Esker’s Customer User Group took place at the Hotel du Vin in Birmingham, and was a fantastic opportunity for our customers to gain insights on how to get the absolute most out of Esker’s solution(s), a chance to meet the Esker senior product management team and solution experts in a face-to-face environment, and to network with other users of our solutions to share ideas and working practices. Read on to learn more about this successful day of insight, innovation and collaboration.

Building on the momentum of Esker’s customer conference last year, the Esker team hosted a dynamic User Group event in Birmingham, designed to offer hands-on workshops, deeper solution insights, and meaningful networking opportunities.

A beautifully restored Victorian eye hospital from 1884, Hotel du Vin has been transformed into a stylish venue with a charming inner courtyard; an ideal setting for our interactive workshops and networking sessions for each of our solutions groups – Source-to-Pay, Customer Service and Invoice-to-Cash.

We sent out a ‘save the date’ early, which paid dividends, as we had a high sign up rate with many bringing colleagues to go into other new solution areas that they wanted to find out about or build upon their existing knowledge. 

A rich environment for collaboration and knowledge sharing

We welcomed over 50 of our most valued customers as well as over 30 Esker team members to the event, fostering a rich environment for collaboration and knowledge sharing. Customers could interact with their account managers, as well as members of the customer experience, professional services and marketing teams at Esker.

The morning session workshop was focused on the Product Managers giving an update on new features that have been implemented, and the product roadmap for the future.

This was followed by customers giving a testimonial about how they implemented and used Esker. They talked about the tips they would give to customers at the beginning of their Esker journey, and what they have learnt along the way. This was incredibly valuable part of the day and we are very grateful to those customers who presented.

Thank you to Jordan Baseyba, AB Sciex (S2P), Jeffrey Swingle, Convatec (CS), Sam Wilson, All About Food (I2C) and Susan Toon, Novuna Business Cash Flow (I2C). 

"Great be in the same room with other users see how it is being used and with what other products. understanding the road map."

Lunch and Learn

We broke for lunch and enjoyed the delicious buffet by Hotel Du Vin and the fantastic service offered. This time also gave customers and Esker staff another opportunity to network and share best working practices. Our advocacy team was also busy doing video testimonials during the breakout sessions – watch this space to find out who was brave enough to face the camera!

For those interested in our Esker Sourcing solution, our Market Dojo colleagues ran a 30-minute Lunch & Learn session on how to save money with Esker Sourcing. It was great to see many of our S2P customers join this talk.
 

Insights from the Customer Experience Team 

In the afternoon, our wonderful Customer Experience team gave an update on CX to include:
 

- Overview of CX levels
- Common customer FAQs
-Tips for maximising CX value

This was followed by time to ask questions, discuss and learn. We felt that this was incredibly important to build this into the day as customers can learn so much from each other. 

Celebrating 40 Years of Innovation and Excellence

To cap off the day, we celebrated Esker’s 40th anniversary in style, with champagne, cupcakes, canapés, and a caricature artist capturing the fun. The courtyard buzzed with laughter and connection, making it a memorable close to an inspiring day. 

We’re Delighted with our 4.7 out of 5, Star Rating!

We had some fantastic feedback and learnings from the event so we can continue to improve and offer. Overall, we achieved a 4.7 star rating out of 5 so we are delighted!

What did our customers love?

"Meeting the Esker team, meeting other clients, seeing the road map."

"What I liked the most was that Esker presented the new features and enhancements, including the new Esker Synergy AI."

"The opportunity to network with other Esker users freely to hear their Esker journey & any issues or opportunities we could adopt. Additionally I had the chance to directly ask the Esker experts questions."

Undoubtedly, getting the chance to network with other users of the Esker solutions was the highlight for most customers.

“It was really useful hearing about how others are using the system, picking up tips from them etc. Great to catch up with various Esker employees but also to meet new ones and fantastic to hear about what is upcoming that could be beneficial to us." 

Importantly now, we are following up with all the customers who registered (attendees and non-attendees), sending the presentations from the day and finding out about what new solution areas they are interested in.
 
Also we saw interest in our customer experience Gold and Silver service level packages, as well as booking in some additional training for their teams, whether it might be for new starters or refresher training for the whole team to improve their automation efficiency rates yet further!

Plus, our Esker Sourcing team have three customers already interested in finding out more about this solution area which is really exciting!

Future Plans

Ideas from our feedback form and verbal feedback have given us lots of food for thought for organising our next Esker User Group event. These include:

- Possibility of a two-day event format so customers can learn about different solutions on the second day
- Regional workshops (North & South)
- Online customer forum post event to keep customers connected
- Smaller, customer-hosted meetups

If you are interested in attending future events, please contact your Account Manager or email info@esker.com, and watch this space for news of our next customer event!