Swisscom Event Platform

Swisscom is Switzerland’s leading telecom company, with international activities throughout Europe. With over 21,000 employees, it generated a net revenue of CHF 11.6 billion in 2016.

The teams at Swisscom were using different tools to plan and execute their events. Web Essentials built an all-in-one event management platform that goes beyond the standard features of generic event planning tools. It is versatile, scalable and integrates with Swisscom's existing infrastructure.

Originally called "KIME", the tool evolved further to become a corporate event management SaaS called Zoon.

• Create one flexible solution to consolidate the various systems currently in use
• Manage events on all scales, from small one day workshops to multi-day and location conferences
• Develop APIs to fetch data from existing systems
• Enable event administrators to fully customize event sign ups for different purposes
• Provide a legally compliant ticket management process
• Collect data for analysis to improve future events

KIME event platform is a multi-frontend platform anchored by an all-powerful core backend. Users can manage attendee groups, events and event parameters on a detailed level

Employee Generated Events 

The employee frontends are used to organize internal events, from lunchtime yoga sessions to multi-day corporate functions. 

Employees can generate their own events, and attendees can create teams, assign roles and invite other team members within the event. Features such as event "likes" and news stories make KIME fun and social to use and foster community spirit among colleagues.

Users can filter events based on time, location and type and view what their colleagues have signed up for. If an event is fully booked, they are added to a waiting list and automatically notified if space becomes available. 

Corporate Event Management

For the yearly Swisscom Games, over 3500 Swisscom and subsidiary employees are invited to a multi-day and multi-site sports event. KIME handles event registration, volunteer management, accommodation, travel arrangements, tickets and more.

Fluid Ticketing Process

The ticketing frontend is an online shop offering benefits and tickets to Swisscom-sponsored events. Employees can browse and purchase tickets via credit card, easing the burden on the Accounting department and generating extra income for Swisscom. Key Account Managers also use this frontend to reserve tickets, invite clients and monitor their responses, making the process fully transparent. This frontend has increased ticket sales and reduced the manual ticket processes resources needed from 6 people to 1.

Built in Compliance

The compliance process was added to the ticketing frontend to comply with new Swiss regulations.  The challenge was to incorporate a compulsory paper-based step into a digital process. Now KIME automatically guides beneficiaries in printing, signing and submitting an eligibility form before tickets are released.

Single Event Microsite 

Not all Swisscom event attendees have KIME user profiles. So we made it possible to build event-branded microsites in KIME to market events and allow external sign-ups. Access can be public, or via group or personalized access codes loaded with a discount or extra benefits such as a VIP dinner. Organizers can monitor sign-ups and access code use to see who is visiting their event site.

Newsletter Tool

The mailer tool makes it possible to send newsletters to specific receiver groups, be it by internal department or function, users with particular attributes, event attendees, or external users via an Excel list upload. The groups are generated within the platform and used to automatically populate the newsletters with user data such as email addresses, ticket details or barcodes. An intuitive user interface with custom content elements makes creating unique Swisscom branded newsletters easy and fast.

Event Customization using Operations, Rules & Services

These backend functions are key to KIME's versatility.

Operations are bookable elements that allow the breaking down of large events into sub-events (e.g. workshops or breakout sessions), which can be further customized using rules according to the unique needs of each operation.

The rules engine allows parameters to be defined per user group. Examples could be: 

• Maximum number of participants by location
• Team requirements (e.g. male/female quota)
• Conditional participation
• Maximum number of additional services a user may purchase

Additional services could be hotel rooms, parking spaces or meals that can be booked along with event registration, generating commission for Swisscom and simplifying the booking process for attendees and organizers. Together with operations and rules, services can be set up to vary depending on booking constellation and user type – and thus making an upsale in the very moment it matters.

Custom Event Planning, Communication & Management

• Organizers can customize events on a detailed level, create rules to manage attendee user groups and add extra services
• A dynamic event signup form builder means registration can be adapted with fields such t-shirt size selection or user image upload
• Four languages options serve the regional variations within Switzerland and Swisscom's international subsidiaries. VAT rates and currencies can be adjusted according to location
• Admins can manage event functions and processes for different event frontends in one backend

Integration with existing systems and processes

• KIME offers single sign on functionality so it can seamlessly integrate with Swisscom's existing processes and systems
• A simple signup process and online payment gateway makes paying for tickets by credit card fast and transparent, streamlining resources in the Accounting department
• KIME integrates with Swisscom's intranet, health platform, notification gateways, app scanner, ERP and CRM systems via APIs  

Event Access Control & Analysis

• KIME can gather intelligence based on historical data and users‘ interests and allows Swisscom to own their own data.
• The system provides event access control and reporting via badge scanning for post-event analysis
• Data protection, security and compliance with Swiss Law regarding event ticketing is assured 

Open Source Technologies

• The system was developed on Flow Framework and uses technologies such as EEL (Embedded Expression Language) for its rule engine and a document-based database (CouchDB)
• Elastic Search constantly indexes all event data so views are rendered extremely quickly