Orange Business Services
Orange Business Services (OBS) wanted to provide their delegates with an enhanced digital attendee experience, with the Cvent platform they were able to provide just that.
The issue
As a leading global technology integrator, OBS launched the Orange Business Summit in 2018 to showcase their existing solutions portfolio and unveil their strategy for the future of the French and wider European market. The goal for the event, targeted towards high-end and mid-market clients, was to ensure OBS positioned themselves as forward-thinking market leaders demonstrating their latest innovations face-to-face, yielding high impact attendee experiences. Along with the Business Summit, OBS runs Hello!World - a two-day immersive annual event which brings together the people, skills, technology and organisations that support the delivery of successful, new, digital transformations.
Director of Event Management Severine Belhomme, is responsibly for ensuring the right methodology is in place to deliver the best experience for attendees before, during and after each event, operating a smooth process behind the scenes. Previously, Severine and her team had utilised several tools but found the event management process both costly and time-consuming. “We had too many suppliers and had to ask each of them to personalise their platform to suit our needs, which was costly. As Hello!World grew and we were planning towards the Orange Business Summit, our requirements were evolving, and we couldn’t keep updating each platform.”
The team also found the use of several disjointed platforms led to a lack of the functional capabilities needed for data collection and analysis, which meant OBS did not have the feedback and insights they required to analyse attendee behaviour and to follow up on qualified leads. It became difficult to ascertain which areas of the event were working and which needed improvement.
Discovering the right solution: why Cvent?
OBS understood the need for change was not only driven by their internal team but also their customers and prospects. Severine says “As a telecom group, we ensure that digital innovation is at the heart of our event and having an old-fashioned attendee experience simply isn’t possible anymore.” The team decided their new event management system would have to achieve two goals –improve data collection through Salesforce integration and provide customised registration experiences to help attendees attend their chosen sessions and absorb only the information that they specifically wanted to know. Before picking Cvent, OBS visited Cvent CONNECT Europe to experiment with the Cvent suite and get hands-on experience to ensure it had the functionalities they desired.
OBS chose to partner with Cvent to leverage the outstanding features offered across several Cvent solutions, easily branding and customising each solution to suit their needs while integrating the software with their internal systems.
With 1,400 attendees planned at Orange Business Summit, OBS needed a fast and flexible check-in solution. Cvent’s OnArrival was exactly what they were looking for and significantly improved the check-in process. Previously, they were using a pre-print badge format which created a “messy distribution process and did not allow any modifications”. With OnArrival, the entire process became smooth and streamlined, and Severine remarks “we could directly print name badges allowing us to add and modify new attendee data on the fly. We really appreciate the OnArrival system and the Onsite support”.
OBS also leveraged the power of CrowdCompass to create a dedicated app for the event. “We are innovators” says Severine “and realised an app would enable attendees to navigate the various side events”. This immensely improved networking with external customers and allowed the sales team to set up special appointments. Tracking and capturing attendee data and analysis became simpler through LeadCapture, and enabled the sales team to engage with customers better, and collect and implement attendee feedback effectively. Severine continues “the app was a must-have feature. We had to offer a digital experience at our event and wanted to engage attendees with interaction. CrowdCompass has great features including polling, surveys and we wanted to utilise these.”
Cvent’s website builder ‘Flex’ was another reason OBS chose to work with Cvent. “Flex is innovative and easy to use, it allows all our events to look professional, and we loved that the training was available in French, as well as the backend of the tool. This made it far easier for our team to learn how to use the tool effectively”.
A digital event transformation
Using one centralised platform with multiple functionalities made it much easier for Orange Business Services to track their attendees’ digital footprint across various touchpoints of their events. “We can now see what solutions attendees are interested in and what sessions they attended, allowing more informed conversations with them”.
For OBS, OnArrival was a huge hit with both internal attendees and customers. “OnArrival made the check-in process easy. Everything happened quickly and it looked professional. It was the first experience the attendees had at the event and we loved that it looked digital and innovative. We got some great comments that it was a very smooth experience”.
The app was a huge success, with a 76% adoption rate, and a favourite amongst the OBS members. “My favourite aspect of Cvent tool is the app” exclaims Severine. “Everything we do on the website is directly synchronised with the app which reduces duplication and saves us time and stress!” With 40 notifications pushed during Hello!World, it ensured attendees were kept up to date and engaged. “For us, the app was a must-have feature. There was no way that we can invite people and not offer an app for them to have a digital experience during our event. It’s very important for us to develop the use of the app further and engage our customers with more interaction during our events.”
Utilising Cvent and digitising much of the data gathering and reporting process enabled OBS to save significant efforts before, during and after their events. The integration between Cvent and the OBS CRM system “saved us loads of time, straight off the event the information just flows through” says Severine. “We are looking forward to working with Cvent for our next event in Barcelona!”
