Why every sports academy is crazily craving an online marketplace?

View the in and out transformation of Sports Academies

Digitization is the talk of the town. In today’s world, each niche, each business, each one of them right from institutions to retailers, everyone is looking for an upper hand with the help of digitization.

And to get out of the rabbit trail of digitization, TRooTech is here with a solution to one of the most underrated and untapped areas in the market: The Sports Academies.

We observed that wonders can work to bring sports academies in the spotlight if they get a magic touch of digitization. We are thinking of a dedicated online marketplace for sports academies.

And that is what the campaign, Virgin App Concepts is all about!

To get a visual overview of what it is actually to have an application for sports academy is mentioned in depth with business and revenue models for your understanding here.

Now let’s go into the flashback to view scenario of how this all was functioning previously. At a time when the idea of an online marketplace for sports academies was faint. We will then view digitized alternatives for it fabricated by us.

Stakeholder 1: Students without an Online Marketplace for Sports Academies

The main stakeholders of the online marketplace for sports academies are the students. Students who are going to get enrolled to make use of the services provided by the academies- and yes, they are going to pay.

What are the series of tasks that students perform in order to get enrolled for their preferred sport and in a good academy?

Try searching academies for sports even today on Google

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A few years back, it was quite a task to search for reputed and genuine sports academies that were fulfilling various search criteria of different students.Criterias such as proximity to their residence, course fees, equipment availability, certified coaches etc.

The search was either based on the online business directories such as Craigslist, custom Google search, etc. or by advertisements or recommendations by schools, colleges, friends or relatives.

In short, no single reliable source for complete information was easily available. Hence the idea of an online marketplace for sports academies sounds like a revolution to increase engagement.

Now with a specialized application as an online marketplace for sports academies, it can ease out this feature by just clicking and selecting a few filters which will display a complete list of academies that satisfy your criteria.

It will include various filters such as:

• Location Preference
• Sport activity name
• Professional Coach
• Fees
• Time schedule
• Age limits

An urge for specific sports

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Often when a student is searching for his preferred sport, they hit a wall. The hunt for sports academy turns even worse after they come to know that an academy does not cover their preferred activity. This results in student putting more effort in searching for that one perfect academy that provides training for a particular sport.

And with digitization of sports academies, just one click on the filters and you are good to go. There can be an option to display the name of the sport as one of the categories and then a list of academies that are solely providing that sport’s training. Gradually listing other academies that provide it as well.

Further classification in this can be depicted by type of course, duration, fees, certification, etc. This can eliminate futile efforts of students in visiting the various academies in search of their desired sport training.

Collecting Brochures could disappear with an online marketplace for sports academies

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It can become a tough task to collect the brochures initially by visiting the academy or downloading it from various online sources.

Next comes the task of scrutinizing those brochures on the basis of mere words and photos that they have displayed and maybe believe those services would be as they have displayed.

Sometimes it even pours down to collecting information personally by visiting the academies since all of them do not provide brochures.

Digitization to the rescue: No need to get the brochures, just click on the desired academy’s profile and you can get all the information that you need, without even visiting it or making calls for information.

This can club the following tasks as well:

Visiting the academy to view infrastructure and environment

The time spent in academy visits can be saved by visiting the academy profile that includes photos of the entire academy along with a detailed description of what all amenities are present.

Introduction of the Coaches and Faculties

There is a brief description about each of the Coaches or staff present in the respective academy along with their qualification, experience, designation, expertise, etc.

The students can get additional information by knowing who will coach them if they join the academy. This helps them make a determined and quick decision.

Enrollment process

Each sports academy has its own dedicated enrollment process and policies. By viewing the profile students can even check the enrollment process for their desired academy and review details about the steps for enrollment, documents to submit and any such detailed information.

The online enrollment process can reduce the paperwork and can provide instant membership to pursue the course if they find the academy suitable. Just like any other registration online, sports academies can also join this league and process can go swiftly than manual ones.

Enrollment of candidate

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Manual registration with monotonous process and paperwork is:

– Time consuming

– Unnecessary submission of irrelevant documents, what more can be said.

With an application, just enter the necessary details and credentials and you are ready to join the academy without much fuss.

