Adam ClarkDirector of Football Operations/Asst. A.D. for FootballUniversity of MinnesotaWhy did you decide to implement Teamworks with your program?We first started looking into the Teamworks system while we were at Northern Illinois. When we got to Minnesota we knew we liked it and wanted to make it a part of our program here. We liked the concept behind the system and knew it would help our team. Once we got live with Teamworks we were very pleased with the effect it has had.It saves our staff so much time. Teamworks is extremely accessible and easy to use for everyone in our program. Our coaches want to be able to communicate frequently with our players, and Teamworks just makes it really easy.It handles so many aspects of our program all at once. When we are in the office Teamworks helps us get our work done quickly and effectively, but one of the benefits of Teamworks is that we DON'T have to be in the office to get things done, so whether we are home, on the road, or on the campus we have access to everything we need.The ability to schedule messages in advance is huge for us, when we travel, we setup reminders in advance so the system is waking them up, reminding them where they need to be all day, and then giving us feedback so we know who that everyone is where they should be.The scheduling system has also been a huge benefit. In one place I can pull up and see their class schedule, weight room, training room, team meals. It makes us much faster at changing our schedule and let’s us be way more flexible.Teamworks consolidates so much information into one place. You can check on kids’ schedules, find parent contact info, look up body fat, height, weight, etc. We put notes up when they are late to class and have notes about their academic progress. When they are getting recruited for the pros, I can click a button and hand over all that information to a scout they need when they are evaluating one of our players. It’s all right there and I can print it out in 2 seconds.What problems does Teamworks solve that weren’t being addressed?One of the most time consuming issues that we had was the process of gathering information on players. I would create quick tags or reports on each one of our players, listing all their info, position, year, major, etc. I would attach their class schedules on the back of each page, and it would take me a week and a half to get it all set up. Now with Teamworks that process is done automatically. It’s all electronic so anyone can pull it up, and that’s a week and a half that I get back to work on other things.With Teamworks our staff can spend more time working with the players and less time shuffling paper and spreadsheets around. When the kids get here we are trying to take them from being kids to men. We want them to have success when they are here but also when they leave. Teamworks takes away a lot of administrative work so that I can spend more time meeting with my players and working with them one on one.How have you and your staff used Teamworks so far?We use the messaging system very heavily. We use it to communicate with our team several times a day. In addition to basic operational communications we have also used to do some really cool things with our players. Several times we had our former players record a message to the team which would deliver to them the morning before the game. One time we had Lou Holtz record a message which we sent out to the team right before they got on the bus to play USC, and that got our players really fired up.We keep a lot of notes on our players in the Teamworks, mostly behavioral stuff so we can keep track of how they are progressing and keep a solid record of any problems or incidents.We had a crisis last year where we needed to get ahold of some parents and other folks very quickly and we were able to just pull up Teamworks on our phone and get the right contact info and get in touch with everyone very quickly.In terms of risk management, Teamworks has dramatically improved our ability to deal with emergencies and make sure everyone is safe and informed quickly.Whenever Coach Kill needs to locate a player, we can jump on Teamworks and tell him exactly where the player is on campus at that time. We know whether he is in class, in the training room, in the weight room, or in his dorm taking a nap, its great.We are just now starting to roll out the Electronic Forms, and we are going use it initially to speed up our Two-A-Day check in process, so our players can handle all their paperwork before they report. We will get an hour of team meeting time during camp back by not having to deal with these forms in person, which is huge.How would you rate Teamworks' implementation process, training, and customer service?First class all the way. They coached us up on how to use the system, made sure that everyone was properly trained and knew how to use the system to complete their job.Anytime we have a question or need something done, the Teamworks staff take care of it very quickly. Service is these guys’ bread and butter. “A+” in that department.In our business people are very impatient, they want things right now, and the Teamworks staff understands that and they have made it a priority to get things turned around very fast.Would you recommend Teamworks to other football programs?I think people need to understand that this is a totally different system, its something separate from your recruiting systems. This is a system for actually managing your players and staff on a day-to-day basis. In our profession you need to have both systems.This is a no-brainer for any football program in the country, it is worth every cent. It will make you more organized, it will save you time, and it will improve all areas of your operation.There is no other system like this in our market. I haven’t seen anything else that does anything like what Teamworks does, and it’s the best and most efficient way to run a program hands-down.