Interview with Gustavo González, Digital Business Transformation Director at Girona Futbol Club.
The recent model of clubs relying on video rights, player trade and ticketing has taken a serious hit in the current ecosystem. Clubs have been obliged to look beyond those traditional sources of income and digital transformation has become key for football clubs, as it allows them to grow at a fast pace in certain areas and it opens the door to new revenue streams.
Strategies to diversify revenue streams are not restricted to leading clubs in the industry; every sports organization can start its digital transformation at its respective stage. Through this series of articles, we seek to spotlight the initiatives and projects of the clubs that make up the sports ecosystem.
For this new interview, we are pleased to receive Gustavo Gonzalez, Digital Business Transformation Director at Girona FC, a historical club in the Spanish football leagues. Gustavo has led digital strategies focused on data-driven decision-making and rolled out cutting-edge innovative initiatives.
Digital transformation process at Girona FC
Leading digital transformation within every organization has become key: what does it mean for a football club such as Girona FC?
The Digital Business Transformation for Girona FC means maximizing its resources and moving away from the traditional ways of doing business while putting the fan at the center of the development of strategies to bring revenue to our organization. Our idea is to provide a service that will make our fan’s lives easier when interacting with the club. With that said, our Digital Business Transformation Strategy is supported by four pillars, which are our Digital Strategic Objectives:
Best-in-class Fans Experience: Build the Best-In-class fan experience integrated in all channels with the highest quality standards.
Digital First: Convert the digital channel into the preferred channel for the relationship and interaction with fans, followers, partners, employees, suppliers, and shareholders to improve the quality of services, transparency, and Club’s operations.
Data First: Develop a Datification-based management model which integrates automated processes, unified data, and digitalized information through an open system architecture to improve operational efficiency.
New Digital Business Models: Create new digital business models to convert followers into ambassadors of GIRONA FC’s brand and make impact with data-based additional revenues.
How did the club approach digital transformation? What was the trigger, and what is your implementation strategy?
The club recognised the need to build a fan-centric strategy and use it as a change lever for the optimisation of its internal operations model. At the same time, the management team was facing the challenge of transforming the club into an organisation that emotionally links its fans, partners, stakeholders and the region, all while also aiming to be competitive in the top category of Spanish professional football.
We first identified that the existing processes were not generating the impact needed to take the club to the next level, and after a deep analysis of the club in each of its transformation levers (clients and fans, processes, culture, operational model, technology, and data), we created a first approach of action items to be implemented, focused on the following:
Digital Maturity Assessment
Strategic and tactical digital business transformation roadmap.
Digital transformation of the omnichannel fan experience through the Emotional Fan Experience index.
Design and deployment of the data-driven unified customer / fan view in all touchpoints.
Operations optimization: Process simplification and automation through a BPM platform and an ecosystem of applications.
Design and deployment of GDPR program management office.
Creation of the Mobile App and the gamification strategy to improve fan engagement.
Datification of all processes through the APIfication of our digital services.
Design of the strategic and tactical reporting model.
How is the club structured and organized to lead this process? And personally, what are your duties and responsibilities within this process?
The club introduced the role of Digital Business Transformation Director to lead the Digital Business Transformation area. From planning to guiding to implementing and continuous innovation, the Digital Business Transformation area operates as the transversal axis for the club working closely with external partners. To put it in simple words, Digital Business Transformation is present in almost all the processes within the club.
Have you encountered (or do you still encounter) some barriers/blocking points when you started implementing your digital strategy? If yes, what was the most challenging one?
Yes, there have been and there are barriers when you implement this kind of strategy. The most challenging barrier, aside from the limited resources to deploy the strategy, is the cultural challenge. The resistance to change is part of the human nature, but, that’s when guiding is crucial for the success of any initiatives within the Digital Business Transformation process, as people often think that by digitalizing processes it means that a system or an AI will replace them, which is not the case.
The Digital Business Transformation goal is to make the club more efficient. At the end of the day, it is essential to understand that Digital Business Transformation is not a project with a beginning and an end. Digital Business Transformation is a permanent state, constant new or further development and improvement of products, services and business models, constant testing, and learning.
