Existing solutions within a company often do not meet the requirements of professional event marketing, however. In the course of automating business processes through digital solutions, the use of professional event management software is therefore increasingly being examined. For this reason, we have developed a template to support companies in their search for suitable event management software.

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The central questions at the beginning

Before you start looking for a solution, you should answer the following key questions:

• What are the company's event marketing activities?
• What types of events should be professionalised?
• What problems and challenges do event managers face today?
• What are the main goals to be achieved with the acquisition of event management software?
• Should the solution only cover external events, or can internal events also benefit from centralisation and time savings?
• What is the quantity structure in terms of number of events and number of participants?
• Who should be the main users of the system?
• What does the typical event process look like today from the perspective of event managers and participants?
• Which existing peripheral systems should be connected to the solution?
• What are the general, internal requirements for software solutions?
  

Working out the answers requires an initial investment of time, but helps in selecting the right solution on the one hand and potentially scaling the solution within an entire organisation on the other.

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The most important contents of the software evaluation

In general, the catalog of requirements can be broken down into the following structure.

Definition of the requirement criteria

The measurement criteria for the requirements should be defined at the outset. A classification of the requirements according to "must, should, can" and a scale of the degree of fulfillment according to "0 not fulfilled to 3 completely fulfilled" is suitable.

Starting position & objectives

The answers to the above-mentioned questions are listed transparently for the provider in the section " Starting position and objectives".

General provider information

Transparent provider information helps to compare providers according to objective criteria. This point is often supplemented by internal regulations relating to minimum size or sustainability criteria.

Functional requirements

The functional requirements for event management software vary from organisation to organization. If no event management software is already in use, the functional requirements can become a challenge. Contact us for a template with the most important, basic functionalities.

Non-functional requirements

Points such as availability, data protection or support service are defined in the non-functional requirements. Don't forget that your provider should be available within a reasonable amount of time during a stressful event.

Tips for selecting providers

Once the catalog of requirements has been defined, suitable providers must be found and a time frame for responding to the requirements must be set. For the final selection, a maximum of 2-4 event tool providers should be selected. The following tips should help you to find the right provider for your organisation.

Request trial access

Request a test account and test the solution in a demo or test environment to check the possibilities for your use cases and user-friendliness. Perhaps you can set up an internal business meeting via the event solution to get a first feel for the solution.

Mapping real use cases

Depict a real application scenario of an example event and check the solution for the defined criteria.

Start small

Software projects often fail due to their size and complexity. Before the actual integration into a company's overall system, we recommend a step-by-step approach in which the solution is used for a one-off event, for example.