Organisatie
The Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) is the Dutch football association. With 1.2 million members and 500 employees, it is the largest sports association in the Netherlands. The union was established on 8 December in 1889. The KNVB caters for football including indoor football, beach football, school football, street football, 45 + football (seniors) and G-football. The KNVB organises national competitions, cup competitions and events, coordinates the national teams and manages the football industry. The association also participates in social projects.
The problem
“There was previously no specific software available within the KNVB for monitoring the performance of referees in professional football,” says spokesman René Mijderwijk. “Through an expansion of the development and training programme, the need for a custom-made tracking system has grown”. According to Mijderwijk, this was the reason for the search for a suitable software program. The solution the KNVB was looking for was so specific that it could not be solved with standard software. In this search, the KNVB ended up at FileLinx.
The challenge
The FileLinx platform must enable the KNVB to monitor the complete functioning of a total of 120 referees and assistant referees for professional football. 91 coaches and observers are also deployed for this monitoring. With the help of the software, the KNVB expects to be able to collect and analyse out-going data concerning the operations of the referee corps at any time. The aim is helping referees and assistant referees better in their development. Data that can be used for this are, for example, assessments during competitions and results during physical tests. The implementation had to happen quickly, because the process had to be fully put into use at the start of the football season.
Choice of FileLinx
Mijderwijk explains the choice for the software company: “FileLinx offers a customised tracking system, it is user-friendly and flexible and implementation could be realised quickly”. FileLinx offers a document management system that stores and searches data from all business applications, documents and email. “The KNVB had a clear view on the desired use of the tracking system to be set up. In close coordination with FileLinx, the need for setting up the system was discussed in detail. All the components required by the KNVB were installed in FileLinx within a short period of time.
The Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) has automated its referee monitoring system for professional football with the platform of software and consultancy company FileLinx. With the solution, the KNVB should be able to monitor the complete performance of its (assistant) referees. A total of 120 referees and assistant referees are monitored. The implementation was completed in four weeks.
The solution
The process was clear because the implementation started by asking questions about this process during a workshop. “In this workshop, the key users provided their input and FileLinx consultants provided a blueprint of the process. At the same time, the first set-up in FileLinx was devised”.
The consultants then went to work to configure the solution in FileLinx. “The configuration was presented to these most important users to test whether the results of the workshop were achieved. This usually results in some small points that can be processed quickly. Immediately afterwards, the KNVB started testing the process in FileLinx. The points that came out of this were processed by our consultants, after which the delivery and go-live took place. “
The implementation for the consultants was an extra challenge, because the solution had to be delivered in four weeks. “The privacy-sensitive information about referees also requires extra care”.
The contract was given at the beginning of July and delivery was completed before the start of the 2015/2016 football season. In four weeks, the solution was realised exactly according to the wishes of KNVB.