After INBOUND in Boston, power2Cloud flew to the capital to follow from Sept. 11 to 17 Rome Future Week, thewidespread initiative dedicated to innovation and technology, but also to art, culture, tourism and wellness, people, "because innovation," confirms Michele Francese, founder of this first edition, "passes through all these aspects.
"Rome is an attractive city. So many think it can excel on art, culture, tourism, but not on innovation. In this week citizens, businesses, professionals, organizations have shown that Rome has all the cards on the table to play an important role."
"I want to thank the partners who have been close to us," Michele Franzese continues, "I am thinking of power2Cloud, which supported us in the adoption of a powerful and flexible CRM like HubSpot. A tool that allowed us to manage the large audience of contacts that such an event brings.
Having a dashboard like HubSpot that reminds you who you need to call, when you need to send an email, what the topics of an important negotiation are, is critical for people and companies. The new Beta features are crazy, I try them out and tell myself I want them!
I thank power2Cloud," Franzese concludes, "also for contributing to the agenda of Rome Future Week with two initiatives, the one on September 12 in WIRE Coworking spaces , involving InnovUp and HubSpot , and on September 14 atSapienza University of Rome San Pietro in Vincoli with Manet to talk about tourism and digital customer engagement.
"Optimizing business processes, streamlining CRM and all communications is topical and fundamental for every reality, especially for a startup that is beginning to approach the market to develop, grow and become a leader in its sector."
Speaking on the WIRE stage was Giorgio Ciron, Director InnovUp, a reality born in 2012 with the innovative startup legislation, which has more than 500 members in Italy. An ecosystem of incubators, Italian accelerators, several startups, scale-ups and all those entities that contribute to the development of the Innovation supply chain, including power2Cloud.
"Process streamlining has also been important for a company like InnovUp," confirms Sara Rigamonti, Head of Operations and Community, who told how power2Cloud, which is among its associates and partners, helped digitize processes and activities with HubSpot.
"Companies are made up of people, so each one branches out into many contacts. At the time we were sending emails to member categories in hidden copy, managing a volume of 300 member companies. Our CRM of 2,000 contacts was an Excel file. As we grew, we had to put things in order, raise our hands and ask for support.
In power2Cloud we found a key partner in learning about a flexible and powerful tool like HubSpot. We needed someone to teach us how to use it, to make us feel even more present in members' lives, because manually it is impossible to do that!
Startups," Sara Rigamonti continued, "by definition are innovative, but not all of them are digitized. Not only actors, friends, and partners such as power2Cloud and HubSpot have enabled us to improve and streamline InnovUp's processes, we are now more data-driven and as a result, more focused on our members.
Often startups are small, there is the cofounder, the marketing manager, a person who does the administration. They are very small teams like ours that strongly need partners like power2Cloud to make that leap and grow.
Many startups start out as the dream of a person who has a great idea and in order to succeed they need to grow it quickly, trying to get their efficient product and service to market."
To make growth sustainable, HubSpot offers a dedicated plan, HubSpot for Startups, which provides all the tools needed to increase leads, accelerate sales and optimize customer service at special pricing.
"In an increasingly digital world where multiple channels of contact coexist, every organization, from nonprofits to enterprise entities, is faced with collecting, organizing and managing vast amounts of data. However, the data is often fragmented and difficult to use," invited Ignazio Morici, Chief Marketing Officer power2Cloud, and Claudia Brunetti, Principal Sales Manager HubSpot, to reflect.
Having a Single Source of Truth (SSOT) allows you to have a complete view of your data and make data-driven decisions to better organize marketing automation, sales and customer service, monitor team performance.
With the HubSpot CRM and its features, data is stored in one place and is constantly updated and shared with the entire team, so whenever any data is accessed, it represents the most recent version available.
Having a single database prevents errors and miscommunication, which happens when using two different platforms that communicate with each other with different systems, the data may not be synchronized, risking unreliability."
How do you build Digital Customer Engagement? This was the focus of the panel discussion organized by power2Cloud in the lecture hall of Sapienza University of Rome in San Pietro in Vincoli.
"I am delighted with this event in connection with Rome Future Week," welcomed attendees Massimo Panella, Director of the Department of Engineering and Telecommunications at La Sapienza University of Rome.
"power2Cloud and Manet, a startup born in this Faculty, have organized a meeting to solicit a dialogue on the use of new technologies of the future for tourism and in general for cultural heritage. The department does research and is forward-looking, so it has every interest in establishing connections and activities that can lead to new knowledge and opportunities."
"It has always been done this way!
