Testimonials and Quotations

International

"Esta solução tem inúmeras potencialidades e corresponde a grande parte das necessidades de um evento desportivo como o que organizamos. No entanto, quando há algo que não se encontra como gostaríamos, o Andy e a sua equipa encarregam-se de adequar com extrema ligeireza e proficiência.".

"This solution has great potential and addresses most of the needs of the sporting event we are organizing. And when something is not as we would like, Andy and his team take care of it extreme lightness and proficiency.".

Membership and federation management

"Reportlab really understand their technology and have followed the principles of good system, process and data design in the development of "OpenTrack". It has established data repositories of clubs and athletes, which are now being used for multiple applications in membership and competition management and the design is extendible to other European countries and more applications in grassroots athletics of use to national governing bodies, race organisers and athletics clubs. Moreover, Reportlab responded very quickly to our request to get the first version of the system into operation ready by the beginning of the year. The startup was carefully phased and each development tested in a separate environment so that we did not have major data hiccups or too many urgent fixes to system problems."

Membership secretary::

From: beattie david [mailto:beattieruns@blueyonder.co.uk] Sent: 30 April 2016 14:22 To: BMAF IT Manager IT@bmaf.info Cc: Arthur Kimber arthur.kimber@gmail.com; Walter Hill walterhelen@hotmail.co.uk Subject: Re: Reportlab and BMAF OpenTrack

Dear Peter,

The feedback I am getting from Southern Counties Veterans members is increasingly positive, as pieces of functionality get added to the new BMAF membership management and competition entries system.

Once a new member has entered his or her details, they are remarking how easy it is to enter competitions, see which new fixtures are coming up, and check on the entries in their chosen event.

The only delays revolve around human intervention, e.g. waiting for membership secretaries to move them from Pending status to Confirmed status, or having their EA registration number checked for validity.

In short, Reportlab are doing a great job for BMAF and the Area Masters Clubs!

Best Wishes

Dave Beattie

Road Running Secretary, Southern Counties Veterans AC.

End users

"Developing an athlete-proof system (a far higher standard than idiot-proof!) is the stated aim and even though we are not yet there, many techno-phobes and older athletes inexperienced with computers, find the system quick and easy for their use, once they have understood the access process, and grasped the complexity of masters athletics"

"Being a member of OpenTrack has made entering Masters' competitions much easier. Seeing what's coming up and getting good information has encouraged me to enter events, especially as the online payment system is quick and efficient. It's also great to be able to check who else has entered. Paying my annual membership subscription through the same account, and being sure that my personal details are correct, are other valuable features."

Team Managers

You may also wish to read a real discussion thread when one league secretary criticised our system….

"As a Team Manager of my club's Men's and Women's teams in the Surrey Cross Country leagues, my volunteer job has been made much easier by Reportlab's online registration and declaration system. I can do all the data entry from my laptop or phone, in advance. I can make changes quickly. No more hanging around on race-day wondering whether runners will turn up, then declaring them on scruffy paper sheets. The system is open and transparent, the results come out sooner and are much more accurate. I think this professional approach encourages people to participate and also to volunteer for official roles. Maggie Statham, Team Manager for Holland Sports AC Men's and Women's Cross Country teams in the Surrey Cross Country League."

"To be able to stand on the XC course yesterday and input additional entrants to my previously registered team, using my mobile phone, is fantastic"

From the perspective of a team manager of a division 4 club I have been really impressed with the new system and think it is very simple to use. (but I'm not compiling the scores). Hopefully gone are the days of completing declaration sheets in the wind and rain on a soggy piece of paper. Its so much easier doing the declarations by smart phone... it's a great step forward.

I found the new system easy to use....and I'm 69

Online entries

Unsolicited feedback::

From: Club Secretary VoAAC [mailto:generalsec@voaac.org.uk] Sent: 23 April 2016 11:50 To: ‘Steve Rooney’ s.rooney@martinnye.co.uk Cc: Graham Gorman grahamgorman2003@yahoo.co.uk; ‘peter hoare’ PETERJHOARE@talktalk.net Subject: To let you know…

The online entry system for the T&F bucks champs is great Steve.
I’ve no idea who found this site for you to use but thought you might like some positive feedback, very quick, very easy and a lot of people at our club are saying the same - thumbs up!

National body

Starting the “standards process” on our behalf::

Dean Hardman dhardman@englandathletics.org 1 Feb

to me, simon.fennell, terryjdixon, peter, Alan, webmaster, glen Dear all

Apologies for the “cold call”. My name is Dean and I work for England Athletics. I know many of you from various other roles (British Athletics League Chair, Sale Harriers Manchester team manager), but in this instance, with my EA hat on, I wanted to get in touch regarding results programmes and entry systems.

In recent months we have been corresponding with Andy Robinson (copied) of Report Lab, who provides a results service for Cross Country events in the Surrey area. Andy has also been working closely with the British Masters Athletics Federation on their entry systems and results programmes.

Andy and Report Lab have an interest in open data and sharing of best practice and to that end have been working on a project called OpenTrack (http://opentrack.run/), which is all about collaborating with each other to improve systems.

From an EA perspective, we encourage anything that has the potential to make the sport better and the lives easier for volunteers. I have therefore copied people into this email who I know have an interest in results and entry systems or who act as competition providers. Having spoken to Andy, we thought that there may be an opportunity for a virtual discussion on these topics. There is no obligation (it goes without saying) on anyone to be part of this discussion and certainly no expectation that any of you will actually have to do anything, but if having a chat helps to improve each other’s approaches etc. then all the better. I’m sure Andy will be able to explain more.

If you feel that I have missed anyone off of this list, please add them to any reply you wish to make. I am conscious that Tim Grose would be a good person, for example. Similarly, if it is felt that EA IT could make any useful input, I can facilitate that.

Best wishes

Dean

Dean Hardman England Athletics Head of Business Development and Communications