Sports Officials App Case Study

Transforming our client’s referee scheduling program into a modern browser-based application

Industry

Sports and Tournaments

year founded

Late 1910s

location

USA

The client is a major sports league in the U.S. The organization has a dozen departments that together use around 150 in-house software products. ObjectStyle has been working with the company since 2002 and currently supports many of its internal business apps and public web properties.

Challenge

Since the league was founded a long time ago, managers used to assign referees to games with the help of a paper chart or a whiteboard. With time, this was replaced with a Windows-based application written with the IBM Lotus Notes platform.

However, at some point, the desktop program became outdated, as well. The league needed a new solution that referees could use on a smartphone or a tablet while travelling or at the arena. To enable those features, the app had to be browser-based.

Solution

1. Assignments.

The app now has a smart scheduling system that factors in things like referee availability, contract status, games judged in the last XX days/ hours, travel distance from the last game, and other conditions when suggesting referees.

2. Notifications.

The app supports automated notifications triggered by different business events. For example, when a referee is assigned to a game, they get an email. There are other types of emails, such as assignment cancellations, status updates, arena problem reports, etc.

3. Reports.

After each game, referees report metrics like arena and equipment quality. Plus, game supervisors evaluate referee performance after each game and file their own reports.

4. Equipment catalog.

The app contains a catalog for league officials, which they can use to order sports equipment. It’s a fully-functioning internal store where users can browse merchandise by size, color, quantity, and other parameters. The request is then sent to the procurement manager, who can arrange for the delivery.

5. Information.

Last but not least, referees can use the app to learn more about their travel destination. ObjectStyle created a special module that displays information on nearby hotels, flights, and local weather in the app, among other things.

Results

The new scheduling application is a browser-based app that can be accessed from anywhere on the web, on any device. Each referee is now equipped with an iPad, which they carry to the game and can use to easily report on everything that is happening – either during a break or right after the match.

The system has become the “single source of truth” about everything related to game officiating. It is used by a number of other systems that require this information throughout the league.

Technology stack

Sencha / ExtJS
Java 8
Agrest
Link Move
Apache Cayenne
Active Directory
MySQL database

Time Span and Resources

Duration:

12 months

Effort:

5400 man-hours

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