In Focus: Teamworks - Digital Transformation: When Football Clubs Get It Right

If you want to learn how football clubs are embracing digital transformation to help their staff do more with less and enable their players and coaches to perform at their best, keep reading.

From Nice-to-Have to Necessity

Football is a beautifully simple game, but the ecosystem that surrounds it has become ever more complex and multifaceted. This has accelerated the need for clubs to find efficiencies. From on-field performance to business operations, the last 10 years has seen a surge in the use of technology to aid in the many functions that support the game.

The digitalisation of tracking and data management systems has allowed clubs to realise new efficiencies and develop expertise in numerous areas of sports science and coaching.

Ultimately, new technologies paired with the necessary culture change have significantly improved on-field performances and operational outcomes. Digital solutions that were once a nice-to-have have become mission-critical systems today for any club that wants to compete.

fcbusiness spoke with EFL Championship team Reading Football Club and Crystal Palace in the Premier League to understand how they have successfully adopted technology provided by Teamworks to help find efficiencies and drive performance.

USER PROFILE: ANTOINE THOMPSON, HEAD OF ACADEMY OPERATIONS AT READING FOOTBALL CLUB

PRODUCT: TEAMWORKS HUB

How is the club adapting to new technologies?

From a club perspective, in any sport, I think digital transformation is important because it improves workflow efficiency. It also helps reduce business expenses in the long-term. As a club, we’re always looking at new ways of working and ways to evolve the business, and technology helps you do that. A recent example of that is using Teamworks as a key communications tool for the club. Teamworks was one of those technologies where different departments across the club were talking about communication challenges and we felt that it could help solve this problem.

How has using Teamworks Hub eased these problems?

Prior to Teamworks Hub becoming available, we were using multiple sources for sharing information among staff and parents. Being a Category Two academy, we have a lot of staff across many departments and we have people working all times during the day and night so you need to have a place where all communications are live and centralised. You can lose key information so what we’re finding with Teamworks is that it’s a one-stop shop for everything. There’s a scheduling tool, message groups, Google forms – Teamworks has it all. That’s been a major enhancement and it has streamlined a lot of our processes making efficiency the most noticeable improvement since we started using it.

How has Teamworks Hub helped develop relationships with parents and how are the players adapting to it?

From a scheduling perspective, having a diary of activities for the day is helping players know what they’re going to be doing and at what time of day. For parents, it’s allowing us to ensure they’re aware of the squads their children are in and for what games – we can provide that nice and early to them in a calendar form. We’re all busy so having that information there helps us concentrate on the jobs we need to do. Ultimately, there’s been a noticeable difference in the amount of messages we’re getting, or not getting as is the case!

USER PROFILE: Dr CEDRIC LEDUC, 1ST TEAM SPORT SCIENTIST, CRYSTAL PALACE FOOTBALL CLUB

PRODUCT: SMARTABASE

Why is digital transformation important?

As a Sport Scientist, my role is to optimise performance by providing information through data and testing and to make sure the key decision-makers have all the information they need to make the best decisions possible. With this challenge, digital transformation has become important due to the amount of different data sources which are now available in football and sport in general. If an organisation is collecting vast amounts of data without investment in ways to manage it, it can become pretty useless. With that in mind, it’s important to have a structure in place and create efficient workflows to ensure the effective use of data.

How has the club approached digital transformation?

As a sports organisation, we have become an incubator for new technologies and we really need to be on top of that game. It’s important to be aware of what is going on in the tech world so we can adapt to changing and advancing technologies. In terms of adoption, the key thing for us is to make sure we include things that are going to add value to the club. We need to make sure that the technology we want to add will fit but is also reliable, meaning it will give us accurate information every time. In addition, you need to ensure the technology is valid ‑does it actually measure what you want to assess? If you have technology that is not reliable then it will provide the wrong information and result in its misuse in practice. From a user standpoint it will be a poor purchase and the performance outcomes will be adversely affected. So for us it is key that the technology is right.

You’re using Smartabase as your Human Performance Optimisation platform. Why is that an important tool for the club?

There are a lot of different data entries coming in from different sources, in different formats. Imagine a road with cars, trucks and scooters – they’re all different and they come across, and up, and down, and in, and out – Smartabase helps to centralise and organise all the different information into one place. It’s controlling that traffic so that we know where the data is, and that it is stored securely so we can grab and use it when required.

How does that help you make better decisions?

By having the data centralised automatically through Smartabase, we don’t have to think much about the data collection and storage process. That then frees up time and energy to really think about the data we have and gives us time to think slow and really reflect on the data gathered to inform better decisions. This helps to optimise our decision-making by reducing the number of repetitive tasks we would have to do if the system was not here. We can actually focus on the analysis side of the job and really think about what the data means and how we can move forward from that point. Having data in this type of system helps to reduce errors, helps us make objective decisions or confirm something that is subjective. This is where I think Smartabase is really good.

About Teamworks

Founded in 2006, Teamworks provides innovative cost and time-saving software solutions to professional football teams in the Premier League and EFL, as well as a long list of other major sports teams globally. Today more than 6,000 sports organisations around the world use Teamworks products.

	Your all-in-one solution for athlete and staff communication, scheduling, and roster management
	The performance nutrition platform loved by registered sports dietitians
	The AI-Driven Media Hub for Sports Teams used by more than 90,000 elite athletes
	Anonymous reporting and surveys to build trust and safeguard athletes
	The infinitely-configurable human performance optimisation platform

Ready to take the next step on your digitalisation journey? Get in touch with Teamworks to schedule a free demo. Visit: teamworks.com/global or email: info@teamworks.com