John MillerAssistant A.D./Football OperationsOle MissWhy did you decide to implement Teamworks for your program?Several things drove my decision. One, I thought we were doing a poor job overall getting information to our players in the spur of the moment. In Football, things change so much and just getting information to our players at a moment's notice was something we had issues with. We addressed the problem a little bit by installing a video board system throughout the building, but it still didn't solve our communication issues. When players were in class, or at their apartment or dorm, we still weren't able to communicate with them.The second reason is that I have a few buddies who are Directors of Football Operations that have been doing this for 20+ years, and they were all using Teamworks. Nolan Jones, Director of Football Operations at Michigan, was the key guy who drove it home to me that Teamworks is cutting edge and would make a huge difference in our program. And I have to say, he was right.What problems does Teamworks solve that were not being addressed?It solves being able to get information out, not only just when you think about the information, but at the exact time that the players need to know that information. You are able to set when exactly you want to send the message. If I think of something tonight and it's going to take place on Wednesday, I can set it for Wednesday and not have to go back and do it again. That's huge for me. Our coach is a guy that changes things a lot, so it works perfectly in my world.Another key thing is being able to build my own custom groups. We recently went to Texas, and I was able to put the 75 guys that were traveling in their own custom group and communicate with them all weekend. That's huge for me and the way I think. Every Director of Football Operations has his own way of thinking and doing things, but that was huge for me.When we started off, some people didn't know anything about Teamworks. Eventually, it started bleeding into different areas. Our trainer has been very active in it, and our academic people wanted access to it as well. It's been very consistent. The players are getting things in the same format and they can look at great updated information because we are able to provide it through Teamworks. I knew we were on to something when our other support staff people wanted to be a part of it.Our trainer, for example, went to set a dental appointment when the athletes were in class this morning. The dentist said he could fit an athlete in for a 3:15 appointment today, which is our day off. Well, that player isn't coming over here today, so we wouldn't be able to catch him and tell him about the appointment. So this morning, our trainer just sent out a quick message. Now you've gotten the athlete information to get them over here and our trainer is also able to send that information to the coaches and let them know that, at 3:15, this athlete is going to be at a dental appointment. Knowing where your athletes are going to be like that is pretty helpful.How has your staff responded to Teamworks?People buy into this thing, and when they figure out there's something to this, you start to see a lot of people taking ownership. Two quick pops of a button and we can reach the whole team. We're getting better every day with it.Our equipment guy was asking us all the time to send things in Teamworks. I said, let's do better than that; you can send it out directly to the players. So now we are training him this week to to be able to send things out to the players with two pops of a button.Over time, it's like Nolan said to me, you get addicted to it, and when you go to a place where you don't have it, you feel like, "what am I going to do now?" That's a great tribute to what Teamworks has built as a company but also something that Operations guys need.The coaches really didn't have a whole lot to do with it at first. Coaches are creatures of habit. But during two-a-days, our coaches make changes a lot. When we were able to get new information out during two-a-days after our players were gone for the day, that was great. Players often had to be there earlier than the original schedule, so when the coaches found out I could get that information to our guys without worrying, they were sold. It really won them over.How have your athletes responded to Teamworks?They're being informed a lot more. I'll give you a prime example: when we were at Texas, Coach realized we weren't going to get back to Oxford until around 4 AM, so Coach said we didn't need to have our players coming to work out at 11. But I only had 75 guys with us. We have 122 on the team. How do I get that message to everybody? As soon as I hit the ground and had service, I did it with my phone. Twenty minutes after I'm on the ground, I've got the information to my people. It was like clockwork, it worked so well.Unfortunately, players in this era change their phone numbers a lot. And when they are starting to come give you their phone number versus you having to track them down to find our their number, you know you're onto something with this system.How would you rate Teamworks’ training, implementation, and customer service?The implementation really suited me perfectly. Teamworks doesn't have people trying to do too much at one time. They totally get that I'm a busy person and I've never called anyone on Support that wasn't helpful. Mitch, he's been unbelievable. I can call him at seven at night if I've got a quick question and he'll just walk me through it. Most of it isn't that intense, but it's intense to me if I can't get it done right then. I think that three month trial window is great; it's crucial to pick the right three months to get it going.You're not running a ton of information for people to process immediately, and that's helpful. If the DFO does a little bit of his part, it's no problem. It's not a rush like so many other vendors, where they are running a lot of information down your throat, where they're going to give you a two hour training session and then they're gone and you can't get them on the telephone because they're busy giving the same spiel to someone else. How Teamworks is doing it I'm sure costs more money, but they are going to get great feedback because you're giving that personal touch. That's a part of the company I really like.The customer service is good because I feel like I'm talking to Mitch, and he's taking my call from his couch at home. I know that's a weird analogy, but it's the feeling I get when I call. It's not a commercialized call; it feels like he was waiting on me to call and he's in a relaxed setting. He makes me feel like I'm not putting him out of the way and what I'm asking for is no problem. He's willing to just knock it out right then. I really like that. The customer service, out of ten, for me has been a twelve.Would you recommend Teamworks to others?I've been in this business a long, long time, and I've had Teamworks for about six months. I'm wondering how I've never been in this situation before now. It's unbelievable the information that you can get out. It's a system where you can go as in-depth as you want, which I like. You can go in-depth at your own pace. You don't have to be a computer genius. I can get a lot of people involved in it without a lot of training sessions. It's user friendly.The one thing I would have to say about Teamworks, is that it was built for the Director of Football Operations. That's how I feel. It's built around how we think. I haven't seen anything that could touch the Teamworks system.There are some guys I communicate with that collectively have about 130 years of experience in this business and every one of them is on Teamworks. They would all tell you they couldn't do their job without Teamworks, and that speaks volumes for me. I've got a lot of respect for these guys in this business. When they say that, I know I've got to have it. And if I don't have Teamworks, I'm falling behind.What changes have you seen as a result of using Teamworks?In the old days, I was always printing everything out, and I'd have to get position coaches to send everything out to their players. Teamworks has given me more time and it gives me ease to know that I've gotten information out to everyone on time. Everybody always knows what we're doing tomorrow.The biggest thing for us is how it's helped with the time management of our players. They're not wasting their time coming out when they don't need to, which is great. It's helped the time management of our coaches as well. Time management as a whole has been crucial for us with this system.