MARKET RESEARCH
JOHN LUCAS, DIRECTOR OF SOLUTION DELIVERY AT AVNET SERVICES
DATA
THE NEW NATURAL RESOURCE
The sports organisations and companies that are able to utilise the huge amount of data available to them are the most likely to prosper in an increasingly competitive sector.
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ustomers are increasingly relying on instant communication to make buying decisions and provide feedback on their experiences and
logging this activity creates masses of raw data about customer behaviour. However, many businesses and
organisations are unsure about the role the analysis of this 'big data' can play in decision- making. Many are also unclear about how to create a strategy around it and also how to establish a return on investment (ROI) when it comes to investment in the necessary analytics systems to grapple with big data. The sports industry may seem like a unique sector, with a different set of chal- lenges from other industries, however, in many regards, it's much the same, with many of the same pressures and oppor- tunities which face any other industry. And because it's experience-based, big data and analytics can play a unique and increasingly crucial role in its success. Traditionally, analytics in sports has
been reserved for on the field activities – complex statistical analysis of player and team performance, scouting reports and predictive analytics to try and optimise
the outcome of a game or match. More recently, however, managers in sporting organizations are turning to analytics to understand more about the front office activities of a sports organisation.
MAKING THE CONNECTION Most sporting teams suffer from an inability to connect disparate data from across their business operations. Point of sale ticketing systems, concessions, retail and merchandise, dynamic pricing systems
Big Data
A misunderstood term indeed. But the reality is that we live in the data age, and the “data explosion” is still evolving at a pace that is difficult to measure and understand. The future holds more of this for organizations, who will need to increase awareness and expenditure in IT to remain competitive in the market- place. At the pace that technology and analytics is evolving, failing to remain “current” can leave an organization in last place quickly.
and CRM systems all collect and store data in separate databases. None of that data can be connected or compared. The result? Countless hours trying to stitch the business together using spreadsheets. The consequence? The organisation is left in an entirely reactive state, incapable of engaging in the strategic activities necessary to remain competitive. Our experience working with sporting teams and venues has shown that the equivalent time in hours to two to three full-time employees is spent annually by organisations manually creating reports to try and analyse their businesses. But as expenditure on player salaries continues to outpace the growth of revenue in business operations, teams are turning to analytics to extract the meaningful insights into their business and data about their fans to drive increased attendance and revenue.
ANALYSING THE ANALYTICS By leveraging big data and analytics,
sporting organisations are able to: ■ Get real-time views of the 'front office' ■ See the patterns and relationships that
exist between disparate data sources (for example which items in concessions are
sportsmanagement.co.uk issue 3 2014 © Cybertrek 2014
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