Information Systems
Content
Information Systems
Case Study 4.1 – Baseball in the United States Questions 2 and 4
Group 6: Gil Cruz, 9734 Adil Gulamali, 9542 Miguel Alves, 9586 Ondrej Cabejsek, 9444
Baseball used to be an amateur sport based on people’s opinions, intuition and instinct. As the sport started to become more professional, those involved decided to pay more attention to statistics, probability and the importance of information increased, thus Information Systems were introduced to the sport making baseball a game of not only physical abilities but also of thorough research and analysis. From this point on, Information Systems have been used by everybody involved in the business: players, managers, the press, fans. These systems were used mainly to store information, for match preparation/analysis and for scouting. Managers use it to store data about their teams and players and about the teams and players of their competitors. It has become an invaluable and game-changing tool for keeping track of young and talented players and their performance and development. Decisions are now based on facts and not on simple human intuition that proved itself wrong many times when millions of dollars were at stake. The introduction of IS changed the way managers in baseball do their jobs and changed some of those jobs altogether. There are two types of managers in this sport: Field Managers and General Managers. A Field Manager is the person in charge of training sessions, match preparations and putting together a roster for each game, whereas a General Manager is the person responsible for running the team, negotiating deals with new players and trading them with other teams. For the Field Managers, IS mostly changed the way they prepare their team (scouting reports and statistics on opponents) and analyze (statistics) matches, both in terms of single players’ and the team’s performances. An example of an IS used by some FMs is Inside Edge (a software that provides scouting services and tools for baseball teams and media). This software allows FMs to focus on the most important aspects of training of each player individually and the team as a whole based on every opponent’s stat history. It also allows players to prepare for games and opponents in a very sophisticated manner based on their specific position and role on the field.
For the General Manager, IS helped automate the way player scouting is conducted and created a larger and more easily manageable database of players (i.e. with specific player profiles and individual interface options). ScoutAdvisor is an example of an IS used by GMs (software for creation of completely customizable scouting reports that are easily accessible and synthesize statistical data). This on one hand gave scouting an almost infinite source of numbers but on the other hand helped delete much of the competitive advantage some teams may have had in terms of information over other teams. Nowadays, a player is observed and afterwards possibly drafted based on statistics, so much time and effort is saved when looking for future stars of the sport. A manager only gets out of his office to see a potential signing if the stats are good and it is no longer necessary to have a vast network of scouts. Due to the introduction of IS, baseball teams felt the need to use this new information more efficiently, so new jobs were created, among them the most important being the Information Manager who keeps track of key stats of every player on the team. The more specific the numbers are, the more helpful they can be to the manager who draws out the lineup for each game. In some cases it can mean the difference between winning and losing a game. Besides the position of an IM, there are other jobs such as analysts (those responsible for analyzing statistics and providing the Manager with the best information possible), researchers and programmers (those responsible for sorting information in the database and developing new and more sophisticated computer programs) and the Video Department, which is run by a Head of the department and his co-workers, responsible for providing statistical data in video form that is easy to analyze by both Managers and players. As we can see, the implementation of IS in the everyday life of all the aforementioned baseball agents led to big changes in the past few years. It created new jobs while making some others redundant and it developed a whole new approach, a different strategy for the teams to follow in order to take the most advantage out of the resources and information available. Therefore, this revolution influences not only how the players and staff work, it also determines the way the club is managed. As the IS Strategy triangle was completed by applying IT to baseball, the Business and Organizational Strategies had to be adjusted. The basic teams’ goals may remain the same - winning and making profit - but what changes is the way these goals are reached. Business Strategy relies heavily on quality information as a mean to its end and Organizational Strategy is what provides this mean: new jobs, new processes, a focus on technology as a cornerstone of success and making the club’s employees convinced, dedicated and efficient users of this technology. As the former GM of Oklahoma A’s, Paul DePodesta, puts it: “Over the next four years [after new IT implementation] we won 383 regular season games. The Yankees won 383 regular season games. But better for us, the Yankees spent over $433 million on player payroll and the A's spent about $134 million.”
