Flamengo is the first club in South America to implement SAP Sports One

Bayern Munich and Manchester City, the German and English champions, are already using the software that will drive the digital transformation of their football clubs.

By Flamengo Communication - in 30/11/2018 às 09:00

Flamengo has signed a contract with SAP, a German software development company, to implement the Sports One solution, a football management platform used by major international teams such as Bayern Munich and Manchester City, the current German and English champions, respectively. The Rio de Janeiro club is the first to adopt Sports One in South America. The project is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2019.

The Sports One platform will allow Flamengo to digitize performance management, coordinate training, administrative, financial, accounting, medical, team management, and data analysis processes in a single environment. Data collection for input into the system is done through Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, which provide the club with information for constant database updates. This cross-references different types of data to provide the coaching staff with a comprehensive overview of the team's actual conditions, such as the status of a player's injury and the ability to review plays from previous matches. Furthermore, information can be securely sent to a group or individual through the system's own communication tool.

Flamengo's Vice President of Information Technology, Luiz Filipe Teixeira, says that implementing the software at the club is a long-held dream.

"For three years, we worked hard to build the capacity, infrastructure, and processes to adopt new technologies that could deliver better results for Flamengo's football and Olympic sports. In 2016, we defined Sports One as the goal, but first, we needed to create processes within a consistent technology plan. We were able to go far beyond creating a technology department that meets the club's back-office needs with the implementation of SAP and also create a technology strategy that provides us with information based on data generated by athletes during training and matches. It is with immense satisfaction that we announce another partnership, this one unprecedented in South America. We hope that in 2019 we can reap the rewards of this investment in the form of titles. My wish is for Flamengo to continue to be a benchmark for Brazilian sports to grow and develop even further," said the Flamengo executive.

"For SAP, it's an honor to be able to contribute to Flamengo's digital transformation. These days, those who don't stay up-to-date are left behind, and the team with the biggest fan base in Brazil must always be ahead of the curve," says Denis Tassitano, Sales Director at SAP Brazil. "The Rio de Janeiro club is the first in the country to bring the solution that elevates the level of major teams and national teams around the world to its daily operations, adding another resource to the quest for major titles," he adds.

SAP Sports One operates on five pillars: Team Management, which coordinates the overall administration of team profiles, players, calendars, and talent management, and serves as a hub for all other features; Match Insights, a software that works primarily with images: the system captures player movements, draws lines between them, records the history of the area covered on the field, and so on. The solution also includes Challenger Insights, a more recently added solution that consolidates opponents' technical and tactical characteristics. And, to manage the development of its own players, Performance Insights records technical information on player performance throughout matches, while Player Fitness (image) manages their physical performance, measuring fatigue levels, treatments used, and injury history, and is used by the medical team.

This is the second stage of the partnership between the company and the club: Flamengo already uses SAP S/4HANA, a platform that digitizes club management processes, such as material inflows and outflows from training centers, contract and labor law management, product and medication inventory, and more. This improves business management flows, ensuring better governance and administrative transparency, productivity gains, and savings of up to 80% in time and resources spent on bureaucratic processes.

*Updated on 03/12/2018, 11:22 am