AAMI Park

Melbourne & Olympic Parks Gains Greater Visibility Across Their Operations Using 24/7 Software

Photo : Courtesy of M&OP
Melbourne & Olympic Parks

About Melbourne & Olympic Parks (M&OP)

Melbourne & Olympic Parks (M&OP) operates to provide world-class sport, events, and entertainment facilities for the people of the State of Victoria.

The M&OP precinct includes four of Victoria’s most well-known venues (AAMI Park, John Cain Arena, Margaret Court Arena, and Rod Laver Arena) that welcomes over 2.6 million visitors annually and is the home of the Australian Open Grand Slam Tournament.

M&OP continues to grow and evolve. The final stages of the $972 million Melbourne Park Redevelopment are due for completion in 2021, further reinforcing Melbourne and Olympic Parks as Australia's premier sport, event, and entertainment precinct.

M&OP Precinct

Before 24/7 Software

Katrina Haby is Director of Event Resourcing, and Ben Goodwin is Manager of Strategic Insights & Delivery, for Melbourne & Olympic Parks (M&OP). Before using 24/7 Software, M&OP was experiencing growth in the size and scale of events, along with the redevelopment of the precinct (including the opening of new venues) that led to the need for an improved job and management system solution. M&OP recognized the need to move away from their existing system that lacked useability and did not provide a mechanism to capture important live event and incident information. They needed software that was less labor-intensive but also matched all of their strategic objectives. These requirements led to M&OP implementing 24/7 Software's solution, consisting of the Incident Management System, Lost & Found, and Task Manager.

Now

After deployment of 24/7 Software's platform, M&OP has an industry-focused solution. 24/7 Software provides control center management of incidents, jobs, and tasks with the customization and useability M&OP requires to maximize their performance and deliver exceptional service during world-class events, including sports, international concerts, and the Australian Open.

jobs and incidents recorded in the first month of use
increase in incidents and jobs recorded using 24/7 Software
staff using 24/7 Software during events

Year-over-Year Growth for the Precinct

In 2017, M&OP was operating more events across the precinct than ever before.

"The size, complexity, and scale of events, along with the redevelopment of the Precinct, was growing each year," shared Haby.

M&OP is Australia's heart of sports and entertainment. While they do boast this statement on their website, the fact is, it's true.

The precinct welcomes around 600 events and attracts more than 2.5 million people annually. It's also home to an array of the most iconic and world-class experiences.

For example, the precinct includes:

  • AAMI Park Stadium (30,500 seats)
  • Rod Laver Arena (5,000 seats)
  • John Cain Arena (10,000 seats)
  • Margaret Court Arena (7,500 seats)
  • CENTREPIECE at Melbourne Park – Conference and Events Centre (opening 2021)
  • Show Court Arena (opening 2021)
  • 43 Tennis courts & the National Tennis Centre

The precinct is notably acclaimed for hosting the city's most celebrated national and international sports and entertainment events.

M&OP hosts the Australian Open Grand Slam, rugby union, football, rugby league, netball, basketball, cycling, and gymnastics; while also staging the highest caliber of artists and shows, such as Elton John, Lady Gaga, P!NK, Beyoncé, The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and Disney on Ice.

M&OP is also the administrative and training home of the following:

Sport Team
Rugby League Melbourne Storm
A-League Football Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City
Super Rugby Melbourne Rebels
Basketball Melbourne United and SE Melbourne Phoenix
Netball Melbourne Vixens and Collingwood Magpies
Australian Football League (AFL) Collingwood Magpies and Melbourne Demons

 

According to Haby, "Our former tools did not offer the level of sophistication, communication options, or flexibility that was required to operate the precinct at this activity level and with all of our operational needs."

Users were disengaged with the former system, and with a focus on enhancing safety processes, real-time communication, and customer service, a new solution was required.

"There was a lack of useability, such as search functions and customization to tailor what information we needed to capture at events. This was leading to event and incident information not being captured promptly," explained Haby.

Haby shared that it was important to find a solution that understood the complex and varied nature of the precinct. "The fact that other solutions were not designed for our needs meant that many systems needed to be customized or a number of different types of solutions were required to be integrated to achieve a seamless end-to-end incident management."

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"Our former tools did not offer the level of sophistication, communication options, or flexibility that was required to operate the precinct at this activity level and with all our operational needs."

Katrina Haby
Director of Event Resourcing | Melbourne & Olympic Parks

The Need for a Less Labor-Intensive Solution

In the past, incident management and reporting were labor-intensive for M&OP, with communications, reporting, and data capture occurring through the use of many different systems and tools.  

