Outlook time tracking in Sports

How Timewatch Helped Win Gold at the Olympic and Paralympic Games

Not going to lie: we have a few talented amateur athletes in Timeswatch’s offices around the world, but none are ever likely to make it to the Olympics. So when a national Olympic training facility came on board as a customer in preparation for the 2016 Olympics, we felt pride when the team brought home a case of Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals.

How Does Timewatch Help a Country Win Olympic Gold?

The training institute, which has to remain unnamed because of confidentiality clauses, plays a crucial role in developing and training athletes hoping to represent their country. Their aim was to produce the best possible performance at the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The facility employs approximately 50 full-time staff and supports individual elite athletes through funding, education, and sports science resources. The sports science staff are experts in nutrition, biomechanics, physiology, psychology, and strength and conditioning. Each expert works as part of a team supporting athletes and coaches.

Communication within the teams – with staff and athletes often located in different parts of the country – is essential for the success of individual athletes and the program as a whole.

Time Tracking, Resource Management, and Olympic glory

Because athletes typically train in their home environment, sports science staff are often on the road working with athletes.

This training facility faced challenges tracking its staff’s time and service delivery as they worked with athletes across the country. It was important for the organization to adopt a time tracking system that fits into the regular daily habits of staff who were spending a considerable amount of time out of the office traveling to visit athletes in different locations.

OutlookTime®, our Outlook time tracking system which runs inside Outlook, was employed to allow staff to allocate athlete and program details to appointments which were then posted as timesheets with the click of a button.

This national sports institute had 25 different Olympic and Paralympic sports as clients whose national federations all invest significant money in its programs on the basis of it being able to deliver important services. It was critical to be able to track the services it provides across a wide geographical area and on sometimes unorthodox schedules.

The results were seen in Rio in 2016. The medal count matched – and exceeded – expectations and Timewatch staff watched the Olympics invested in our customers and their results. We will also proudly claim some staff members took up new weekend sports as a result of watching our “team” in Rio. Now, all eyes on Tokyo 2020.