Customer Solution Case Study
/ / Software Provider Boosts Customer Communication with Monthly Online Events
Overview
Country or Region:United States
Industry: Software
Customer Profile
Proofpoint develops innovative software and appliance solutions that offer large enterprises better security, management, and control of e-mail and other messaging systems. The company has 140 employees and is based in Cupertino, California.
Business Situation
As the company’s informational webcasts grew in popularity, Proofpoint marketers wanted the ability to increase attendance capacity to ensure that customers and prospects would not be turned away.
Solution
Proofpoint took advantage of Microsoft® Office Live Meeting Event Services, which offers flexibility for webcast attendance and comprehensive event management.
Benefits
Improved attendance capacity
Enhanced communication with customers and prospects
Attained valuable customer data
Reduced telephony costs
Eased event management duties / “Working with the Live Meeting Event Services group provides an incredible amount of scalability in addition to professional event management.”
Akiko Honda, Marketing Programs Manager, Proofpoint
Proofpoint is a leading provider of messaging security software. To share company news, product details, and industry issues with customers and prospects, the company initiated a series of webcasts using Microsoft® Office Live Meeting software. As these online events grew in popularity, Proofpoint marketers wanted to increase webcast attendance capacity. The company commissioned Microsoft Office Live Meeting Event Services and found not only an ability to scale audience numbers but also comprehensive event management help. Proofpoint now hosts roughly one webcast per month, with each session averaging more than 200 attendees. Because the online events have enhanced communication with customers and prospects, delivered valuable customer data, reduced telephony costs, and eased event management duties, Proofpoint leaders view them as an integral part of the company’s marketing mix.
Situation
The messaging infrastructure in most large organizations is under constant attack by a variety of external and internal threats. Intentional or accidental, these attacks can hinder productivity, waste resources, and affect network performance. Effective messaging security involves much more than stopping incoming spam and viruses. Enterprises also face security challenges from within their organization in the form of outgoing e-mail content that includes unprotected confidential information. A growing number of corporate policies and regulatory compliance mandates have arisen in recent years, and IT departments are pressured to ensure that messaging coming into and going out of their enterprise is secure and compliant with these directives.
Proofpoint is a leading provider of e-mail security and data loss prevention solutions that safeguard organizations from the threats and risks that can occur in both inbound andoutbound e-mail and other messaging streams. The 140-employee company, which is based in Cupertino, California, offers comprehensive solutions that enable organizations to stop spam, guard against viruses and network attacks, and prevent leaks of confidential or sensitive information.
Because messaging security is a crucial concern for companies in all industries, Proofpoint is continually challenged to keep its broad base of constituents informed of the latest developments and issues surrounding security.
To communicate with a wide range of customers, prospects, partners, and industry watchers, Proofpoint began conducting webcasts using Microsoft® Office Live Meeting software. The online events were designed to convey company news, product details, and industry issues. As the webcasts grew in popularity, the company wanted the ability to scale attendance numbers. “Live Meeting software is fantastic, but there was acap on the number of people who could attend our webcasts,” explains Akiko Honda, Marketing Programs Manager at Proofpoint. “We wanted to continue using Live Meeting without the risk of turning possible attendees away.”
Solution
Proofpoint turned to Microsoft Office Live Meeting Event Services, a subscription service that provides people, expertise, and technology for the comprehensive management of live virtual events. A standard Live Meeting Event Services webcast can support 1,250 attendees, and companies have the option to expand that figure.
“We have had 900 attendees register for asingle event,” Honda reveals. “And we wanted to make sure we could accommodate all of them. Working with the Live Meeting Event Services group provides an incredible amount of scalability in addition to professional event management.”
Purchased as a stand-alone offering or as an optional service for Microsoft Office Live Meeting users, Live Meeting Event Services delivers dedicated support to ensure that live virtual events, Web seminars, and e-learning sessions are first-rate and technically flawless. Event producers guide companies like Proofpoint through every step of an event and offer a range of services, including event coordination, presenter training, attendee registration and reminders, hosting, technical support, and postevent analysis and reporting.
