Case Study: Basketball Wales and Sport:80

When Basketball Wales approached us, they faced a fast-approaching deadline for which they needed to replace a legacy system that was no longer fit for purpose. It did not meet the needs of the business, or the standards required to be GDPR compliant.

With a creative solution to the on-boarding process, we were able to meet that deadline, while providing a constantly evolving Platform that is saving their organisation time, and making team communication a breeze.

A transformational system delivered in record time

Basketball Wales had outgrown their membership system, and with the opening of their membership season on the horizon, they needed to quickly establish a more reliable and less resource-heavy solution.

Additionally, with a small team in place, they were in desperate need of lightening the load on their administration staff.

‘The limited functionality of our old system was no longer providing what we needed and did not meet necessary standards related to GDPR, which was a huge risk to our business”, said Gavin Williamson, CEO at Basketball Wales.

“We needed a solution to remove this risk, increase efficiency, and to enable us to grow.’

“Membership, national team, coach and official management were items being managed across multiple spreadsheets, which was inefficient, insecure, and offered opportunity for manual error and repetition, costing our team valuable time.

“We had to look for something that met modern day expectations, that had been tried-and-tested by other similar organisations, and could meet the GDPR and data security requirements we have. To update these areas within our old system would have demanded too much time and resource. The enhanced functionality and cost-saving made possible by working with Sport:80 made the agreement a no-brainer.”

“For us, time was the key factor, and in that regard Sport:80 came up trumps.”

Flexible to your organisation’s needs

To tackle the specific issues that Basketball Wales were facing, we decided to split the on-boarding process, rolling-out their Platform in a series of phases.

To meet their deadline we produced a 'Minimum Viable Product' (MVP), which was designed to serve the critical requirements of the business at launch. Specifically, this meant a strict focus on membership management capability, providing Basketball Wales with a state of the art platform to members and staff.

The platform instantly enabled Basketball Wales to meet global security standards as well as ensuring GDPR compliance. In addition the solution immediately provided members with much simpler and a more intuitive affiliation process, possible across mobile and desktop devices anywhere with an internet connection.

“The timeline associated with this project made it a challenge for both parties. However, having spoken with Gavin and his team, we were very keen to help in any way we could”, said our COO, Jonny Turner.

“This meant being flexible in our approach and coming up with strategies to enable us to reach our goals within the time available.

“The combination of passion, expertise and sheer determination allowed us to get this project over the line, something we could not have achieved without the support of the entire Basketball Wales team.

“This project has been a great example in how to move quickly, to achieve specific goals. By introducing an iterative approach to the on-boarding process and on-going roadmap, Basketball Wales have been able to move onto our tech stack with incredible speed.

“We are now in the process of iteration, which will see more features added to their Platform over the coming months. This is exciting for all parties, and something we hope will enable the national growth of their sport.”

Future enhancements to the Basketball Wales Platform will include a ‘performance module’ to automate the management of their national teams. Additionally, a new event module will be configured to provide an intuitive and powerful solution for event organisers and entrants alike.

These additions will continue to save Basketball Wales valuable time and resource, as well as opening new opportunities to grow the game.

According to Gavin Williams: “Sport:80 were extremely flexible in order to help us throughout the process. Our small team relies heavily on volunteers, so their commitment to meetings in late afternoons and early evenings was incredibly helpful in bringing us up to speed.”

“They were extremely accommodating, and guided us through the process brilliantly.”

Saving time and simplifying engagement

After adopting our technology, Basketball Wales have sited a considerable drop in the amount of time spent on administration tasks.

The Sport:80 Platform has lightened the load on their staff, and their members are benefitting from quicker, easier communication between teams.

“Adopting this technology has made our lives so much easier from an admin point of view, supporting us to automate so many of our previously manual processes.”

“Our members' access to the system is much simpler, and thanks to this solution, communication throughout our organisation has been streamlined.”

With an extensive range of new features and upgrades still to come, we are incredibly excited about the future of our partnership with Basketball Wales.

This agreement exists thanks to our official partnership with the Welsh Sports Association, established in 2018. Since our work with the WSA began, we have been able to make our innovative technology solutions more easily accessible for Welsh NGBs, and our agreement with Basketball Wales is a clear example of how successful that partnership has been.

To learn more about Sport:80 and how we can help you, get in touch!