Glamorgan County Cricket Club (GCCC) are a first class Cricket club based at the 15000 capacity Sophia Gardens stadium in Cardiff. They are the only Welsh club within the English Cricket Board (ECB).
The club had planned a number of infrastructure upgrades as part of its business remodelling and wanted to take their digital transformation to the next level. SA Group were asked to create a Digital Transformation Strategy, which included a Roadmap of potential actions for the next 4-5 years.
SA Group were engaged to reignite the stalled Transformation project and define the overall Digital Transformation Strategy. The project needed to identify specific opportunities to drive revenue and create a transformation roadmap that would take the club forward – at a pace that reflected its operational capabilities. It also needed to work in line with the ECB’s broader strategy.
The project was conducted under the additional challenges of maintaining business as usual during the analysis and within the extraordinary context of the April 2020 COVID-19 lockdown.
The project also required the involvement of multiple key stakeholders, which included several internal Board members whose input was central to the vision of the long term project delivery. Also involved was a wider ecosystem of key partners and suppliers including the ECB, whose Inspiring Generations strategy includes a vision for Smart Stadia. Cardiff City Council were also involved at a critical level as GCCC’s project integrates into the Council’s own Smart City transformation ambitions.
SA Group provided a team of consultants with large-scale transformation experience and including a certified Smart Cities specialist (SSCISP). The team conducted extensive research and interviews to understand the organisational context and requirements, and also the bigger picture within which the transformation would be implemented.
Specifically it was critical to understand current and future data security, cyber security and privacy requirements with a view to keeping GCCC’s customer data safe.
SA Group designed a bespoke transformation model, presented with a succinct and actionable report that outlined clear deliverables for the next stage of the project, including the requirements of all stakeholders.
The project was extensively benchmarked against other cricket clubs and sporting venues, and the ECB. Triple helix modelling ensured collaboration across the full suite of stakeholders and their respective digitisation strategies.
The report considered the four key pillars of Digital Transformation – Technology, People/Culture, Data/Marketing and Process – in light of GCCC’s own business strategy, and combined this with a 3 layer Stadium Platform Model of Infrastructure, Technologies and Fan Experience.
Following this was the creation of a 5 year Implementation Roadmap that reflected GCCC’s needs for practicality and adaptability.
SA Group’s team delivered a Digital Transformation Strategy and Roadmap that recommended a comprehensive programme of digital solutions backed up by real world evidence. We recommended a deliberately pragmatic, flexible and non-academic approach that could be planned, funded and implemented in a phased approach over the next 5 years.
The strategy integrated effectively with GCCC’s own vision, the needs of their multiple public sector and commercial stakeholders, and the demands of industry best practice and compliance requirements.
Huw Warren, Commercial Director at Glamorgan, said:
“Located in such a sports-led capital city, we simply can’t afford to be left behind when it comes embracing digital touch-points to engage with a wider fan-base. From the very start, the team at SA Group have offered a truly collaborative approach to our digital transformation project. Their excellent expertise and knowledge has guided us through the process and we are delighted to be working with them on this important strategy.”
SA Group continue to work with GCCC on the next phase of their exciting Digital Transformation and Smart Stadium plan.
