PwC
PwC, PricewaterhouseCoopers, is a multinational professional services network. They have a rigorous employee development programme, which includes a number of internal conference events throughout the year for employees from around the globe to attend and receive relevant professional services training.
The Appointment Group, is a global, independent travel and event management company who manages and maintains all these events for PwC. This includes scheduling events, courses, attendees, accommodation and travel arrangements.
The Appointment Group required a digital solution to manage this process efficiently online and approached Plus Two for help.
The challenges
To develop a secure website to be used by thousands of PwC users around the world at different user levels, with different permissions and information, and including full tracking of all interactions.
The solution needed to enable PwC to be self-sufficient moving forwards, and ensure that the portal is intuitive for all global users to navigate, despite the complex nature of the requirement. In addition, each phase needed to be developed and tested in time to meet existing plans for upcoming events.
Our creative strategy
A bespoke solution was required to achieve the objectives.
A sitemap and functionality specification mapped out all the required functionality per phase.
Wireframes of each screen per user type enabled us to ensure the user journey would be effective and all functionality was incorporated. Upon approval of all the above we would develop and launch the site in phases, testing each rigorously.
So what did we create?
We developed a bespoke website using a PHP based framework called CodeIgniter and a MySQL database to provide a solution that didn’t compromise any of the required functionality.
The website allows admins to set up and edit events, courses and create user profiles to allocate participants to specific events. Participants then register to view their courses and accommodation depending on what phase the event is set to.
Event phases include:
- Event creation – setting up of events, courses and admin users
- Nomination – creating users who will be participants and allocating them to courses
- Consolidation – where all nominations and allocations are reviewed and verified
- Registration – participants log in to submit their personal information, review their course allocations and confirm their attendance at the event
- Closed – access to event data is limited to admin users for post event reporting and billings
- Archived – event data is archived.
Changes to participant information and course allocations must be submitted through a change request system. The website also allocates accommodation automatically based on course allocations, and provides wait lists when course capacities are full.
A reports section provides access to reporting data, available based on your user level and admin rights.
The development now allows The Appointment Group and PwC to manage each event independently without input from a third party source.
Results
The first event organised using the new website was a huge success with 1,531 delegates registering and using the new system. Feedback from the client has been very positive. Sophie Lynch, Event Specialist, The Appointment Group said:
The website has been a huge success and the client is very happy with the new system and what we’ve developed which is great news.