Sports business is data business: ELCA for FISU
The International University Sports Federation (FISU) organizes more than 60 sport competitions worldwide, managing up to 80,000 contacts for their events.
ELCA developed a central database and digital solution to globally streamline registration and accreditation processes. The modern solution has reduced the dependency on and costs spent on external providers, and allows the organization to keep control of its data, which is also used for publishing competition results and global rankings. Hence, sport business is data business – and ELCA was the preferred partner due to its profound expertise in technology and its wide-ranging experience in the sports sector.
The International University Sports Federation (FISU), based in Lausanne, is the global governing body for university sports, and currently has 170 member associations. FISU organizes more than 60 sport competitions worldwide, in which tens of thousands of student athletes from all over the world participate. Events include the World University Championships and the Winter and Summer Universiades. FISU needed a central information system to optimize and standardize the worldwide registration and accreditation process for these events and the management of their worldwide contacts.
A new digital solution from ELCA: more automation and autonomy, lower costs:
Within just 12 months, ELCA implemented a central and feature-rich state-of-the-art digital solution that simplified the complete registration and accreditation process for FISU events:
- The FISU members and officials responsible for the accreditation – more than 300 people all over the world – now use a modern and intuitive web portal for the various registration and accreditation steps.
- FISU can now manage the entire registration and accreditation processes including, for example, state security checks and identity and event access rights management.
- The solution simplifies the generation of the accreditation cards for each event participant that serve as the physical medium containing all relevant information needed at the event site – including a barcode for fast security checks.
The accreditation solution, based on Microsoft SharePoint 2013, can be easily and autonomously managed by the organization – which was an important requirement for the client, as they wanted to reduce their dependency on external service providers. Furthermore, they are now also saving the money that had been spent on externally rented systems and for each adaptation of the accreditation process or forms.
The accreditation solution is closely connected to the core of FISU’s data architecture. ELCA has integrated the central “University Sports Data Management database” in an enriched CRM solution (Microsoft Dynamcis CRM). This enables smooth relationship and invitation management for a total of up to 80,000 contacts (athletes, coaches, staff, university representatives, government staff, media and VIP).
The new application solution and the central data management provides FISU with a consolidated, 360-degree view on participants and events for the very first time. The results of the data analysis and the statistics can be displayed in a modern, graphically enhanced dashboard offering real-time insights.
The experts at ELCA will continue to support FISU in the evolution of the registration and accreditation portal for the World University Championships in 2018 and for the Universiades 2019.
