Interview with Werner Augsburger from SOA.
The Swiss Olympic encompasses 82 member federations and is responsible for funding high-level sports in Switzerland - Organizing its nations Olympic delegation and making team selections.
The logistical processes in taking a team to an Olympic games is daunting for any nation. Swiss Olympic were the first European nation to adopt the ZEUS Team system specially designed for National Olympic Committees.
"Before we started to work with the ZEUS - We had a lot of spreadsheets and databases which did not fulfil all our requirements that we needed to meet. We saw that ZEUS could be the future instrument we could use to meet all of logistical needs."
Planning for an Olympic games is a 4-year process. Huge amounts of data have to be efficiently collected and reports continually generated. The components that make up ZEUS, and the levels of access that can be given to different users, greatly simplify this process from start to finish.
"All the NOCs have the same problem. There's a lot of data coming to us, we needed a database that could handle all that volume of data in the most effective way. "
"Before ZEUS we had lots of organisations and participants who had to send in data as a spreadsheet or a paper copy. One of the biggest benefits of ZEUS is the ability for people to submit their own data without any extra administration. Before ZEUS it was much slower and more complicated."
"We now have all the information in one database and are confident of its integrity."
ZEUS was designed to help organising committees overcome many of the administrative and logic hurdles they face in taking their team to the games. Specific modules within the system cater for issues such as housing, outfitting, and travel.
"Outfitting is always a challenge... Athletes can now enter their own measurements and our suppliers can be given access to the system. This speeds up the whole process."
"The travel component is very flexible. Travel arrangements are a big issue and always changing. We even have the ability to give the airline access to the system to update travel information. For us it's a real benefit that we have all this travel information in one place without going through thick piles of paper."
"Housing becomes more and more complicated. Athletes have different days of arrival and can move in and out of the Olympic village. They have different housing requirements that need to be planned in advance. ZEUS helps us handle these changes on-the-spot, when we are in the Olympic nation itself."
"ZEUS also helps us publish up-to-date information to our official website. For example, when we change the status of an athlete from a potential to a selected team member the public site is automatically updated to reflect the changes."
At Data Torque we are committed to the long-term development of ZEUS. Working closely with NOCs - continually adding features and improving functionality.
"We are very happy with the work that Data Torque does. We are proud to have been the first European nation to use the ZEUS system."
"For us, ZEUS is a great platform... When we give presentations to other NOCs we constantly recommend Data Torque and the ZEUS system... Data Torque can come up with the system and support that those countries need."
ZEUS Team is used by 10 Olympic, Paralympic and Commonwealth Games federations around the world. More information on ZEUS Team can be found at www.datatorque.com/ZEUSTeam
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