Company: SYSPRO, Tustin, CA
Nomination Submitted by: Market Street Group
Company Description: SYSPRO is a leading, global software provider specializing in key manufacturing and distribution industries. For over 40 years, SYSPRO’s team of specialists has continued to address unique industry needs and enable customers to easily adapt and grow. The solution is scalable and can be deployed in the cloud, on-premise, or both, and accessed via the web on any device.
Nomination Category: Event Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Art, Entertainment & Public - Roadshow
 Nomination Title: SYSPRO SPARK 2024 Roadshow
- Which will you submit for this nomination, an essay of up to 525 words describing the event - its genesis, goals, development, and results - OR a video of up to five (5) minutes in length describing the same? CHOOSE ONE:
Written essay of up to 525 words
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the nominated video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video:
- If you are providing a written essay of up to 525 words about your nominated event, place it in this space. Make sure that you address the genesis, goals, development, and results of the event, and mention that date(s) on which the event was produced:
Total 501 words used.
The SYSPRO SPARK 2024 Customer Roadshow produced day-long events in three major North American cities: Toronto, Chicago and San Diego, which enabled the wider SYSPRO community to meet in-person for collaboration, education and networking. At each location, SYSPRO provided SMEs and thought leaders to help customers understand the future of the product and industry trends, along with customer presentations and panels.
For instance, Marc Beauchamp, president of SCI Global, explained how to leverage government incentives to fund manufacturing and technology initiatives, while keynote speaker John McDonald, head of strategy & initiatives at Tulsa Innovation Labs, demystified AI for manufacturing businesses, explaining it can be practically used within their organizations. McDonald’s presentation dovetailed with SYSPRO CIO Kevin Dherman’s session, where he demonstrated AI capabilities already available in SYSPRO that customers can use right now to drive efficiency, save costs, and forecast future needs for better planning.
Throughout the day, customers gained insights they could apply immediately to improve their businesses, such as:
- Using AI to prevent A/P fraud
- Implementing additional functionality through plug-and-play integrations with SYSPRO’s ISV partners
- The benefits of SYSPRO's Customer Portal
- Gaining visibility through SYSPRO to accurately track cashflow (which proved critical to one customer in deciding whether they could make an acquisition.
- A preview of the next release of SYSPRO’s software, enabling customers to stay ahead and plan for upcoming features and enhancements
SYSPRO’s global community of mid-market manufacturers and distributors also learned from each other’s experiences, with dozens of roundtables along with customer panels and informal networking opportunities. At one panel discussion, for example, a guitar manufacturer, a large commercial bakery and a maker of traffic control devices all shared lessons from their digital transformation journeys, including effective strategies for growth, the capabilities they're leveraging within SYSPRO, and AI integration.
Spearheaded by SYSPRO’s marketing group and led by Erin Schlee, senior manager of customer marketing and communications, the team worked alongside event partner Twenty156 to secure space at hotels, confirm customers and partners to speak, and arrange for SYSPRO executives to present.
To identify programming with a wide appeal, Schlee and her team took a strategic approach to planning that was driven by data and customer feedback. Early in the show’s planning stages, SYSPRO surveyed the customer base well before the roadshow to understand what their biggest challenges were, so that the company could ensure they had speakers to address them. SYSPRO learned from its previous experience running the roadshow in 2022/2023 and looked closely at attendee feedback during the planning process.
The result was an extremely successful roadshow that beat expectations and showed significant improvements on many measures, including:
- 4.5 overall attendee satisfaction on a 5-point scale, up from 4.2 in 2022
- 4.6 average score for whether attendees likely to return for the next SYSPRO customer event, up from 4.3 in 2022
- 4.4 average score for likely to encourage others to attend future events, up from 4.0 in 2022
- 8,000 social engagements across LinkedIn and Instagram
- 347 customer attendees
- Optionally, list the appropriate creative and production credits for the nominated event, such as the following: Advertising Agency/City: Client: Art Director: Cinematographer: Creative Director: Designer: Director: Illustrator/City: Music Producer/City: Photographer/City: Printer/City: Producer: Production Company/City: Programmer: Writer: Web Development Firm/City:
SYSPRO Team: Erin Schlee, Lauren Tuculescu, Pam de la Mora, Gavin Verreyne, Kelly Kucera and Gabriela Hernandez
Outside event production was led by Twenty 156 events.
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