Sports Technology & Communications News from Around the World

Arena League Football is growing; its most recent addition, the LA KISS, is leveraging the ShoreTel (News - Alert) Sky solution to provide the organization success both on and off the field.  Though the LA KISS went 3-15, it is fair to say the franchise’s inaugural year has been a rousing success—providing a show of a lifetime for its fans, and selling over 8,000 season tickets. The ShoreTel solution played a vital role, as LA KISS President Schuyler Hoversten proclaims, “it keeps us connected.”

For any professional sport ticket sales drives the organization, the LA KISS are no different.  Instituting ShoreTel Sky for its sales staff, Hoversten stated “Our season ticket sales reps are really the front lines of the company and season ticket sales are the lifeblood of our organization.  We live and die by that and our sales reps are on the phone from 9am to 5pm and if we lose that solution, we’ve kind of lost everything.”

Hoversten understands the importance of communication in a sports organization, it is vital to have all team members on the same page.  Especially as an expansion franchise, catching up to the rest of the league can pose quite a daunting task.  Much like the team trading for a veteran Quarterback, Hoversten went with a proven winner in ShoreTel.  He used the communications provider from when he worked with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and there was no doubt who he would call for the LA KISS.

“When I first reached out to ShoreTel we were a startup company…We had no IT staff.  We were in the process of building our company.  And we needed a seamless technology solution.”  There are enough headaches involved with starting a franchise; communications cannot be one of them. 

Hoversten continued to say ShoreTel Sky was “simply plug-and-play.  The units came and they were ready to work…It was cloud-based, I didn’t need a server.  It was just very seamless and easy that I didn’t need to look elsewhere or hire somebody to manage this whole install or lean on ShoreTel representatives to walk me through something.”

The KISS did not have the luxury of time: the franchise needed something fast and reliable “we needed to move quick, I couldn’t deal with a long drawn out install process.” With ShoreTel, “it was as simple as taking the phones out of the box and plugging them in.”

As far as invaluable functions go, call reports jump to the top of the list.  It allows for the head of sales to keep tabs on how many calls each representative is making, and how long they’re on the phone.  Call recording offers the ability to review calls and improve upon techniques on the phone.

Hoversten can seamlessly receive calls to his office line on his cell phone, and send messages to various members of his team—keeping open the lines of communication. 

“It’s imperative we are able to leverage great technology to not only keep our organization connected but also keep us connected with our fans and potential perspective fans as well.”  

Hoversten stated, “In any inaugural season you’re going to look back and know that you didn’t do everything perfectly,” what is known is the LA KISS did a pretty good job of choosing a communications provider.  Only time will tell what the KISS will do on the field, but in the war room ShoreTel is keeping the team on the same page.