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Entelect Event Manager

Entelect Event Manager futures

Referring to the diagram, some of the futures include:

Front Office: Entrant and Web Browser Zone

The front office defies what the potential entrant will expereince when engaging with the event (booking) site. Futures include:

  • Branded website: Event entry can come from a variety of sources and/or one housed in Event Manager (or perhaps controlled by a sister product, Entelect Web Manager).
  • Online entry/booking: The entrant goes through pre-defined steps to enter an event.
  • Secure payment interface: The entrant can make payment via credit card through a secure payment facility and/or choose EFT or cash payment options.
  • Receipts and invoicing: Online receipts and invoices are issued on purchase.
  • Staggered payments: Caters for events where entrants may need to pay a deposit, followed by a second or third payment.
  • Results display: Viewers can browse event results should the event be a race.
  • Supporter registration: Entrants can get their friends and supporters to register against their name so that they can receive results communications via e-mail or SMS.
  • News viewer: All event news can be seen on the site.
  • Entrant managed substitutions: For team or invitational events, an option exists whereby entrants can substitute their partners with others.
  • Subscriber interface: People can subscribe for newsletters or other services.
  • Image galleries: Image galleries related to the event can be accessed through an intuitive user interface by initially browsing through thumbnails.
  • Sponsoring riders & donations: Entrants can create their own custom page and ask people to make online payment against their names. Browsers can view entrants' profiles and pay for sponsorships or make variable donations via online stores for a good cause.
  • Online stores: Non-entrants can access an online store (which could sell separate tickets or memorabilia), while entrants access an additional shopping basket as part of the entry process (specific purchases required for the event).

Configuration: Entelect Zone

Depending on a client's special requirements, Entelect's web engineers configure Event manager at setup. Some configurable parameters include:

  • Website and event workflow setup: Entelect's web engineers will complete the initial setup tasks for the website such as the initial fee and payment structures, initial styling and site structure, billing setup, entry process (for example, whether entries are by invitation, once-off or staggered payments), entry close dates or when a pre-set number of entrants are reached, etc. This ensures that the product is tailor-made to the client's specific needs.
  • Entry fields setup: At the start of the project, the desired entrant input forms need to be defined per event with validation (lists, date boxes, text boxes, check boxes).
  • Entrant categories setup: Certain events have different categories, which can be a function of age, gender, licence type, etc. These need to be pre-configured for the event.
  • Online stores setup: There are two online store options, namely product purchases on entry and general product purchases that can be made by non-entrants. The system must be set up for one or both options.
  • Historical entrant data import: If a first-time user of Event Manager, past entrants may need to be loaded into the current database so that details can be activated. This avoids entrants having to retype data and allows for prior communication. This could also include importing past race results.
  • Data sharing rules setup: Certain events form part of a series or are entered in a common portal and thus can have data sharing. For example, when an entrant enters in the same portal for a different event, there is no need to retype personal data.

Back Office: Client Zone

The back office is set up to allow role-based access to users on the system to self-manage the website and related services. Some of these features, which can be limited to specified users, include:

