Why CIAM Is So Important in Sports Organisations

Reaching the full potential of management and comprehensive use of collected customer data can be a tough nut to crack. On top of that, there’s the cybersecurity aspect of dealing with customers’ personal data. However, customer identity and access management (CIAM) can benefit, expand and secure your sports organisation and fans big time. 

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In this article, we will answer the following questions:

• What exactly is CIAM?
• What are its core elements?
• How to use it to your sports organisation’s full advantage?

What is CIAM?

Customer identity and access management enable organisations to securely capture and manage customer identity and profile data and control customer access to applications and services.

It is an essential tool to supervise the identity management of your customers who share their personal data while using your services. Correct identification of individual clients and its skilful management effectively minimise the risk of theft or total loss of data. Such a solution is now the foundation of most enterprise operations, as it provides customer security and user experience. Let’s take a look at what the CIAM tool regularly consists of.

Elements of CIAM

SCALABILITY

Whether you are a sports organisation or any other enterprise, there are four crucial elements of CIAM. The first one is scalability. CIAM is a solution that can be implemented in an enterprise of any size. Regardless of how many customers visit your website, platform, or use your online services, the security of their data will be provided through CIAM.

However, if you are a sports club with thousands of followers, you might need extra power to process the fan data during peaks like on a matchday. CIAM ensures that the data transferred through your online ticket office is secure and that customers can manage it.

SSO SINGLE SIGN-ON 

We mentioned the user experience aspect of the CIAM tool, and one example is SSO (Single Sign-on) system. This infrastructure allows users to log in to websites or applications simultaneously with one set of data.

This solution enhances the user experience by removing additional barriers so that clients do not need to go through the complete login procedure in each application. Google and Facebook have successfully applied a feature like this, but many others are beginning to implement it, including sports organisations. SSO will allow your fans to log in to your various platforms like VOD or ticket office in the blink of an eye!

MULTI-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION

An important and still growing security feature of CIAM is multi-factor authentication (MFA). In today’s world, a password could not be enough to protect vulnerable personal data from hackers.

MFA adds an extra security step during your logging in in the form of additional authentication. This usually works as a one-time password sent to your email box or as an SMS to your phone number. MFA should only be triggered based on the assessed risk, such as when a customer signs in with a new device or makes a suspicious transaction on your platform.

CENTRALISED USER MANAGEMENT

Once you have collected data from many users, it is worth taking a look at efficient data management. This is where the centralised user management feature comes in. A CIAM solution helps achieve centralised, data-rich customer profiles that function as a single source of truth about users.

This solution facilitates data collection and analysis. From a sports perspective, this allows you to identify your fans and their needs better and easily access all profile data, which is essential from the point of view of privacy law.

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

Another advantage of CIAM is that it can be fully or partially used in Customer Relationship Management (CRM). By gathering data via a CIAM tool, aggregating the data and assigning it to a single user you can analyse your fan communication, their behaviour patterns. 

The CRM feature of CIAM ensures that every step of the interaction with consumers goes smoothly and efficiently in order to increase the overall profits. However, you can also gather the data but process it through a dedicated CRM tool, e.g. SalesForce.

CIAM and GDPR

Logging in, managing profiles and accessing offered services by clients involves harvesting a lot of personal information. This is very important when talking about the Consent Management aspect of CIAM. For instance, in the European Union, the privacy and security law GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) holds CIAM providers responsible for processing such personal data.

By implementing Consent Management, your clients can decide and choose the personal data they want to share with you or manage their consent to data processing for marketing purposes.

The advantages of CIAM in a sports organisation

The list of advantages grows larger and more prominent with the improvements of CIAM tools. First, let’s take a look at the business perspective. Collecting data could be a solid advantage for your sports organisation. Security first, but handling this data is of relative importance. A professionally crafted CIAM tool lets you collect and organise data in a neat manner, this later influences how you can analyse the data. With CIAM, you can learn more about your fans and their needs to establish your target audience precisely.

As usual, technology also has the power to attract potential sponsors to your organisation. In the case of CIAM, it is through gated premium content. To put it in straightforward terms, if your organisation is successful at collecting data, potential sponsors could offer you their premium content in exchange for client data. 

If you would like to learn more about attracting businesses to your organisation, make sure to check our previous article here.

And lastly, overall, the use of CIAM in your sports organisation could loyalise your fans to a greater extent. Above mentioned accessibility, personalised communication, learning about your fans’ needs cannot be accomplished thoroughly without a CIAM solution. Otherwise, without the knowledge of your customers’ behaviour and preferences, any attempt at creating engagement and loyalising the customers will have flaws and will not be sufficient.

WICKET

TISA Group offers a CIAM tool that combines all of the features mentioned above and meets the expectations of a sports organisation. WICKET is a powerful customer identity, consent and access management tool tailored to help sports organisations collect, store and manage their fan base in one unified place. With its use, your club can build a secure database and combine your website, mobile app, ticket shop into one database.

WICKET offers an innovative blockchain solution that can be implemented in areas like identity confirmation, ticket sale, or e-wallet. Furthermore, you can monetise your fanbase with the tool by offering exclusive services and discounts based on the data you gather.

On the other hand, CIAM enhances the user experience of your online platforms and websites by making them more accessible. In the world of today’s sport easy and quick access are fundamental. Your fans wish to connect with the club during important sports events without the need to log in to multiple sites or the worry that their data could be at risk.

Knowing your fans more also lets you create a personalised system of communication with your fans. If you know whether they are looking for your club’s merchandise or premium video content, you can build unique advertising and email communication with the fans.

Conclusion

CIAM plays an increasingly important role in the enterprise, regardless of the industry. Growing technology allows for better and more secure data management, a more friendly User Experience, and a unique communication plan with your customers. Disregarding the size of your organisation, a CIAM tool is a fundamental part of a larger digital transformation. 

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Are you looking for more information about digital transformation in the sports industry? Visit our website to learn more about dedicated products and innovation designed for sports. To find out more about how TISA can help your organisation thrive in the digital world, contact us directly – we will be happy to talk about your case. And if you’d like to join our team and help us create the best digital solutions for the world of sports, check out our current career opportunities.