LTA: At the top of its game

What do you do with an ageing infrastructure which is becoming more unreliable and less able to cope with the demands of running major international tennis tournaments and unable to support members and increase revenue? Simple, you undertake a strategic transformation and that’s exactly what the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) has done, in partnership with Atech Support.

The LTA is the National Governing Body for tennis in Great Britain, Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, and its mission is to promote the sport ‘from grassroots participation through to the professional game’. It is also responsible for the organising and running the oldest tennis tournament in the world – Wimbledon. However, its ageing systems were not only letting the organisation down day-to-day but hampering any ambition for development and growth.

The case for change

Andrew Rowney, Business Development Manager at Atech, walked delegates at TechSmart 2019 through the transformation pathway for the LTA – how the business case for cloud migration was prepared; why LTA chose Microsoft Azure and Atech Support for the project; lessons learnt from the cloud migration project; and how the project has helped to transform the organisation.

“There was a serious need for change – end of life systems and an ageing infrastructure meant that system reliability was poor and would regularly break down under pressure, particularly during a tournament such as Wimbledon.

“Our task was to align the needs of the LTA with technology and provide the platforms for users to be able to do their jobs most effectively, alongside advancing all areas of IT in line with their strategic plans.”

The transformation was a complete success and the Association has been ‘thrilled’ with the outcome, particularly as the changes have reduced costs already by around £500,000 plus there has been a 99.5% improvement in system reliability.

Lessons learned

  • Collaborate via a roadmap to bring people with you by informing them what’s going on and getting them involved
  • Find the right transformation partner
  • Future proof the systems
  • Reduce risk as much as you can
  • Choose the right platform
  • Make sure all stakeholders are involved and engaged

LTA’s transformation was a great success, enabled by the technology not led by it