Case Study 4.1 – Baseball in the United States Questions 2 and 4
Group 6: Gil Cruz, 9734 Adil Gulamali, 9542 Miguel Alves, 9586 Ondrej Cabejsek, 9444
Baseball used to be an amateur sport based on people’s opinions, intuition and instinct. As the sport started to become more professional, those involved decided to pay more attention to statistics, probability and the importance of information increased, thus Information Systems were introduced to the sport making baseball a game of not only physical abilities but also of thorough research and analysis. From this point on, Information Systems have been used by everybody involved in the business: players, managers, the press, fans. These systems were used mainly to store information, for match preparation/analysis and for scouting. Managers use it to store data about their teams and players and about the teams and players of their competitors. It has become an invaluable and game-changing tool for keeping track of young and talented players and their performance and development. Decisions are now based on facts and not on simple human intuition that proved itself wrong many times when millions of dollars were at stake. The introduction of IS changed the way managers in baseball do their jobs and changed some of those jobs altogether. There are two types of managers in this sport: Field Managers and General Managers. A Field Manager is the person in charge of training sessions, match preparations and putting together a roster for each game, whereas a General Manager is the person responsible for running the team, negotiating deals with new players and trading them with other teams. For the Field Managers, IS mostly changed the way they prepare their team (scouting reports and statistics on opponents) and analyze (statistics) matches, both in terms of single players’ and the team’s performances. An example of an IS used by some FMs is Inside Edge (a software that provides scouting services and tools for baseball teams and media). This software allows FMs to focus on the most important aspects of training of each player individually and the team as a whole based on every opponent’s stat history. It also allows players to prepare for games and opponents in a very sophisticated manner based on their specific position and role on the field.
For the General Manager, IS helped automate the way player scouting is conducted and created a larger and more easily manageable database of players (i.e. with specific player profiles and individual interface options). ScoutAdvisor is an example of an IS used by GMs (software for creation of completely customizable scouting reports that are easily accessible and synthesize statistical data). This on one hand gave scouting an almost infinite source of numbers but on the other hand helped delete much of the competitive advantage some teams may have had in terms of information over other teams. Nowadays, a player is observed and afterwards possibly drafted based on statistics, so much time and effort is saved when looking for future stars of the sport. A manager only gets out of his office to see a potential signing if the stats are good and it is no longer necessary to have a vast network of scouts. Due to the introduction of IS, baseball teams felt the need to use this new information more efficiently, so new jobs were created, among them the most important being the Information Manager who keeps track of key stats of every player on the team. The more specific the numbers are, the more helpful they can be to the manager who draws out the lineup for each game. In some cases it can mean the difference between winning and losing a game. Besides the position of an IM, there are other jobs such as analysts (those responsible for analyzing statistics and providing the Manager with the best information possible), researchers and programmers (those responsible for sorting information in the database and developing new and more sophisticated computer programs) and the Video Department, which is run by a Head of the department and his co-workers, responsible for providing statistical data in video form that is easy to analyze by both Managers and players. As we can see, the implementation of IS in the everyday life of all the aforementioned baseball agents led to big changes in the past few years. It created new jobs while making some others redundant and it developed a whole new approach, a different strategy for the teams to follow in order to take the most advantage out of the resources and information available. Therefore, this revolution influences not only how the players and staff work, it also determines the way the club is managed. As the IS Strategy triangle was completed by applying IT to baseball, the Business and Organizational Strategies had to be adjusted. The basic teams’ goals may remain the same - winning and making profit - but what changes is the way these goals are reached. Business Strategy relies heavily on quality information as a mean to its end and Organizational Strategy is what provides this mean: new jobs, new processes, a focus on technology as a cornerstone of success and making the club’s employees convinced, dedicated and efficient users of this technology. As the former GM of Oklahoma A’s, Paul DePodesta, puts it: “Over the next four years [after new IT implementation] we won 383 regular season games. The Yankees won 383 regular season games. But better for us, the Yankees spent over $433 million on player payroll and the A's spent about $134 million.”