You are never finished, because emerging technologies, platforms and applications keep appearing on the map that challenge the status quo.
Estadi Montilivi - Girona FC
Can you tell us about some initiatives you took and why it was important for the club?
Since we started our digital business transformation journey in 2018, we have deployed more than 33 initiatives with almost 180 digitalized processes, some of which have a strong impact for the club and the fans. The beauty of all these initiatives is that they continue to evolve, just like the digital business transformation itself, they never finish, they are continuously in motion.
To share some of the initiatives that have had the most impact for our fans after being deployed, following our Roadmap and our Digital Ecosystem, I would number:
Girona FC Mobile App: The mobile app provides our club and our fans with the perfect channel to communicate. In the mobile app, our fans can perform a wide range of actions, from something as simple as getting the latest news about the club to creating a profile to become members. Additionally, members can carry out all their transactions with the club in one place, for example, order food at the stadium during a match day, release their seat, give out their season ticket to another person, know their match attendance history, customize their delivery addresses for orders in the online store, modify their member and subscriber cards and pictures, and choose their preferences in our privacy center, among others.
At the same time, our members don’t even have to worry about not carrying money with them, as in the app we have included a wallet so our members can buy any product or service from the club with just one tap. With the season ticket digital card, our season tickets holders can enter the stadium during match days without needing to present a physical card.
Electronic Signature: We implemented the electronic signature which has simplified all the documentation and contract signing process while also allowing us to lower our operative costs. At the same time this process complies with all the requirements mandated by the authorities.
Annual Membership Renewal: Formerly, a process that was done manually in which the members had to make a line at the stadium ticket stalls to then enter their information using pen and paper so they could get their membership card. For this process, the club would hire temporary staff to complete the task, a task that represented a big financial burden for the club. We then implemented the electronic membership/renewal.
The process works in the following way: when it is the first time accessing this feature, the member must create his/her online user profile and enter the corresponding information (name, address, method of payment). Once the profile is created and all the information is entered, the member will have his/her membership card already stored in the ecosystem of applications and the renewal will take place automatically every year unless the member decides not to renew the membership. The membership card also has the member´s photo.
The application ecosystem also gives the member the option to print a PDF copy or get an actual card for a fee. The best part of this entire process is that it is synchronized with LaLiga systems, which means that we are integrating two processes of member identification into one.
Membership Area: Our GIRONA FC Online Platform is a space that perfectly summarizes all the touchpoints in which the club and the fans interact. We went from a bunch of manual processes that required a big operational and time-consuming effort for the club and the fans to an effortless, efficient area that covers the following processes:
Online Member Identification.
Member personal data update.
PIN retrieval.
Ticket Sales for visitor clubs.
Become a member.
Member card renewal
Become a season ticket holder.
Wait list for season ticket holders.
Season ticket seat relocation: Individual and groups.
Season ticket holder lend.
Free up seat for each match.
Online ticketing sales platform.
Free tickets for third parties (sponsors, employees, scouting).
Automatic invoicing for ticketing process.
Season ticket financing.
Complaints and suggestions.
Cancel season ticket.
Grouping for reduced seating capacity.
Tickets for away games.
Girona FC Mobile Application
From a broader perspective, digital transformation is not limited to top clubs and can be applied to any club seeking to do so, but it requires a certain process and methodology. From your perspective, what are the key things to be considered/implemented and main challenges that less wealthier clubs face in implementing this strategy?
When implementing a Digital Business Transformation Strategy there are several key things to consider, including but not limited to:
The business transformation objectives: which in our case are:
Emotionally link the club to the fans.
Digitally transform the fan experience.
Achieve operational excellence.
Assess the current digital landscape: It covers the current digital capabilities, infrastructure, and resources. This is crucial to determining where you need to improve and where you can build on your existing strengths.
Build a roadmap: This has proven to be the keystone for any digital business transformation, and we built it to manage our digital strategy in a coherent manner.
Leverage data: Data is the heart of digital transformation, so it is important to leverage data to gain insights into fan behavior, player performance, and other key areas such as commercial and partnership.
