The Hong Kong Jewelry Manufacturers’ Association (HKJMA) enlisted the services of HKBN JOS to re-engineer its business processes with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Enabled by improved efficiency and a centralised database, HKJMA can now greatly expediate the booth allocation process of its biggest annual event, while minimising human input errors that were inevitable and common in the past. The solution not only fundamentally changed how staff at HKJMA work, it has also brought about a cultural change towards embracing technology and collaboration.

HKBN JOS impressed us with their drive to go the extra mile and think out of the box. What they offered wasn’t just a CRM solution, but they also understood our needs as an event organizer and gave us ideas on how best to leverage the technology.

– Pena Ho, Deputy General Manager of HKJMA

Productivity bottleneck reached

Founded in 1988, HKJMA is Hong Kong’s largest organisation representing manufacturers and exporters in the jewelry trading or related industries. Near the end of every calendar year, HKJMA hosts its largest jewelry show, the JMA Hong Kong in the heart of its hometown, offering an opportunity for jewelry buyers to restock their inventory before the holiday – and shopping – season hits. The event has grown year-on-year, both in terms of exhibitors and visitors.

The 2017 JMA Hong Kong is the 25th edition of the event and is set to be the biggest in its history, with an expected turnout of 900 exhibitors and 38,000 visitors from 70 countries congregating in Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on November 30 – December 3, 2017.

Hosting Hong Kong’s premier jewelry show is no small feat. Besides working to cater an increasing number of exhibitors, HKJMA also spends considerable effort on the exhibition floor plan and the allocation of booths to its exhibitors.

To ensure every allocation decision is made in the fairest and most transparent way possible, HKJMA has devised a scoring mechanism to grade and evaluate its exhibitors using a range of objective criteria.

For years, HKJMA’s event team relied on separate spreadsheets to record the data of all exhibitors. But as the event continued to grow in attendance, spreadsheets alone can no longer service their need adequately. Not only were these spreadsheet files incredibly difficult to manually manage, they were also prone to errors. “Before, when an exhibitor came to us for the reasons of their booth placement, it took us days to get back to them. Not to mention these spreadsheets not being conducive to our collaboration between teams,” said Pena Ho, Deputy General Manager of HKJMA.

Re-engineering the business for the modern age

To address its growing needs, HKJMA began to source for a technology solution. Following a competitive tender process, HKBN JOS was selected to be HKJMA’s solutions integrator. “HKBN JOS impressed us with their drive to go the extra mile and think out of the box. What they offered wasn’t just a CRM solution, but they also understood our needs as an event organiser and gave us ideas on how best to leverage the technology. The electronic form was their idea. The e-form was essential to our exhibitor application process and helped out tremendously as we were organising this year’s JMA,” said Ho.

HKBN JOS chose Microsoft Dynamics CRM for HKJMA. In addition to the CRM solution, HKBN JOS designed an e-application form that allows exhibitors to easily register for this year’s JMA Hong Kong.

Centralising the workflows on Microsoft Dynamics CRM with the help of HKBN JOS has fundamentally transformed how teams work – and work together – in HKJMA. “We are incredibly grateful for the support that HKBN JOS team has given to us. They have always been at the ready to give us solid advice whenever we need it,” said Ho. “The scale of the initial deployment may seem small to some organisations in more forward-thinking industries, however the jewelry industry is a very traditional one, so we’re taking baby steps.”

Automation and accuracy in place of errors

Now all exhibitor information is taken from the e-form and is recorded automatically in HKJMA’s database, all sorted out and easily readable by HKJMA’s staff. The solution also automatically grades and puts the exhibitors in tiered groups for the HKJMA team to determine where to place them on the show floor. With less math to do by hand, the team’s manpower can be allocated to other, more productive and meaningful tasks.

Internal collaboration made easier

Instead of trying to make useful information out of long email chains, teams now rely on the CRM platform for the most updated information. Whenever the event team updates the records, the membership team can immediately access it on their end, and vice versa. No team is left in the dark anymore.

Opportunities galore

Starting this year, overseas exhibitors can register online and immediately pay the fee using Paypal. “We have quite a few more overseas exhibitors this year. Now that we’ve made it a lot more convenient for them to register, I think it’s safe to expect more foreign exhibitors to join us in the next JMA,” said Ho.

The platform also gives actionable insights for HKJMA to develop deeper relationships with its exhibitors. For example, HKJMA can easily visualise the data to identify repeated exhibitors and reward them for their continued support and loyalty. They are also currently considering additional functionalities to augment and scale up the platform. At present, the platform only stores information of the exhibitors, but they may extend it to cover the tens of thousands of visitors coming to JMAs in the future.