The challenge
England Netball oversee the delivery of a large number of programmes designed for participants of all ages and abilities across England. In 2015, the England Roses World Cup efforts inspired a huge uptake in the sport with attendance of netball sessions increasing greatly across the country. England Netball recognised that their manual system had reached its limit. A user friendly recording system was needed to accurately analyse and report participation figures and inform an effective long-term growth strategy.
The turning point
We undertook a large discovery session with stakeholders to gain insight into the how their programmes were structured and undestanding how their current systems operated. A vision of a intelligent web solution was being built that would manage the complexity of the different programmes, solve the key painpoints of recording these large amounts of data, and increase data accuracy. This, back in 2016, was the point of inception of England Netball's Monitoring System.
Azuki have been an instrumental and trusted partner of England Netball’s for almost 10 years, they continue to go above and beyond to ensure that the provision is robust and continues to provide efficiencies and benefits to our ever-evolving operations.
An evolving solution
Using Ruby on Rails, we generated an online system that intuitively allowed programme managers to update attendance registers. This information instantly and automatically creates data sets that regional and HQ administrators can review and manage. This collation of standardised data means that it can be compared simply against their national and regional growth targets generated in association with Sport England.
After the successful implementation of the platform, further development work was undertaken to support additional programmes and add new functionality. A key area for England Netball was to improve visibility of their programmes finanical performance. This new financial information has enabled decisions on the viability of individual programmes as well as providing instant and reliable financial data to help drive commercial decisions.
Work hasn't stopped there with the platform moving beyond monitoring and analysing data. In 2019 we seamlessly integrated the platform with England Netball’s booking system. By communicating bi-directionally with the booking system via APIs, a level of automation has been added to the Monitoring System that has not only increased efficiency but also accuracy.
The result
England Netball have continued to benefit from accurate monitoring data and are still delivering great increases in participation figures nationwide. The data generated from the bespoke system provides the evidence of impact from England Netball programmes. This data has been used to secure vital ongoing funding streams to allow the sport to continue to positively enhance the lives and wellbeing of women and girls across the country.
Azuki continue to work alongside the body to ensure the platform is effectively providing monitoring and analysis of participation, financial and regional data.
Our relationship with Azuki has remained strong throughout the partnership; we feel that when we need changes, find bugs or ask for advice they are always prompt to respond with easily digestible and proactive solutions.