"The previous tool that had been used for incident management and reporting could not provide clear priorities and situational awareness to both control room operators and teams on the ground," said Haby.

Human intervention was needed to ensure jobs (such as requests for cleaning and building services) were recorded, actioned, and completed

Improved and automated reporting was also a priority.

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"We needed a system that provided a solution for job and incident allocation, updates, and completion that could be automated to ensure jobs and incidents were resolved as quickly as possible. The ability to capture images and time-stamped information was also important to us."

Katrina Haby
Director of Event Resourcing | Melbourne & Olympic Parks

Strategic Objectives Led Requirements

M&OP was ready to make an essential change throughout the organization – and identified clear objectives to be achieved through the implementation of a new system, including:

  • Provide a clear overview of incidents and jobs for each event, with the ability to manage multiple events at once.
  • Improve real-time oversight and data through tracking, prioritization, and dispatching of job requests, incident management, and resource allocation.
  • Introduce mobile functionality to suit M&OP's highly mobile, scaled workforce during events.
  • Improve documentation of job requests and incident management
  • Improve accountability of real-time recording and status of jobs and incidents.
  • Develop embedded protocols and templates in the system to guide operators on job and incident response procedures.
  • Allow for rapid notification to mass groups.
  • Improve the capability for crucial decision-makers to aggregate and analyze situational intelligence.
  • Add business rules, including built-in system alerts and escalations.
  • Provide useability for those configuring the system for M&OP and users across all areas of the business.
  • Reduce 2-way radio traffic and reliance on radios through improved system communications.
  • Centralize information by capturing activities, jobs, tasks, follow-up, logging of communications, images, and witness statements in a central location.
  • Opportunity to use technology to support, not hinder or add to work for team members.

"We wanted a system that we would have confidence in, that our team members would love and importantly embrace and use," explained Haby.

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“We wanted a system we would have confidence that our team members would love and importantly embrace and use.”

Katrina Haby
Director of Event Resourcing | Melbourne & Olympic Parks

A Struggle to Find a Suitable Solution

According to Haby, "we looked to lots of industries that were operating central control and management locations, including hospitals and medical groups, shopping precincts, transport hubs, and other venue types and locations."

"Several solutions offered aspects of functionality we needed, such as mobile apps and communication tools, but the understanding of the venue and event environment this solution offered was best suited to our specific environment," explained Haby.

Initial work was also conducted in building an in-house solution through the integration of several products, something M&OP had attempted in the past.

According to Haby, "A specifically designed solution for our industry, used by major international stadiums, Arenas and Major Events, provided solutions to multiple objectives."

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"A specifically designed solution for our industry, used by major international stadiums, Arenas and Major Events, provided solutions to multiple objectives."

Katrina Haby
Director of Event Resourcing | Melbourne & Olympic Parks

A Seamless Deployment to Proactive Operations

Deploying the solution with the help of Edy Carina Rosario has been seamless for M&OP.

"The support, advice, technical knowledge, and real-life examples of how to apply different functions across the 24/7 Software solution has been invaluable," shared Goodwin.

"We had felt supported across the journey and felt that the platform was excellent when we first started. But now, we're operating at a different level of performance with the continued evolution of the platform. It is very exciting as it opens up a lot of customization that we would like to do related to the way the system operates for us," continued Goodwin.

M&OP heavily uses 24/7 Software's Incident Management System the most, followed by 24/7 Software's Lost & Found and 24/7 Software's Task Manager Australia and New Zealand.

Goodwin was quick to prove these statements with data on how 24/7 Software helped M&OP achieve its strategic objectives and more.

M&OP went from only 50 unique users to 270 after the first three months of deployment and currently have approximately 400 users working with the 24/7 Software solution.

"In our first three months of deployment, we saw a 37% increase in jobs and incidents logged and managed in 24/7 Software," shared Goodwin.

An increase of safety reporting was seen across the precinct after the first three months of deployment, including a 68% increase of hazard (i.e., the potential for something to arise, such as a trip hazard) reporting and resolution.

According to Goodwin, "During the first month of deployment, we logged over 9,000 jobs and incidents – the most we've ever done."

Goodwin was excited to share that, since inception, M&OP has issued 400+ full Event Summary Reports from the 24/7 Software solution.

When asked what business processes does 24/7 Software enhance in total for M&OP, Goodwin articulated a powerful conclusion.

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"We ensure a consistent and timely approach to job and incident management – ensuring teams have the information they need to deliver exceptional operations and service. We prioritize proactive operations, with a focus on safety, and we have 24/7 Software's help to ensure we stay that way."

Ben Goodwin
Manager of Strategic Insights & Delivery | Melbourne & Olympic Parks