Maximizing ROI on sporting events through effective utilization of IT

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IntroductionWith the reach of sporting events expanding across the globe and every household,ensuring their smooth functioning and generating optimal return has become achallenging task. The CXOs of the sporting bodies have a tough time taking decisionscovering multiple prongs of the event, such as athlete management, ticketing,volunteer management, transport, and stadium management,…to name a few. Acomprehensive and foolproof sport solution to manage all of these areas and aconsolidated view of the metrics is the need of the hour.

Technology forms a very crucial part of the whole process involved in managingand conducting a sporting event. Technology stitches this together to enhance theefficiency of a CXO.

Reducing Operating Costs

Maximizing ROI on sporting eventsthrough effective utilization of IT

Inside the issue

Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 1

Reducing Operating Costs ............................................................................................................................. 1

Brand Positioning .......................................................................................................................................... 2

Encashing the power of Web ........................................................................................................................ 3

Leveraging assets for developing a fan base .................................................................................................. 3

Summary ...................................................................................................................................................... 4

About the Author

Dilbagh Gill is Head of Sport Business atMahindra Satyam and spearheads the FIFA

relationship for the entire IT solutiondevelopment and deployment for the 2010 FIFAWorld Cup South Africa. Besides this Dilbagh is

developing the Sport Technology Practice with aworld class team of consultants serving

customers and events of various scale across allgeographies. He is currently based out of Boston.

He can be contacted [email protected]

Executive Issues• How can I

leveragetechnology tointegrate all theprocesses andfunctions withinmy arena?

• How can I makemore efficientthe process oftransmittingdata about anevent inprogress?

• How can Iremove costsfrom eventoperations?

Business BlueprintBusiness Capability:• Paperless integration

of fan databases andall transactionstaking place withinan arena

• Ability to gather andstore informationabout fan spending

• Integratedapplications forhandling all aspectsof event operations

IT Capability:• Integration of all

applications withinan arena

• Central database offan information,accessible bymultiple systems(e.g. ticketing, webeCommerce,kiosks,)

• Collaborativeapplications,mobility solutions

• Consulting ITStrategy

• ERP• Network Integration

Data Warehousing

• CRM

• SCM

• Digital MediaManagementFramework

• KnowledgeManagement

• Statistics

• Digital Library

• Printing Systems

Mahindra Satyam Offering


• BusinessTransformation

• Web development

• Web publishing

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Any sporting event across the world has huge investments in terms of money andeffort. Currently, areas such as transport management, stadium management,volunteer management make up a major chunk of the spending pie. The CXOs ofthe sporting bodies are always looking at ways to reduce the operating costs by theuse of technology or smart applications. They are always looking for ways to reducethe total cost involved in event operations.

Smart and integrated sport solutions bringing together the costly areas such asaccreditation system, volunteer management, material and space management,transportation systems and hospitality systems will hugely reduce the operatingcosts with very minimal investments (compared to the returns).

An Integrated Sport Solution (ISS) can also help achieve paperless integration offan databases and all the transactions taking place within a sport arena. The abilityto gather and store information about fan spending is intelligent pieces of datawhich can help the sport companies develop integrated processes and functionswithin the specific sport arena.

Brand PositioningExecutive Issues• How shall I extend

my brand• Should The ROI

from WebInvestment besought in the form ofcash revenue orbrand extension

• How to enhance thevalue of thefederation

• How can I enablenew ways for fans toexpress their affinityfor my team/sport?

• How must I positionmy sport or teamimage in order tofulfill thepreferences andneeds of youngerfans?

Business BlueprintBusiness Capability:• Integrated brand

extension strategy• Understanding

customersexpectations fromthe brand

• Collaborativelymanagetransactions of thememberassociations

IT Capability:• Wide Area Network

• Central datarepository for faninformation

• Brand StrategyConsulting

• Web applicationsand services

• CRM

• Hosting

• Smart Stadium• Collaboration

Tools


• Consulting

• Web StrategyandImplementation

• E-CommerceApplications

• Web traffictracking

• WebDevelopment

• Web Publishingtools

As the global economies are becoming more and more dynamic, consumers areempowered with more power to spend. This means consumers do not buy a productbecause they like it; they buy it because they see a promise being delivered.Expressing or selling the promise is achieved only through a trusted brand. Whenit comes to a sporting event, developing a trusted brand and loyal fan base is verycrucial for the success of the event.

How shall I extend my brand? Should the ROI from Web investment be sought inthe form of cash revenue or brand extension? How can I enable new ways for fansto express their affinity for my team/sport? How must I position my sport or teamimage to fulfill the preferences and needs of younger fans?

The above concerns have created the demand for a new way of developing anddeploying applications for sports companies that would allow standard eventmanagement services to be commissioned on time using minimal set of resources.

This point-of-view summarizesthe issues faced by the CXO of a

sporting body and thetechnological solution for the

same.

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Encashing the power of Web

Executive Issues• What combination of

commerce,community, andcontent willcomprise my webstrategy?

• How can I leveragethe web forincremental newrevenue streams?

• How do I attractmore fans to my website?

• How can I createsynergy between mybranded site and themanufacturers/sponsors who wish tosell to my fan base?

• How should I meldmy b2b and b2cinitiatives?

