Online registration is not just a convenient tool for organizations to utilize; it’s a service your customers are expecting.  Think of how many times you’ve wanted to register for something, but you didn’t because you had to do something, no matter how simple, other than just filling out an online form.  I myself am guilty, and the Parks and Rec. volleyball team that never had a chance will never know the glory of victory because of it!

I want to help you see the benefits of an online registration system and educate you why you need to have this as an option.

Convenience:

The convenience factor of online registration is mind boggling.  With a web-based system your registration is available 24/7, anywhere there is web access.  You can send out emails with links directly to registration.  Your registration can be right on your website.  Your registration can be paired up with online shopping (think sports registration, travel, or event merchandise).  You receive immediate confirmation with details on what you just registered for, and it’s available for you to reference whenever you need it.

It’s truly amazing how convenient online registration is for your customers, but it’s even better for you.

With a good online registration system your registrant’s information will go directly into your database.  Now most online registration systems are just that, a registration system, but a management system that creates events and helps you run your program should give you the ability to access user information whenever you need it, make notes, market directly to them, even sign them up for recurring events if they request.  Without sounding too much like a sales pitch for our own registration system, ours does all of those tasks, and more.  Other conveniences worth mentioning are receiving instant feedback about how many people are registered, and being able to monitor your event’s registrations from wherever you are. 

Cost Savings:

While it may not save much money for your registrants, probably only a stamp, it will save you a lot of money, most of it being in the form of time saved.  Online systems that have an integrated database, such as ours, giving you access to registrant info.  The time it takes to file registrations is cut down to zero, it’s all automated so you don’t have to enter any data or file any papers.  You’re not using paper or paying for postage.  Automated messages save you time on follow up and confirmation.  Online registration reduces the amount of input errors, so no time spent fixing misread forms or explaining to people why there were registered for something other than they thought they marked down.  Start up cost is relatively low too.  Being able to pass on the cost of online systems to your registrants means you don’t have to pay to file data, pay for a huge program, or pay to create a new spreadsheet for every event you have. 

Reporting:

Most every organization needs reporting in one form or another.  Using online registration gives you real time reports so you can analyze trends in registration, income, participation, and other useful fields.  The access to the reports can be made public or kept private, but they’re accessible and available when you need them rather than having to sift through all of your registration forms, spreadsheets, or billing statements to create a useful report.

System Support and Security:

Whatever your system is, and whoever provides it, it should be supported by the provider.  If you are the one creating your registration system you have to figure out how to fix any issue that comes up, but if you’re using an online registration from, let’s just say us for fun, you are provided full support to address any issues or utilize any functionality that you aren’t aware of.  Along with the system’s support, your database should be kept in a secure location that you can only access if you have permission.  No worrying about paper documents or spreadsheets accidentally being removed, destroyed, or stolen.

Increased Attendance and Easier Marketing:

I know it sounds too good to be true, but by simply providing an online registration option you are increasing your availability and your odds that people will attend your event.  If more people attend it generally relates to positive results for your business, meaning cash, data or whatever it is you’re looking for.  And how about marketing to specific groups?  That’s made easy by being able to categorize your registrants for future marketing efforts.  If you utilize email marketing you can automate your marketing program to interact with them, saving you time and money. 

I hope this simple, poorly written, list of reasons to utilize online registration starts your journey towards increasing your abilities, saving you time, and simplifying your process.  But if that’s not enough info to get you excited to start thinking about providing an option for online registration feel free to email me, Cameron, at ITsolutions@intertechpro.com, and I’ll happily continue this conversation with you further.

Business Checklist

We’ve created this checklist for you and your company to analyze your current IT support and to determine if you are getting the best possible support.  These are basic items that you should have at your business to keep your server safe, up to date, and give you the access you need.

Œ       Corporate Antivirus software: to protect the server and all pc on your network. This should automatically update with new definitions each day and push these updates to all PCs on the network. It should also run daily virus scan on all PCs on the network.

Œ       Security updates to protect all PCs on the network. These keep all PCs up to date with the latest software and protects from outside attacks.

Œ       System Back Ups that run every day with a tape that is taken offsite and stored in a safety deposit box each week. All employee documents should be saved to the network server (not locally on their PCs) so that all documents are backed up each day and are recoverable should a file be lost.

Œ       Hardware Firewall and VPN to protect your network from outside attacks, and give all employees access to their work desktops and network recourse from anywhere in the world.

Œ       Exchange Email Sever, if you want to host your own email, use public calendars, be able to retain all communications within your organization.

Œ       Server Maintenance performed daily to ensure the daily backups are successful and verified, review critical logs, hardware review, network security review, security updates, and virus definitions, and much more.

If you do not have at least these actions being performed you need to contact your IT provider and request a list of services to find out what they are doing or contact us at ITsolutions@intertechpro.com or 1-800-376-9174 to ensure that your IT system is properly designed and supported. 

Well the magic of saving money isn't all that magical after all.  And I gave away one of my favorite ways to save money in the title of today's blog.

It's true, you're probably still paying for you, or your employees, to renew software they don't need or use.  I had an experience, from a previous employer, where they called me up after I had been away from the company for several months, and they asked me if I was renewing their antivirus software on their computers while I was away.  Really?  While I am very concerned with people's computers being protected I'm not going to charge anyone anything without them knowing about it.  The moral of the story is that a lot of the programs you use come with auto-renewing subscriptions that will charge you annually/quarterly/monthly/whenever they want, and they'll send you an email saying they're going to do it, but it often ends up in the junk mail so you don't see it.  In fact, several antivirus software providers were just fined for their auto-renewal services not being stated clearly enough (http://antivirus.about.com/b/2009/06/11/auto-renewal-of-antivirus-software.htm).

To cut costs I would look through your current list of installed software and inventory what you do and don't use.  This can be done very easily by going to the computer's control panel, selecting programs then selecting programs and features.  This will give you a list of installed programs.  Check to ensure that there isn't any junk.  Simply uninstall any unused software and check to see if you are running any software that is on auto-renewal that doesn't need to be. 

There's the magic.  You can easily cut a couple dollars per Computer just by combing through the excess.