Background
Since 1871 the Rugby Football Union (RFU) has been working hard for the game of rugby. It is the governing body for the game in England and membership has grown to approximately 1,600 clubs. To administer every facet of the game, the RFU currently has over three hundred permanent staff.
Every year there are over 200,000 games played under the auspices of the RFU. There are also approximately 3,000 schools affiliated to the England Rugby Football Schools Union and the Rugby Football Union invested £19.6M in the Community game last year. At the pinnacle of the sport is the England Rugby team which plays at Twickenham. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 2003.
RugbyFirst
Over the last few years, the RFU has developed a strategy for world class administration of the game. The culmination of the strategy was a decision to embark on a project to build one of the most modern sports administration systems in the world. The system, called RugbyFirst, was developed by First Sport International.
RugbyFirst is a game-wide, internet-based tool to help run rugby at all levels. It holds the details of more than half a million coaches, referees, players and volunteers. Moreover, RugbyFirst also provides each club with a web site which it can use to promote itself and communicate with its members and supporters.
The Challenge
The RFU recognised from the outset that one of the key factors in the success of the RugbyFirst system was going to be the level of take up by the users. As Steve Elliott, Head of IT at RFU said, “it was always clear that it was important for us to get clubs using the new system as soon as possible. Therefore a programme to inform, train and support the users was a vital element of the project.”
Why Modcomp?
Modcomp met with Steve Elliott to discuss the RugbyFirst project in Spring 2006. Recognising that the roll-out process was clearly a significant Change Management programme, Modcomp assigned one of Modcomp's senior associate consultants and a specialist in Change Management, to analyse the problem. Modcomp impressed the RFU with their ideas and their approach to this project and the RFU therefore asked Modcomp to produce a strategy for cascading knowledge of the system through the organisation.
The Solution
Modcomp delivered the strategy to the RFU a few weeks later. The strategy was based on classifying the clubs on the basis of early adopters or those who were probably going to take longer to start using the system. The objective was to get as many users as possible on the system and hence build momentum behind the take-up. With thousands of possible users it was clearly unrealistic to train each and every user so Modcomp produced a plan for cascading learning through the organisation. The key to this was to identify ‘regional champions’ around the country. The champions were senior people in the Rugby community who could be trained thoroughly on the system and who in turn would cascade knowledge through the community. The champions would train senior users in each of the clubs and they, in turn, would be able to advise and train individual users.
Steve Elliott of RFU again, “The strategy that Modcomp produced seemed logical and achievable. Importantly, it also met our budget and tight timescales.”
Implementation of the Plan
As the materials came together and an eLearning provider was selected, Modcomp started planning the process of delivering training for the designated regional champions. The RFU membership is volunteer-based; therefore, the training had to be provided at a time and location which would suit the busy schedules of the volunteer champions. Modcomp managed the process of selecting dates, and locations which would meet both the requirements of the trainees and the budget of the RFU.
Finally the training material was ready and the eLearning package delivered. The Modcomp team then set out to travel the country delivering training in readiness for the imminent go-live date. The good news was that all training was delivered on time, and the champions were in place on the date the system went live.
Conclusion
The strategy set out by Modcomp at the outset proved effective in delivering an important Change Management programme. The team itself worked hard to produce materials and quick reference guides to very tight timescales and with minimal impact on the testing and final acceptance process of the RugbyFirst system. In short, Modcomp achieved the objectives and helped prepare the foundation for a successful roll-out of the RugbyFirst system.
Steve Elliott, Head of IT at the RFU said, “The strategy proposed by Modcomp was intuitive and realistic, and I’m pleased to say that the implementation was effective and thorough. The work of the Modcomp team clearly contributed to a successful project. The RugbyFirst system is vitally important for the future of rugby in England and, as with all major organisation-wide applications of this kind, will be most effective if it is used by all stakeholders. I believe Modcomp have made a significant contribution to ensuring that the system will be quickly adopted and widely used.”
About Modcomp
Founded in 1970, Modcomp has been providing data acquisition and system integration solutions for over thirty years, to a wide variety of markets as diverse as retail, financial, government, aerospace, energy, utilities, factory automation, broadcast and communications. Modcomp is an international company with a world-class reputation for bringing quality, high-performance innovations to its customers.