MICROSOFT .NET POWERS MALAYSIA GAMES SPORTS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

SITUATION

In the space of a few short years, WSL MSC Sdn Bhd has earned a reputation as a leading developer of sports management software in Malaysia. Established in 1999, the company relocated from its base in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, to Cyberjaya in the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) after it was awarded MSC-status.

Previously known as Technology WSL Sdn Bhd, the company is also a distributor of sports score boards and information display boards. Its score boards are also exported to markets such as Germany, China, Brazil and Dominican Republic.

In the late 1990’s, the company’s management led by CEO Wilsen Leong saw the growth potential of sports management solutions particularly as Malaysia hosted prestigious sports events like the 1997 Fifa World Youth Cup and the Commonwealth Games in 1998. WSL started to focus its development efforts in this area and has since capitalized on its potential, ensuring a bright future for the company.

In 2002, WSL had the distinction of receiving a rare ministerial accolade from the then Malaysian Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Hishamuddin Tun Hussein. He commented that WSL’s sports management system used in the Malaysia Games (Sukma) in Sabah was a “system better than that used in the SEA Games” (hosted by Malaysia in 2001).

The country’s biggest multi-sports event, Sukma is held once every two years and draws between 7,000 and 10,000 athletes and contingent officials representing all the states in Malaysia.

In recent years, Sukma organizers realized the importance of having an integrated solution given that the event is a massive undertaking. In terms of logistics, the organizers have to handle approximately 20,000 athletes, volunteers, officials and press personnel spread over 60 locations.

The IT-related problems which plagued many sport events presented a golden opportunity for WSL. A Microsoft Certified Partner, WSL won the contract to develop and deploy an integrated sports management system under the Microsoft platform for the Sukma IX held in Sabah.

“Sabah was the first multi-games event in the region to implement a total sports management system, not only for the various sports but for the logistics aspects as well,” says WSL Project Manager Ndrew Teng.

For the Sabah Sukma, WSL developed a multimedia sports management system (MS2) comprising some 45 modules covering everything from games results, logistics, transportation, accommodation, registration, schedules, security, broadcast, scoreboard integration and websites.

“We designed MS2 to be integrated, to enable sharing of information between the organizing committees and to improve their productivity and efficiency. By integrating it, less human resources is required and paperwork can be cut down,” he adds

The MS2 system worked very well during the games and impressed officials from the Sabah Government and the Sports Ministry. In light of its success in Sabah, WSL was awarded the contract to develop the sports management system for the Sukma X to be held in Negeri Sembilan from May 28 to June 6, 2004.


SOLUTION

For the Sukma in Negeri Sembilan, WSL had to deliver an enhanced version of MS2 with increased functionalities and features. This time, the system was expanded to massive 55 modules instead of the 45 modules used during the previous games.

Teng says that additional modules were included because the 23 organizing sub-committees requested for it after noticing the richness of the information stored in the games databases.

The MS2 system has 33 game modules for each individual sport while the logistics-related modules cover areas like security, accreditation, transport, food and beverage, accommodation, schedules, medical services, broadcasting, media gateway, human resources, MIS, SMS, budget and finance, and inventory.

The web modules include the official games website, internal websites as well as websites for PDA users. The integration module consists of system to equipment integration for sports hardware such as timing devices, photo finishing (for athletes) and touch pads (for swimmers).

For example, the games timing equipment will be integrated with MS2. “Integration will eliminate the problem of inaccurate or delayed results.”

“Under our solution, the scoreboard vendors will retrieve information on the starting list from our database. Their finishing equipment will capture the athletes’ timing and export it to our system. So there is total integration. They will get names and contingent details from our system, and we will get their timings.

“Results will be published on the scoreboard in less then one second. Our target is to capture any official results on our websites within one minute,” he adds.

About 400 PCs will be used at the 60 game venues, games villages and the games secretariat in the state capital of Seremban. The Sukma X .NET system will be connected to the secretariat through a 2.2MB line.

Microsoft applications deployed under the MS2 solution include Microsoft Server 2003, Microsoft ISA 2000, Exchange Server 2003, SQL Server 2000 and Microsoft Server Web Edition. Visual Studio.NET was the development tool used to fast track the development of the modules.

