Enterprise Systems in the NFL: an In-Depth Look at the San Francisco 49Ers Partnership with SAP
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Journal of Economics, Business and Management, Vol. 5, No. 6, June 2017 Enterprise Systems in the NFL: An In-depth Look at the San Francisco 49ers Partnership with SAP D. Lance Revenaugh An in-depth look into how ERP works and how the San Abstract—This paper examines the relationship between the Francisco 49ers operate using ERP for competitive advantage American National Football League (NFL) and the impact and will be analyzed and described in this paper. In addition, influence of Enterprise Systems (ES). Specifically, the global SAP (the leading global ERP system vendor) will be leader in ES, SAP, and their new and extensive relationship analyzed related to how ERP and the NFL came together to with the San Francisco 49ers are examined. Results show that Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are not limited to create a successful environment to make the owners of the supporting only standard business operations. SAP and other 49ers more money by increasing the organization’s success Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) vendors appear to be a both on and off the field. major part of the future for the American National Football (NFL) league and professional sports teams worldwide. The San Francisco 49ers are the pioneers of ERP in American football II. INTRODUCTION TO ERP and it appears that most of the NFL teams are following the 49ers lead. From the draft to the Super Bowl, American football ERP systems are becoming ubiquitous in the corporate is evolving, and so are Enterprise Systems. world. They also continue to penetrate the small- and medium-sized company as firms like SAP and Oracle go after Index Terms—Business analytics, enterprise systems, these large markets [3]. Although the benefits of these information management, sports management. systems are many, businesses today seem to be moving toward this technology primarily because the systems are considered to be a source of competitive advantage, or at least I. INTRODUCTION a way to keep up with the competition. However, these Enterprise systems are becoming more and more popular systems bring with them their share of problems. in the business world because of their practical use and their Implementing these systems usually involves a significant overall boost to company performance [1]. Nearly every amount of process change and often dictates changes in company in the top 1000 globally use an enterprise or ERP organizational structure [4]. In fact, many ERP system. ERP systems can have a strong influence on how implementations are used as a means for re-engineering the business processes are carried out. Consider a living room firm [5]. Management has a big role in the success and entertainment center as an example for how an ERP system acceptance of these systems. As with the other technologies works. There is a remote for the cable TV box, one for the mentioned, the business process redesign inherent in ERP stereo, another for the stereo receiver, the DVD player, the implementations requires major technical, organizational, television, and even the lights in the room. They all have and cultural change. The biggest associated challenge is separate purposes, yet they all contribute to the overall fostering a new culture and managing the changes with entertainment experience. Consider the entertainment consistency and coordination [6], [7]. experience to be a business. An ERP system creates a When implementing information systems, there are universal system for every department (remotely) and usually two paths to take: adapting the inherent process to the integrates them in a way that appears to be one cohesive people, or the people to the process. The former view stresses process. people as a firm’s fundamental resource, while the latter view When it comes to the National Football League (NFL) emphasizes consistency and coordination of corporate-wide organization, there are many departments as well, most of information. Neither path has been proven better, however. them unseen by the general public [2]. The players and More frequently today, these large ERP systems, which are coaches can be seen on TV, usually on Sundays, but what designed around best practices, are being used as a facilitator makes the entire organization function the rest of the time? of change in companies. This point is supported by Dwight Other activities include the front office management, the Klappich, vice president of industry marketing at Ross scouting team, the practice squads, and the game planning for Systems Inc. of Atlanta: “The key thing when you look at the each game. All of these departments are inter-related into the success or failure of software implementation is