey and ensures you stay with in your coporate brand guidelines.
• Online Registration: Creating fully customisable online booking forms on your own website capturing the most relevant information from your delegates
• Onlie Payment Processing: Allow your delegates to pay online in a safe, secure environment
• Invitation Management: Make sure you are targeting the right prospect delegates with an integrated invitation management tool
• Email Marketing: Powerful, integrated and fully functional email marketing tool to send highly targeted email campaigns to delegates and prospects
• Badge Production: Save time by producing personalised badges quickly and effectively.
• Resource Management: Simply manage all your resources through a comprehensive calendar
• Integrated Reporting and Analysis: Ensure you can determine the true ROI of your events though a powerful reporting and analysis suite - quickly and simply drill down to the event data in matter of seconds.
• Event Survey: Created integrated, customisable and automated surveys for effective feedback management

Event software can help event managers create more effective, successful events. Research has shown that during the current economic downfall, many event companies have begun to take advantage of the benefits of automation and event technology to help stay afloat. Inicreasing efficiency and reducing the cost of hosting events is helping to increase the return on investment provided to both the event company and to the delegates attending.

A cloud based event management solution will offer you the opportunity to manage event teams and service delegate and booker requests, from any location at any time. Simultaneousy, event promotions, bookings and cancellations and updates can also be undertaken using the internet as a key delivery vehicle.

From the event managers point of view, event management software on the cloud will take care of high volumes of outbound transactios (e-newsletters, invitations, etc) and inbound transactions (event bookings modifications, cancellations etc), saving time and money, whilst giving delegates a smoother and improved experience.

From a management point of view, a cloud based event management solution provides the mechanism to be in real time control of all event activities - event managers are able to get an accurate view of the state of active events, what stage particular event marketing campaigns are at and the feedback being received on your on-going events programme. Third party partners - trainers, speakers, sponsors, caterers, venue managers, etc - can also be granted easy eaccess, in a secure fashion, to the event related details that they need access to and can respond to any event changes that affect them, again on a real time basis.

Having a cloud based event management solution in place opens up significant opportunities for integrating the solution with complimentary applications and solutions both internally and externally. For example:

Internally

• Finance applications
• Customer and contact management solutions

 Externally

• Partner websites
• Third party online payment providers
• Social networking environments

With a cloud based event management solution, the management of events becomes wholly a business issue with the IT issues being handled by the cloud application provider. The avilability of the events management solution, the backing up and securing of data, as well as the scalability of the solution in times of peak activities are all handled, transparently, by the cloud applications provider.

For further information on cloud based event management software, please contact the evocos team

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Throughout my blog posts I have touched upon the subject of integrating your event software with your internal business applications but I have never gone into any detail.

Being able to integrate your event software into the internal business systems currently used within your organisation makes for a more efficient solution. Business systems such as CRM solutions (MS Dynamics CRM, SalesForce, Sage SalesLogix etc), finance packages (Exchequer, Sage etc) , HR solutions (SAP, SOA etc) and even bespoke internal business applications will contain data that needs to be updated regularly alongside every event.

Having the ability to automate the event management process through integrating your internal system will remove any errors and will also make the method of updating other platforms far more efficient.

CRM Integration
integrating your event software with your internal CRM system means that contact and company details, together with event booking and attendance records are shared between the two systems. Your CRM solution allows for event bookings and event modifications to be made directly from its own contact records. The CRM user will have complete control of customer event interactions.

Finance Integration
Event related invoices and credit notes can be generated through either your event software or your corporate financial solution, allowing seamless payment transactions to be passed back and forth between your finance solution and your event software.

HR Integration
For internal meetings involving staff attendance to these events can record and update your HR solution ensuring all information is collected.

Bespoke Integration
In addition to the more standard CRM and finance applications, if you have a system that was developed internally and is bespoke to your business requirements, you need to ensure the event software selected has the ability to connect and is flexible enough in it’s architecture to allow you to do so.

Website Integration
Integrating the event software into your organisations own website, means that not only does the delegate gain the benefits from a familiar website, but the event organisers can retain full control over the content and branding of the registration page. Customisable booking forms should be able to be created with ease. The booking forms will be integrated with the back end office systems, updating the records automatically as soon as a delegate registers for an event.

The right event software solutions will have flexible technical architecture and connectors that will allow easy and seamless integration with all your current and future systems.

If you would like to talk to evocos in more detail about how our event solution can integrate seamlessly into your business then please contact us.

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Following on from my previous post Planning & Promoting Your Events Using Social Media I wanted to write about managing and improving your events through the use of social media.

Social media is fast becoming an integral part of an event managers toolbox. Event organisers are turning more and more to social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn to engage with their delegates. Even though these sites are a fantastic platform to promote your events they are also a great medium to continue the debate once the event has finished.

During the event talk to your delegates about continuing the conversation/debate through these social channels, such as creating a Twitter hashtag which is unique to your event and encourage them to update their own twitter feeds with tweets about the event using this unique hashtag. Enabling anyone at the event or anyone interested in your event to instantly see what people are saying and doing.

