Bayer: An Event Management Solution That Cut Costs and Improved Sales Share: SENLA Score Awaiting client review n/a Date Published 1 September 2023 Reading Time 4-Minute Read A snapshot of how SENLA helped Bayer optimize its sales process by significantly reducing the time and resources spent on planning and organizing events. About Bayer Bayer is a life science company with a more than 150 year history of specializing in healthcare and agriculture. The company focuses on developing innovative products and finding solutions to some of the major challenges of our time, such as improving the quality of life for a growing population, and preventing, alleviating, and treating diseases. The Challenge Hosting events for partners, doctors and researchers is one of the marketing tools that Bayer uses to establish itself as an industry leader. Hundreds of events are held every year for thousands of attendees. How do you manage such a complex process spread among multiple departments? Before we began working with Bayer, the answer to this question was barely working. It was a mix and match of outdated apps that overlapped in functionality, but weren’t flexible enough to fit the business processes being used. Nobody in the company liked using the set of tools that was on offer at the time; the budget was growing out of proportion; and there was little collaboration and communication between different teams. In short, Bayer wanted to streamline the process of planning and hosting large-scale events among multiple internal and external teams. This, in turn, would produce a single source of truth and cut costs. It was time for a change. The Solution SENLA was recommended to Bayer by one of our partners, so the vetting process was relatively quick. When Bayer came to us with the idea of developing an event management solution, it was just that – an idea. There requirements were vague, and the scope of work wasn’t clearly defined. We had the necessary experience in business analysis to combine requests from various departments and build a unified solution that would make everyone feel included. We also impressed Bayer by having a business analyst with Ph.D. in Pharmaceuticals, improving our communication by speaking the same language our client used every day. “Our most important role in this project was to listen to every stakeholder, validate their requirements, and make them feel included. Co-creating a solution that you use every day is empowering. It builds bridges between remote teams; it allows them to see the importance of each other’s work, and promotes respect and compassion.” Viktar Savoska, CTO, SENLA Unleashing the culture of co-creation and creativity After our first several meetings, it was clear that this project had actually not one, but many clients: accounting, L&D, marketing, logistics, and a few other departments all had their idea of how the new system should work. We started by connecting with every team, listening to their experience of working with the solution then being used, what improvements they wanted to see, and how we could automate the most repetitive tasks. Having a local delivery manager helped a lot. Being right there on-site, and having face-to-face conversations with people really helped us understand how the company operated. Developing one solution that fits all After quite a lengthy phase of business analysis, we designed an architecture that worked for every team involved in event management. It allowed accounting, L&D, marketing, and other departments to expedite the process and cut down the expenses. Our solution was built with React, which worked well on every device. Some of the features we implemented included the following. Internal chat and comments to collaborate with other teams Customizable interface for every department Budgeting approval flow Integration with accounting systems Ability to generate reports Ticketing Logistics of event planning Document management Swag ordering and distribution Flexible approval process Speakers riders Tracking event KPIs Integration with corporate calendars In short, SENLA helped Bayer consolidate requests from multiple departments into a cohesive unified solution, built with modern technologies and capable of scaling for the needs of a global corporation. The Result We spent more than a year working with Bayer on creating a unified solution for their various teams. Our employees built warm professional relationships and new friendships during this time. We worked in our regular 2-week sprint intervals, delivering a new demo to the Bayer team every Friday for their feedback. We are still delivering new functionalities, based on evolving needs and requirements. When the solution was deployed, adoption and productivity grew tremendously, as well as communication and collaboration among the different teams. Bayer improved and optimized its sales process by significantly reducing the time and resources spent on planning and organizing events. This not only involved cutting costs, but also strengthened teams by allowing them to become co-creators that were aided by seamless technologies – technologies that empower our most human qualities: creation and belonging.