TMCnet News
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[November 13, 2003] Rugby Football Union Selects Firstwave Technologies To Provide Sports-Specific CRM Solution Firstwave Technologies, Inc., a provider of industry-focused CRM solutions, announced a new relationship with the Rugby Football Union (RFU), who has selected Firstwave to provide its sports-specific customer relationship management solution, Firstwave Sports & Entertainment. The RFU has selected Firstwave Sports & Entertainment to gain a better understanding of its members, serve its members more effectively and aid membership recruitment. The RFU is one of England’s largest sporting organizations, with nearly 2000 clubs, 27 constituent bodies and more than 200,000 games played each year under its auspices.Firstwave Sports & Entertainment will provide the RFU with a single view of the disparate roles of its participants – including administrators, players, referees, coaches and individuals that contract with the RFU on a commercial basis. Currently, each division within the RFU has its own database, making it difficult for the RFU to see how each participant is fully involved in the organization (i.e. as a fan, player, coach, referee, etc.). Through the Firstwave Sports & Entertainment solution, the RFU will be able to gain a comprehensive view of each participant and better understand the dynamics and relationships between different participant and member groups. For example, the England Rugby Supporters Club (ERSC), the RFU’s official fan club, will use the Firstwave Sports & Entertainment solution to build and manage their member database. The solution will handle all online, call center and postal membership applications as well as enhance membership recruitment activities. Steve Elliott, head of IT for the RFU comments, “In time, we want to be able to include anyone who has a touchpoint with the RFU within our CRM database – whether they are a player, supporter, or have simply bought a rugby shirt through our website. In doing so, we will be able to improve our understanding of different members’ needs and provide a much more personalized service to our individual members.” The RFU selected Firstwave over a number of alternative CRM solutions for its adaptability, flexibility and ease of use. Elliott explains, “It was fundamental that the CRM system offered a ‘People to Organizations’ relationship on a many to many basis. Firstwave’s solution gives us that and offers us the ability to very easily edit and configure the system to provide the most appropriate screen views, tailored to an individual user’s needs. The system also has very good out-of-the-box security at field level – enabling different users of the system to access only the information that is appropriate for them. That, combined with Firstwave’s understanding of the sports industry and our specific system requirements, led to the decision being a straightforward one.” David R. Simmons, president and COO of Firstwave, comments, “The RFU realizes the participation and revenue potential that comes with fully understanding its participants. By implementing the Firstwave Sports solution, the RFU will be able to better communicate with participants of all levels, increase overall participation and maximize revenue to positively affect the entire sport of rugby as it is managed in the UK.” |