Centrify Case Study
Big Up Marketing Provides Flexible, Turnkey Event Management Services for Centrify
Founded in 2004, Centrify is an identity management software and cloud-based Identity-as-a-Service provider. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, the company serves markets worldwide through its Seattle, Hong Kong, London, Munich, Brisbane and São Paulo offices.
The Challenge
Centrify sought to generate more leads through trade shows and regional events, but did not want to hire and manage a staff of costly full-time employees. The company also needed more space for the inventory and operations required to support their events.
Centrify was participating in just a few, select marketing events each month when Centrify management raised its sales goals. The Centrify Marketing department determined that it must participate in many more events to generate enough leads to support the increased goals. Although Centrify had decided it needed to increase the volume of events, the company was not equipped to handle the work in-house.
The company was still in start-up mode, and the team of full-time marketing staff that could be directed to manage events was not large enough to handle the extra work. Centrify was also unsure if the higher volume of events would just be a short-term requirement, or if it would turn into a permanent situation. Centrify’s Marketing department thought it might eventually reduce the number of events and shift its focus from events to other activities. Additionally, since event marketing is seasonal in nature (summer and winter are often characterized by significant slowdowns), Centrify wanted the flexibility to decrease its capacity during slower times. Full-time employees are costly, and it is difficult to justify significant expenditures for them when they are idle. Centrify required the ability to quickly and easily increase or decrease its events-related activities without relying on a rigid, expensive, full-time workforce.
Centrify’s office did not have enough space to accommodate the events-related inventory and logistical operations necessary to support the desired growth in events. When handling only a few events per month, only one person was needed to manage all the event logistics. This person could work in a standard-sized office cubicle. The amount of collateral, exhibit displays, branded swag, shipping boxes/cases and other supplies fit nicely into that space. Packing and shipping activity was a bit disruptive to fellow co-workers, but was not so frequent to be considered a major distraction to other office workers. However, this space was not large enough to support the increase in events that they were planning.
Big Up saves us thousands of dollars every year. We also love their flexibility. When we ramp up, they are there for us. When we ramp down, they move to on-call mode. It’s good to know that Big Up is always there for us when we need them.
Holly Adams
Director of Field and Channel Marketing
Centrify
The Solution
Centrify outsourced its events logistics work to Big Up Marketing, enabling the company to quickly and affordably adapt to fluctuating events volume.
Centrify turned to Big Up Marketing to quickly expand its volume of events and generate the higher number of leads required to grow its sales pipeline. Big Up Marketing (Big Up) possesses the broad marketing event management skills and extensive expertise required to manage all event logistics from start to finish. Its turnkey approach to event management allows Centrify to focus on high-level event strategy, rather than routine execution.
Big Up provides Centrify with event services such as tactical planning, services ordering, packing, shipping, inventory management, graphic design, on-site event support, promotional and follow-up email production and execution, lead importing via Marketo/Salesforce.com, and post-event communications to the Centrify sales teams.
The company is committed to excellence, and has become an integral component of Centrify’s events efforts. Its staff members are responsive, and always on call. Although they are not full-time Centrify employees, they act like it. Big Up staff members always deliver excellent work, and their attention to detail is unsurpassed.
Big Up enabled Centrify to massively increase its events volume, while maintaining the flexibility to decrease volume and cost during the slower summer and winter months. Best of all, these services come at an affordable rate.
Big Up never misses a shipment or a deadline. Nothing ever slips through the cracks with them.
Mike Sarjeant
Channel Marketing Manager
Centrify
The Results
Centrify dramatically expanded its operations without hiring costly, full-time employees or leasing expensive office and warehouse space.
With the help of Big Up Marketing, Centrify now participates in 80 to 125 events every quarter that generate thousands of leads. “We would not be able to execute a fraction of the events we do without their help,” explains Holly Adams, Centrify’s director of field and channel marketing. “We simply tell Big Up what events we want to participate in, and Big Up handles the rest.”
By choosing Big Up, Centrify immediately gained a responsive, experienced group of workers without adding full-time employees to its staff. Instead of hiring a large crew of new employees that required office space, phones, computers, 401(k)s, stock options, healthcare benefits, HR resources (i.e., hiring, training and turnover costs), and the Social Security and Medicare tax obligations that come along with them, Centrify could cost-effectively expand its capacity.
Big Up does not demand expensive retainer fees or long-term contracts. Big Up simply charges a reasonable hourly rate for all work performed. When the event logistics work required expands and contracts with changes in strategy and seasons, Centrify need not worry about hiring new people or laying them off. Big Up just provides more or less resources, depending on Centrify’s requirements. Centrify calls Big Up when it needs them, and doesn’t call when the extra help is not needed. Big Up stores Centrify’s event materials inventory free of charge in its insured, climate-controlled warehouse. Big Up also tracks and updates inventory shipments and receipts to ensure item counts are accurate. Centrify can refer at any time to an online inventory spreadsheet to see the quantities of all the items they have in stock. This spreadsheet also includes an image for each item, so Centrify always knows exactly what they have stored in the warehouse. The images also help Centrify know what versions of their collateral are in stock, in case a piece has been recently updated and needs to be reprinted.
Big Up is located in the Denver metro area, which saves Centrify money on shipping charges and sales taxes. Big Up’s relatively central geographic location results in lower shipping costs for Centrify. It’s much less expensive to manage shipping operations in Colorado than in California because the distance materials need to travel to and from events all over the U.S. is simply shorter. Moreover, when Centrify orders branded swag from their California vendor that does not have a presence in Colorado, they are not required to pay sales taxes. The sales tax rate in Santa Clara is 9%, so the cost savings is quite substantial.
“Big Up saves us thousands of dollars every year,” says Holly Adams. “We also love their flexibility. When we ramp up, they are there for us. When we ramp down, they move to on-call mode. It’s good to know that Big Up is always there for us when we need them.”
We strategize. Big Up executes. It can’t get any easier than that!
Holly Adams
Director of Field and Channel Marketing
Centrify