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FREEAGENT SUCCESS STORY
Our needs are dynamic and change rapidly, so we wanted the ability to restructure our data.
With FreeAgent, we can do that whenever we like, quickly, and easily.”
Opera Event
OAKLAND, CA
Industry
Software & Services
Favorite Feature
Custom Fields
Impact
2x faster cycle times 💨
⚡️ 16-20 employee hours saved/week
+ 70% increase in pipeline
We pivoted many times to find traction and market fit. A lot companies in our space that were competitors at various stages of our business weren’t able to do that, and that is a big part of the reason we are still here, while many of those businesses are gone.
Matt Espinoza
Co-Founder & Director of Partnerships
Leveling Up
In the past 50 years, the video game industry has evolved from a hobbyist movement enjoyed by techies and programmers into a billion-dollar market that attracts fans and viewers on par with the world’s most popular sports. In that time, the technology that powers these games has developed considerably, and the interest that this entertainment medium has garnered has attracted significant investment in the space. Yet, for all of that growth and advancement, the industry is still primarily one of passion. It is propelled forward by fans and enthusiasts with a love for gaming that often transcends the common goals of most businesses. Perhaps no single company represents this community-focused, passion-driven approach more than Opera Event.
Founded by a group of highly skilled and dedicated gamers who met playing WoW (thats World of Warcraft for the uninitiated), Opera Event is an agile and dynamic company committed to helping the gaming community succeed. What began as a mission to help players leverage their popularity and improve sponsorship opportunities has evolved into a multifaceted gaming media company that connects sponsors, influencers, and fans in a way that has never been possible before. Their love for the industry has allowed them to succeed where many have failed, and with the help of FreeAgent CRM, Opera Event is now poised to expand their business beyond the world of gaming. This transition is an exciting one to be sure, but it will not be one without challenges. Having FreeAgent on their side, a company that shares their passion for helping others achieve through technology and savvy, will allow Opera Event to be flexible and adaptable as they move into new markets and continue to evolve.
Objectives
When Opera Event set out to make the gaming space more accessible for sponsors and influencers alike, they were paving new ground. Live-streaming platforms like Twitch had changed the way people were producing and consuming gaming content, and that change required a whole new set of skills to maximize the efforts of all those involved. With their unique combination of experience, passion, and know-how, Opera Event knew they could help bridge the existing skill gap, and they felt they were ideally positioned to do so. Early success would prove their assumptions, but as they began to expand their offerings, they quickly discovered that many of the challenges they were looking to mitigate went much deeper than initially anticipated. To help meet the evolving needs of their clients and the industry as a whole, Opera Event would have to reimagine their business and shift their focus.
While the team of committed and innovative experts at Opera Event was more than up to the task of adapting their business, the technology they had been using to manage their day-to-day operations was not. Even before they had begun to change directions, the clunky and unintuitive CRM that Opera Event had been using proved too cumbersome to provide the unique data and insights they required. Requests from their board for specific reports would often have to be adjusted based upon the limitations of the software, and creating workflows and cadences to better serve their clients was difficult at best, impossible at worst. The team knew that they wouldn’t be successful if they continued to be constrained by their tools, so they began a search for something new. What they found was FreeAgent CRM, an enterprise software platform designed for the new world of work.
We began looking for a new CRM because we had difficulty consuming the data contained within our existing one. I would get requests for specific reports or workflows, and I would have to adapt the request to work within the limitations of the CRM. With FreeAgent, the software adapts to work the way we do to provide the specific information my team wants in the way they want it.
FreeAgent also makes it very easy to train people. I often don’t even need to train my reps on a new feature. It’s that simple and intuitive. When we need to learn something new, the account managers are great.
Ultimately, the deciding factor for me was the ability to customize so much. I can choose what apps we use, I can customize fields to collect unique data points, I can create custom dashboards and widgets— and it’s all straightforward.”
Matt Espinoza
Co-Founder & Director of Partnerships
The team at Opera Event needed to:
FreeAgent makes it less intimidating to go in and try to do something outside of the box.
