How Special Olympics Improves Efficiency with Technology
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Focus on: Optimize Operations, Drive Digital Transformation |
Roughly 200 million children and adults across the globe have intellectual disabilities.
Since its founding in 1968, Special Olympics has provided year round sports training and athletic competition for children and adults with intellectual disabilities providing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, and experience joy through sport. Each year, more than 4.7 million athletes with intellectual disabilities from nearly 170 countries participate in sports, health, education, and community building activities.
Athletes who want to take advantage of the opportunities Special Olympics provides across their 220 programs in 169 countries must complete a registration process that generally includes release forms, and medical forms. Depending on the program, additional information may also be requested. Recently, Special Olympics realized its manual registration process wasn’t providing athletes or its staff with the efficiency needed to effectively submit and manage the flow of information—so the organization embarked on a digital transformation journey.
Digital transformation is a technology-driven movement that is creating unprecedented opportunities for organizations of all shapes and sizes to reinvent processes and remake themselves into digital-first enterprises. But it’s not just about upgrading products or using the latest advances to spur growth. This digital transformation is about companies addressing the world’s challenges and working together to build something intangible – something from which our entire society can benefit.
In order to streamline athlete registration, Special Olympics turned to Microsoft and DocuSign, a Microsoft partner and leading provider of electronic signature and Digital Transaction Management services, for help developing a modern replacement for its paper-based processes. Special Olympics is piloting the use of DocuSign’s technology in the registration process in select programs in the United States and is exploring its potential use more broadly.
Optimizing operations and engaging athletes with digital registrationPowered by Office 365, SharePoint, Windows 10, and Azure, Microsoft and DocuSign designed a solution that could be expanded to enable Special Olympics to digitize the registration process for the future. Instead of constantly carrying around binders brimming with athlete information, Special Olympics staff will be able to upload and access registration forms, and complete electronic signatures, instantly from their tablets and other mobile devices.
Not only does this mobile- and web-driven vision for registration give Special Olympics staff the ability to complete the registration process quickly, it will also provide athletes with the independence and flexibility needed to experience the health, development, and competitive benefits of sports.Driving digital transformationInnovations in technology are prompting organizations like Special Olympics to reimagine what is possible when it comes to engaging customers, empowering employees, optimizing operations, and transforming products. Already, organizations across a wide range of industries are leveraging the latest technology solutions and embarking on their own digital transformation journeys with the help of tools like our own.
Special Olympics is just one of countless examples of organizations taking advantage of the latest technology to drive digital transformation. No matter the size and scope of your organization, prioritizing a digital-first model can help you achieve your goals and make a lasting impact on the global community.
The transformative power of sports is something every individual should be able to experience. Now, through the transformative power of technology, Special Olympics is making this possible for an even larger inclusive global community of athletes.
Learn how your organization can impact the future by starting its own digital transformation journey today.
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1 http://www.specialolympics.org/Sections/Who_We_Are/Who_We_Are.aspx
2 http://www.specialolympics.org/Common/Frequently-Asked-Questions.aspx
3 http://resources.specialolympics.org/participant-registration-forms/
