With Cumul.io and Panoply, ProSoccerData built a data stack that enables business intelligence based off data from the soccer startup’s production application, support and billing systems. Reports are shared company-wide and with end-users inside the data-rich ProSoccerData service, used by soccer clubs and teams worldwide.
ProSoccerData is the app used worldwide by the best soccer clubs. The Belgium-based company offers an application that enables soccer clubs to track player performance and talent selection. The software as a solution provider gives soccer clubs all over the globe a digital solution to an otherwise very manual and paper based performance tracking system.
What’s the ProSoccerData elevator pitch?
We’re a software solution focused on soccer clubs and academies that want to maximize performance of the clubs and their athletes. We provide a system where the clubs can build training sessions, games, and build player statistics such as minutes played, practices attended, minutes in a game, etc.
We help the club build a complete player profile that provides a complete view of that player’s performance, based on data entered into our system.
We’re a SaaS offering for soccer clubs the world over and have clubs in Belgium, The Netherlands, Japan and the US. Our company was founded in 2011. In the United States, we have such customers as the Seattle Sounders and St. Louis’ football club.
Our app is web based with iOS/Android apps used by the players to enter data. We also integrate with Polar for biometric data and other tracking systems
Tell us about yourself and your role at ProSoccerData
I’ve served as the Lead Architect at ProSoccerData for the past three years. In that time, we have completed a complete technology shift from a PHP application to a Java application and this is what we've been working on since.
What was life like before Panoply and Cumul.io?
Before we had no data stack or pipeline solution. We ran lots of basic statistics and had to access many disparate data sources via manual logins. We tried running with basic metrics but honestly, we were running blind.
In our use case, we wanted to combine Jira to track statistics in features and support tickets and combine that data with Intercom and ultimately our invoicing system.
We looked at solutions that could combine all these and we knew each system had its own analytics capability, but we wanted to paint a holistic picture and combine all these together? We brought all these data sources together into Panoply and visualized them into Cumul.io.
How did ProSoccerData decide on Panoply?
Being a technical application architect, I started searching for solutions that could handle MySQL data for those who don’t want to build analytics built on top of production databases and I discovered Panoply. Of course, I knew about Amazon Redshift, but realized if I chose that as a solution I’d have to manage my Redshift instance all by myself. We love that Panoply has materialized views and works with rocket-like speed.
Why did you choose Cumul.io as your BI tool?
We evaluated solutions such as Tableau and PowerBI, but we settled upon Cumul.io because we wanted to build reports fast with ease.
We wanted a system where you could do easily build reports online with little technical/data knowledge. In our product, we share reports directly with customers and we needed a solution that was intuitive and beautiful.
Which data sources are you bringing into Panoply?
We ingest sources such as MySQL, Jira, and dev hooks from our internal production system. We also have connections through Stitch Data via web hooks and we use Sentry to check for errors in our application.
Which of your teams use Cumul.io and Panoply?
Our entire company, including these teams:
- Business teams use it to for billing/invoicing purposes
- IT makes use of the data for building reports in Jira off ticketing and errors.
- Support uses data to track tickets via different channels.
Lastly, our customers use the data solution to view reports on their teams/players.
What are some big wins with Cumul.io and Panoply?
The first big win, to me, is that we have zero experience or desire to maintain our data warehouse so Panoply being a part of our stack is a clear benefit.
What’s your favorite Panoply/Cumul.io feature?
Convenience, speed and ease-of-use. My data management and analytics stack is a huge benefit for me because I can quickly build reports in Cumul.io because:
1) All the data is there, thanks to Panoply.
2) Cumul.io is so easy to use too. It enables our technical team to have the time to see all the data available to them and build insights/make decisions based off of it.
In short, having a data stack in place, powered by Panoply and visualized in Cumul.io, gives us fast access to insights so our teams can perform at their best.