Measure and evaluate: It is important to measure and evaluate the success of the Digital Transformation Strategy. Setting measurable and realistic KPIs will always help the club identify areas where it has been successful and areas where the strategy needs improvements.
Regarding the challenges, aside from situations related to budget, access to additional funds, or proper infrastructure that could limit the progress or implementation of the Digital Business Transformation, the major stopper to building a digital, sustainable club ecosystem, despite the obvious cultural change, is the necessary expertise and experience, which usually mean a major upheaval for the club.
People usually consider that digital transformation requires significant investment (human, financial, time). However, to start building foundations and a first strategy and roadmap, it does not necessarily have to imply large investment. In other words, with a smaller budget, we can also digitally transform organizations. How does a club with financial constraints and limited budget handle digital transformation? What exactly can they do and what is key for you?
Digital Transformation is about optimizing resources, including your budget. The key to implementing a Digital Transformation with budget constraints is focusing on first reshaping and creating new processes. By doing so, you have a solid foundation to properly allocate your resources—a quick win, as we like to call it—which we have experienced at our own club. To list some of those quick wins:
Roles and responsibilities definition for end-to-end processes ownership
Fan Journey Map definition
GDPR Program Management Office and SaaS Platform
Implementation of digital signature process and SaaS platform for the Legal Area
GIRONA FC Online Digital Platform connected to LaLiga systems and the mobile App in real-time.
Financial constraints do not necessarily mean a bad thing when facing situations such as the Digital Business Transformation, as diversification and innovation play a major role while undergoing such a process. To give you some examples of what we have implemented:
The use of an open architecture model and software, which can not only be customized to the club´s needs but it can also be cost efficient.
Invest either in training programs for the staff or hire new employees with digital expertise.
Partner with technology vendors and use a shared resource model which can give you the chance to not only have access to resources that the club may not have in house but can provide access to the expertise side of the business. A win-win situation.
Alongside your position at Girona FC, you are also a strategic advisor in Digital Business Transformation. How do you perceive digital transformation in sports compared to other industries? What could football clubs learn from other companies?
Through my more than 25 years of working in business transformation, I really think that the sports industry is a sector with a huge margin for improvement because the resources allocated in the digital business transformation area of most clubs are considerably lower than the ones allocated for other functional areas.
Considering that the digital business transformation is the cornerstone of the business transformation itself, it can only grow exponentially with the club. Remember that digital transformation seeks higher productivity, while simplifying processes, making them clearer and more transparent, to generate higher revenue for the club with customer satisfaction at the center of all its initiatives.
A key aspect to succeed in the digital business transformation for a football club, and that we have mentioned before, is the required expertise in the trade, with the understanding that such expertise requires a professionals that focuses on digitalization opportunities to help businesses overall performance, and these professionals must understand that we are moving from organizing a football match every fifteen days to managing the content explosion in the sports sector while carrying out business as any other company that is in the looks for ways to improve its income stream.
As of now, this expertise is rather lower in some professional clubs, but we are seeing a substantial improvement for the future, even more so when you read the news of important funds moving into the sports industry, which require more and more professionalization within the business area of a club and specifically within the digital transformation area.
Clubs can learn from other industries, that by digitally transforming and allocating resources to undergo such a transformation, they are moving into a stage that will allow them to not only survive the new era that we live in but to also maximize and potentiate the way they do business.
What pieces of advice would you like to give to football clubs or any digital manager who wants to start their digital transformation journey?
Based on my experience, I would suggest that you first get the unbinding commitment from the club’s board and shareholders. Once you achieve this, you can start working on the redefinition of roles within the organization and the end-to-end process ownership for each functional area. After you get this part of the process clear, the organization must move in the same direction as the objectives and the roadmap that were previously defined at the initial stage of the journey.
One other piece of advice that I would give is that the digital transformation should not be seen and understood as a merely technological impulse but as a business transformation in which technology is only one of the change levers that will carry out an impactful transformation for the club and that it will not stop once implemented. Like mentioned above, the digital transformation is not a project with a beginning and an end; it is continuously moving and evolving; otherwise, it becomes irrelevant and obsolete.