Using the service, Proofpoint hosts two types of online meetings. One is solely for customers and stakeholders, providing updates on the company, its products, and other proprietary topics. The second class of Proofpoint webcasts is opened up to prospects, partners, and industry watchers in addition to customers and stakeholders. These events are focused on news and developments in the industry, topical issues such as encryption and spam, and broader subjects related to messaging infrastructures. The webcasts average between 200 and 300 attendees, and have been known to include several hundred attendees on occasion.
Proofpoint hosts roughly one Office Live Meeting event per month. Events typically feature a standard format, with three-quarters of the event dedicated to presentation and the remaining quarter reserved for product demonstrations using Office Live Meeting application-sharing capabilities.
“The webcasts are a key component of our marketing mix. They are informative in nature, but the ultimate goal is to drive business and push opportunities further down the sales pipeline,” says Honda. “The events have proven to be successful, and we see sales and business opportunities as a result.”
Benefits
Although Proofpoint initially commissioned Live Meeting Event Services purely to expand the attendance limits of its webcasts, the company has since reaped other advantages from the service. The monthly webcasts have helped the company enhance communication with customers and prospects, attain revealing customer information, reduce telephony costs, and ease event management duties.
Enhanced Communication with Customers and Prospects
As Honda points out, online meetings provide a more interactive experience than many marketing programs and materials. As a result, the webcasts facilitated through Live Meeting Event Services have improved the communication between Proofpoint and its customers and prospects.
“Attendees find our webcasts very valuable,” Honda notes. “There is always a great deal of audience interaction and questions. The events are so much more personal than a white paper or other piece of collateral.”
Proofpoint is also taking advantage of Live Meeting Replay Recordings, a feature of Office Live Meeting Professional Edition, so that customers and prospects who miss a live event can still view it, and those who were in attendance can share it with colleagues. Everyone who registers for a Proofpoint webcast, whether or not they attend, receives an e-mail message the following day with a link to the recording.
“The replay viewings sometimes match the original live attendance count,” says Keith Crosley, Director of Corporate Communications for Proofpoint. “The recordings are easy to access and view, and they extend the reach of our webcasts.”
Both the live webcasts and replay viewings have prompted requests for product demonstrations, Crosley adds, which often lead to sales.
Attained Valuable Customer Data
Proofpoint is using polling questions and surveys to capture audience opinions. Using Office Live Meeting software, Proofpoint can pose questions to and receive questions from the audience at any time during a webcast.
In addition to answering polling questions throughout a webcast, attendees are invited to complete a postevent Web survey created by Live Meeting Event Services. Proofpoint often uses a giveaway as incentive to complete the surveys, which are intended to glean specific information from customers and prospects, helping Proofpoint marketers identify sales opportunities.
Audience members are also encouraged to submit questions during each webcast. At the end of the session, the Proofpoint presenter highlights and answers a few of the more pertinent questions for the audience at large. Other questions are answered individually by one or two Proofpoint representatives using the Live Meeting Question Manager tool.
“We learn a lot about our customers and prospects through the interactive portions of our webcasts,” says Honda. “The questions and answers we receive from attendees can be very revealing at times, and we get great feedback about our products.”
Reduced Telephony Costs
By using Internet Audio Broadcast (IAB) capabilities, which are supported through Office Live Meeting software, Proofpoint has been able to drive down the telephony costs associated with its webcasts. IAB takes advantage of Internet Protocol (IP) technology to bypass toll-based, dial-in access to the audio portions of online events.
“Prior to using Live Meeting Event Services, our attendees did not use IAB,” says Crosley. “Today, roughly 60 percent of our webcast attendees access the events through IAB, which enables us to reserve fewer phone lines and reduces our costs.”
Eased Event Management Duties
Use of Live Meeting Event Services has eased the burden of online event management for Proofpoint marketers. With an event producer that facilitates the entire process, Honda says the “peace of mind” delivered by Live Meeting Event Services is unparalleled.
“The Live Meeting Event Services group has made my life easier. The event producers are very professional, responsive, and helpful,” says Honda. “From event details to the recording line to the technical demonstrations, they make sure everything is smooth.”
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