Microsoft Dynamics Wins in the Sports Industry
PARIS, June 13/ -- Flexibility and Ease of Integration of Business Management Solutions Help Set the Scene for Football Club Success
Microsoft Business Solutions today announced that it is seeing significant interest from the sports industry in Microsoft Dynamics(TM), the line of financial, customer relationship and supply chain management solutions that helps businesses work more effectively.
The sports industry has a diverse set of financial and operational needs that means organisations require adaptable and scalable business management software that can be integrated with existing systems. For example, football clubs face fluctuations in revenue due to the seasonal nature of competitions; uncertainty in financial planning due to a reliance on team performance; and the challenges of customer (fan) retention and loyalty in a competitive leisure market.
The Microsoft Dynamics range of business management solutions has the components to help sports clubs meet these challenges. Microsoft Business Solutions is also committed to building vertical market partner specialists to ensure that the Dynamics product range meets the unique needs within individual industries. The sports industry is an example of where partners have grasped the opportunities and developed specific expertise, which is benefiting customers.
Real Madrid CF, one of the world's most successful football clubs, has recently deployed a new IT infrastructure based on Microsoft Dynamics AX. The Dynamics AX solution integrates data from across the organisation and presents it to finance managers in the most appropriate format. Historically, the club supported its activities with 70 IT systems and 15 disparate data sources, making it difficult to gain a clear view of business performance across its operational areas.
Enrique Uriel, Real Madrid CTO, explaining how things have changed, said, "Microsoft Dynamics AX covers all the needs of the company in two very important aspects: firstly, it is a very flexible tool for a company of our size, with a turnover of around EUR300 million. Most importantly, it is a very dynamic tool, which allows us to grow in the internal management of the business.
Additionally, the capacity of Microsoft Dynamics AX to integrate with the rest of our information systems turns it into the hub for the company?s financial information. Now, when I extract information from Microsoft Dynamics AX for the board of directors, I have the certainty that it is the most updated and correct information."
Greek 2006 League champion and Cup winner, Olympiacos CFP, also reports a positive experience. Club director, Petros Kokkalis, said, "By using Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 we have become more organised in successfully managing our 80,000 members, their subscriptions and their overall interaction with the club, as well as tracking the tickets that each member buys, the usage of products and services offered by our sponsors in co-branded products and the interrelations between our members.
"We have also increased our productivity and reduced our administration costs by enabling online payments and being able to work offline to perform subscription payments and renewals at times when internet connectivity is not possible. As a result, we now can perform a full new subscription/renewal cycle and deliver a member card in just two minutes instead of in more than
45 days previously!"
Blackburn Rovers Football Club, one of the UK Premiership's leading clubs, is another Microsoft Dynamics customer. "With Microsoft Dynamics GP, we've realised so many business benefits. The easy and familiar Microsoft® Office interface reduces training time, the comprehensive business intelligence and analytics tools provide greater visibility into data, plus the deep integration with other Microsoft software increases data sharing across our organisation," said Barbara Hoyle, financial controller for Blackburn Rovers. "Microsoft Dynamics GP is a powerful solution that is adapting and scaling with us as our company grows."
Bayer 04 Leverkusen, a successful German Bundesliga club, is using Microsoft Dynamics NAV. The club has qualified for next season's UEFA Cup and, provided it reaches the quarter final, projects that have been planned for a long time could be realised, due to the expected increase in ticket sales and sponsoring revenues.
In order to simulate the operational consequences of potential decisions, Bayer 04 Leverkusen has used the unitop Sport & Event solution based on Microsoft Dynamics NAV. One component of this is a liquidity planning and analysis module for player squads as well as sponsoring, ticketing and e-business. "This solution enables us to make short-term and fact-based decisions in consideration of all information available in the system," said Wolfgang Holzhauser, spokesperson at Bayer 04 Leverkusen.
Klaus Holse Andersen, vice president, Small and Midmarket Solutions and Partners and Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft Europe, Middle East and Africa, said, "Microsoft Dynamics is gaining traction in a number of different vertical industries and it is clear that the sports industry, and football clubs in particular, appreciates the advantages of implementing familiar and flexible business management solutions. Microsoft Dynamics is fully committed to supporting its partners to allow them to build specialised industry solutions to offer the best service to the end user, regardless of whether they are a small, medium-sized or enterprise-level organisation."
About Microsoft Dynamics
Microsoft Dynamics is a line of financial, customer relationship and supply chain management solutions that helps businesses work more effectively. Delivered through a network of channel partners providing specialised services, these integrated, adaptable business management solutions work like and with familiar Microsoft software to streamline processes across an entire business.
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Additional Dynamics customers from the sports industry who can be contacted for comment are listed below.
Customer Country Microsoft Contact details
contact name
Saluc SA Belgium Frank de Graeve +32-(2)-704-33-22
HJK Finland Kari Haapiainen +358-421-6601
Jack Wolfskin Germany Heiko Elmsheuser +49-(89)-31765378
Elixia Germany Heiko Elmsheuser +49-(89)-31765378
Polo Expressversand Germany Heiko Elmsheuser +49-(89)-31765378
Circuit de Cataluna Spain Monica Iglesias +34-(91)-391-9927
Barrenchea
SportArt Switzerland Holger Rungwerth +41-(78)-844-6083
Trabzonspor Turkey Cetin Ipekci +90-(212)-3265119
Surrey Cricket Club UK Sarah Hughes +44-(118)-9095665
Web site: www.microsoft.com
Source: Microsoft Corp.
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