COORP

Coorp: a sports club service operator which has chosen Telehouse as its technology partner.

Coorp is the first company to launch an interactive social and collaboration network for sports club members.
This network will act as an unrivalled communication tool and will help to improve the performance of sports clubs.

Coorp has decided to form a technology partnership with Telehouse, a provider of high-range data centres and service continuity, for the colocation, operation and security of its shared platform.

In order to be successful, sports clubs have to dedicate the majority of their investment to sport.

They therefore have very little time or resources to communicate with their supporters, members and partners, even though their performance ultimately depends on these people.

On this basis, Coorp wanted to give sports clubs a way to improve their communication, and therefore their results, in a simple and effective way. Their solution was to develop a SaaS portal that could be customised with specific colours and domains.   

This portal offers a range of services and functions, including information (events, competition dairies, etc.), booking facilities (e-ticket system), member management (subscriptions, child authorisation), social networking (forums, blogs and instant messaging) and advertising space (adverts, online stores and private sales). Sector-specific services can then be added to these general functions and services (real-time results, live video streaming, individual player performance statistics, etc.).

This SaaS portal is designed to centralise and simplify the day-to-day club management process and help sports clubs to boost their performance through improved visibility and an extended range of services. The portal also acts as a unique forum for exchange and discussion, within a private, secure community, which will encourage fans, members and partners alike to create a coherent body of supporters for their club and its players. Coorp has high ambitions, with an aim to become the leading provider of these services in France and worldwide.

The company's long-term goal is to secure 800 of the top 220,000 French sports clubs as its clients. The company has already signed contracts with four basketball clubs, one football club, one rugby club and one tennis club.             

Coorp has a contractual obligation to these clubs to ensure that the information that the company holds is stored securely and made available to users whenever they need it. This means that Coorp's hosted applications must be in perfect working order 24/7. This is why the company has engaged the services of Telehouse as a specialist hosting and service continuity provider, which also provides managed data storage services for high-volume archiving requirements.               

By using Telehouse's existing shared infrastructure, Coorp has been able to avoid substantial technological investments, which would threaten the stability of a fledgling company of this nature. The secondary benefit of this arrangement is that the company will be able to adapt its requirements as its business expands. By remaining focused on its core business, Coorp is able to devote its time and resources to the success of its innovative services.

Maurice Aboukrat, the founder and CEO of Coorp, explains: "I already knew about Telehouse as we had used their services in my previous company, ASP One. I particularly liked the high level of service that its staff provide and I was confident that we would be able to develop a technology partnership with them. They really helped to make our launch a success. And with telecoms nodes on every continent, Telehouse will be in a position to support us as we expand across the globe in the future."

Following 18 months of intensive R&D, an initial version of the Coorp platform was tested earlier this year. In summer, production began at the Telehouse Voltaire centre.

The service is expected to go live this month, to coincide with the start of the new sports season.

In future, Coorp is likely to request additional services from its service provider, such as live streaming to meet visual demand.