5 must-have tech solutions for sports managers from HR to data management.
By Tomer Yehudayan and Nathan Moyse
Sports managers, meet your tech toolbox for 2021!
We concluded the first edition of our international 5-module Sports Tech Management Executive Program, merging practical knowledge and proven models to provide participants with new skills on how to harness the power of some of the world’s most disruptive technologies in the context of sports.
During the sessions, we had the opportunity to share insights and experiences with a group of 20 sports professionals, and a lot came out of that. If you didn’t have the opportunity to join us, we listed a few of our top insights for you to apply to your organization.
Registrations for the 2nd edition of our international Sports Tech Management Executive Program will open soon. You can already register your interest here.
Technology has been responsible for advancing almost every aspect of our society, including sports. In fact, technology has contributed greatly to the performance, mental health, and safety of athletes. It has also assisted referees by confirming the accuracy of their decision and greatly improved the spectator’s viewing experience. However, next to the benefits that technology can provide to players, referees, and fans, it also offers tremendous value to managers and coaches.
We have carefully selected 5 management areas with technology solutions that sports managers can easily implement in their day-to-day operations to gain efficiency and improve business performance.
- Human Resources
Sports managers have the ultimate say on who to hire and who to fire in the organization. This includes athletes but also the support staff that goes with it such as the coaching team, the medics, the physiotherapists, etc. Ultimately, sports organizations like any other organization are defined by the people that are working there. It is therefore crucial for sports managers to assemble the best team and then ensure that everyone gets along with each other.
Recommended Solutions:
- Task assignment solution: Trello
- Team communication solution: Slack
- Team project management solution: Monday.com
Trello is a visual tool for organizing your work and very useful for assigning tasks to your team members. Slack is a proprietary business communication platform and is very useful to communicate with team members, replacing the old-fashioned email communications. Monday.com is a very complete project management tool that enables organizations to manage tasks, projects, and teamwork.
2. Managing the organization
Sports managers make important decisions in the management of sports organizations. They decide on the resources allocated to training and how the organization can support coaches. Sports managers also manage the recruitment process of athletes and work closely with scouts. Not to mention, they supervise the functioning of the academy and the sports facility.
Recommended Solutions:
- Cloud-based shared documents solution: Google Drive
- Efficient customer relationship management solution: Salesforce
- Simple & automated customer relationship management solution: Nutshell
Google Drive enables your employees to work on documents simultaneously and to share access with each other. Cloud-based storage is also very useful to ensure that your documents are saved outside of any hardware. Salesforce is the leading customer relationship management (CRM) tool that enables your organization to maximize your relationships with your customers. Nutshell CRM is another user-friendly sales automation CRM platform that helps sales reps win more deals, with fast onboarding and powerful reporting.
3. The Business of Sports Organizations
Sports managers are in charge of the budget and creating a financially successful organization. They need to keep an eye on the costs such as wages, maintenance, marketing, team travel, equipment, etc. Sports managers need to create revenue channels that will make the organization viable on a financial level. This includes ticketing revenues, merchandising, sponsorships, and partnerships, player sales, prize money, etc. Numerous technologies have been developed recently to help sport managers take care of revenue channels.
Recommended Solutions:
Zoomph is an advanced social media analytics tool that helps brands and agencies understand their digital audiences and measure the efficiency of sponsorships and corporate partnerships. Slate is an intuitive and powerful tool to create on-brand social content using a smartphone. Golee is a comprehensive management software to manage sports organizations. It is a tool that allows you to manage all the administrative, financial, and sports activities of your club.
4. Promotion and Marketing
Promotional events and campaigns are an integral part of any sports organization’s activities, as sports organizations are increasingly defining themselves as entertainment organizations. Sports managers need to make sure that marketing campaigns are in line with the organization’s overall strategy and make decisions on the players’ interaction with the media. Sometimes, sports managers also need to face the media themselves.
Recommended Tools:
- Highlights tool: WSC Sports
- Fan engagement tool: Pico
- Brand advocacy tool: Greenfly
WSC Sports is an AI-driven platform that analyzes live sports broadcasts, identifies each and every event that occurs in the game, and creates customized short-form videos that can be posted on social media. Pico is a data-driven fan marketing platform to help brands and organizations identify, engage, and understand their fans. Greenfly is an enterprise software platform that empowers brands to collaborate with their key advocates to create and share authentic brand stories.
5. Core solutions used in the sports industry
Other duties that sports managers have include managing and organizing community service, education programs, operational issues, security, accessibility, etc.
Other Solutions:
EqualWeb is a world leader and a pioneer in web accessibility, focused on helping people with disabilities to access digital information. Odix provides advanced anti-malware tools based on Content Disarm and Reconstruct (CDR) technology for preventive cybersecurity to keep organizations safe from cyber attacks. Moovit is a comprehensive solution to improve mobility for fans.
Technology has been an innovative force in the advancement of sports for many years. It is essential for today’s sports managers to take advantage of technological advancements in the five aforementioned areas, as this will be the only way to sustain a competitive advantage over rival sports organizations in the future.
We will soon open registration for the 2nd edition of our international Sports Tech Management Executive Program. You can already register your interest here.
