4-page Case Study - Posted 11/21/2006

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Aspire Sports Academy

Sports Academy Streamlines Document Management with New Portal Technology

Aspire Sports Academy, based in Qatar, develops the region’s sports stars of the future. The academy, which provides some of best training facilities available, understands the importance of data in any athlete’s development. Employees work with a range of important documents that focus both on the progress of individual athletes and on day-to-day business processes. To streamline management of these documents, the academy has deployed Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007. This is the foundation of the new Aspire Intranet, which provides Web sites for multiple user groups and improves document control. It also helps workers search content and processes forms more effectively. Because physiotherapists use the portal to share data on athletes’ progress, the academy can help its students to maximise their sporting performance.

Situation

Based in Doha, Qatar, Aspire Sports Academy uses the latest technologies to help develop some of the region’s future sporting champions. The academy, which opened in September 2004, offers some of the most advanced facilities and training programmes available. Each year, the area’s best young sports people compete for a place at the institution, which maintains close links with international sports stars such as Pele.

The academy has never lost sight of the value of data in the development of champion athletes. It continually invests in its IT environment, deploying industry-leading solutions that can increase the impact of its resources and the productivity of its employees. Saleh Musleh, Support Chief Officer of the IT Department at Aspire Sports Academy, says: “IT helps all our departments achieve their objectives.”

Within the academy, a range of valuable data is held in dozens of business documents, ranging from the dietary needs of individual youngsters and images of the facilities to employee vacation requests. To manage this information effectively, the academy wanted intuitive IT tools for more effective content management. In addition, it wanted to increase collaboration among the 200 employees of the Academy to enhance productivity.

“We wanted to create a new intranet that is easily accessible and simple to use for everyone at the academy,” Musleh says. “This required a portal solution that can be accessed across all departments and that offers excellent information-publishing and document-sharing features. It was also very important that the portal technology work well with our existing infrastructure.”

Solution

After considering a number of technologies in the marketplace, the academy chose Microsoft® software to meet its requirements. It joined the Microsoft Rapid Deployment Programme (RDP) and gained access to Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007 and the 2007 Microsoft Office system prior to their general release. In addition, the institution also received expert vendor support, in this case from Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Exceed IT Services, based in Doha.

We wanted to create a new intranet that is easily accessible and simple to use for everyone at the academy. Saleh Musleh Support Chief Officer IT Department Aspire Sports Academy

The decision to deploy SharePoint Server 2007 made good business sense. The portal technology provides a powerful set of development tools and an open, scalable architecture. It also supports common Internet standards such as XML and Simple Object Access Protocol and can be used to create Web Services quickly and effectively.

By combining business tools such as Microsoft Office InfoPath® 2007 and SharePoint Server 2007, employees can convert paper-based documents into electronic forms. These can then be stored, distributed, and managed more securely and efficiently.

The deployment of SharePoint Server 2007 has helped the academy maximise the value of existing IT investments. Over time, the institution implemented core Microsoft enterprise solutions to help workers achieve their goals and improve operations. The new portal environment is now the interface to a fully integrated infrastructure composed of:

• The Windows Server® 2003 enterprise operating system.
• The Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000 database.
• The Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 communications and collaboration messaging environment, which delivers key messaging services.
• Active Directory® directory services, a centralised directory for managing user access rights.
• SharePoint Server 2007, which supports the intranet site.
• The Microsoft Office system, which maximises the impact of the academy’s data through easy-to-use business tools.

Working with Exceed IT Services, Musleh and his team deployed SharePoint Server 2007 in just two months and created a branded, internal portal called the Aspire Intranet. Musleh immediately took advantage of the functionality for completing surveys and gathering feedback from user groups on how they wanted to personalise their portal pages. Using this information, Musleh has started creating Web sites for specific user groups, such as IT administrators and physiotherapists.

Benefits

With its new intranet portal, IT workers and physiotherapists, among others, can share data more effectively. For the academy, this ensures internal processes are more efficient. In addition, the progress of student athletes can be monitored more effectively. Today, the academy sees itself at the start a new phase in its development that will help to maintain its leadership among sports academies.

Physiotherapists Deliver Faster Results
Creating champions takes careful planning. With students at stages in their lives when their bodies are developing rapidly, the academy pays close attention to diet and training programmes. As a result, data related to these two areas is valuable and should be confidential. Physiotherapists at the academy can use the new portal to share this information securely and easily to help maximise the development of their students.

Data is held in spreadsheets, which the physiotherapist team can store, access, and update on the portal. Right now, the information is held in a folder on the network, where access is carefully controlled through the Windows NT File System. With the portal, physiotherapists can access interactive Microsoft Office Excel® 2007 spreadsheets from their Web browser. They have one central, up-to-date version of a student’s data, which is well protected. Musleh says: “By using SharePoint Server 2007, physiotherapists can access and update data on students’ development much easier.”

By using SharePoint Server 2007, physiotherapists can access and update data on students’ development much easier. Saleh Musleh Support Chief Officer IT Department Aspire Sports Academy

Calendaring Streamlines Planning
Aspire has some of the best training facilities of any sports academy in the world. These facilities are in constant demand, however, and users need an efficient calendaring solution to check availability and book equipment. Ahmad Arabi Katbi, IT Systems Engineer at Aspire Sports Academy, plans to make the portal a convenient resource for checking availability and making bookings.

“We have excellent facilities here, and they are always in demand,” he says. “Streamlining the processes required to make bookings is key to improving the day-to-day running of the academy.” Using the portal’s enhanced calendaring features and integrating these with Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007 will ensure people can make and receive notification of bookings using e-mail.

Press Releases Delivered Faster
Because the world is still learning about the excellent work going on at the academy, which only opened in September 2004, the communications department plays a vital role in the life of the organisation. It is continually sourcing images of events at the academy and collating information for notices such as press releases.

With the portal, individual departments have a centralised location to post information and images of their activities. In turn, the communications team can access this data easily and efficiently and generate press notices rapidly—helping it to meet publication deadlines.

Musleh says: “We must have more than 1,000 images relating to the academy and its activities. Having a central point where these images and information on departmental activities can be accessed easily will make the communications process very efficient.”

Employees Process Forms More Efficiently
The academy has established templates for all key business processes, such as requesting annual leave. Traditionally, this process has been completed using e-mail, with forms requested, completed, and e-mailed to human resources.

With the portal technology working together with Office InfoPath 2007, workers can access the templates through their Web browsers, and the company can create efficient workflow processes. In the case of vacation requests, the process is now initiated, reviewed, and approved through a Web browser on the intranet.

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: http://www.microsoft.com/

For more information about Exceed IT services products and services, call +971 2 678 1100 or visit the Web site at: http://www.exceed.ae/

For more information about Aspire Sports Academy products and services, visit the Web site at:
http://www.aspire.qa/

 

Microsoft Office System

The Microsoft Office system is the business world’s chosen environment for information work, providing the programs, servers, and services that help you succeed by transforming information into impact.

For more information about the Microsoft Office system, go to:
www.microsoft.com/office

Software and Services

• Microsoft Server Product Portfolio
  − Microsoft Exchange Server 2003
  − Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
  − Microsoft SQL Server 2000
  − Windows Server 2003   Microsoft Office
  − Microsoft Office Excel 2007
  − Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007
  − Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
• Technologies
  − Active Directory
  − Microsoft NT File System
  

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published November 2006