InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
July 26, 1999
Online Registration
AnswerThink aids member services
The Web site, now in the pilot stage, will give association members access to tennis statistics for the 50,000 leagues the association sponsors. In addition, members will be able to register and pay for league memberships via the Internet. "The manual way of registering for tournaments and getting memberships wouldn't support our growing membership," says Richard Schelling, the association's acting director of IT.
About 60% of association members have Web access, so the Internet provides an opportunity to make registering and renewing memberships easier, Schelling says. This will reduce the likelihood that people will let memberships lapse, he adds. The U.S. Tennis Association expects the site to attract 1.2 million new members in the next five years. Membership is the only means of generating revenue for the group, which has 525,000 members nationwide.
The site will post the rules of tennis and will conduct validation checks to make sure members are in the right league for their skill level and age. Members enter their identification numbers at the site and gain access to their tennis statistics as well as the stats of all other members in all leagues.
AnswerThink used Microsoft servers and software to create the Web site. The integrator also linked the site to the U.S. Tennis Association's Imis database, which houses all membership and statistical information. Before renovating the site, the association ran 17 disparate systems for different parts of the country.
The association and AnswerThink are testing the site in New England; Naples and Tallahassee, Fla.; St. Paul, Minn.; and New York City. The Pacific Northwest will be the next test area. By 2001, the site will be available to members in all 17 areas of the group's U.S. operations.
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he U.S. Tennis Association has chosen systems integrator AnswerThink Consulting Inc. to help renovate its Web site. The goal: to attract new members and retain existing ones while lowering costs and increasing revenue.
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