  • Content management: Via an easy-to-use Microsoft Word interface, content, images and video can easily be changed on the website.
  • Website configuration: Add pages to the menu bar, customise menu item links and areas on the website, embed rich media (YouTube), edit custom disclaimers, create templates for receipts, etc.
  • User (role) maintenance: Clients can register new users, define what back-office functions they can access, and also administer these users: e.g. deactivate, change passwords, etc. This process increases security and devolves site management to multiple users.
  • Participant maintenance: Users can perform appropriate administrative functions on entrants, for example, change their personal details, mark as paid, substitute, etc.
  • Team (& tandem) maintenance: Link/unlink participants as tandem entries, update team details, members, etc. Create, assign or remove participants from teams of any size. For invitational events, cater for riders created and substitutions. The following is configurable: substitution cost, number of substitutions per team, number of people per substitution.
  • Product maintenance: Users can load new products for sale to entrant and non-entrant store options, set stock levels, load sizes, etc. Also allows for dynamic products (e.g. shuttle tickets where a purchaser must enter luggage details, accepting amounts for donations, etc).
  • Image gallery manager: Fast loading and impressive looking gallery functionality. Back-end functionality allows the creation of different albums, loading of images, posting comments, deleting and editing.
  • Invitational events manager: For events that have massive demand with limited entries available, organisers can create various entry stages based on dates, waiting lists, historical entry data, etc (specified ID number lists may be given auto-entry). Setup allows for customisable rules based on previous years' entries and event organisers can create various status levels. For each status, organisers can choose if an e-mail should be sent for this status and can customise the content of each status e-mail.
  • Bulk entries: Facilities to administer bulk entries.
  • Payment & refund manager: Capture payments, list payments made after a specified date, and late payments. Mark participants who pay by cash, EFT, complimentary, VIPs and send e-mail receipts. Manage refunds if own merchant account or Entelect administered if Entelect merchant account.
  • Multiple events administration: Event organisers with multiple events can access all events through a single back-office interface.
  • Incident tracker: By using a race number as reference, all medical and contact information can be displayed, and any incidents occurring on race day can be recorded.
  • Seeding administration: Configure parameters for seeding groups, re-allocate, reseed, deactivate, add late entries and report on participants not already seeded.
  • Manual entries capture: Capture details from manual entry forms or late entries.
  • MIS reporting: A wide range of online reports exist, which can be exported into any format. Some include but are not limited to: record participant listings, entrant fee reports, participant summaries, event recon and refunds, late payments, team tandem details, unallocated race numbers, full race files, invalid birth dates, merchandise summaries, product quantities, sponsorship amounts, etc.

Communications and Marketing: Client Zone

An integral part of any event is the ability to communicate with entrants and the public. Some features on offer include:

  • Entelect Active news exchange: For sporting events, Entelect's Web manager sporting clients are connected via a community news portal. If you are organising a sports event, you are given a secure access to this partner community to submit newsflashes to this rapidly growing sporting community. This news appears in the inboxes of all Entelect Active partners for immediate publication.
  • SMS & e-mail updates: Through the back-office interface, bulk e-mail and SMS updates can be sent to entrants (paid or unpaid), subscribers and custom lists. Personalised communications options are also available. Entelect's communication engine takes care of safe delivery, effectively bypassing spam filters.
  • Social networking integration: In order to bring more traffic to your site, it is possible to integrate the website with popular media and social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and related connectors.

Add-On Modules

The following add-on software components can be added to a typical Event Manage solution:

  • Online surveys: Entelect's Survey Publisher allows for surveys to be constructed on the website using a wide variety of survey fields such as text inputs, checkboxes and dropdown lists. Features include full back-office configurable reporting using filters, graphing, analysis and data downloading.
  • Event seeding: This sophisticated seeding engine allows users to load bulk results data, set seeding rules and parameters (like batch sizes, buffers, time weighting, positional weighting, race grading, number system ranking type or seeding index) and perform seeding runs. In addition, it allows for reseeding, substitution and seamlessly integrates into Event Manager.
  • SA seeding integration: Together with cycling partners, Entelect built a one-number system that, as from January 2010, will be the premier MTB seeding solution in South Africa (SA Seeding). A single number board and timing chip will be issued for life to a cyclist. This will be extended to road cycling and is, in fact, configurable for any other sport that requires numbering and seeding systems. Number boards can be sold by any Event Manager client and is seamlessly linked to the number board administration system hosted on MTN Cycling. An additional value-added feature includes medical SMS for injured athletes. This system can be configured for any sport.
  • Online e-tickets: E-ticketing facilities for issuing of template-driven, bar-coded online tickets that can be purchased online, printed and then brought to the event for auto scanning or manual verification on the day. The solution includes security measures to prevent fraud, and includes event day scanning and helpdesk software.
  • Race day manager: This is a standalone, Windows-based plug-in application that synchronises with the main site for managing multi-stage events. Features include: seeding and entrant data imports to and from Event Manager; stage results import/export; queries updates (participant details, teams swaps, substitutions, DNFs and comments); stage results and seeding, batch SMS and e-mail to participants and fans; configurable leader-board manager capable of displaying announcements on a big screen and managing sponsor advertisements. 
  • Online auctions: Allows for entry tickets (or other memorabilia) to be auctioned online where the latest bids can be viewed on the website. Multiple events may be linked to a single auction and can be set to automatically expire at a pre-defined time.

Click here to download a full product brochure with customer references or contact us for further information.



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