Bristol IT Company merged with MDS Technologies to become Assured Digital Technologies in April 2020.
Background
British Rowing is the governing body for the sport of rowing (both indoor rowing and rowing on water). They are committed to ensuring that the sport continues to thrive from the grassroots right up to winning medals at the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Challenge
Bristol IT Company had been working with the Amateur Rowing Association (ARA) since 1990 and continued offering services after their change of name to British Rowing, providing a wide range of IT solutions including bespoke software application development and regulatory reporting to help meet organisation’s specific requirements. Applications developed included complex rules and regulations governing the sport of rowing, and provided digital infrastructures to help manage hundreds of rowing events and regattas, and tens of thousands of national and international members within a club-based culture . They needed a new online entry platform which would allow clubs from around the world to enter British Rowing competitions, and would include the new British Rowing Competition Framework and award system whilst co-existing with the existing British Rowing admin tools and reports, as well as providing a wide range of other features and functionalities.
Solution
Bristol IT Company designed and developed an online web platform to sit on top of British Rowing’s existing database. This was developed using the latest Microsoft Web Development Stack, making use of open-source libraries to produce a clean, accessible front-end.
This new system allows all aspects of British Rowing competitions to be managed and maintained. Competition administrators have their own view where they can set up and run the competitions, through its several distinct stages. Included in this is the ability to upload the complete set of results for the competition, from which the system can calculate and allocate the necessary British Rowing Ranking Points to the individual rowers in accordance with the rules of racing and scoring policy.
Rowing club representatives also have their own tailored view of the system, from where they can see the race history of their members and also enter crews into upcoming competitions. The online entry section is integrated with third party payment services, so all payments (together with any refunds) can be processed securely via the new system.
In addition to the competition entry/management elements, extensive reporting tools have been built into the system to allow the club and competition administrators easy access to the relevant underlying data, for analysis or for recording purposes.
Result
The new system code-named British Rowing Online Entry System 2 (BROE2) was completed and rolled out in 2018, and was received positively by the membership and competition management teams across the country. Since that date it has so far been used to manage over 200 competitions, incorporating entries from over 135,000 crews. BROE2 has been acknowledged as a highly important and invaluable tool in helping British Rowing achieve its goals following the introduction of its new competition framework.
“It has been clear that your involvement has been integral to British Rowing getting this project over the line and by the agreed deadline.” …. “I wanted to thank you for your considerable assistance over the past couple of years. The project team speak very highly of you and I know, and I am sure will continue to, value your support and expertise.”
Head of Technology, British Rowing
