Brentford Football Club ups its game with new Players Elite software solution

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1 ups its game with new Players Elite software solution Players Elite solution content Talent/Recruitment Module: Player Registration Scout Registration UK Domestic & European Trialist Assessments Administration Module Released Player List Registered Players List Trialist Registration Management Reports Real Time View of Incoming Trialists Automated Invite & Release Letters Communications Medical Module: Complete Medical History Current Injuries Past Injuries Consultation Therapy Medical Assessments Performance Charts Fitness Tests X Rays Physiological Charts & Text Communications Academy Module: Academy Player Registration Squad Selection Fixture Lists Match Assessments Player Assessments Player Progress Reports Administration Module Released Player List Registered Players List Management Reports Real Time View of Incoming Trialists Automated Invite & Release Letters & Text Communications Brentford FC, the npower League One football team, has a longheld belief in the importance of individual player development, and puts a great deal of time and effort into producing quality players in a safe environment. The club, known by its fans as The Bees has, over the years, developed and produced well known players through its Centre of Excellence and earlier this year announced that it will be setting up an Academy in order to hone more home grown talent through its ranks. The Requirement Crucial to the growth of the Club and its success on the pitch is its proactive programme of talent-spotting. Like most football clubs, Brentford has a large network of scouts around London and the Home Counties and during the course of a season, they will recommend between 100 and 150 young players for trial. Administratively this has meant a heavy reliance on filling in forms, faxes from scouts through to the Club, letters to parents, and filing of all the details relating to individuals on trial.

2 It has vastly reduced the hours spent preparing, delivering and finding reports. Shaun O Connor Head of Youth Recruitment Brentford FC Shaun O Connor, Head of Youth Recruitment at Brentford FC, said: Typically a scout would go to a football game and if he saw a player he liked, he would go home, write up his report and then bring it in to me at the Club. Clearly this would take quite a lot of time, even before I got to read and act on the report and start the process of writing to parents. Inevitably because the Club was relying on the safe delivery of paper-based information, this could get lost, or be delayed, leading to missed opportunities or difficulties in keeping track of which players were on trial, those that had been registered and those that had been released. We found that increasingly, we were spending huge amounts of time manually preparing letters and forms, using valuable resources which could have been better spent on the recruitment process, said O Connor. In a different part of the Club the medical team was also keen to simplify its recordkeeping process, and looking for an efficient system that would deliver better access to historical information about players, their health and their treatments to the medical department. It is essential that the medical team of any club can easily track information about players, whether they are on trial, in the academy or playing for the first team. A player may have a serious allergy that needs medication, he may be asthmatic or carrying an injury and this can lead to a lot of paperwork and time spent looking up records and carrying out administration. Neil Greig, Head of Youth Medical Department at Brentford FC, said: The paper system that we were using before was adequate, but not efficient as. records were well kept, but the Players Elite system allows multiple users to access records and update them remotely. The Solution After a recommendation, Brentford FC approached Players Elite, the specialist developers of an online management system aimed at helping sports clubs to manage youth development, recruitment and administrative tasks. With four modules in the software suite, Players Elite provides club management teams with easy-to-use software tools that record and provide access to Talent Recruitment information; academy records; medical details and a database of released players. The Players Elite system is web-based and because all data is encrypted it provides Brentford FC with totally secure information that can be accessed using a password from any location. The Club started to use two modules - the Talent Recruitment module and the Medical module in October and since then has been able to automate all the manual and paperbased processes that were previously taking up time and effort.

3 Both myself and our physiotherapist use the system regularly, and our doctor also uses it. It saves us time and has allowed us to store specialist reports safely. Neil Greig Head of Youth Medical Department Brentford FC The Results With little training required to get the Club up to speed with the software, the benefits of it have quickly been realised. The Talent Recruitment module provides access to each scout online, so they no longer need to come into the Club with their reports. Each scout has a secure password login, which gives them access to information about the players that they have recommended or are responsible for, and each player has an individual record which contains personal details, legal guardianship contacts and approvals, player assessments and match reports. Once saved to the system, the player information delivered by the scouts can be accessed by the Head of Youth Recruitment, and he can then automatically start the process of inviting players in for trial. This process serves to eliminate all paperwork. This is a paperless system, says Shaun O Connor. And because it is all done online and securely accessed and saved, it has vastly reduced the hours spent preparing, delivering and finding reports. For the scouts, who are accustomed to a manual approach, we found that after seeing how easy the system is to use, they really took it on board. For Shaun O Connor, the key advantage is around efficiency and time saving. He is able to search for a player by name, age group, trial period or current status, and if he decides to invite a player to trial, he can click to automate the sending of an or letter. Because the system is fully online, it means that he can be out of the Club and still be able to access information as long as he has an Internet connection. It s a very hands-on solution, and because so much of the contact is now done by , it saves so much time. I can also filter through hundreds of names and details in seconds by using the simple search function, and every day I know who is coming in for trial and I have full access to all the information about them quickly, Shaun added. Player medical records are probably the most crucial data for any football club, and regardless of whether a player is on trial or at professional level, medical staff need to have access to up-to-date details. Most importantly Brentford FC wanted the Players Elite Medical module to automate the timeconsuming, but necessary manual processes that ensured that all the records were current, accurate and easily available. Like the Talent Recruitment module, the Medical module automatically logs all information into the system as it becomes available. By logging on, medical staff can see at a glance which trialists are due in, what the duration of the trial is and any medical conditions and allergies the trialists may have. From this, the medical team can easily produce a report, wherever they are and ensure that the physio on match day has access to important medical information on all the players. Both myself and our physiotherapist use the system regularly, and our doctor also uses it, continued Neil Greig. It saves us time and has allowed us to store specialist reports safely. Being able to update records on our laptop means that they can be done at our convenience. The medical alerts database that we have created in Players Elite ensures that all our staff have access to vital player information on match days.

4 Our aim with all of our modules is to create a simple and user friendly experience that can be implemented without the need for intensive training. Ele Nicolaou Director Players Elite Powerful Integration between the Talent Recruitment, Medical and Academy Systems ensures that player information is entered only once. This key information is viewed across all three modules ensuring the Club s departments are in real time communication. This avoids duplication of data entry and reduces paperwork. Changes to player records made by any department can be viewed instantly, increasing efficiency throughout the Club. The Module works by providing access to medical staff so that they can create new injury reports and manage and maintain existing injuries. The medical module is built around a worldwide standard of codes which group the body parts with injuries associated with those areas of the body. This helps to maintain a consistency of injury reporting between medical staff. Through the Players Elite Medical module, the team can report on open or closed injuries, which are constantly updated, and attach files containing MRI scans and X-rays. A daily training and fitness plan can also allow medical staff to share any concerns about players with the coaching and management teams. Neil Greig said: The system took a little time to get used to and there were certain things that we needed help with to make it more effective, but we are now finding it very useful. Like the Talent Recruitment module, security is paramount in the Medical software. All access is password controlled with different levels of authorisation. The information is hosted in a secure data centre with encrypted digital certificate access. Players Elite is also registered under data protection. Football clubs invest huge amounts of time and money in selecting and training players, and by using a software solution like Players Elite, they can ensure that this investment is properly managed and administered. Our aim with all of our modules is to create a simple and user friendly experience that can be implemented without the need for intensive training and can be easily accessed from outside or inside the Club. Said Ele Nicolaou, director, Players Elite.

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