Stanford's Bills: Teamworks Much More than Communication

Kevin BillsDirector ofBaseball OperationsStanford UniversityWhat ultimately led you to try out Teamworks?The most difficult part of my role is managing all the moving parts. Each student is different, and I try to cater each experience to the individual. I felt like I was reinventing the wheel every year, doing things that were outdated. We needed a better mass communication tool. Initially, I wanted a way to easily send cleaner, better organized, and better looking texts, emails and attachments to everybody on the team. I quickly realized that Teamworks is much more than just communication.How did your team initially react to the messaging component?It was received really well. They all found out right away that it was much easier than the system that we’d been using previously. Everyone can now more easily distinguish between the different user groups and the types of people to which they are sending messages. Our athletes love how it looks and how simple it is to communicate through Teamworks.What other areas of Teamworks caught your eye?I particularly like the travel portion. I’m impressed by the ability to drag and drop players into the rooming list. I’m also impressed by the calendar. I can choose an individual and immediately see his class schedule. Also, we love that players and staff can add events in the calendar that need to be cleared by the coaching staff before they happen.What advantages has Teamworks given your program?One advantage is that we can mass message any particular players about a last minute change and actually see in real time that they’ve received it and opened it. That is a big deal, and it greatly improves the speed of our operation, team organization and communication. The mobile app is another advantage. Our coaches, while out at practice, have the ability to quickly use the mobile app to send a message to the Monday pitchers’ group, or whoever it might be. It’s made their ability to reach out to everybody much more convenient.How would you compare Teamworks to other organizational tools you've used?Teamworks, in my experience, blows them out of the water because it’s designed for something more specific to what we need. It’s extremely robust, and all the modules are put together very well.How has your experience been with implementation and Teamworks customer support?I think, in a humorous way, you guys were so good that I had forgotten how often we’d communicated. It snuck up on me that we had another meeting, or another chance to communicate, or another chance to make sure we were doing well. You guys did a great job, above and beyond what I expected.What would you say to someone in a similar role at another program about Teamworks if they weren’t using it?For any program looking to streamline their communication to their student athletes, staff and coaches, Teamworks has been hands down the best tool we have ever used. With the implementation of travel, video and everything else, it’s a great one-stop shop for creating a coherent game plan and a place to house all your information. Teamworks has been great for us, and I would recommend it to other programs without any reservations.

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