Microsoft - The Miami Heat are on a fast break to innovate

Microsoft - The Miami Heat are on a fast break to innovate - Printable Version

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Microsoft - The Miami Heat are on a fast break to innovate - xSicKxBot - 10-21-2019

The Miami Heat are on a fast break to innovate

<div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="https://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/the-miami-heat-are-on-a-fast-break-to-innovate.jpg" width="1024" height="576" title="" alt="" /></div><div>The Miami Heat next week open their regular-season schedule – a slate that stretches deep into April and includes 41 home games at AmericanAirlines Arena.
The outcomes of those 41 contests? Unknown. Who will lead the team in scoring on those 41 nights? Check back in April.
How many fans will attend each of those 41 games? How many <a href="https://www.themiamiheatstore.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Jimmy Butler jerseys</a> will they buy each night? How many <a href="https://www.aaarena.com/plan-your-visit/dine-with-us" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mofongo Dogs</a> will they gobble during every game? Miami Heat executive Edson Crevecoeur already has the answers.
<figure id="attachment_29817" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-29817" class="wp-caption alignright"><img class="wp-image-29817" src="https://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/the-miami-heat-are-on-a-fast-break-to-innovate.jpg" alt="Miami Heat executive Edson Crevecoeur sits in an empty AmericanAIrlines Arena, smiling. " width="500" height="281"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-29817" class="wp-caption-text">Edson Crevecoeur.</figcaption></figure>
Within hours of the NBA schedule’s release in August, Crevecoeur had forecast the attendance for each game at AmericanAirlines Arena plus the food and beverage sales, retail sales, ticket sales and staffing needs for every event, fueling business decisions well before the first tip-off.
In basketball, they call that connecting from distance.
In this case, Crevecoeur and team made the prognostications using <a href="https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/">Microsoft Power BI</a>, a data-visualization tool, to display the purchasing patterns of tickets, concessions and arena retail from seasons past to offer a clear view of game nights to come.
“We use Power BI to provide the right information to the right audience at the right time,” says Crevecoeur, vice president of strategy and data analytics for the Heat. “We’re able to understand what’s happening a lot quicker than we were in the past and react accordingly.”
Those insights are part of the Heat’s drive to become the NBA’s digital leader. It begins with real-time data that’s generated by fans and their mobile devices while in the arena – or while buying tickets or merchandise away from games. The data gets collected and enriched by <a href="https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Microsoft Azure.</a>
Heat employees make sense of that data with Power BI, becoming better acquainted with the tastes and behaviors of individual customers. On game days, the team can swiftly re-position staff to better accommodate arriving crowds – and to cater more personally to the appetites of fans in the building, whether they’re craving <a href="https://www.aaarena.com/plan-your-visit/dine-with-us" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ropa Vieja</a> or <a href="https://www.themiamiheatstore.com/collections/dwyane-wade" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">D.Wade</a> commemorative gear.
<figure id="attachment_29818" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-29818" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-29818 size-large" src="https://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/the-miami-heat-are-on-a-fast-break-to-innovate-1.jpg" alt="A Power BI dashboard showing Miami Heat business data. " width="995" height="560"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-29818" class="wp-caption-text">A Power BI dashboard created by the Miami Heat.</figcaption></figure>
“Our goal at the Miami Heat is not only to be one of the most innovative teams in sports, but to be innovation leaders across all industries,” says Matthew Jafarian, executive vice president of business strategy for the Heat and AmericanAirlines Arena.
Fans can see this digital evolution on their smart phones by downloading the Miami Heat <a href="https://www.nba.com/heat/app" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">mobile app</a>, which becomes the digital focal point for fans attending Heat games or other live events at the venue, Jafarian says.
“Imagine walking up to AmericanAirlines Arena and your ticket is smart enough to know you’re attending an event that evening, so it pops up right on your home screen. You simply tap the app on the NFC-enabled pedestal and the ticket taker welcomes you into the venue,” Jafarian says.
