A problem shared is a problem halved – A project of this nature would need a team. That is exactly how 2015 panned out. Mark presented the concept to fellow club GAA Coach Gerry McElligott ; Gerry seen great value in bringing greater focus around Club Administration aspects of the system and logistics of operations.
During this time Mark had a close working relationship in the hospitality sector with Seamus Treanor; Seamus shared the Gerry’s view while additionally seen the potential for the efficiencies that system potentially bring hardworking members and the potential for Wealth creation within clubs. Seamus introduced Serge Pedan, a SCADA Engineer and software programmer with over 15 years’ experience in program development. Serge seen the overall potential and properties that the system had to the sports sector. What followed where many iterations of system in proof-of-concept models.However, in 2019 the functionality and logic and the customer trials and research culminated in YeahBut Sports limited been formed and project ClubBench had begun, our team added Alex and Roman from the Ukraine and the work begun.
Each Co-Founder bring qualities and assets that have moved a Sports Club Management System spreadsheet module in 2013 to become ClubBench the most complete Sports SAAS Platform on the market
ClubBench qualifies as the go-to system as a wealth and player generator for any amateur sport group/club either as an affiliate of an organisation or as a standalone entity, in any country, globally. ClubBench goes beyond the original remit of an information system to simplify the workloads of all stakeholders and simple funding mechanisms like membership & lotto sales.
ClubBench is about harnessing modern technology, to create value for all who participate in bringing sport to the community in an enjoyable cohesive manner. Club problems are now one IT solution to bring all sports together on an individual’s device through one APP. Now is your time to enjoy the sports as players coaches, managers supporters and administrators, while growing sport in your community.ClubBench originates from the simple desire of a team manager in 2012 to have access to information to manage a football team, in his own club where he thought he knew everything he needed to know. However, this process uncovered many obstacles to information retrieval both long term and short term and ultimately prohibitive in bringing value as a coach or team manager to his own club.
Accessing information within a club and from individuals proved elusive. Innovation with data usage was non-existent. Information silos prevalent. Information was inconsistent and non-transferable leading to ambiguity in the executive management. The same condition of data management year on year inhibited team management and membership management. On-boarding of new coaches led to a breakdown in player journeys and progress in development. Yet protocols from national governing bodies had to be observed, working with outdated legacy systems in fixtures management. Additionally in modern sport there's even more bureaucracy and compliance in accountancy, child welfare, insurance, health, and safety and GDPR.
Consequently, too many systems online and offline such as e-mail, phone message, phone calls, (expensive at the time) printed/hand-written material from third party input. The process required handballing paperwork which made a simple process very complicated. Invariably the inefficiencies overloaded very busy people in their private lives. Club duties of running a Sports Club from executive management thru to team management consumed too much time, for everyone including the players and especially parents of kids in grassroots sports.
Ten years on and there are many solutions on the market that are addressing certain issues which they can monetised to justify providing the solution in the first place such as membership registration and Lotto sales. NGB’s are also going it alone in attempting to migrate from their old tech legacy systems. A short-sighted approach in the dynamically changing sports sector dictated by new millennials. Ultimately this piecemeal approach from all parties is creating even more dilution to the online options on offer to club decision makers and creating even greater fragmentation and borders between sports within communities.
A Simple mission to find information about players on a football team became an unexpected Journey for the then team manager, Mark Kelly and now Co-founder of ClubBench.
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