“I can’t tell you how pleased we are with the functionality, service, and price point of TeamUnify. You guys are doing an amazing job."
1. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST IMPRESSION OF THE TEAMUNIFY SOFTWARE?
Almost too good to be true. A fully integrated system with end user web/app access was exactly what we wanted. We’d been trying to work out how to finance a club administrator but this completely took the need away. My first impressions of demos were favourable and now as a user I am still constantly impressed.
2. WHAT WERE YOU USING BEFORE TEAMUNIFY TO MANAGE YOUR TEAM?
Team Manager 7
3. HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOUR CLUB TO SIGN UP?
Only about 8 weeks, and five of those were waiting for a Committee meeting. We were convinced at the point of demo but needed a formal vote to commit to it.
4. HOW IS THE CLUB DOING NOW 6 MONTHS INTO USING TEAMUNIFY?
City of Peterborough Swimming Club (COPS) is doing very well both in the pool and organisationally. We are a high performance programme, aiming to develop junior internationals and passing these swimmers to university programmes as we do not have an established university in our city. Last year we had two juniors on the GB European team and one on the GB Paralympic team. We get around 25 of our 125 members to British Summer Championships each year, and this (as far as we can work out) is the highest ratio of qualifiers to members of any club in the UK. The only clubs that outperform us with sheer numbers of swimmers at major champs are the very big clubs with 3,000 to 5,000 members and the private schools, where the swimmers live at the school all year to train, alongside their academics. I became Chair some three years ago when COPS (City of Peterborough Swimming Club) was losing £1500 per month as of the end of the last fiscal year, August 2017. We have turned that around to a £1000 per month surplus and are now reinvesting. Our Head Coach, Ben Negus, recently took the England team to the Youth Commonwealth Games in Bermuda and is highly respected throughout British Swimming and Swim England. We recently restructured pool activities to free Ben up to direct the programme. We attracted an outstanding Age Group performance Coach from another well known performance programme, hired the previous head coach of a development programme to head up our development programme and shifted squads around to give each athlete the best chance of realising their goals.
5. DID YOU RUN A REGISTRATION THIS YEAR WITH THE TU SYSTEM? IF SO, HOW DID IT GO?
We did and it was incredibly easy. The process itself (as a parent) was very, very simple. We estimate that this has saved us around 20 volunteer man hours every week and this was a major driver for implementing TU. It has delivered exactly as per the promise.
6. WHAT IS ONE AREA YOU ARE FINDING IS REALLY HELPING YOU COMPARED TO TM7?
All of the above! If I had to go for one as Chair it would be financial membership/registration and as a parents its event entry/volunteering.
7. HAVE YOU STARTED WORKING PAYMENTS INTO THE TEAMUNIFY BILLING SYSTEM?
We use the billing system pretty much in its entirety. Each member racks up their account through the month and then we settle it. Credits and extras are all taken into account over and above standard squad fees. This saves a huge amount of labour compared to paper entry forms and cheques – yep, that’s what we used to do!
8. HOW ARE YOUR PARENTS GETTING ALONG WITH LOGGING INTO THE WEBSITE AND ACCESSING THEIR ATHLETE'S INFO?
It took a little effort to get the late adopters on board but we are doing very well. Anyone who uses IT (internet technology) for work or personally found it simple; a very few people who do not like or rely on IT found it less easy.
9. WHAT ARE THE NEXT STEPS OR THINGS YOU ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO WHILE USING THE TU SYSTEM?
We are motivated to try the new communication tools as we use email for club/squad communications as well as social media and would like a more streamlined approach to internal communications that hits all members.
About the Club
City of Peterborough Swim Club is Cambridgeshire's premier competitive swimming club. They aim to compete at the highest levels in the sport, housing international swimmers and national medalists. They also compete at County and Regional levels and travel widely to attend various open meets throughout the year. COPS is currently ranked in the top 10 clubs in England.
The City of Peterborough Swimming Club has been using TeamUnify since May of 2017.
