KnowUr.Biz: Leveraging Data for the Development of Helsinki's Sports Services - Guest Post

The KnowUr.Biz data management system was piloted in Helsinki's sports services in late 2023. This information system allows us to monitor and analyze the energy consumption of all the sports facilities we manage, as well as the visit frequencies from the cash and access control systems, in a completely new way. With KUB, we have successfully examined and interpreted data from sports facilities for the first time without spending hours manipulating Excel spreadsheets and creating various graphs

KnowUr.Biz: Leveraging Data for the Development of Helsinki's Sports Services - Guest Post

The KnowUr.Biz data management system was piloted in Helsinki's sports services in late 2023. This information system allows us to monitor and analyze the energy consumption of all the sports facilities we manage, as well as the visit frequencies from the cash and access control systems, in a completely new way. With KUB, we have successfully examined and interpreted data from sports facilities for the first time without spending hours manipulating Excel spreadsheets and creating various graphs! Even though the system has been in use for a short time, its value has already been recognized.

Efficient, Easy, and Fast Analysis

Using the system and analyzing reports requires some practice, but it is worth it. For example, we have made interesting observations about visitor profiles at different sports facilities and factors affecting visit numbers. Additionally, we have been able to answer specific questions from the perspectives of individual sports facilities, as well as more broadly, such as evaluating the impact of a communication campaign. In this post, I will provide a few specific examples of the insights we have gained by delving deeper into the visitor data collected from our sports facilities.

When the sun shines and the weather is warm, Helsinki residents flock to the Swimming Stadium and the Kumpula outdoor swimming pool. Last August, we observed a significant decrease in the number of visits to outdoor swimming pools compared to the previous year (-30%). Upon deeper examination of the data, the reason – unsurprisingly – was the weather. We compared the visit numbers from last August to the previous August on a weekly and daily basis and simultaneously saw the answer to the poor August performance in the weather data included in the KUB system. Particularly, two weeks in August showed significantly lower visitor numbers compared to the previous year. These weeks were cold and rainy, whereas, in the previous year, the temperature was higher and the number of rainy days was significantly fewer.

In late 2023, we widely marketed Helsinki's sports services' gyms, which offer an affordable yet high-quality opportunity for gym training with a low threshold. We evaluated the success of the marketing campaign by analyzing the changes in the number of visits to our gyms before, during, and after the campaign. However, from the visitor data alone, we could not determine how the campaign affected the sales of various series and seasonal products. Once we integrate our sales reports into the KUB system (a change we are currently working on), we will be able to assess the effectiveness of such marketing and communication campaigns from a sales perspective as well. For the end-of-year gym campaign, we still had to rely on those sales Excel sheets...

Data-Driven Opening Hours

We have also used the system to evaluate the impact of changing the opening hours of sports facilities on visit numbers.

We analyzed visitor data from one of our swimming halls when we wanted to assess how changing the opening hours on certain weekdays in June would affect the number of visits. We examined the average visit numbers on these weekdays from the previous June's entries on an hourly basis. The data provided answers on how many people visited the hall during the first hours of the morning and the last hours of the evening, and who these visitors were – adults, children, retirees, single ticket holders, series ticket holders, season pass holders, and so on. We calculated how changing the opening hours would likely impact the visit numbers for that particular month and which customer groups would be affected by the change. We forwarded this information to the service manager, who could make an informed decision about the opening hours based on the data.

After a few months of use, I can say that the implementation of the KnowUr.Biz data management system can bring significant benefits to an organization. It enables the making of smart, data-driven decisions to improve energy efficiency and customer experience, target and evaluate the effectiveness of communications, or support various changes. The active use of the system not only enhances daily operations and resource utilization but also advances the organization's long-term goals from the perspectives of sustainability and efficiency. And without the Excel hassle!