Esri

Esri’s Seminar team (5 staff members) produces 100+ seminars for our users every year. These events range from full day events to a 1-2 hour industry-specific meetup and are vital to helping users make the most of our software/services and building brand loyalty.

A lot of work goes into producing an event – and there is even more work on the backend tracking registration and attendance data so we can infuse it with overall customer data to optimize campaigns and customer experiences. Our campaigns team needs the event data to be clean and reliable so they can manage customer follow-ups appropriately.

From soup-to-nuts, this was a process that spanned multiple Esri teams and at least three software applications (Salesforce, Adobe Workfront, and RainFocus), that was heavy on repetitive data entry and required a 20-page document just for the first step: event creation.

Some other pain points that we discovered when we looked at the process:

• RainFocus was a new system for the Seminars team, and the learning curve was high. The team uses 10+ systems to do their work, so adding another increases the team’s product adoption fatigue. This team also added 2 new team members to make the team a total of 5, increasing the learning curve and support.
• Since data (like an event code, event name, and Salesforce campaign ID) is generated in other applications and copied into the event management system, there were lots of copy/paste errors that had downstream effects. For example, registrants and attendees would be added to the wrong Salesforce attribute.
• To make sure that data was clean, our Campaigns team (working mostly in Salesforce) would need to learn how to use RainFocus (our event planning software). We had not anticipated this training investment.
• Just creating the event record took longer than anticipated. Roughly about 20 minutes per event. Since events sometimes were requested “on the fly,” we needed a way to shorten the mechanics of creation, so the Seminar team could focus on the details of the event itself.

We already use WalkMe on all three applications involved in the process, so we looked into some of the ways we could use it across applications to solve these problems: reducing repetitive data entry and errors, avoiding unanticipated training, and making the process more efficient overall.

We started by creating a Smart Walk-Thru (SWT) in RainFocus (application #1) to guide our Seminars team through the steps of creating a new seminar. We added automation where possible, reducing the time to set up an event from 20 minutes down to 5 minutes.

Next, we built an automated Smart Walk-Thru that starts in Workfront (application #2). The SWT uses WalkMe data to capture the Salesforce campaign ID, form handlers and other event information as stored in Workfront, navigates to RainFocus, finds the related event, auto-injects the data pulled from Workfront into RainFocus. This reduced typos and copy errors, and prevented the user from copying the wrong data from Workfront into the wrong place in RainFocus.

Automating the process also eliminated the need to train the Campaigns team (4 staff members) on how to use RainFocus for this one task. Instead, they can simply click a Launcher in Workfront (where they already work) and WalkMe does the job for them.

Applying a DAP solution to this process has increased adoption, efficiency, and flexibility. Automating event creation sped up adoption of RainFocus by our Seminars team and has also reduced time-to-competence for new hires on the team. The team can create seminars faster with minimal errors (if any), so it takes less time overall to stand up a seminar – and this reduced time gives our strategy teams more flexibility when planning their campaign activities.

Most importantly, the Seminar team is freed up to concentrate on the quality of the event instead of the mechanics of scheduling and setting it up. This solution demystified their understanding of WalkMe and automation, which increased adoption and excited to see if we can apply this to other workflow pain points.

Applying a DAP solution to this process allowed for virtually frictionless adoption of RainFocus for our Campaigns team. WalkMe helped us fix the problem of getting the right Salesforce data into RainFocus without a large development or training effort. This has created more trust in our data, between our teams, and ultimately it provides a better user experience for our staff and our users.

Our DAP solution builds a better user experience for our customers and prospective customers by providing a timely and consistent event experience and improves their overall experience by accurately tracking their touchpoint engagement. Accurate tracking helps us make sure they get information about events and seminars they are most interested in and lets us better personalize the content for our contacts. This will help with future campaigns and drive long-lasting user relationships that increase customer loyalty.

Our DAP solutions help our internal staff use the tools that they need to know to do their work better and help them work efficiently. Automation frees them up to do more with their limited time! They enjoy the automation. At first, they thought it was going to take their job, but now see that frees them up to do other things that they enjoy about their job!

Frictionless tech adoption! Not having to train teams on a tool that they need to learn for 2% of their job is a huge win. We have product adoption fatigue with many teams and new technologies.

Also, this project helped change the team’s mind about automation and WalkMe in general. The Seminar team was reluctant about WalkMe based on experience with similar tools that claimed to provide “frictionless automation”. Now, they are our biggest advocates of the tool and want it on everything.

Also, WalkMe is a low code automation option for all our systems now. Instead of having a highly skilled automation developer we can build automation with our WalkMe Editors.

Esri, the global market leader in geographic information system (GIS) software, location intelligence, and mapping, helps customers unlock the full potential of data to improve operational and business results. Founded in 1969 in Redlands, California, USA, Esri software is deployed in hundreds of thousands of organizations globally, including Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, nonprofit institutions, and universities. Esri has regional offices, international distributors, and partners providing local support in over 100 countries on six continents. With its pioneering commitment to geospatial technology and analytics, Esri engineers the most innovative solutions that leverage a geographic approach to solving some of the world’s most complex problems by placing them in the crucial context of location. Visit us at esri.com.