Case Study: Turning Six into One

For our client – one of Germany’s largest trade fairs – what is often the case applied: over the years, a colourful portfolio of different systems from various manufacturers has accumulated. The trade fair app from vendor A, the exhibitor directory from vendor B and the matchmaking from vendor C. And so it went on for many more systems. Not to mention in-house developments. In the pandemic, out of necessity for purely online events, systems were quickly acquired that had already not really proven themselves at the time and will not last into the future.

The current system landscape has repeatedly caused problems. Conceived new business models could not be implemented because the functionality of individual sub-systems did not allow for it. Change requests could not be implemented with the necessary agility; too many partners, too many interfaces and too many necessary coordinations. Since many systems were custom-made for the organiser, no best-practice effects from the trade fair industry could be used. Therefore, as many individual legacy systems as possible were to be consolidated. The goals were, among others:

• Cost reduction
• Standardisation of the data basis – away from individual data silos and creation of a basis for management decisions , product development
• Enabling Digital Business Models
• Simplification in administration and operation – both for users and the IT department
• Consistent customer experience across all digital touchpoints

The adventics team first developed a digital strategy derived from the corporate strategy with the involvement of many different stakeholders. After a pre-selection of consolidation platforms to be considered, central functional modules and critical features were implemented in a proof-of-concept and evaluated together. After a decision template, which also contained the investment planning and the business plan, the implementation was carried out according to the approved step-by-step plan. adventics GmbH also accompanied the change management in all phases in order to ensure the subsequent acceptance of the solution by all parties involved. In order to achieve the planned turnover, the marketing and sales team of adventics supported the marketing (content, multi-channel campaigns) and the support of the exhibitors.