Business BlueprintBusiness Capability:• Deliver real time

statistics• Enable subscription

business models

• Video highlights

IT Capability:• Incorporate e-

Commerce intolegacy transactioncapabilities,connect web site tolegacy systems

• Site scalability

• Mechanism/resources forregularly refreshingor re-launching site

• Consulting

• Net Commerce• E-business

services

• Hosting

• CRM


• Web StrategyandImplementation

• E-CommerceApplications

• Web traffictracking

• WebDevelopment

• Web Publishingtools

Technology solutions such as smart web application, collaboration tools, e-commerceapplications, a robust CRM, and web traffic analysis will not only help create betteruser experience, but also help in analyzing fan base. The Internet is so powerful atool that it can increase the ROI on technology by multifold, if used in a logicalmanner.

Web applications can be leveraged to develop incremental revenue streams. Imaginethe fans receiving real-time statistics on the sport event website free of cost andthen engaging the fan to buy a photograph of a famous sport legend by paying anominal fee.

A website with features such as LIVE updates from the match, mechanisms torefresh the site data dynamically to present a bouquet of statistics to the fan baseenables new ways of increasing ROI on technology.

Leveraging assets for developing a fan base

Executive Issues• How do I develop

more intimacy withmy customers (fans)?

• How can I usetechnology to make astadium visit anexciting and friendlyplace?

• How can I betteracquire customerdata and use iteffectively to marketto fans duringevents?

Business BlueprintBusiness Capability:• Flexibility to offer

new products andservices to fans

• More ways toconvey real timeinformation to fans

IT Capability:• Repository of

statistics

• Consulting

• BusinessIntelligence

• Networkintegration

• Data warehousing

• CRM

• Access Control• Smart Cards

• Kiosks

• Arena technology



• BusinessTransformation

• Webdevelopment

• Web publishing

An Integrated Sport Solution(ISS) can help achieve paperless

integration of fan databases andall the transactions taking place

within a sport arena.

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Business Intelligence

Collabora�on

Content Management

Scou�ngPlayer ManagementDevelopmentAcquisi�on

Stat AnalysisSchedulesCoaching Dra�

Event ManagementAccredita�onHardware / So�ware/

Back OfficeHR, e-mail systems, Financial and Accoun�ngPlayer Contracts & Sta�s�cs

Scoring

Media Repor�ng

CIS Video Data FeedWeb FeedsTicke�ng

Facili�es

ArchivalRetrievalIndexingLicense ManagementRoyalty Management

RepurposingCoaching Tools

Digital Library

BPO Services

Web Applica�ons &

Services

Venue ServicesCablingNetwork Management

Kiosks

E-commerce

Tickets

Games Management Systems

Central Database

Any sporting event in this world comes with lots of data, statistics and a very strongfan following of the players. Fans love numbers, facts, memorabilia, pictures, andvideos. They love to feast themselves with statistics and percentages, rare matchphotographs of their favorite players. The best place for a sport fan for procuring allthis information is through the respective sporting body. But how?

Technology has made information sharing very easy, but it can only happen if theinformation is handled in a smart way. Efficient and smartly managed digitalrepositories of the information available with the sporting bodies can help create awealth of information for a sporting fan.

A central repository of information also helps develop strategies to reach out towider fan base, while giving flexibility to formulate strategies for new products andservices to the fan base. Most importantly, creating smart applications with valuableassets (data, picture, videos) also help create segmented market plans and deliver avalue-add to the fan when he visits the stadium for the match.

Summary

It largely remains expensive to maintain bespoke applications for managing eachevent within the sports arena. The time is ripe for consolidating and integrating ofthe sporting process and functions and start offering them as “Integrated SportSolution”. The current breed of technologies such as cloud computing allow usmigrate easily to this new model and realize the benefits of centralization.

The new delivery model translates to huge cost savings for each client along withother benefits such as smart stadia, better management of digital media, and efficient

The internet is so powerful a toolthat it can increase the ROI on

technology by multifold, if usedin a logical manner.

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usage of assets to deliver business value. With this model, clients can now focus ontheir core business processes rather than having to spend time looking at ways tomanage the technology landscape.

Mahindra Satyam is uniquely positioned to exploit the alternative delivery modelnamed “Integrated Sport Solution”. We have positioned ourselves as a provider ofthe requisite Integrated Sport Solution (ISS) and it is backed by many years ofexpertise.

As part of the brand positioning module of the Integrated Sport Solution, MahindraSatyam offers brand strategy consulting and helps the companies create an integratedbrand extension strategy which will help in understanding customer expectationsfrom the brand. It also has the capability to develop dynamic e-commerceapplications connecting the legacy systems.

Mahindra Satyam is one of the leading information and communication technologycompanies that can help the sporting body with media asset management, digitallibrary services, e-content services and digital media distribution services. Thecompany has the much-needed consulting expertise in dynamic and bespoke web-based applications. Moreover, Mahindra Satyam would remain committed to itsvision of creating more value for its customers using this new model.

www.mahindrasatyam.com

For further information please write to [email protected]

Mahindra Satyam is one of theleading information and

communication technologycompanies that can help the

sporting body with media assetmanagement, digital library

services, e-content services anddigital media distribution

services.