Over 15 years ago, Robert Fletcher,
one of BladeNET’s
founding members, developed a suite of software applications
to help the Mississauga Hockey League (MHL) manage the teams
within the association. These applications automated many
processes that were manually performed. The results? Productivity
increased.
Workload decreased.
For the MHL, the benefits were immediate
and the success ongoing. Volunteers saw a significant
reduction in
the time
required to complete their duties. Players and families
enjoyed unparalleled access to the latest and most up-to-date
information.
It was clear that the new applications played a pivotal
role in more efficiently managing the league.
This revolution in hockey management caught
the attention of key decision makers in the hockey community
and other
amateur
sports. To realize its full potential across Canada,
they joined together and formed BladeNET.
The BladeNET founders developed a vision
of amateur hockey. They saw a Canadian Hockey Knowledge Network
that
would create
a forum for addressing
and assisting
with
key
issues in Amateur
Hockey
and Amateur Sports.
Then BladeNET went to work. We created
a state of the art sports management software application
that was capable of supporting the entire Canadian amateur
hockey community.
To demonstrate our application and our vision,
we partnered with the Minor Hockey Alliance of Ontario in
a pilot in the fall of 2000. BladeNET provided complete training
and support to the Alliance.
The experience was a complete
success
for
the Alliance and BladeNET. According to Jason Bonnyman,
Alliance General Manager "it
worked virtually flawlessly and gave us everything
that we expected and more." For BladeNET it was proof that our vision was the way
forward for amateur
hockey.
Since then, we have upgraded our infrastructure
and software, and added tens of thousands of amateur hockey
players to our community, including the Greater Toronto Hockey
League, Ontario Minor Hockey Association, and the Ontario
Hockey Federation.
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