Course details

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Obviously, without knowing the details of the lessons and training sessions one cannot decide whether to enroll or not. Previously it was by brochure or personal communication that needed a visit to the academy. Today no one has got time for these hassles.

Back to our applications view for getting details of the training sessions and courses as per each academy and type of sport that is selected.

Go to the academy profile page, select the desired course and you get a detailed planned out session along with everything which will be covered under that session.

Another way to see this is, after enrollment the student needs a detailed schedule about classes and training sessions, just like a time table we had back in the school. With the help of this app they get a detailed plan along with notification on each day about the next day’s session.

Daily/monthly event updates

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Imagine searching notice boards or waiting for the trainer to come and make an announcement for events for the week or month. What happens when there are changes to the schedule, or the event or if it’s cancelled entirely. The students are informed via the bulleting or by a written notice. What about someone who misses it, someone who did not get a chance to visit the academy on time? This is the problem with manual functioning

With digitization of sports academy one can get updates on their app itself, just like any other app notification. It is quite convenient, easy, and keeps everyone updated about events, games, tournaments or any other event.

Renewal of courses and payment cycle

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After completion of any course or training, if the student wants to continue the same training or pursue a different course, it becomes tedious to carry out the same process again. Filling out the form details, documents, and of course payment process.

Cut to our application, just one click on the renewal button and payment is done. No hustle-bustle for any manual confirmation or paper work.

Stakeholder 2: Sports Academies without an Online Marketplace for Sports Academies

This is what we need to talk about. The academies need to manage numerous aspects simultaneously to achieve smooth functioning of their organization. When we portray the situation of an academy that functions without any application or online presence, there arises a list of cumbersome tasks that they still carry out. Let’s take a brief look on some of them and how we fuel them with digitization of sports academy.

Searching for the candidates/leads

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From the scratch, it is quite a task for sports academies to find proper candidates or leads by mere advertising in colleges, schools or media outlets. They need a streamlined way to approach the organic prospects in order to advertise only to the target audience and get them enrolled.

With the help of an online marketplace for sports academies, the platform owner gets the notification each time a candidate inquires about the training or services they provide. Also, any queries sent by candidates directly appears on the view query option on the academy’s dashboard.

Processing inquiries and applications

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Normally, all the applications are processed manually with thorough information required at each stage along with personal communication if required. This affects the candidates interest in case if something goes haywire during the process.

In case of digitization of sports academy, the admin or assigned person of the sports academy instantly responds to the inquiries and processes the applications as soon as they are received. They can also provide necessary information to the candidates to help them decide on the selection of the academy.

Second thing, for processing information of the application, the process of enrollment becomes quick as all the details are already available and they just need to generate a confirmation letter.

Notifying students/parents of course schedules

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Once the student is enrolled, there has to be a session to explain them about the session plans, details, etc. and that too to each of the student and their parents, which can be a headache if they are joining in mid sessions or during the hectic duration.

Whereas, if the parents and students get an instant update on app as soon as the student is enrolled about the detailed sessions plan, with time schedule, event schedule and other necessary details, then a burden is reduce from the academy’s shoulder of personally letting out information to each one of them.

Conducting orientation sessions

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Generally, orientation sessions include an academy visit, introduction of the coaches and team of faculties, a brief about the rules and regulations, environment overview, etc. Now you tell me who will pay heed to wasting time in such a session which can be compelling for the students, parents as well as the academy.

Academies have a better way to familiarize candidates about their environment, rules & regulations, keeping their profile updated on the application and they can include many things such as,

• Introduction of academy
• List and brief of sports they provide training on
• Photos of the academy
• Detailed description of each course/training
• Profile of each coach, trainer, faculty
• Description of the equipment and amenities
• Course listing with few details
• Events calendar
• Alumni reviews and experiences

Payment process

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Manual payment leads to a tiring process as it counts of payment in card or cash, keeping a record of each candidate’s payment status, generating a hard copy of receipt or invoice and providing them a copy, which if lost or damaged needs to be generated again, and if they are extending their training then repeating the same process again.

By taking this process online, the candidates have the power to pay online, get their invoice generated anytime they want, see their status, etc.

Notifications and announcements

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In case of any important announcement which requires attention such as of any event, canceled sessions, etc. the action taken are to personally inform each student, or by message or call.

