Howzat for service
Howzat for service
Cricket Australia (formally known as the Australian Cricket Board) plans to dramatically improve its communication with the Australian cricket community when the sport launches a new intranet site in the coming months.
The intranet site will help create a 'virtual cricket community', allowing elite players, state associations, staff and officials to communicate more effectively with each other, particularly while on the road. The aim is to extend the intranet solution to all cricket clubs within Australia over the next 12 months.
It will provide a single point of contact for cricket's stakeholders to access anywhere in the world at anytime.
Developed using software by enterprise Web application company Vignette, the intranet site will commence operation during the first half of the 2003-04 cricket season.
Cricket Australia Chief Executive Officer, James Sutherland, said the intranet formed a key plank in enabling the organisation to achieve its strategic objectives in both the entertainment and game development aspects of its operations.
"As the game of cricket continues to grow with more participants, coaches, volunteers and administrators involved across the country, the challenge is to ensure we are communicating key information as efficiently as possible as we work toward the same goals," said Sutherland.
"The intranet presents an ideal platform to address that communication challenge. It's an easy and cost effective way to provide a much better service to stakeholders within the cricket community.
"Through the intranet, cricket's stakeholders will be able to access the resources and information that they need to make them more productive."
Developing a comprehensive and consistent intranet site is a crucial part of Cricket Australia's three-year strategic plan, which advocates leveraging technology to actively support the development of the game.
The intranet site will enable Cricket Australia and state associations to deliver game development products and programs to the cricket community - from elite to grass roots levels.
Cricket Australia General Manager of Legal and Business, Andrew Twaits, said the intranet site would give state and territory associations the ability to communicate more efficiently with their own stakeholders.
"While there will be generic content and a basic look and feel of the site that creates a brand connection to Australian cricket, each state and territory association can publish localised content and create their own sub-sites within a certified framework.
"Cricket Australia and the member associations will retain control of the day-to-day administration and content updates. However, one of the key strengths of the Vignette product is that with some basic training, select staff can publish material in various sections of the intranet without the assistance of specialist web content consultants.
"This is one of the key features of the software developed by Vignette, who offered Cricket Australia the best intranet solution to meet our needs and requirements," said Twaits.
The intranet site will be launched as a pilot in the initial stages, primarily focusing on serving Cricket Australia and state association staff, players and officials. As the solution evolves, additional stakeholder groups will be included.
The long-term goal is to extend the solution at a local level so that people interested in playing cricket can find their nearest club, learn about the club's activities and potentially join online.
"We are acutely aware of the increasing burden being placed on volunteers involved in the running of the game at grass roots, and one of our highest priorities is to leverage the intranet to reduce the time and money involved in running a cricket club," said Twaits.
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