Festival Management System for Greenbox Events

Evergreen Challenge:
Greenbox needed a new website that would provide marketing information to gain new festival customers and also allow staff to register. In addition to this they were looking for an online management system that could be used to manage festival information, co-ordinate staff activities and waste disposal sites, communicate news and documents to staff, and manage vehicle tachometer and inspection information. Greenbox already had a few systems in place that just weren't correlating. 

Evergreen Solution:
Evergreen created a flexible yet robust online database application to streamline the administration of the business and consolidate all the data and information into one place.

Key Benefits:

• Data that is more interactive, giving their site managers and staff greater visibility of time sheets and rotas and improving communications between the site managers and staff. 
• The flexible online database is simplistic but effective and a great saving on time spent co-ordinating rotas, analysing time sheets and sorting through endless piles of paper.
• Centralised software enables greater visibility of all business operations.
• The system is permission based allowing secure access with diffreent authority/access levels

Having centralised control of the data with real time dates gives owner Clive Phillips greater visibility of his business operations. Since the system has been installed, business operations have become more efficient. More time has been liberated for Clive to plan for the next festival season and to negotiate longer term contracts to grow the business further.

Full Case Study

Greenbox Events Ltd are providers of waste management services to festivals throughout the UK and are acknowledged experts at working in a variety of locations. They frequently operate in remote areas with limited and difficult access, as well as busy city centres and at high profile sporting events.

Early in 2013, a few months before the launch of yet another busy summer festival season, Greenbox Events owner, Clive Phillips went in search of a local web software development company that could not only create a new marketing website but also deliver a web based software development management system to help manage festival information, co-ordinate staff activities and waste disposal sites and communicate news and documents to staff.

'Flexible, approachable and upfront about what they could do.'

His search led him to the website of Gloucestershire bespoke software development specialists Evergreen, where Clive was immediately impressed by this web based software development company's own website and its extensive portfolio which also included details of a successful content managed database driven website project for another company within the waste management industry. After his first meeting, Clive had confidence that Evergreen could provide what was needed and cites them as being 'flexible, approachable and upfront about what they could do.'

So what did Evergreen have to do to help Greenbox Events achieve its goal? The first challenge was to create a new website that would provide marketing information to attract new festival customers as well as enticing volunteers and paid workers to register for the festival season. Greenbox already had a very basic, front end static site. Most of their volunteers come to them by word of mouth so a website was needed that would not only attract new volunteers but also highlight Greenbox as a professional and approachable company to those who had been recommended to them. Clive explains that they wanted the website to strike the balance of looking professional but comfortable, friendly and not intimidating. Delighted with the overall look of the site that Evergreen created, Clive remarks, 'There are a lot of companies in our industry but not those that are purely dedicated to festival waste management. We needed to have a website that gave us the competitive edge and Evergreen hit the mark.'

The second challenge for Evergreen was to create a bespoke online database application to simplify processes, streamline the administration of the business and consolidate all the data and information into one place, hosted on a secure, robust platform. Clive reveals, 'We already had a few systems in place but they just weren't correlating. The new system draws everything together in one place.' The time sheets now give greater visibility for the staff who are able to log in from any web enabled computer and view their time sheets and rotas. They can log their own hours instantly rather than handing in bits of paper at a later date, which might create discrepancies that take time to resolve later. 

An online database system that saves time and money

The online database application has many advantages but what are the key benefits of having bespoke application software?  Before the introduction of the system, printed sheets were distributed on site. Paperwork used to come back crumpled, dirty and often illegible. At the height of the season there was just not enough time to process everything onto a system and it took many wasted hours at the end of every season to sort through and unravel everything.

Having the web based CRM system has made the data more interactive now. The rota system report being the most useful for the site managers. Before the introduction of the online database application, sheets were distributed on site. Site Managers can now see the rotas in advance, make any changes or suggestions and can now even sign up/register any new prospective staff themselves. The CRM software solution created by Evergreen has improved communications between the site managers and staff, who can now run accurate reports showing what they are doing and where they are doing it on a real-time basis. Clive confirms that ''The system is simplistic but effective and a great saving on time spent co-ordinating rotas and analysing time sheets.'  Now with greater visibility of the business and with all the information securely online, at the end of the festival season, time saved from sorting through paperwork and discrepancies will enable Clive to concentrate on growing the business, planning for the next season, improving services and negotiating longer term contracts which will save both time and money enabling him to grow the business further. ''Next year we will save even more time as we will have all the records from last year to review and look at a glance at  what worked and what didn't and what we'll need for the next season.'

Clive recognises how the system has significantly lightened his workload, quoting that 'This all saves me time and ultimately money as now I don't have to do everything myself and the workload can be better shared and delegated. Having the new system will save me a couple of months of headache in the winter!'

A very positive experience working with Evergreen

Now that Clive Philips has experienced the advantages that bespoke application software can offer, he is keen to develop his online database system to further increase efficiencies within the business. Further development will be focused on the driving side of the event management business. An additional feature of being able to plus manage vehicle tachometer and inspection information and create reports will help Greenbox stay compliant with The Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) who issue the operator licences. Once the vehicle information has been integrated into the system, budgeting reports can then be added leading to further cost savings and greater visibility of the business.

Having had some negative experiences working with web developers in the past, Clive knows that flexibility is key when creating a website or developing a new system. 'When you prepare a brief for a new system, you don't really know until you start using it, how you want to use it and how it can best be of use to your business. Evergreen have been flexible from the start.' Clive continues to expand, saying that other companies he has worked with have been rigid and inflexible but Evergreen had the flexibility to move with the project as the various stages unfolded and clearly understood what Greenbox needed the system to do in addition to making valuable and insightful suggestions. 'At Evergreen you can interact with a software developer on a real time basis. This kind of communication saves time and avoids any misunderstandings.'

As a former software developer himself, Clive recognises that teething problems are par for the course when creating a new website but has had no more minor problems than were expected. Pleased with the ongoing level of support from Evergreen, he praises working with the custom web application development specialists, 'We have had quick almost instantaneous responses to any issues and working with a local company has meant that we have been able to sit down together and talk through ideas to develop the specification of the system.'

Clive says that he would definitely recommend Evergreen to other businesses as Evergreen are friendly and approachable and good to work with. Summing up he says, ' It has been a very positive experience working with Evergreen and I will certainly be coming back to them for any future web development needs.'

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