Business Lessons from: Wimbledon
The All England Lawn Tennis Club annual tournament is in full ‘swing’ (excuse the pun – to warn you, there’ll be plenty more) and the use of exciting new technology to enhance the way people are able to consume the tournament, presents exciting opportunities for business.
Wimbledon’s twenty-four year partnership with American multinational technology and consulting corporation, IBM, has led the way for clients and the wider public to experience first-hand the capabilities in both tennis and business.
With the use of analytics and raw data, IBM digital technology is creating a user experience that aims to drill to the core of Wimbledon’s global audience.
The finals of the two-week grand-slam tournament are fast approaching, and British hopeful Andy Murray stands in good stead. This year’s event has entertained early departures from the likes of Nadal and Federer, an unfortunate outbreak of injury and unpredictable weather forecasts.
Fans of the tennis event can access real-time match analytics, statistics and live match data via the Wimbledon website, optimised for both the smartphone and tablet user experience. The new interactive app for iPad users helps to bring the Wimbledon experience to life for anyone unable to attend the event in person; and for the lucky ones, the app can be used as a ‘second screen’ from within the tournament.
The redevelopment of the website and the links with the various active social media accounts emphasise the importance of interaction and social sentiment. Technology experts are able to watch and analyse public conversation on the connected social media sites during the Wimbledon fortnight, and gain a good indication of general interest.
Social media is an important tool for any business when interacting and engaging with a consumer audience. Insights gained from social media trends and discussion help a business become more in tune with their consumers and provide better services as a result.
With the demands for mobile technology being so high, mobility is a vital factor with any new technology. IBM featured on one of our MeetTheBoss virtual roundtables earlier this year and discussed the mobile enterprise in a virtual conversation with other senior IT thought-leaders.
To give you a brief overview, IBM’s ‘SlamTracker’, a dashboard of statistics and analytics, is packed with past grand slam data and IBM technology and can be used to analyse data for key trends. Its live scoring analysis gives a point-to-point summary faster than you can say ‘news balls please’. Now that’s impressive.
For business, the tracker could be used to create value from unused data. The comparison of social media interaction and live data has the potential to ‘serve’ up new insights and allow improved business decisions, which will work to their ‘advantage’.
Big events like Wimbledon hold huge potential for innovative data-driven technology. People want a ‘Centre Court’ view of things and it is up to the business world to jump on board, use this knowledge to its advantage and “score” big (sorry I couldn’t resist!).
All that is left to say is good luck Murray and if you would like to find out more about our upcoming Technology roundtables and gain the opportunity to discuss latest technology trends with your peers, visit our upcoming Roundtable events page…
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As a journalist, editor and now presenter at MeetTheBoss TV, Ben has been writing and speaking about the intersection between business, people and technology for the past 15 years. In a career that’s taken him from working for consumer music and style mags to Editor-in-Chief of Business Management magazine – via work for the likes of The Guardian, Frost & Sullivan and Bloomberg, amongst others – he’s interviewed some of the biggest names in business, spoken at international events and moderated countless roundtable discussions.