BAYER
Successfully implementing Bayer's event program in over 100 countries
Improvement in data quality
Event requests managed in one year
Increase in CRM system-created requests
Bayer is one of the largest multinational Life Science companies in the world, and is set up across three divisions: Pharmaceuticals, Crop Science and Consumer Health. They run a global events program for all divisions, with the Pharmaceuticals branch as the main user.
Background & Goals
Bayer operates a very broad events program – their average meeting has 20-30 attendees, and they total around 100,000 participants per year. They have a global team, including the Event Management GPO who sets up the system, processes, and organizational structure alongside local teams in each country formed of either employees or contracted agencies who organize events directly. Their events include internal business meetings, individual sales rep meetings, and large external congresses.
Bayer adopted Cvent in 2017 to better enable them to report on event costs and outcomes while simplifying processes. Today, every event is run through Cvent and supported by the Event Management team. Bayer’s Event Management GPO, Patrick Tunggal, explains, “We set up a global system with a defined global process, but which allows local process specifics – an event requested in India will be approved just like an event request in Germany, but the route to doing so can be different everywhere. We developed this process until 2019 when Cvent was expanded to the majority of Bayer and has run smoothly since. Our previous event approach was fragmented globally, and we had limited insight into attendee behaviour as well as our own expectations and budget efficiency for each event.”
He notes that Cvent is truly the central platform that supports the entirety of their events program. “Cvent is at the very core of our event management process," he insists. "Event owners start by completing a Meeting Request Form, after which event planners respond within Cvent and set up Cvent modules as required, be they Registration, Attendee Management, Budgets, Surveys, virtual components, or any others as necessary.”
Global Expansion
Bayer runs events with Cvent for over 100 countries and expanded Cvent usage in additional seven countries, including Alpe Adria Countries and Taiwan, this year. They initially prioritized countries by spend and the scale of their event program in each, while ensuring all business units were represented.
“We began by simply rolling out where we had the largest presence and in pilot countries to cover different regions – for instance in Germany where we are based, plus Mexico and Canada,” explains Patrick. “We also ran pilots for particular business units, such as Crop Science in Brazil and Pharma in Italy. We were not able to roll out to countries like China and Russia due to government rules and server complexities, or South Korea due to compliance complexities, but have since rolled out in 80 countries and in total support more than 100 countries.”
As a life sciences company, Bayer is required to follow strict national procedures when it comes to event management. They approach their development of regional processes around Cvent expansion into new countries by starting from their universal global process. From there, local approaches are adapted according to national restrictions as required, with deviations in workflow developed as a result.
One such set of regulations concerns data security. Bayer’s global policy is to delete personal data collected from event participants after two years – however some countries require the data to be deleted earlier and some countries later. Other countries even require this data to be preserved. Under GDPR, only data necessary to conduct an event may be collected, and it must be stored in a secure environment.
Spend caps on accommodation and hospitality are also present in many countries in which Bayer operates, alongside rigorous rules on how far in advance of an event healthcare professionals (HCPs) can be invited to an event and how long they can stay at a destination post-event.
“We need to make sure we can track our suppliers,” Patrick shares. “Cvent underwent evaluation during procurement to ensure IT security and IT compliance, and we very much trust that all data we process and store with them is secure.”
It's fair to say that Cvent is at the heart of an ecosystem and is integrated into many other systems that we use around it. Without Cvent we would still have a scattered event management system landscape and less harmonized event processes.
Scaling events up with virtual formats
Bayer’s distribution of event formats has changed drastically following the pandemic. Like many others, they went almost 100% virtual until part way through 2021, when they reintroduced face-to-face meetings, with some intermissions due to varying COVID risks. With around 100,000 employees, their largest events are internal. Running these virtually has enabled them to host for employees in all countries simultaneously, in the place of smaller local meetings which were held previously. They have also introduced hybrid elements to historically in-person events and boosted attendance by up to 50% as a result.
Bayer recently adopted Cvent’s Attendee Hub as their virtual platform and event app, having previously used Cvent’s CrowdCompass for the latter. Patrick shares, “It’s going well! It’s still fairly new to us but we’re on track to successfully replace CrowdCompass with Attendee Hub. We’re using it already for more than 1,400 registrations per month.”
A sustainable global events program
Carbon reduction is a key goal for Bayer as a company. When it comes to event management, the team calculate their emissions based on data collected through Cvent – the number of attendees, the length of the event, and most crucially their travel arrangements, which account for over 75% of event-related emissions.
They had a major effect on their environmental impact by simply increasing the proportion of events hosted virtually. They also incentivize their event owners to prioritise sustainability concerns with a checklist, which asks if they had considered more environmentally friendly arrangements such as hosting the event virtually, using certified venues, and providing sustainable food and beverage options.
Perfecting the attendee journey with CRM integrations
Bayer integrates Cvent with their CRM system Veeva, alongside a number of smaller, more specialised integrations. Patrick describes how this impacts the event management process, noting, “Every event with Healthcare Professionals (HCPs) participating is requested via Veeva and automatically transferred over to Cvent." He adds that "event requests, approvals, invitees, participation status ,and survey responses all synchronize in the background, which is a huge relief in terms of workload and efficiency." Patrick explains that the number of Veeva initiated event requests "more than doubled to around 24,000 event requests (+109%)." They also introduced standardized Cvent surveys, enabling them to evaluate events consistently across various regions and timescales. Patrick adds, "The information also syncs to our CRM. We have set up automated emails to the relevant reps in the event of negative feedback, ensuring that event behavior is being woven into their conversations and follow-ups.”
It's fair to say that Cvent is at the heart of an ecosystem and is integrated into many other systems that we use around it. Without Cvent, we would still have a scattered event management system landscape and less harmonized event processes.
This process has also greatly improved the visibility and quality of their event data globally. “Before Cvent, our global events approach was very fractured, which makes it challenging to compare against previous outcomes," Patrick says. "Only now can we really see what’s going on, and determine for instance what each country should budget per attendee, how many attendees we expect, and where necessary that we are within the legal limits for the number of attendees at an event."
Expanding further into the future
Bayer’s global expansion doesn't stop with this year’s integration of seven additional countries with their Cvent rollout. Their ultimate goal is to expand to all countries worldwide while improving their event data quality to make even better data driven decisions. They've already improved data quality around event creation (+20%), event registration activation (+6%), and cost data maintenance (+30%).
They also plan to continue exploring the possibilities of virtual formats, expecting that around a third of their events program will be permanently virtual. “We have regular weekly and monthly discussions with our Cvent team, and they have been, extremely helpful in reaching our goals," Patrick says. This consistent partnership is only going to further the success of Bayer's global expansion. "It's fair to say that Cvent is at the heart of an ecosystem and is integrated into many other systems that we use around it," Patrick concludes. "Without Cvent, we would still have a scattered event management system landscape and less harmonized event processes.”
Products Used
GOALS
- Develop a clear understanding of event ROI and other data
- Implement a consistent approach to executing events internationally
APPROACH
- Managing all event requests and reporting through Cvent
- Expanding their audience with virtual and hybrid formats
- Integrating Cvent thoroughly with Veeva CRM and other systems
RESULTS
- Up to 30% improvement in data quality
- More than double the volume of CRM-initiated event requests
PRODUCTS USED
