Washington Speakers Bureau
Problem
Washington Speakers Bureau is the leading speaker management agency. The company schedules
speaker engagements for high-profile political, sports, and entertainment personalities.
They needed the ability to provide responsive service both to the speakers working with them,
and with the clients looking for Washington Speakers Bureau’s speakers’ expertise and advise.
Mistakes and oversights in tracking the numerous details involved in juggling schedules,
financial and contractual arrangements, and VIP personal requirements, can be both embarassing
and costly.
WSB was using an aging DOS-based application that had long outlived its usefulness. They
needed a state of the art solution that integrated database, network, and web-based aspects
of their business. The old solution was not adaptible to changing requirements and modern
technologies.
It would not be enough to create a finished application and then call the job done.
WSB needed the application to evolve rapidly as their speaker and client base changed over
time, and to adapt to the needs of their highly-effective, but sometimes challenging staff
requirements. Whatever WSB could do to improve their interaction with their speakers and
customers needed to be done. They couldn’t be hobbled by an application that was difficult to
modify and customize.
Solution
When deciding how to upgrade their existing application, FMS and the client chose to use
Microsoft-oriented technologies for database and development tools in order to maximize
access to industry-standard expertise and support. To store the huge volume of data,
Microsoft SQL Server was chosen. SQL Server provides the secure, reliable, and highly
performant environment to host both in-house Windows client server applications, and
external web-based customers.
The initial version of the client server user application was developed using Visual Basic,
utilizing a scalable 3-tiered design. This design allowed the proper segmentation of the
application into data-related, business-related, and user-experience pieces. This loose
coupling of functionality allowed for a high level of code reuse and reliability as new
features were added to the application.
As Microsoft released improved database and development technologies, such as newer versions
of SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange, and Visual Studio .Net, FMS was able to phase in aspects
of these new technologies without requiring a destabilizing and disruptive rewrite. New
aspects of the application were developed with the best state of the art application tools
while stable portions of the application remained in their original environment.
Using an iterative release approach, FMS is able to provide the client with high-priority
features quickly, while continuing to grow the application as client needs develop over time.
Key Features
- Centralized speaker management
- Outlook and Exchange integration for CRM
- Electronic contract creation and delivery (that doesn’t require customized reporting in
order to adapt to a wide variety of speaker and client requirements)
- Remote database synchronization of web-hosted data providing support for dynamic web
display of speaker biographical and topic information
- Secure logging, tracking, and notification of changes to sensitive speaker data
- Automated sales lead generation and followup ensures that clients receive a responsive and satisfying experience with WSB