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| The Official Website Phase I In 2002, The Central Hockey League website was far from professional. The CHL had minimum control over the league's site, and had little communication between the league and the web host, causing the website to often be outdated. The CHL was in dire need of a fully advanced, functional site that featured some kind of content management system for the league to maintain current events, the CHL was looking for a company that had the technological capabilities and understanding of what it took to take the CHL and make them look like the NHL. The CHL became acquainted with Infinity Pro Sports through one of Infinity's many minor league sports teams, the Fort Worth Brahmas. After hearing about the "ISM," or Infinity Site Manager, the CHL's interest had been peaked, and Vice President of the CHL, Steve Cherwonak, contacted Infinity to discuss the possibilities of taking the CHL to the next level online. Infinity Pro Sports, with the help of the CHL, produced an effective solution that fit within the tight constraints of the league's small budget. The new site would make the most of the technological opportunities while bringing out the strengths of the Central Hockey League. The Central Hockey League needed a web host provider that could integrate many facets of the CHL's partners. From Work in Sports, to a new statistical solution (Point Streak), and adding the NHL Network Header, Infinity was ready to make a smooth Integration for the CHL. Infinity's ability to provide a Turn-Key solution to the CHL has helped Infinity in providing the Video Streaming, Shop, and Virtual Office phases. A schedule of steps was planned and followed during development and implementation of the new CHL website: The Schedule Infinity uses only the top graphical designers in the country. These designers use cutting edge software technology to create the most exciting professional sports graphics on the market. Graphics Design is a multi-step process: Infinity picks Clients brain for look & feel of new site Infinity develops flat jpeg presentation of graphical layout CHL views and gives feedback on graphics Infinity implements graphical changes Infinity develops flash look and feel CHL makes final approval on graphics This process can take between 2 weeks to 5 days. In the case of the CHL, 10 days were necessary Infinity develops "ISM 2: The Next Generation" software. The original ISM was used until 2001, when Infinity decided to revamp the look and feel as well as the functionality of the leading content management tool in the sports new media information field. The ISM is an administrative tool designed and developed for the CHL to manage and maintain content of its website. The ISM 2 was implemented into the CHL site. This step takes between 5 days to 3 weeks. In the case of the CHL, two weeks were needed. After the implementation of the ISM, the Project Contact for the CHL, Steve Cherwonak, was provided with information on how to update the content on the CHL website via the ISM. This step takes about 2 hours, but throughout the site development stage, this training is supported and reinforced by the CHL's customer service coordinator, and by a manual (The "ISM Bible"). Once the content is updated by the CHL in the ISM, it is immediately viewable on the front end of the website. This software tool provides controllability for the following facets of the CHL site: Advertising Spots Calendar ECards Emailer System FAQ's File Manager Message Board Multimedia Section News Opponents Players Poll Sponsors Staff Survey Text Blocks Transactions Note: this is not an exhaustive list of ISM-manageable components: these are the actual components that the CHL uses in the league's ISM. After an extensive tour of the ISM, Mr. Cherwonak was able to input the content of the website. The content entry process for Mr. Cherwonak took between 2 and 3 weeks. Steve Cherwonak chose to use HTML coding in his text blocks to ensure a consistent aesthetically pleasing look throughout the site. This step takes varied times depending on the amount of information displayed on the website: usually ranges from 3 days to 20 days. While Steve Cherwonak was entering the Content into the ISM, Infinity was developing the front end of the site. This development phase includes massive PHP coding, MySQL database, apache, ISM systems integration, and other 3rd Party code integration. This step takes between 7 weeks to as little as 5 days. In the case of the CHL 10 days were needed for this step. The testing phase includes testing the compatibility of the implemented database and ISM software. All links on the site, as well as all site pages are tested and ensured to be in full working order on multiple browsers, and platforms. This step takes about 1-2 days. Infinity realized that the CHL was not updating their statistics on the old site: instead the league was using massive printouts of statistics for that page on their site. These statistics were out of date and needed new software development in order to update automatically. Infinity developed the new statistical software solution using Pointstreak's statistical feed to retrieve the appropriate information from that company, and display that information in a professional and organized manner automatically on the site. After developing the software component, the CHL would never again enter another statistic. Infinity also developed a hybrid of this statistical software that parses XML feed with the current site. Companies with which this currently works include Statcrew, SportsTicker, and Howe Sports Data. This step took 3-4 weeks in