Open Collaboration in Collegiate Athletics - A history and success story from an insider
Today, as of the sports world is getting a facelift and is now becoming a world obsessed with gaining an advantage through technological support. In this week’s blog, I take a look at a success story of open collaboration with a start-up recruiting software company and its relationship with various universities, including Coastal Carolina University.
Recruiting Software History
Not too long ago, the days of using nameplates on a magnetic board and physically writing in every recruits name, position, measureless, etc. was the most advanced way of organizing the collegiate team’s recruiting board. Also, a compliance department at a university was bogged down with endless amounts of paperwork dealing with visits to the university, financial aid request forms, and national letters of intent among other things.
Today the process is streamlined through various recruiting softwares. Companies like Front Rush, ScoutForce, and JumpForward have become industry leaders and partner with many notable universities. These softwares help with recruit management via the internet/mobile apps.Not much has changed with these softwares over the years and input from customers is not well received.
ARMS Software
The ARMS Software offers an innovative approach to the ever-changing world of collegiate recruiting. As described on its website, ARMS is a cloud-based software designed to unify athletic departments and was designed by hands-on experience with the problems athletic departments face on a daily basis.
The software ARMS provides seamlessly allows for all athletic departments to be inter-connected regardless of location. Another feature, along with recruit management, is the department workflow management. This process streamlines the day-to-day administrative paperwork that is involved in the highly regulated NCAA environment.
Along with these two key elements, the software also features technologies that are compatible across all devices (laptop, tablet, and phone), current roster management, and an email system that can easily reach out to a mass amount of recruits and high school coaches.
A Collaboration Success Story
Having been a part of the Coastal Carolina University (CCU) football recruiting staff for over two years, I have seen trends that have changed the way we have recruited potential athletes to our football program. The recruiting process is about relationship building and always being in touch with your recruits via multiple services (social media, scouting services, recruiting softwares, etc.).
After the first year, our staff as a whole decided that we needed a recruiting software that could streamline the process of recruiting the athlete. Eliminating unnecessary hours of work would allow our coaches to focus on coaching and relationship building with recruits. ARMS Software has forever changed the way our program recruits.
When we decided to invest in the ARMS Software, we recognized that the software was in a beta-version but we saw the benefits of what the company was trying to implement. On day one of training, open collaboration and innovation was evident between our staff and the company’s engineers.
Our open collaboration involved crafting specifications for our specific program but always generated new designs and products that ARMS has since developed and used at other universities.
Today, this process is still ongoing and has become a relationship where both parties continue to enjoy success and continue to change the way that recruiting is done. The open collaboration and innovation is not just limited to CCU; it involves all of the universities that ARMS is partnered with.
ARMS shows it appreciation by building its relationships with universities privately through hours of trouble-shooting and software specifications, but also publicly through social media.
ARMS Software is just one example of a company taking advantage of open collaboration. Companies today need to take advantage of these types of opportunities in order to be passed by younger, newer companies in terms of market share and customers.