“You check out real-time wait times at concessions, choose a great spot to eat and tap to pay with your phone. You can be in your seat and share a ticket with a friend that’s running late, all from the device in the palm of your hands,” he adds.
<figure id="attachment_29819" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-29819" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img class="wp-image-29819" src="https://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/the-miami-heat-are-on-a-fast-break-to-innovate-2.jpg" alt="A Miami Heat fan's hand, holding a smart phone that displays a digital ticket, places the screen beneath a scanner. " width="400" height="225"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-29819" class="wp-caption-text">A Heat fan scans his mobile ticket.</figcaption></figure>
Two seasons ago, AmericanAirlines Arena adopted “mobile-only entry” and phased out paper tickets. That change is unleashing more opportunities for the Heat to better understand and communicate with their customers.
Based on how often a fan attends games, the opposing teams they tend to watch and the kinds of food or gear they buy at the arena, the marketing staff crafts and sends digital messages that are relevant to them, say, ticket packages or the arrival of new apparel.
“We want to know our customer,” says Lisette Toirac Perdomo, manager of data platform services for the Heat. “We want to anticipate what they want, so we can meet their interests.”
To gain that knowledge, the team creates 360-degree customer profiles, using the data generated whenever a fan interacts within the arena or visits online touchpoints, including the Heat app, Heat.com, AAArena.com or MiamiHeatstore.com, the team’s e-commerce presence.
Those digital interactions get captured by <a href="https://www.adobe.com/analytics/adobe-analytics.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Adobe Analytics</a> – a solution that measures and makes sense of web and app data – and is seamlessly integrated with <a href="https://www.adobe.com/mt/marketing/campaign.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Adobe Campaign</a>, which connects the Heat to the customer throughout their journey via e-mail and push notification, Jafarian says. Adobe is a <a href="https://news.microsoft.com/2018/09/24/adobe-microsoft-and-sap-announce-the-open-data-initiative-to-empower-a-new-generation-of-customer-experiences/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Microsoft partner</a>.
“We capture some relevant information in <a href="https://dynamics.microsoft.com/en-us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Microsoft Dynamics 365</a>,” a cloud-based tool that enables customer relationship management (CRM), Jafarian says. “We then put that fan profile into the hands of a Miami Heat sales or service person who can help provide a better experience.”
<figure id="attachment_29820" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-29820" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-29820 size-large" src="https://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/the-miami-heat-are-on-a-fast-break-to-innovate-3.jpg" alt="A Miami Heat fan entering AmericanAirlines Arena's seating area shows a smart phone screen showing a digital ticket." width="995" height="560"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-29820" class="wp-caption-text">With the Miami Heat mobile app, a fan’s phone shows the live score as he enters the arena.</figcaption></figure>
All that extra attention is expanding the team’s fan base, he says.
“Three years ago, we didn’t even know who was walking in the building because paper tickets are largely anonymous. Now we’re getting an understanding of who they are,” Jafarian says. “The fan experience is everything for us.”
About five years ago, the Heat saw the need to commit to a full-scale, back-office modernization – a big shift sparked by an abrupt change to the basketball roster.
About five years ago, the Heat saw the need to commit to a full-scale, back-office modernization – a big shift sparked by an abrupt change to the basketball roster.
As one of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgmI7jAcwt8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">winningest NBA teams</a> of the past 25 years, the Heat had a dynastic run when, from 2010 to 2014, the team dominated the NBA thanks to three superstars – LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, dubbed “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Three_(Miami_Heat)" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the Big Three</a>.” During that span, the Heat reached four NBA Finals and won two back-to-back league titles, in 2012 and 2013. Ticket sales were hotter than a Miami summer, and there was no urgency to build a sales infrastructure. Then, the Big Three era ended.
James left the in 2014, while Wade and Bosh were gone by 2016.
“We were fortunate to have some of the greatest players to ever play the game,” Jafarian says. “Then we no longer had the Big Three, yet we still had to sell tickets. We stood up a CRM for the first time. It was a natural progression for us to choose Dynamics 365, enabling our salespeople to better sell.
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