Teng says all the MS2 modules were developed under the Microsoft .NET Framework because “our company has a policy to implement the latest technology available.” The Sabah Sukma modules were developed using Visual Basic 6.

“.NET has a lot of new features and capabilities, so we decided to redevelop the modules on .NET to take advantage of it,” says Teng, adding that WSL had signed up for Microsoft’s .NET Connected Programme.

Work on “redeveloping” the MS2 system started in July last year and all 55 modules were completed in March 2004. During that period, WSL set up base in Seremban and had about 45 developers working on the project.


BENEFITS

MS2 Eliminates 550 Data Entry Jobs
The integration capability provided by MS2 on the .NET platform allows the sharing of information across all the modules, and virtually eliminates the process of data entry among the various committees and sports associations.

“With the MS2 system, productivity is increased tremendously as a lot of the manual processes are eliminated. Information is shared among the various committees and double data entry is eliminated.”

Teng estimates this has eliminated a total of about 550 data entry staff compared to previously where each committee and association needed to employ about 10 data entry staff.

Apart from the huge savings in staff costs, the integrated solution also cuts down on the hardware requirements. “If three PCs were to be provided to each of the 55 committees and associations for data entry, MS2 has managed to reduce PC requirements by 165 units,” adds Teng.

Easy and Flexible Development
Building a tightly integrated solution with 55 modules within a relatively short time frame presented a major challenge to WSL. However, in the.NET Framework, the company embraced a platform that was not only highly flexible but also made the development process so much easier.

In terms of debugging, Teng says Visual Studio .NET was much easier for the developers compared to Visual Basic 6, which was the development tool used for the previous version of MS2.

“The debugging tool is more efficient and sophisticated and the system was able to summarize where the codes went wrong. This speeds up the development process. Visual Basic could do that but it was not so detailed.”

Teng adds that Visual Studio.NET also provides drag drop of forms, set properties, and attached codes that assist the company’s developers in the development process. In addition, there are more resources such as components, libraries, help tools, and server controls which are a great help to the developers.

In organizing a major sports event like the Malaysia Games, the organizers invariably request for functionalities to be added to the sports management solution, even at a very late stage of development.

“We try our best to meet it because WSL emphasizes on customer satisfaction. We have managed to do that as.NET allows for this flexibility,” Teng explains. “This has made our customers happy,” he adds.

Substantial Cost Savings with .NET
WSL also enjoyed the benefits of a faster development process because .NET technologies provides for extensive sharing of codes and reuse of Windows application codes for Web applications.

“.NET allows us to share codes among similar modules, such as for combat sports, and this increases productivity,” Teng says, adding that the source codes are shorter and easier to write.

By allowing reuse of Window application codes for Web applications, .NET has dispensed with the need to recode 33 web application codes for the games modules.

“.NET’s built in support for Wireless framework also eliminates two mobile protocols which we would have had to develop for the two mobile PDA applications.”

“The server controls in .NET eliminates the need to write Web scripts for Web applications. Since there are 55 modules for Sukma 2004, that means there are 55 less Web scripts which we have to write,” explains Teng.

Microsoft - the Ideal Platform
When it came to selecting the right platform for MS2, WSL did not have to agonize over the decision before opting to continue with Microsoft.

“Our developers are well versed with the Microsoft platform. Compared to the Microsoft platform, other platforms are quite complex and coding took longer and was more tedious.”

And from a business aspect, developers specializing in other programming languages are two to three time more expensive than Microsoft developers, Teng says.

“The Microsoft platform is also easier to deploy. Most of the operating systems which we use are from Microsoft, so it made sense to develop the MS2 on .NET. It basically eliminates any potential for conflicts and complications.”

Just as important was the fact that most of the sports councils, associations and bodies are also using the Microsoft platform. As most end users are familiar with Microsoft applications, it was easier to train them to use the MS2 modules which have the familiar Windows interface.

Given that staff from the 23 organizing committees and 30-odd sports associations needed to be trained, any reduction in the training time was a major boost for WSL.

“Having modules developed on the Microsoft platform definitely makes the training process easier. For example, a recent training session for one of the modules took us just half a day instead of the full-day originally allocated,” says Teng.

Teng says that the MS2 development process proceeded smoothly and on schedule, and he attributed it largely to the use of Microsoft technologies.

Last Updated: Tuesday, December 14, 2004