AFL Essendon Case Study

Delivering end-to-end solutions that fuel the business behind the team.

The Situation

The Essendon Football Club is one of the biggest and most successful sporting clubs in Australia. Essendon is recognised for its on-field success, its stability and its pioneering work in the community, particularly with Indigenous Australians.

Essendon identified the need to better manage corporate data with a more centralised solution. This included moving information from disparate systems to a single view and automating numerous manual processes.

EngageRM stepped through an exhaustive discovery process to ensure the solution that was selected would provide the right outcomes. With a clear set of requirements, EngageRM was selected as the preferred partner.

The Solution

The ability to create assets related to game-day functions and club events has allowed automation of many tasks. The organisation can now sell this inventory via the corporate portal. The end-to-end process is now completed with- out the need for manual internal processes and Essendon is looking forward to extending this web exposure moving forward.

The areas involved in this deployment included:

• Corporate Sales – from corporate game-day functions to club events, signage and player sponsorships, the club has a large inventory for sale. EngageRM™ leverages the core CRM platform through the sales process while allocating guests to events and accepting payments with the Securepay payment gateway. The solution includes the ability to continually revise a sales order where clients look to change from one game-day function to another.
• Corporate Web Portal – the corporate sales process has now been extended to the web allowing corporate clients to purchase and pay for available assets. Where a function
  is included, clients can update guest names and requirements. With integration to Google Analytics, there is powerful analysis and reporting along with SEO management
• Events Management – the end-to-end pro- cess of managing an event is now fully auto- mated from the corporate sale through to the allocation of seating, using PerfectTablePlan. The RSVP solution automates a number of internal processes allowing fast identification of a client or prospective clients, delivery of personalised email communications and acceptance of the offer with a single click.
• Sponsorship – the allocation of entitlements for sponsors can be complex. EngageRM™ provides the ability to profile the sponsor and then include entitlements over multiple years. Fulfilling entitlements is managed from the clients’ allocation with the ability to provide this visibility from the portal.
• External Information Websites – this service was provided to Essendon for a Grand Final Comedy Debate event. The solution delivered a high-end information website which included auction items, past Women of the Year recipients, gallery pictures and other features of the event. The Corporate Portal was used for the purchase of tickets – an easier and more appealing way for stakeholders to buy into this prestigious event.
• Reporting – the analysis of this information is critical, and the CRM platform provides a number of options for reporting. Users can quickly export data from saved views to Excel or standard EngageRM™ reports to provide analysis for more complex requirements. The introduction of Power BI content packs provides enhanced reporting with powerful dashboards delivered to users and groups.

  The Benefits

While the move from spreadsheets and a centralised view of customer provided challenges, the results have been significant. EngageRM was able to provide solid support throughout this process working with staff from individual departments.

With EngageRM’s help, Essendon were able to quickly build a vibrant new presentation for the “Grand Final Comedy Debate” with a website fully linked to the EngageRM™ corporate portal.

The design, along with the cost-effective way this site was created has enabled Essendon to promote the event and also provide a place where stakeholders and other interested parties can continue to view related information. The club can now see many opportunities to leverage this new portal into the future and has have full control over this environment.

The EngageRM™ solution provides real security in the club’s investment and means that Essendon can look forward to the future with renewed vigour.