With the new system’s reporting capabilities it is now possible to use information stored in the system to help both the sales and management departments gain insight on the venue such as identifying trends or types of bookings.  Paulina explains, “We have a lot of different departments including operations, kitchen, managers and so on, that all require different data on various parts of the venue and event management. Using Priava it is very simple to run reports on whatever is needed, for example we can look at all the business which has been lost during a specific period and analyse the reasons such as, ‘no availability’, ‘price’ and so on.

The reports have also enabled us to present more accurate sales forecasting to the senior management team. We had some initial support on setting up the first few reports, but now we are completely self-sufficient and can set up a report for pretty much any metric. Everything we need to know we can get from the reports and all the recipients find them valuable and easy to read. If I receive a request from our sales director on the number of enquiries we won or lost last month I can produce it instantly.” The venue can also look at where revenues are coming from and what proportion comes from where such as ‘Hire’, ‘Catering’ or ‘Extras’.

The intelligence created by the reports can help the day to day sales operation by providing key information such as ‘top bookers’ or reasons why a booking is made or not, such as ‘too expensive’ or ‘don’t have data available’. “With more information about our customers, we are more prepared when making a sales call as we know more about them.” Says Paulina. By drawing on past records such as who booked last year, the venue can also easily print out contacts for the business development team to follow up for the coming year. According to Paulina, managing opportunities on a daily basis is effortless because there is no duplication involved. “We put in all opportunities in the calendar as provisional, so we can see what chase-ups we need to do, without having to log this on a separate spreadsheet – everything is on the system.”

Not only does Priava support the optimisation of booking sales Paulina explains how it facilitates the management and delivery of events, “We really like the event sheets, as they provide a ‘blueprint’ for success. Once created they are given out to everyone involved such as the operations team, serving staff and the event managers. Adding new clients is very easy and the event sheets are clear and easy to understand. This was very time-consuming using the previous system. You don’t have to be a ‘techy’ person to use it, you instinctively know where to go. All of the modules are joined up so we can easily see for example via the Catering module, what the food and drink requirements are or review the room choices, logistics and finance – all with just a few clicks.”

Another feature Paulina likes is the drop down task tab, “Everyone who is involved in event management knows that you can be juggling a lot things all at the same time, so it can be easy sometimes to forget something. The coloured Tasks tab is great as it acts as an aide-memoire for all essential actions such as client call-backs, checking wine or food requirements, confirming running order, following up on enquiries and so forth”.

As the Priava solution is cloud-based, it can be accessed from any device that has a web-browser and Internet connection. According to Paulina this is very useful as it means that they can always respond quickly when a booking request comes in and they can access client and other data, real-time in meetings rooms and other places when they are away from their usual workplace. “By capturing an enquiry and checking availability there and then, reduces the risk of us losing an opportunity.”