Once the event is over, keeping the communication open with your delegates is important, suggest to your delegates that this is an effective way to continue networking with each other. If you organise an annual event, ensuring your social media platforms are updated will provide you with a good source of content and marketing material for the next event. You need to:

• Add photos to your Facebook page, Flickr account and on Twitter photos (TwitPic)
• Upload any videos from the event to your Facebook page or YouTube account
• Post event start a discussion with your delegates in your LinkedIn event page
• Create blog posts and posts about your thoughts on the event, maybe add some guest posts from the delegates or event partners

Paying attention to what your delegates really thought of the event is vital, did they like one area of the event in particular? Did they prefer a certain speaker? Was the food horrible? By simply listening to what your delegates are saying will ensure you improve the quality of your future events.

The utilisation of social media sites will ensure you market your event to a wider audience than you would normally have access to. If used carefully and appropriately, event managers can use the popularity of these tools to help improve their events and make them a success.

Managing all these social media sites can be quite time consuming. Some event management software solutions include social media modules and by combining social media event marketing with other online solutions such as email marketing and online registrations will make the event planning process more streamlined and efficient.

If you would like to talk to evocos or for further information on how we can help you manage and improve your events then please contact us.

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Do you organise a lot of events? Can you confidently say that your event data is always accurate and up to date? How can you be sure you are targeting the right delegate to the right event? If you are unable to answer these questions then you should think about investing and implementing in a fully web-based event management software. As an event manager, the ability to integrate your event management software with your internal back office systems will help you answer these questions simply and accurately.

It is extremely important for all your business applications to seamlessly integrate with each other, ensuring you have a streamlined, flawless business (and event) process. Ensuring you have the most accurate and up to date delegate and event information is recommended, however viewing and analysing this information from a single location is vital. By having your data in a single location it allows you to distribute event data internally through relevant departments and target your delegates simply and efficiently.

Integrating your fully web based event software makes sure you provide critical and relevant statistics on all aspects of the event. This will ensure that as an event organiser you make better strategic and financial decisions when planning future events.

Reasons why you should integrate your event software with your internal back office systems:

• Full control over all aspects of your event
• Ensures you have accurate, clean & up to date information on your delegates/customers
• Intergates with back office system for authentication on costs/discounts/prices etc and all delegate data
• Creates a comprehensive event CRM system
• All event data can be located, viewed and analysed from a single location
• Minimise administration through automation of all event processes
• Instant access to up to date event information

If you are interested in discussing this further then please contact evocos and talk to our team of integration experts. evocos event and delegate management solution has been built from the outset with integration in mind. Contact us.

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Following on from Part 1 of my blog post, below is a list of metrics that can be utilised for any event and modified to suit your bespoke event requirements. Listed alongside these metrics, is how an online event & delegate management solution can assist you to measure the true value of an event

1. Delegate Lead Quality & Quantity: As an event planner you need to fully understand the prospects budget, buying authority, requirement & time frame. By implementing an online event & delegate management solution, you are able to capture your attendee details prior to the event. Having this knowledge of your delegates allows you to truly understand their position and requirements, which is the first step in the process of qualifying & quantifying event leads. A fully web-based event management system allows you to take it one step further and think outside the “event box” by giving you the option to choose what fields appear on the online event registration form. This ensures you secure the relevant delegate information to help achieve these metrics.
2. Delegate Quality & Quantity: Assess the event statistics & demographics, as this will enable you to match events to a highly targeted audience. No event can be successful without clear and targeted event marketing. Making use of an event system that instigates the event process through an intuitive & highly targeted invitation management feature will bring you one step closer to measuring the success of your event. You need to proactively inform your audience of events relevant to their requirements by pre-selecting filtered contacts from your database & sending highly targeted e-invites; allowing you to receive detailed event and delegate statistics.
3. Your Event Message: Is your message clear & effective? This can be evaluated using onsite and post event surveys. By doing this you can use the most effective tactics when dealing with your delegates now and in the future. Utilising the information that you collect on the day or post event will not only improve future events but will enhance relations with your delegates. Implementation of an event system will allow you to measure the event performance based on the attendees’ observations & satisfaction. It can then turn this data into meaningful knowledge which can be used to improve upcoming events. One option is to produce automated, online surveys which delegates complete on the day; alternatively, the event solution can produce automated email surveys that gather the event feedback after the event.
4. Sales Cycle & Opportunities: Being able to accurately qualify the event leads will enable you to determine whether or not this is a true revenue opportunity that will provide clear deliverables back to your business. To determine the true value & ROI of an event you need to ensure clear sales opportunities are delivered back to your business, otherwise why host the event? An analysis tool which enables you to quickly drill down to the data held on the system is crucial. An event management application that provides built-in event reports customised specifically to your analysis requirements combined with standard management information reports that will illustrate how well attended events are, how well booked events are and how successful your event programme is will allow you to measure your events ROI accurately.

These metrics can be customised to fit in with your bespoke business objectives and are by no means written in stone. However, by investing and implementing in a cost effective event & delegate management solution, you are ensuring accurate results are produced for all your events. Contact evocos if you would like to discuss how we can help you measure the success of your event or if you would just like to have a demo of the product.

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