Success Story: PZPN, Certification Program for Football Academies

TISA SUCCESS STORIES is a series of detailed case studies, diving deep into our clients’ digital transformation journeys.

In each issue, we’ll cover it all. Understanding the unique challenges each of our clients face; finding the best strategic and tech solutions; analysing the implementation process and achieved results; and most importantly – guiding them towards the top level of their digital maturity.

In today’s case study, dedicated to our latest contribution to Certification Program for Football Academies created by PZPN – Polish Football Association, the governing body of the football industry in Poland – let’s look into:

• how Polish football federation is conducting digital transformation;
• in what ways PZPN Certification Program helps football academies;
• why it’s so important to have all data integrated within one system.

Join us in the following success story and see how connecting business strategy, tech and sports helps our clients bring their digital game to the next level!

_______________________________________________________________________________

CLIENT

PZPN [Polish Football Association] is the governing body of the football industry in Poland. They are responsible for organising all professional football leagues in Poland, as well as developing the grassroots community. Moreover, they manage and promote Polish national teams in male football, female football, beach soccer and futsal.

They’ve revolutionised the way football academies in Poland operate by creating a “PZPN Certification Program for Football Academies”. It’s an innovative project whose idea is to set standards for working with young players and help in their development by verifying the quality of academies. The implementation of systems created by TISA is an essential part of the ongoing digital transformation of the federation.

_______________________________________________________________________________

CHALLENGE

The challenge behind the program’s implementation was to build a digital solution that will guarantee the proper reliability and functionalities. TISA contributed to the development of the “PZPN Certification Program for Football Academies” by creating a system for managing the entire process of verifying the quality of soccer schools. 

The system has two parts. On the one hand, it calculates the financial funds needed to be transferred to the football academies by the decisions of the Polish government (and produces an extensive analysis of its components). On the other hand, it allows parents, coaches, PZPN’s employees and government’s representatives to enter data, receive it and, most importantly, constantly monitor it. 

“PZPN Certification Program for Football Academies” aims to improve the quality of soccer schools by creating common standards, facilitating the work of local coaches, and spreading the knowledge of the best practices in the whole country.

_______________________________________________________________________________

PROCESS

The process of creating this two-track system of the “PZPN Certification Program for Soccer Schools” was a comprehensive operation that required extensive experience. In order to define the strategy of the final products, the audit has been made, and the workshops have been conducted to precisely understand the needs of the systems’ users. 

TISA created an original project methodology to meet the specific needs of various parties taking part in the whole procedure. We supported the client in the areas like: commercialization, data privacy & security, GDPR compliance, toolset choice, development techniques and organizational structure.

As the funding period coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, it must be highlighted that all parties proved their high collaborative culture by being flexible about their work to maximise the final results.

It was necessary to act under the deadlines set by the ministry. That’s why the work was broken down into six stages, and the system was developed incrementally. End-users – coaches, parents and young footballers – who kept using the system didn’t feel any drastic changes in its functioning even though it had constantly been improved and enlarged. Overall, more than 40 programmers and developers led by Mateusz Tomasik contributed to the final version of the system.

_______________________________________________________________________________

SOLUTION

The tool created to help football academies improve their efficiency by automating activities offers numerous functionalities:

1. First of all, it’s integrated with the PZPN profile and database. Once added to the system, players can be managed by their academies without reentering data.
2. All licensed coaches are downloaded from the PZPN database to the system. They can be assigned to specific academies and training sessions.
3. The system automatically verifies whether a given coach has a license / is punished / is assigned to a given team.
4. The system is integrated with the database of facilities registered in the PZPN. Messages from the system improve the management of training grounds.
5. The ‘Scheduling’ function is developed. Coaches and football academies have the option to select the schedule of classes for the next week, add events or plan them in advance.
6. The system automatically shows how many (and what types of) players must be selected for the training in order to follow the standards indicated by the “Certification Program”.
7. The system informs football academies about all shortcomings. This happens both in the system and by email. Any inconsistency is communicated in advance. If not resolved, the reminders appear repeatedly, which significantly improves the system’s performance.
8. The history of all actions taken by users is available in the system. Parents, footballers, coaches, PZPN and governments’ representatives are fully aware of past events. It facilitates the process of verifying documents.
9. The football academy goes through the entire certification process – registration, verification, monitoring, management – in one (!) system using only one (!) tool.
10.  The system provides collective communication – you can send needed documents either individually to a given academy or simultaneously to a selected group of football schools.

The second part of the digital solution implemented by TISA is the grant system, which is directly integrated with the “Certification Program”. Implementation of the ARP system allows users to add all the necessary documents in the simplest and most efficient way.

The system collects and shows information about all components, including the budget, plans or cost documents. Moreover, it independently performs the first verification of documents.

Most importantly, the financial system generates ministerial reports with a detailed list of all essential statistics. An algorithm for calculating the financial grant has been implemented to facilitate the process of transferring funds.

All these solutions lead to the situation, where the financing system becomes friendly not only for the final recipients but also for the people managing the program. The transparency of data in the system is crucial for ministerial decisions.

_______________________________________________________________________________

DESIGN / UI & UX

The “PZPN Certification Program for Football Academies” design was created by experts from hero/dot, our partner. Before its creation, UI & UX workshops have been conducted to find out the best combination of style and functionalities. 

The most challenging task was to create a design system, which will be both consistent with the current visual identification of the PZPN and allow users to analyse lots of data efficiently. Finally, more than 1300 mockups have been created to achieve all the goals!

The stylistic assumptions that drove designers to the final look of this system were simplicity, clarity and legibility. It was essential to facilitate the analysis of data to all parties. For that reason, a component allowing users to show and hide selected columns has been implemented.

_______________________________________________________________________________

RESULTS & FURTHER DEVELOPMENT

Goals have been met! The entire “PZPN Certification Program for Football Academies” has been successfully transferred to an online tool that functions independently of the Extranet. 34 725 documents have been sent by more than 12 000 users. By the end of 2020, the system had already improved the functioning of 352 football academies, which together were granted more than 34 500 000 PLN. 

TISA keeps improving and developing the system following the emerging needs of PZPN and feedback from end-users. Continuous technical and design support is provided to enhance the quality of Polish football academies.

_______________________________________________________________________________

We hope you enjoyed this issue of TISA SUCCESS STORIES. If you’d like to learn more about our approach to innovative engagement and digital transformation of the sports industry, check out TISA blog and stay tuned for more fresh content!