The main advantage of [INSERT YOUR HOMEGROWN APPROACH HERE, (Spreadsheets, FileMaker Pro, Access, etc] is that it operates in a familiar way and are “free.”  Everybody knows and understands their homegrown approach, can change things around how the like, change labels, and so on – no training necessary.  However, the disadvantages of the Homegrown World are many.  With the advantage of simplicity comes the disadvantages of poor sharing capabilities among coaching staffs, and time consuming manual data entry to name a couple.

There are several other inefficiencies that end up making that homegrown solution not so “free” – if you factor in the amount of time you don’t need to be spending on basic recruiting taks.

If I had to boil down the advantages of web-based software over the “Homegrown World,” here is what I would say:

1.      Easier coordination amongst coaches – with web-based software, all coaches can get to the most recent recruit info from anywhere (except those airplanes without internet that are quickly disappearing) … instead of “hey Susie where’s that spreadsheet? … is it the latest copy? … could you re-send me the last couple emails you sent to Shauna Superecruit?

2.      Easier communications & tracking – you can email multiple recruits simultaneously (e.g. the 10 you just saw over the weekend) and have every email sent by every coach automatically tracked in one, centralized location – in the same place as your phone calls.

3.      Less data entry for you – athletes themselves can enter their information into your database and keep it up to date – without you lifting a finger.

Finally, when you invest in a specialized product like ARMS, you’re also paying professionals to help you with data maintenance, troubleshooting, and ultimately to consult you on how to always be the most efficient possible.

At the end of the day, my feeling is that you’re a coach – not a software developer so the less time you spend screwing with your Homegrown Solution, the more time you can spend doing what you do.  We’re just here to help you do it better.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at 12:41 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.