An important part of Microsoft's success is its Partner Program, designed to serve independent software vendors, software consultants, and others in the business of evangelizing Microsoft products and systems, or developing and marketing solutions based on them.
Microsoft's Partner Events team was created to help partners organize events that educate customers about Microsoft products and services--focused around a certain industry, a particular Microsoft product, or another topic.
The problem was that there was no single, unified way for partners to create and manage these events. As a result, Microsoft's partner base was fractured. Some with software development resources created their own, online event registration systems, while others were left with more rudimentary options.
Likewise, it was difficult for the Partner Events team to track events, registrations, and other key elements that help partners deliver powerful presentations.
Solution:
Averetek partnered with Microsoft's Partner Events team to create a unified, Web-based event registration system comprising two interconnected sites: MicrosoftPartnerEvents.com, where partners create and manage events, and ClickToAttend.com, where partners' customers go to register for these events.
The partner-facing site, MicrosoftPartnerEvents.com, enables partners to prepare and schedule event seminars and webcasts and promote them to their customers.
Events can be based on pre-existing Microsoft event campaigns, and partners can use any of hundreds of sample presentation materials--product demos, PowerPoint decks, marketing and training materials, et cetera--available in the site's campaign and resource centers.
In addition, partners can track who's registered for their events and communicate with them.
Customers, meanwhile, typically arrive at ClickToAttend.com having received an e-mail event invitation from a partner. Once at the site, however, customers not only register for that event but search for other events of interest, based on the type of Microsoft product, the hosting organization, the location, the type of event (a seminar or a webcast), or other criteria.
Result:
The project has been a tremendous success. By fall 2005, the Partner Program had more than 2,000 registered partners, and in a recent 30-day period, there were more than 6,500 event registrations at ClickToAttend.com.
Together, the two sites deliver a high value to Microsoft's partners and their customers, making the process of creating events and tracking registrations much more efficient. It has also helped level the playing field, allowing partners with fewer dollars and resources for events to compete with their much larger competitors.
What's more, the sites increase the visibility of the Partner Program, a big revenue driver for Microsoft, and key to the company's long-term business strategy.
Technologies Used:
Microsoft.NET Framework (ASP.NET, Web services)
Microsoft SQL Server
Additional Tasks Performed:
Microsoft Passport Network integration
MapPoint.NET integration
© Averetek
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