This can- consumes time, failure of message delivery, call failure etc. And this wastes a lot of time and resources of academy.

One alternative that our application provides is creation of an event on the application and whoever is a part of that event get notifications about update on the app itself. Thus, the desired candidates can check the app for status of events or training sessions.

Even a section of just announcements can be added where important announcements can be updated for the attention of students and parents.

.Academies get a plus here, as they can see everything on the portal itself, aggregation becomes easy, right from each candidates status of payment, whether full payment is done or quarterly, download reports, get a copy of the invoice etc.

Stakeholder 3: Admin of an Online Marketplace for Sports Academies

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This was much about the students and academies, lets come to the point now, how the admin is affected, what are his tasks, benefits, etc. All you people whose business minds are churning now by reading the possibilities, here you go with digitization of Admin.

Now the one who manages all the tasks and binds the academies and students is the admin, and is best in need of digitization to simplify and unburden their tasks.

Let’s have a look at what we have in store for Admin of the sports academy application.

1. Manage Academies

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Admin will be responsible to enroll the academies into the portal after completion of the enrollment process and payment for their selected subscription plan. The admin has authority to roll out or add any academy after proper inspection of its credentials and authentication of the details provided on online marketplace for sports academies.

Maintaining record of each academy, their fees listing, and students enrolled in each academy in accordance of its subscription plan with the listed activities. Along with this management Admin has to send periodic notifications and updates to the relevant academies about their ending subscription, new offers, limit exceeding, pending processes, etc.

2. Manage Stakeholders

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The major front stakeholders for this application are students, parents, academy owner, and admin. Now it all pours down to the admin as the authority to add, edit, delete or suspend any of the above roles lies in the hands of admin.

Student’s data management, filtering them on various criterions, keeping them informed of any change in app policies, and so on. The data needs to be maintained, updated based on the missing details and avoid any kind of loss of data.

Managing the records of parents or guardians of each of the student is equally important as in case of emergency they can be contacted and regular update can be sent them about the course, time duration left for the course to complete etc.

3. Manage Transactions

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Admin will be the central link for all the transactions and all the transactions performed by the students as well as the academies will go through the admin who shoulders the responsibility of monitoring them.

In case of any queries faced by the student or the academies then admin needs to intervene and help them with their issues. And admin also holds the responsibility for determining any malfunctions or scams in case of payment or false transactions.

He is responsible to keep the record of the invoices and details about each transaction that is performed on this application platform.

4. Manage Subscription Plans

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Owing to the digitization of sports academy and their way of engaging with the application platform there are various subscription plans devised by the admin, in order to ensure smooth functioning for the academies and students.

Based on the subscription plan that an academy has availed and paid for, there are numerous features that are defined for each of the plan, and thus admin provides access to the academies to the defined features for their tailored plan.

This is as effective feature that supports the revenue model for this application, and further details are provided here about the revenue model of this application.

5. Determine Sports Categories

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After managing the stakeholders, academies, subscription plans and transaction management, the next important task in pipeline for admin is determination of the sports that are to be included, you cannot go including all of them, or missing out the important ones.

By carrying out extensive market research, what the various enrolled academies are providing, which sports are more famous among the students and also which sports activity is famous depending upon the location of various students.

6. Addressing relevant inquiries

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This can be taken as a revenue-generating feature as the admin can charge a small amount from the academies to send them the relevant student queries and thus the academies get notified that there is an inquiry. But in order to access it they need to pay a small amount and only then can they view it.

Admin has to manage all such inquiries, categorize them, and bifurcate for various academies on an online marketplace for sports academies keeping in consideration the academies: subscription plan, the services they offer, location and other criteria.

Some of the aspects that are transformed by this idea of digitization can really increase the business and decrease the efforts and redundant work.

If the academies are taken into consideration just by spending a few more they can leads and candidates at their doorstep, can advertise their academy on a better scale and most importantly can get a organized platform for smooth workflow.

And when you consider for the students, they can search for desired sport and desired academies by mere surfing through the app and can get enrolled by following a few easy steps.

I am sure wheels are churning in your minds after reading the even simpler task of the admin, why don’t you let us know your perspective to develop this app and then we add a touch of TRooTech to it,