In all areas in which we live and work, the tendency not to want to know and follow market trends is the real stumbling block to introducing product and service innovation," recalled Luca Liparulo, Manet Mobile Solutions co-founder.
Manet Mobile Solutions is an Italian company, active in 10 countries with more than 200 clients including hospitality, car rental and travel brands, that develops digital solutions for the tourism industry, with the goal of offering travelers around the world internet connectivity and an ecosystem of content and services.
A service that allows them to enrich the travel experience, simplify daily operations, increase the satisfaction and engagement of their customers, and generate additional revenue.
"A survey we conducted," Liparulo continues, "involving 500 hoteliers in Italy, regarding their intention to introduce digital services, was positively received. Many expressed a willingness to change or eliminate the paper part within the business processes and obviously within the structure."
While Manet previously offered a fully customized smartphone for free international calls, unlimited Internet connectivity, content and tourism services dedicated to the wide-ranging destination, the evolution was the birth, in 2022, of Manet Travel, a connectivity solution based on eSIM (virtual SIM) technology, capable of bringing via an App all the content and services offered on board Manet smartphones directly to the traveler's personal device.
"So goodbye to stores and physical SIM cards! eSIMs can be purchased and activated easily and instantly at any time and from anywhere. In fact, they offer convenient mobile connectivity options for all countries, saving roaming costs and being more sustainable for the environment.
Even a digital native company like Manet," concludes Luca Liparulo, "with the help of friends and technology partners like power2Cloud, has been working to improve internal digital processes.
We have automated and improved business performance thanks to the power2Cloud team and the adoption of solutions such as HubSpot, for sales, marketing and operations functionality, and the Google Workspace suite for better productivity and collaboration and automatic onboarding."
"With Manet we offer a service outside the hotel as well. Our customers all use it," enthused Gianluca Vallerotonda Hotel Manager Portrait Roma of the Ferragamo family's Lungarno Collection. "They can ask for room service even when they are visiting the Colosseum-we have also facilitated the charging system-or check out without having to call, wait by the phone, or reach the front desk.
We have personalized and geolocated services and restaurants selected by our staff, so it is easy to look up the nearest pharmacy or ATM, which is information our guests frequently ask us for. Access to rooms is also through the App, we do not have physical keys, plus we offer Manet Hotspot as a B-solution if there is a lack of connectivity in the facility. This prevents complaints and secures our business.
Customer satisfaction is very important to us! We believe it makes a difference. We think of time as a measure of conduct in luxury, the time we dedicate to our customers. We work on experiences, we try to give our guests a different view of the city, not only within our facilities, in particular I am talking about the one in Rome.
power2Cloud is a reality that I knew only through Manet, the reflections offered also on CRM, the collection and analysis of our customers' data, their needs, their behaviors certainly represent the future. Emotional and artificial intelligence can work together!"
"Italy is a country rooted in the hotel and tourism tradition; it has no digital DNA. To multiply business opportunities, it is necessary to continuously innovate and keep up with the needs of tourists and those of competitors," recalls Ignazio Morici Chief Marketing Officer power2Cloud.
The real challenge is collecting data properly, integrating information with each other, measuring data to prepare it for use, analysis and building an enterprise Single Source of Truth.
"The tools that a company adopts and integrates into its processes are very important," concludes Giordano Iovine CEO power2Cloud, "especially because today more than yesterday they offer valuable support to the activities of all teams.
Think, for example, that we have in fact moved from point-and-click software to describe-and-get software that exploits Artificial Intelligence to manage data, SEO, but also testing, email and calls and sales.
In a context where what is changing is not just the technology, but the internal customer journey the funnel is an outdated approach, because it treats the customer as an end point and focuses mainly on the final stage of conversion, because it neglects the entire post-sales process.
A more customer-focused and inclusive approach, known as Flywheel or Flywheel, needs to be adopted, as it better represents the complete cycle of customer acquisition and retention, putting the customer at the center of the marketing strategy and every interaction.
In this 'circle,' the relationship with a customer never ends, but perpetuates even after the sale, because it focuses on engagement and retention. This is a highly flexible and sustainable model for growth compared to the more traditional one!"
"This new approach and especially the opportunity to have integrated digital tools as proposed by the customer centric vision of power2Cloud and its cloud ecosystem," concludes Giordano Iovine CEO power2Cloud, "reminds us of another important aspect often overlooked, compliance and security of corporate data.
Each guest's data is invaluable for marketing and retention strategies because it allows for personalized offers and improved customer experience, thus increasing bookings and positive reviews, but it must be protected!"