SEAT 2016 Digital Maturity Assessment™ Summary and Results
by: Isabelle Perreault
How leaders in the sports and entertainment industry approach change deemed more challenging than the tools and technologies they choose to adopt
Stratford Managers Corporation conducted the 2nd annual Digital Maturity Assessment™ as part of the Sports and Entertainment Alliance in Technology (SEAT) conference held in Las Vegas this past July 18-20, 2016. Building a common vision with organization-wide collaboration is still the top challenge in driving digital performance according to the leaders in the Sports and Entertainment Industry.
Results also demonstrated that:
- The majority of the teams and venues feel they have strong digital channel strategies (email, website, social media) but only 16% said there is an enterprise digital vision, owned and communicated by the Executive team. This speaks to the challenge of aligning the digital channel strategies to the corporate strategy and the ability to demonstrate value.
- 57% say there is a high level of partner integration to improve customer service and fan experience but many teams (54%) are still struggling with platform integration and legacy systems. This will take time as many organizations have adopted systems and platforms, sometimes in silos or in haste, in order to meet rising consumer demands.
- The current inability to have a single view of the fan/ customer is seen as a key barrier to improved business performance for many organization leaders. An integrated data and analytics strategy is seen as a foundational investment for almost all sports and entertainment organizations dominating the strategic plan for 2016-17.
An unspoken, an often unaddressed, underlying symptom at the root of many of these challenges is organizational readiness. The ability to identify and capitalize on immediate opportunities while also building a longer term vision and making the foundational investments required in data and platform integration requires thorough strategic planning and understanding what will drive value for the fan and the business. Similarly, managing the customer experience across multiple touch points from physical to digital requires changes in processes and workflows and a cross collaborative team focused on improving the overall journey as opposed to small segments of it.
As one sports leader remarked:
“The real challenge is not actually technology but rather how you adapt to and lead change”
The assessment was completed by digital and technology leaders from the National Hockey League, Major League Soccer, Major League Baseball, National Football League as well as college sports and venues. SEAT is the largest Sports and Entertainment technology conference held annually in the U.S. and Europe.