Sponsorship opportunities come in countless forms. From virtual events to trackside hospitality, the types of opportunities available are gradually increasing. This makes managing the relationships with sponsors and their assets more complex, as there is a greater variety of opportunities available and more individual stakeholders to engage.
Siemens Digital Industries Software provides product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions to a wide range of industries around the world. Using Mendix, Siemens Digital Industries Software created a centralized, scalable, and user-friendly sponsorship management application to automate their booking process, from the initial request from a sponsor offering, to aligning key contacts, and finally, to actual delivery of the opportunity.
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Complex sponsorship agreements demand more than email
Siemens Digital Industries Software is a huge enterprise, with more than ten thousand employees. Their sponsorship agreements can be elaborate, with multiple programs running concurrently at any given time. The types of sponsorship opportunities vary widely, as do the requirements for these opportunities. Additionally, communication with sponsorship stakeholders can be challenging, with anyone from sponsor event teams to sales account managers conducting ad hoc conversations over email. The complex processes to complete sponsorship agreements combined with opaque communication provided little visibility into the sponsorship opportunity booking process. This meant that tracking actual usage was challenging and slowed down communication with the stakeholders.
To solve these issues and bring transparency to the booking process, Gian Luca Sacco and Russell Brook, Senior Marketing Director and Marketing Director respectively, decided to adopt low-code to build an application to digitize the process, titled Siemens Sponsor Asset Booking System (SSABS). SSABS transferred a complex process to a simple interface with as a self-service model. It has also been developed with in-app guides that reduce the need for any additional training beyond a basic introduction to SSABS.
Managing sponsorship opportunity booking the right way
SSABS is used primarily by sponsors to manage and present their assets, and by sales account managers to make the bookings. SSABS also automates their sponsorship opportunity booking management. More specifically, communication between parties and reviewing statuses of these opportunities are easily managed within the tool. As Sacco explains, “thanks to the centralized asset booking system, [Siemens] can track the booking situation of assets and analyze asset usage,” something that was not possible before the introduction of SSABS.
In addition to a streamlined booking process, SSABS provides data related to its sponsorship agreements. Because their previous process was conducted over email, meaningful data was near impossible to gather. As Sacco explains, “based on the insight from the analysis, continuous optimization can be implemented, and campaign managers can be notified that opportunities are fully leveraged and utilized. [Siemens’] annual sponsorship requests can be based on scientific analysis and offer [them] more business opportunities.”
Collaboration and agility made possible with low-code
Low-code has enabled close collaboration between business operations and their IT team. Brook is “impressed with the speed of the application creation. Thanks to the brilliant collaboration and agile development process enabled by Mendix, [the Siemens team] were able to quickly build a working concept before testing key requirements and smoothly moving into production.” This newfound agility enables the team to iterate on the application and bring in the actual users of the platform to inform development decisions. Applications that provide immediate, tangible business value can be created without knowing how to code, faster than their development process before the introduction of Mendix. With low-code, Siemens is empowering their teams to improve collaboration during the development process and improve operational efficiency with faster development times, leading to more meaningful customer and sponsor relationships.