this case. The CHL had a standing deal with a company called Work In Sports. This co-branding, of Work In Sports, the Sports Career Locator, and the Central Hockey League, required a page to be hosted by another website while still keeping the CHL site visible and intact on the front end. Infinity was given the notice and acted immediately. The page was created, and the CHL site features a hybrid of the original page. This step took about a day to complete for the CHL. The CHL is a subset of the NHL, and was required to display the NHL Hockey Network Header at the top of the CHL site. Infinity worked with NHL's information technology department to ensure the accurate installation in a timely manner. This step took about 1 day to fully integrate. CHL turned its DNS to Infinity: the advanced new site can then be seen on computers worldwide. This step took about an hour, and the overall DNS move took 24-72 hours, depending on the various ISPs. After the site is launched, the web traffic statistical counters are implemented on the site. The Webalizer system was used for the CHL site. This system provides information on page views, click throughs, frequent IP addresses, monthly reports for the site's traffic, and more. This step took about an hour. Infinity's #1 priority is our Clients. We pride ourselves in bonding with the clients in a professional way, while maintaining a personal touch. Infinity's Client Relations team stays in constant communication with our clients from the moment they join the Infinity team. All client requests are taken care of in a timely manner, and satisfaction on upgrades, new components, and changes to the site are guaranteed. This step continues throughout the contract's duration. The full project length in the CHL's case was 6-7 weeks. However, the Site Development process for the Central Hockey League was not the full extent of Infinity's solution for the league. Upon realization of further opportunities to work with the Central Hockey League, Infinity proceeded to develop its relationship with the CHL by adding two additional phases. The first was an ecommerce solution for online merchandise, and the second, Live Video Streaming using a unique pay-per-view model. In recent days, Infinity is in development of the CHL's new virtual office suit of tools. |
CHLShop.com - e-commerece solution
Phase II When Infinity and the CHL began their relationship, the online shop for the league was in dire need of a facelift and an upgrade. The store had sold less than $2500 per year. There was little to no communication with the previous online merchandise provider, limited stock was available and everything from logos to t-shirts was out of date. Infinity offered to take over the store, and develop a state of the art merchandise system unique to the CHL. CHLShop.com was idealized and Infinity started work immediately. With the same overall look and feel of the Central Hockey League site, CHLShop.com was developed with an advanced database approach. A complex MySQL Database was created for the shop, thousands of images were created and over 20 items per team were listed to take the leagues online store to the next level. The development of this database yielded to the manager of the CHLShop the ability to easily add and change the styles of the apparel. This added flexibility of the shop opened the doors for new merchandise to be added seasonally. The Shop Reports system along with the Shipping Management tool make the shop easily manageable: inventory management and sales monitoring allow for ease of upkeep of the shop. Customer tracking along with strategic retailing techniques proved successful in the first 8 months of the shop's existence, and the shop can boast exponentially higher merchandise sales in the past 8 months than any previous CHL online stores combined. This solution is continually being modified so that Infinity's future clients can maintain their merchandise website with confidence. CHLTV.com - Video Streaming
Phase III As CHL continued its trend of leading the minor league sports world online techknology front, a new avenue for exposure, branding and revenuie came about. Infinity identified this opportunity to find an online video streaming solution that can make it cost effective for the CHL to have LIVE coverage of over 40 games. Infinity teamed up with Eyecentric Media to create a strategic partnership between to provide an experience non-otther to the fans. The system uses a combination of feeds from audio and video streams, then broadcasts these streams via the Internet. This pay-per-view site is a new source of revenue for the CHL and its 18 member clubs. CHLtv.com was launched in January of 2003, and with limited marketing managed to reach a whopping 71 people for the all-star game, as well as average over 30 viewers per game during a limited playoff showing. The site is on standby until the beginning of the upcoming Central Hockey League season, and awaits announcement of a proposed schedule, which will include over 200 games for the 2003-2004 season. Virtual Office for CHL
Phase IV In early May, the Central Hockey League decided to use Infinity's Virtual Office Solution for the league. The Virtual Office is a great tool that lets the users of the league log in and view internal messages from League Virtual Office Members only. The feature is an excellent way to enhance communication throughout the league while increasing the interaction between the league and the teams. This component is currently being developed, so details will not be divulged, however an outline of the features of the Virtual Office follows:
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