The next is an article by Cio.com on Particular Olympics’ Chief Data and Expertise Officer, Nathan Cook dinner, and his work to digitalize, modernize, and progress the Particular Olympics motion:
Strategic partnerships, operational efficiencies, and a cloud technique that emphasizes coaching instruments and accessibility are serving to the nonprofit higher serve its distinctive and proficient neighborhood.
The Particular Olympics is overhauling its know-how stack as a part of a digital transformation designed to bolster the coaching of its athletes throughout the globe.
Nathan Cook dinner , who began as chief data and know-how officer at Particular Olympics greater than a yr in the past, has aggressive plans for the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit’s subsequent 5 years, which incorporates shifting away from its disparate legacy IT methods and constructing a Microsoft-centric platform operating Docebo’s distinctive studying managing system (LMS), which educates athletes on the way to finest take part within the area and trains coaches about the way to educate athletes with mental and developmental disabilities (IDDs).
“We began on our digital transformation over the course of the final yr or two and are working to scale back our digital sprawl and in the direction of a singular ecosystem that permits us to have an entire view of our methods and our knowledge, with a spotlight of being digitally succesful and prepared by 2030,” Cook dinner says.
The group initially started shifting to the cloud for its 2018 Seattle USA video games. At this time, Cook dinner’s IT workers of 24 proceed to handle a set of on-premises methods and core purposes because the digital transformation to Azure accelerates.
Along with its partnership with Microsoft, the Particular Olympics’ partnership with Toronto-based Docebo “represents a big step ahead in our dedication to offering top-tier studying administration options tailor-made for people with mental and developmental disabilities,” Cook dinner says.
Empowering Athletes and Employees
The Particular Olympics platform will make use of a variety of Microsoft applied sciences, together with Dynamics for its CRM, Azure for its cloud, and Dataverse Energy Apps for enterprise purposes, the CITO says.
Beforehand generally known as Widespread Knowledge Companies, Dataverse’s Energy Pages, Energy Portals, Energy Apps, Energy Automate, and Digital Brokers are all a part of the Particular Olympics’ program supply resolution, enabling the grassroots program workers to deal with essential priorities reminiscent of getting out on the sector, Cook dinner says, including that Microsoft has been a really beneficiant benefactor to the group’s digital transformation.
Deploying companies to the cloud will allow the group’s members and workers to “play extra” and spend much less time on paperwork, Cook dinner says. “The extra we are able to transfer that course of out to the cloud, allow the top customers to personal and be empowered to handle themselves and their very own knowledge, the extra we are able to cut back the quantity of effort and time on our applications and get extra individuals out onto the sector and taking part in.”
The multifaceted advantages of the cloud will higher “respect the time” of all members of the Particular Olympics neighborhood, together with athletes, volunteers, coaches, directors, donors, and fundraisers, the CTIO says. A well-designed CRM that members can use to register and retailer their knowledge as soon as and never be requested to repeat for each occasion is an enormous win, he provides.
Cook dinner additionally goals to make use of “leading edge” AI instruments and an array of contemporary companies to “cut back the barrier to entry” for the IDD inhabitants, which counts about 6.2 million athletes collaborating in 30 sporting occasions on groups from throughout 190 nations globally.
As an illustration, a lot of its athletes use smartphones and tablets, and Cook dinner goals to raised join and deploy personalized purposes that improve studying, coaching, and efficiency for these platforms. “We’re on the lookout for methods to for them to be engaged with the group on their very own phrases, in their very own time, and use the instruments in new ways in which empower them, they usually can get used to,” he says.
The Particular Olympics can be utilizing Microsoft’s Energy BI analytics platform to create inner and exterior stories that assist set up legacies for the athletes.
“Legacy is one thing that helps change lives, change minds, and alter tradition,” Cook dinner says. “We’re capturing knowledge from occasions, together with their stats, and scoring, and making extra data-driven choices. Wherever we now have knowledge, we’re utilizing Energy BI to visualise it and construct methods to seize.”
A Profitable Group
Docebo and Atos are key companions whose digital instruments assist IDD athletes attain their full athletic potential, Cook dinner provides.
Docebo, which grew to become a worldwide accomplice of Particular Olympics Worldwide earlier this yr, aligns with its athlete-first perspective and has “embraced our need to make sure our athletes are a part of the accessible design aesthetic and efficient supply of data for athletes with IDD,” Cook dinner says.
“By leveraging Docebo’s state-of-the-art know-how and progressive e-learning platform, we’re poised to ship an enriched and extremely customizable coaching expertise that meets the distinctive wants of this neighborhood,” Cook dinner provides. “This collaboration allows us to seamlessly combine superior AI-driven options and user-friendly interfaces, making certain that our instructional choices are each accessible and fascinating.”
Atos, which is headquartered in Bezons, France, and Munich, Germany, has supplied the Particular Olympics with superior digital instruments and tailor-made assets to boost the coaching and aggressive experiences of its athletes, the CITO says.
“A key focus of ATOS’s engagement with Particular Olympics is the event of our main video games methods, designed to assist, allow, and empower the inclusion of our athletes in over 30 Olympic-style sports activities on a worldwide scale,” says Cook dinner, who provides that Particular Olympics just isn’t related to the Paralympics arm of the Olympics.
“This consists of offering important infrastructure and applied sciences that guarantee athletes can compete on the primary stage at our world video games occasions such because the upcoming 2025 World Winter Video games in Torino. We selected Atos as a vital accomplice on this effort due to their shared dedication to connecting the world round inclusion and their world-class know-how that has demonstrated success supporting the biggest humanitarian sporting occasions,” Cook dinner says.
A Distinctive Perspective on the Energy of Tech
Benjamin Collins, operations specialist for model and communications at Particular Olympics Worldwide, has participated as an athlete and worker of the group for greater than 40 years. Collins, who competes in bocce ball and 10-pin bowling, is blind and makes use of the Microsoft voice-activated system Jaws to write down and ship e-mails to workers, administration, and athletes from his dwelling in Rockville, Md.
Earlier than COVID, Collins labored on the Particular Olympics’ former DuPont Circle location and commuted to work driving the bus and Metro subway system and strolling with use of a cane. At one level, he decided there was an excessive amount of visitors to stroll safely throughout the L Avenue and nineteenth Avenue intersection and wrote an electronic mail to the Division of Transportation requesting the set up of a crosswalk with an audible countdown for pedestrians. The town took photographs and gave Collins’ suggestion the greenlight, making that intersection safer for all pedestrians and drivers.
Collins attributes a few of his success as a longtime Particular Olympics athlete and worker to technological advances, together with the Microsoft instruments and studying administration system.
“It’s been fantastic. If I didn’t have that distinctive know-how, I’d not have the ability to get every part finished,” Collins says. “I prefer to be impartial.”