whether the strategy of where teams place themselves currently, as well client is implementing software or are they implementing as where they want to go in the future. This analysis is often change within their business” [8]. referred to as As-Is and To-Be process evaluation and is critical to the success of both NFL teams and sports teams in general. III. SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS ORGANIZATION American football seems like a simple staff of players, Manuscript received October 10, 2016; revised December 13, 2016. coaches, and managers. This view is incomplete, however. D. Lance Revenaugh is with the Business and IT Department, Montana Tech University, USA (e-mail: [email protected]). Excluding the players, there is an average of eight key doi: 10.18178/joebm.2017.5.6.518 231 Journal of Economics, Business and Management, Vol. 5, No. 6, June 2017 management employees in each teams’ front office. business world. Another comparison to the real business Examples of these positions include: the owner, world is that the NFL, like in a real market, have top president/CEO, director of pro personnel, director of college contenders (market leaders) along with many other lesser scouting, as well as other positions (see Fig. 1) [9]. The front “competitors.” With the force of the market, there can be a office is in charge of hiring and controlling the staff below new leader of that market (winning team) by the end of each them which are mostly coaches. These coaches cover the year [14]. head coach, special teams, strength and conditioning, and every position on the field. Fig. 1 shows the current 2016 staff for the San Francisco 49ers. IV. INTRODUCTION TO SAP Headquartered in Walldorf, Germany, and with locations San Francisco 49ers staff in more than 130 countries, SAP AG is the world leader in enterprise software and software-related services. SAP Front Office Defensive Coaches provides many services including: Business Applications, Co-Chairman – Denise DeBartolo York Defensive Coordinator – Jim O'Neil Co-Chairman – John York Defensive Line – Jerry Azzinaro Database and Technology, Analytics, Cloud Technology, and Chief Executive Officer – Jed York Assistant Defensive Line – Vince Co-Owner – Gideon Yu Oghobaase Mobile Technologies [15]-[18]. The company's best-known President – Al Guido Inside Linebackers – Joe Bowden Chief Strategy Officer/Executive Vice President Outside Linebackers – Jason Tarver software products are its enterprise resource planning of Football Operations – Paraag Marathe Defensive Backs – Jeff Hafley Chief Operating Officer – Ethan Casson Assistant Defensive Backs – Roy application systems and management (SAP ERP), its General Manager – Trent Baalke Anderson Senior Personnel Executive – Tom Gamble Defensive Quality Control – Tem enterprise data warehouse product – SAP Business Director of Pro Personnel – Mike Williams Lukabu Assistant Director of Pro Personnel - Quentus Special Teams Coaches Warehouse (SAP BW), SAP Business Objects software, and Cumby Special Teams Coordinator – Derius Director of College Scouting – Matt Malaspina Swinton II most recently, Sybase mobile products and in-memory Director of Football Administration & Assistant Special Teams – Michael Analytics – Brian Hampton Clay computing appliance SAP HANA. Head Coaches Strength and Conditioning Head Coach – Chip Kelly Director of Human Performance - SAP competitors are primarily in the Enterprise Resource Offensive Coaches Mark Uyeyama Offensive Coordinator – Curtis Modkins Strength, Conditioning & Nutrition Planning Software industry. In this field, Oracle Corporation Quarterbacks – Ryan Day Assistant - Kurt Schmidt Running Backs – Tom Rathman Assistant Strength & Conditioning - is SAP’s major competitor [19]. SAP also competes in the Wide Receivers – Bob Bicknell Brian Johnson Tight Ends – Jeff Nixon Strength & Conditioning Assistant - Customer Relationship Management, Marketing & Sales Offensive Line – Pat Flaherty David Young Assistant Offensive Line – Eric Wolford Strength & Conditioning Assistant - Software, Manufacturing, Warehousing & Industrial Taylor Johnson Offensive Quality Control – Mick Lombardi Software, and Supply Chain Management & Logistics Software sectors. The graphic below (Fig. 2) shows the Fig. 1. San Francisco 49ers Staff 2016 [9]. market share that SAP holds in comparison to the other vendors from 2010. There is a very high turnover rate in the NFL in the management of staff. More than likely the staff in one year will not be the same the next [10]. With performance of the teams being so crucial and each position and spot on the staff being watched over so closely, coaches and staff look for better opportunities with other teams or look for higher contracts. Contract work is what every coach, excluding the front office, works under. On the other hand, contracts can