Sydney Swans Set Benchmark in Customer Relationship Management

The Sydney Swans have selected IMG eCommerce as their preferred technology provider to deliver a complete online commercial solution for the Club using IMG eCommerce’s ‘Clubs Online’ technology.

The Sydney Swans will be using this technology to improve the scope of Member, Supporter and Corporate Partner services, whilst also enhancing internal productivity and efficiency.

As part of a master contract with the AFL, the Swans were quick to adopt and implement IMG eCommerce’s Auctions Online and online SwanShop technology solutions.

"The transition from a manual system managing our Online Merchandise sales was an important starting point to providing a better service to our valued members and supporters," said Anthony Laver, the Sydney Swans Chief Marketing Officer.

"Clubs Online provides an integrated solution to efficiently manage the financial transactions, purchasing processes, inventory control, tracking, promotional offers and reporting."

Understanding how technology contributes to ensuring the integrity of the Swans brand, product authentication and customised communications was the starting point for a strategic integration of technology that has now led the Swans to offer a wide range of online services.

In taking its technology commitment further, the Swans management conducted an extensive review of eight potential software providers to meet the Club’s needs.

The brief to potential software providers covered the Swans desire for leading edge applications to various Club functions along with administration, membership, sponsorship, merchandise, communication, events, and corporate hospitality.

IMG eCommerce, an initiative of IMG Australia, now has more than 3000 sporting organisations using its Clubs Online, Events Online, and Auctions Online systems including the AFL, Swimming Australia, and Athletics Australia .

IMG eCommerce has designed the software as a modular solution, allowing both functional flexibility for the specific needs and structures of different sporting associations and membership-based Clubs, while having the ability to integrate all interactions across a sporting organisation into a single member-centric database.

"Our technology is the only one that can create a single database around customer interactions across a wide range of services, including membership management, club events and hospitality, email communication and online shopping and auctions. Other technology can’t make that link," says IMG eCommerce co-founder and program developer, Glen McGoldrick.

"This means for example that when a Swans fan makes six $20 online transactions for different products and services with the Club over the course of a year those transactions can all be linked back to the one specific customer, rather than viewed as six separate transactions."

Says Laver; "This will give us greater insight into the total value of the customer relationship, our ability to customise offers, value add, tailor communications and accurately measure the return on promotional dollars invested. We can now plan our sales programs with a far greater degree of accuracy and certainty."

While its member-centric functionality and reliability are a winning combination, the other reason for the successful uptake of Clubs Online is due to its transaction-fee model which provides the design and installation of the system on the basis of minimal upfront cost and a fee for each transaction that runs through the system.

"Clubs would expect to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for this technology if it was being designed just for them," says McGoldrick. "Our transaction fee model means sports administrators are paying for the system as a small percentage of sales. It also means clubs of any size can access the same technology used by premier sports clubs such as the Sydney Swans."

This ‘best of breed technology’ has put the Sydney Swans at the forefront of sports administration management when compared with similar, or larger sized sporting clubs around the world.

"The experience of IMG internationally has shown that many sporting organisations are still struggling to do anything more than take orders online and have no possibility of making a real connection with their fans," says McGoldrick.

Says the Swans’ Laver; "I believe what we will see over the next five years is the world’s leading sporting club brands using the internet to conduct almost all of their non-game day communication.’

"The implications for this are enormous because it provides the window through which a club like the Sydney Swans can communicate and build a following for the club locally, nationally and worldwide."

Anthony Laver                                             Steve Casey

Chief Marketing Officer                                 Media and Communications

Sydney Swans                                            IMG eCommerce

W 02 9339 9162                                          M 0419 206 373