What we’re using the platform for is non-conventional, and with our old CRM, if we wanted to try something new, I would have to hire a 3rd party engineer to go in and set it up. Then, after seeing the results, if I wanted to make changes, I would have to re-hire the engineer to implement the changes, making it feel like it’s not our CRM or our environment.
FreeAgent gives me the agency to be experimental. If I think of something, work it through in my mind, and I just can go in and do it.
With other CRMs, it feels like you are working to benefit the CRM. With FreeAgent, it feels like the CRM is working to benefit you.”
Matt Espinoza
Co-Founder & Director of Partnerships
The Solution
When Opera Event discovered FreeAgent CRM, the fit was evident from the beginning. FreeAgent was different from the older CRM platforms on the market in that it was so easy and fast to tailor for each unique business using it. FreeAgent empowers the user to decide what tools they want to utilize and hides the rest for a streamlined user experience. This meant that Opera Event could focus their team in a way that wasn’t possible before. They could build custom workflows that functioned how they needed them to instead of in a generalized way that appealed only to more traditional business models. They could employ various automations to help streamline their daily activity, freeing up their team to focus on the work that matters. What’s more, the unique data points that Opera Event wanted to track were suddenly visible thanks to robust custom fields and forms. These fields could be changed and adjusted on the fly, allowing for the analysis and experimentation vital to a business trying to succeed in an emerging market.
As Opera Event continues to grow and evolve, they can rest assured that FreeAgent will be right beside them with every new endeavor. The tools that Opera Event needs to be successful tomorrow are already being developed today, thanks to the input of Opera Event and other businesses like them. The insights that these businesses provide is not only heard, it is leveraged to create and innovate in ways that couldn’t have been dreamt of even 10 years ago. In a world that is changing faster than ever before, this maneuverability will ensure solutions to the challenges of tomorrow.
The Impact
For Opera Event, the partnership with FreeAgent has been a wonderful success. In only a short time, they have already seen incredible results, such as a 50% reduction in cycle time, a 70% increase in their pipeline, a savings of 16-20 hours/week per employee, and an increase in visibility that provides insights into every aspect of their business. Additionally, the quality of the workday has improved for the whole team. The arduous task of data entry has been all but eliminated as working from within the FreeAgent platform is easy and intuitive. This means that leadership doesn’t have to track down their team to ensure their accounts are up to date or their daily tasks are completed. That leaves more time for coaching and team building which are essential to employee success and retention.
In the coming years, Opera Event will be shifting their business into other industries. The expertise, passion, and skill that has served them so well thus far will continue to be a cornerstone of their success, and now that they have FreeAgent in their corner, they can feel confident facing the challenges that lie ahead. The impact of that confidence is the freedom to innovate and adapt that was lacking before. Testing out new processes and developing new systems no longer requires hiring 3rd party engineers to implement. The team can have an idea and test it out in real-time, analyze the results and make changes quickly. This flexibility will pay dividends as they move into new markets. They will be able to adapt and adjust as needed, and that will go a long way to ensuring Opera Event’s success in the long term. The innovations born from this have yet to be seen, but FreeAgent will be waiting eagerly to turn ideas into tools and dreams into realities.
The centralization of our data has improved our collaboration considerably. We can see quickly and easily what stage a lead is in, when they were last contacted, who has been in contact, and so on. That visibility has saved us 16-20 hours a week/employee and helped us reduce our cycle time by more than 50% (2x faster).
The visibility has helped with accountability. If a team member contributes to the whole, it is evident in the reporting. They know where they stand, and so does everyone else.
The adoption has been incredible. We used to have to hound everybody to get their stuff entered into the CRM. It wasn’t their intention; they had other things to do. Now, FreeAgent makes it easier for them to keep up with those things, so they don’t have to worry about neglecting other tasks.
Getting people to utilize a CRM and buy in is never easy. That said, I have never seen as much buy-in from a team as I have using FreeAgent.”
Matt Espinoza
Co-Founder & Director of Partnerships
FREEAGENT SUCCESS STORY
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