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

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:

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."

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.

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.

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."

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.