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Buy vs. Build

(Downloadable PDF)

Are you considering building your own online registration system instead of purchasing Cvent?

Below are some key points to consider based on years of experience developing a world class online event registration system.

	Internal Development	Cvent
Event Site Selection	Developing an extensive database of venues can be time-consuming and difficult. Aside from the staff needed to maintain a database of venues, including updating hotel name changes and keeping track of new properties, simply establishing the right contacts across thousands of venues can become an overwhelming and nearly impossible task.	Cvent has invested $20 million in the development of our comprehensive database of over 50,000 venues searchable by location, total meeting space and other criteria. We have a team of over 70 solely focused on researching, updating and maintaining the accuracy of our database. Search the Cvent Supplier Network and submit request for proposals to multiple venues at once.
Upgrades / Enhancements	Aside from initial development costs, there are substantial recurring costs of maintaining and upgrading the software and web sites.	Clients benefit from multiple software upgrades every year at no additional charge. We have updated our event management system more than 30 times.
Email Marketing	Sending emails from your organization’s servers or a third party ISP can be very problematic due to a myriad technical of issues like: deliverability, third party black lists, filtering rate limiters, and many others. There is a mine field of problems for systems not designed and maintained for e-marketing.	The Cvent advanced email marketing systems and technology staff ensure the highest delivery rates of personalized graphical or text based email invitations. Our software automatically reports open rates, click-throughs, and automatically cleans invitee lists of bad data. Finally, we provide templates to use in creating email invitations.
Web Site Development	Hiring web developers to create a custom event registration web site can be expensive. Fully integrating your event web site with your back end databases to enable reporting and eliminate data entry can take time and be very expensive.	Cvent utilizes templates for a customizable event registration web site that can be integrated into your existing web site or expanded into a brand new web site.
eCommerce	Setting up the ability to take payments online can be complicated and expensive. You will need a dedicated hosting server, SSL certificate, technical integration with payment gateways and payment processors. Setup and maintenance can be expensive.	Cvent handles all the technical aspects of payment processing and eliminates the long delays in configuration, setup and associated costs. Essentially, we collect payments and immediately puts them into your merchant account.
Hosting	Hosting a web-based system can be expensive when implemented in a secure and reliable manner. In most cases cheap web hosting solutions are not reliable or secure for e-commerce web sites.	Cvent is hosted in a tier one data center with world class security and server redundancy.
Integration	One of the most complicated issues with building a registration system is linking it to your databases and other back office systems.	With Cvent, customers can easily import and export data into other key back office systems as needed. With advanced reporting functionality Cvent acts as a central secure data repository for hundreds of organizations.
Customer Support	Getting the help you need when launching and promoting your event can be a challenge. Hiring additional staff or temporary staff is an expensive solution. Having good, documentation, training, and support is critical for success with most business class software systems.	Cvent offers a dedicated team of seventy experienced event planning professionals (more than any other company in the industry) that provide a wide range of advice, training, and support to help clients get the best response and higher event attendance.
Industry Standards	Knowing all the industry standards and best practices to implement in a registration system is a process that can take months to carefully plan and think through. Having the best business processes that meet industry expectations are critical success factors.	Cvent has been developed over the last eight years with input from thousands of event planners. All customers benefit from implementation of best practices and industry standards to increase attendance and decrease operational costs.