Accelerating Success: How Pronto Achieved a Seamless Event With BetterCast

PRONTO Software is a 40-year-old company specialising in enterprise resource planning as a software platform. They work with manufacturers, miners, retailers and more, providing integrated solutions for every step of the business from start to finish. Even though they are based in Australia and a lot of their customers are, too, they also have business in the US and Europe.

Every two years, PRONTO Software has a major online launch event for their latest products. However, 2022’s event hit what must be one of the worst situations such a company could face.

Doing everything right

Nathan Sawicki, the head of marketing at PRONTO Software, explained that their preparation work for the event was as good as it could be; not rushed or hampered by extreme budget limitations.

“The team and I looked at three different platforms for online events. We really needed them to be able to cater for a few key activities, which we found they all did. So, when it came to the decision, it really came down to who could provide the most engaging online experience for our customers, but also provide quite a simple user interface for our online users,” he said.

Nathan and his team found that all three of their prospective vendors offered a very similar service. Each had a relatively simple user interface that would not require significant training or onboarding for their customers, all had messaging platforms that allowed communication and interaction – every box was ticked. The deciding factor became who could provide that service at the most competitive cost.

“The online launch happened at the end of August. We started looking at different vendors early in the year. By May, we reviewed three, did our due diligence and selected the one that we went with. Everything was planned great with our team. We did all the required training and testing of the platform to ensure we didn’t have any issues when we went live.”

Cometh the hour

The event was by no means a small or simple affair. PRONTO was expecting about 1,500 customers to join from all over the world. It was a four-day event, with each day consisting of four different streams lasting about half a day. However, from the moment the first stream went live, there were serious problems.

“The event started at 12:31 pm daily and we ensured that we had everything set up. Watching the streaming performance, everything was what it needed to be. We also had support, which was offered by the vendor on the day, though unfortunately we weren’t getting too many responses when we were about to go live,” Nathan recalled.

“As we went live and the managing director of PRONTO Software went to present the opening keynote, and as users started to log on, we noticed that the streaming was not working. It was bogging down and we could see the responses of all our attendees quite quickly through the chat line box.”

The worst-case scenario for an online event – the failure of the streaming service – hit PRONTO’s biannual launch event right from the first minute, despite everything having seemed set and ready well in advance. Chad Gates, the managing director, continued his keynote presentation, but found that he was the only one who could really enjoy it. While the performance of the stream improved slightly over time, it was immediately evident that it would not sustain four days of multiple streams at a reasonable quality level.

For the rest of the first day, the presentations were recorded by the AV team. This meant that the time was not completely wasted, though this was effectively the only redeeming feature of an otherwise disastrous day.

Cometh the platform

“We were very disappointed because the investment that we made was significant, as was the time spent to set up the event with the selected vendor,” said Nathan. “The AV company we worked with provided a reference, suggesting that we look at BetterCast, provided me the details and amazingly I managed to jump onto their weekly team call. We explained the dire situation we were in to see if they could potentially help. To our amazement, they were fantastic, saying yes, this is something we can do.”

Transferring the event hosting from the previous platform to BetterCast proved to be very simple, though it did require Nathan working well into the evening with Ben Powell and his colleagues.

“I went to bed surprisingly somewhat peaceful, knowing that it was under control because, again, the reference came off people who had used BetterCast before, specifically the AV team, with other big, large events. That just gave me some peace of mind, knowing that I could wake up in the morning and be sure that things are under control,” he said.

Sure enough, the following morning, the new event page was ready and PRONTO Software were able to contact their customers and direct them through the new (and somewhat simpler) registration process.

“It was an unbelievable feeling when the first keynote on the second day started where the streaming was just excellent and there were no negative comments or comments saying that it wasn’t working and that people couldn’t hear or see anything. In fact, there were more positive comments saying ‘well done’ – it was a good recovery from day one. And that’s largely all thanks to BetterCast and the team,” Nathan added.

As the event progressed, PRONTO Software found they were not receiving any complaints about registration difficulties or the user interface – both were remarkably simple, just as they had wanted. As a bonus, the on-demand recordings of each live presentation were available the following day, including the recordings from the failed first day, which the analytics soon showed the audience really loved.

More than just streaming

“The analytics BetterCast provided were fantastic,” Nathan noted. “My digital strategist, Stuart, was sitting on that daily, every morning reviewing who was engaging with what presentation, what stream. And that was critical information for us because that was definitely one of the key factors when we were reviewing all the platforms, even the one that we decided to go with.”

PRONTO were able to quickly and easily review which topics were resonating with the audience most, including which were garnering the most questions through the platform’s chat and messaging functions. That allowed them to connect customers with partners, giving everyone a lot of value from the event.

“I’m not just saying this for the sake of it, but the customer service was second to none,” Nathan added. “I mean, the BetterCast team was so responsive. My team, specifically those looking after the event and analytics, were telling me all the time how amazing the BetterCast team were in relation to answering our questions. Any small, niggling things we had to change, they were on it instantly. It was like a real time two-way engagement the whole way through until the event completed. We couldn’t have done it without them.”

After the big day

Nathan added that the outstanding customer service has continued well after the event itself, with questions posted through the service chat typically answered instantly. The longest his team has waited for a response, he noted, was about half an hour. The on-demand content is also being hosted for a further 12 months, with viewer counts still rising as those who were not able to attend the event on the day come to enjoy the presentations.

Nathan added that he has gained a lot of confidence in BetterCast as a platform and a service. “We’re not a small business,” he said. “We have a global presence. I think BetterCast would be able to cater for companies of all different sizes.

“Our online launch was not a simple launch. It was run over four days across four streams running concurrently. To have that execute the way it did, with BetterCast, was just amazing. Following the day one disaster, when the whole stream had crashed, we had no streaming issues whatsoever. The technical complexity of your event doesn’t matter and we’re proof of that as well.”