NXTevent

NXTevent is a special event, meeting and destination management firm, based in Gloucester, MA. It successfully competes with large global companies in the $200 billion event management industry.

NXTevent needed to share ideas and a large number of documents among a dispersed staff. The company also needed to reduce the number of internal emails burdening its server. Each staff member of this 8-person company gets hundreds of emails daily, because of the large number of projects they manage.

NXTevent adopted WebEx WebOffice and migrated thousands of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel files to the Document Manager right away. Everyone could immediately share registration reports, all company forms, internal processes, contacts, event resumes, etc. NXTevent also began using the WebOffice Task Manager, Discussion Forums, and Online Calendar just days after the migration.

"One of my main objectives in using WebEx WebOffice was to cut down on internal email, which can be overwhelming for a small business where people are documenting and updating their processes with emails. The WebOffice Discussion Forums function has allowed us to cut back tremendously on email making us more productive."

- Allyson O’Connor, CEO and Founder of NXTevent

“We have seen a lot of positive results since we started using WebEx WebOffice,” says Allyson O’Connor, CEO and Founder of NXTevent.

“WebEx WebOffice took away the headache of relying on and managing our own server,” says O’Connor.

Once NXTevent decided to use WebOffice, the firm accomplished the migration rapidly ... literally within hours, allowing users to continue working seamlessly and autonomously.

The firm immediately started using the WebEx WebOffice suite to post announcements for all employees to view. It also used the poll feature to ask questions like: ‘When would you like to have the next training program?’ ‘Or would you like to ride with each other to such and such an event?’

NXTevent now uses WebOffice Discussion Forums as a way of sharing everything from team building to processes to plans.

“As a business owner, Discussion Forums help me really listen to my staff and retain great ideas,” O’Connor says.

“In an aggressive business environment, our management team often comes up with these little gems of information that would improve the performance of our business. These are important to capture, but may not receive immediate attention. Before we adopted an online collaborative tool like WebEx WebOffice, every time someone here had a good idea, an email would need to be generated to preserve it. Now all ideas are in one place on our WebOffice.” Multi-tasking on Location with WebEx WebOffice WebOffice has also made a big difference by allowing NXTevent staff to multi-task on location. “I have 2 employees down in Boston today managing registration for a multi-day event. There will be several periods when on site registration is extremely light, or stops altogether. With WebOffice, my staff can work online on other projects, whenever they have down time on site,” O’Connor says.

WebOffice has also made a big difference by allowing NXTevent staff to multi-task on location. “I have 2 employees down in Boston today managing registration for a multi-day event. There will be several periods when on site registration is extremely light, or stops altogether. With WebOffice, my staff can work online on other projects, whenever they have down time on site,” O’Connor says.

“As we evolve, I’m looking to develop people into independent autonomous business units. I like WebOffice because employee performance in our industry is based on time management and high periods of productivity before a program. If I can help my employees increase their own productivity with WebOffice, both they and the company grow together. Often peak productivity varies from person to person. For instance, I’m a late afternoon, early evening person and my peak productivity is not related to being in the office. I could be anyplace. WebOffice lets me and my staff access our work anywhere, anytime, so we can take advantage of our own peak productivity periods.”

WebOffice also allows NXTevent to create flexible work environments so its employees can work from home and take time to raise families or develop other areas of their lives. “It’s an appealing work benefit,” O’Connor says. “It’s a lot easier and more economical to keep company resources and employees than to replace them. As a professional services resource, as we develop relationships and skills with employees and contractors, we are investing in the future of our company.”

NXTevent competes with large global companies in a $200 billion industry. “WebOffice allows us to offer services similar to large competing entities - because WebOffice allows me to work and manage projects online with my clients. If I’m working at midnight on deadline with information arriving from all corners of the world, I can post proposals, critical info and updates on the WebOffice project site for that client, and they will have my proposal when they walk in in the morning. It’s faster and more effective than overnight mailings, particularly with our international clients from Pacific Rim and Russia,” O’Connor says.