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The Opportunity

Schneider Electric is a Paris-based global specialist in energy management who has around 180,000 employees and a flourishing partner community. Previously, they brought all partners together from around the world to showcase their products and strengthen relationships. Only the top executives could attend however, leaving the event both expensive and inefficient; many employees within each company were excluded from direct communication.

“In the past the user wasn’t given much information about the event and we had limited capacity”

-Olivier Giry, Digital Event Infrastructure & Solutions, Schneider Electric

In order to cut down travel costs involved, they chose to host a live event. For the Channel on Partner Broadcast event, Schneider Electric would invite partners from nine countries to contribute to the event. The goal was to have each location running the event simultaneously.

The event had to be engaging and interactive and offer a solution that branded the event page, providing the necessary context for participants. It also needed robust analytics throughout the registration process and the ability to personalise email responses.

Solution

Schneider Elective ran its first digital company meeting in 2015. The Leadership Forum meeting used Kollective technology to successfully reach the multinational workforce. The meeting secured more than 12,000 concurrent employees watching live, successfully saving millions of dollars in travel costs.

This experience showed Schneider Electric that Kollective could deliver. It needed a solution that was reliable, flexible and could be customised to support extra features- Kollective fit the bill.

“With Kollective we already knew we could stream high quality video to our employees and external partners reliably, without it impacting the network.”

The partner event was powered using Kollective’s Software-defined ECDN for video delivery on a global scale, without the need for purchasing additional hardware or bandwidth. Digital consultancy 27partners managed the implementation of the Kollective solution and advised Schneider Electric on enhancing the communication processes to deliver a more immersive live event. 27partners ensured seamless integration across different time zones. The customised platform created extra features such as:

 Multi-language support

 Integration with existing marketing CRM systems

 Branded email notifications, to improve the user experience

27partners developed a bespoke event portal for information and registration that offered the feature-rich and engaging end user experience. The partnership between Kollective, 27partners and the Schneider Electric set out the build an objective-appropriate global event that would be available across multiple devices to partners both live or on demand.

Features and Benefits

 Visual, attractive and interestingly branded registration page: consistent branding across downloads, video player, images and content.

 Simple registration: Integration into the current CRMN system, capturing relevant data which removes the need for a dual sign-up process.

 User-friendly platform: Enables easy connection on to live or on-demand video.

 Personal agenda: Contains timely information and reminder notifications, integrated with the user’s calendar.

 Downloadable resources: including speaker biographies, whitepapers, apps and brochures.

 Interactivity tools: Live polls and an online question function of the broadcast and through social media using #ChannelOn

“We originally sent out separate email campaigns, resulting in poorly tracked analytics and lacking integration into the company’s CRM and email system.”

Future

The event was hugely successful; 4500 people signed up for the partner event and 2000 watched it live.

“We received excellent feedback from the Schneider Electric partner community and are excited about how we can develop this in the future”

Following its success, Schneider Electric offers partners and employees a different way to connect, engage and learn. Whether it’s developing an event portal or bringing together interactivity and 360 technology, 27partners and Kollective continue to work alongside Schneider Electric to develop a hybrid space that offers enhanced and intimate engagement to satisfy live and on-demand broadcasts.

Giry concludes:

“We found 27partners to be inspirational throughout the process. They understood and accommodated all our requirements. The team worked closely together ensuring immersive live broadcast that continues to offer huge value as an on-demand offering.”