Manchester United shoots for success with a “digital experience platform” powered by HCL

Manchester United has announced a major milestone on its digital transformation journey with HCL Technologies, with the successful launch of the Manchester United Official app*powered by HCL’s digital experience platform. The launch is part of the ongoing digital-transformation of the club to provide a real-time, engaging, personalized, and unified experience to Manchester United’s 659 million global followers, which supports the club’s strategy to become a Digital Sports Enterprise. This transformation is supported by HCL’s extensive market leading capabilities that enable global enterprises to transform their businesses for the digital age.

At the heart of this transformation is the digital platform developed by HCL,providing the club with a single view of fans across web and app touch points, offering fans a one-stop shop for everything Manchester United. The platform also enables Manchester United to deliver an unparalleled and unified fan experience and continuously presents relevant club content driven by analytics in an easy to consume premium web and app experience benefitting a club with a 140 year brand heritage.

HCL’s digital platform integrates multiple industry standard products, services and applications into a cloud native, auto-scalable architecture that has been configured to support more than a billion fans. Manchester United now has a robust and scalable digital platform that will allow it to integrate a number of key revenue driving touchpoints including; ticketing, e-commerce, events and experiences, as well as deliver benefits to key stakeholders across the value chain. Through fostering greater fan engagement globally and attaining greater insight into their digital preferences and behavior, Manchester United will be able to create new business models and better monetize its digital real-estate.

The new app and recently revamped club website (www.manutd.com) aim to establish a sustained digital relationship between fans and the club, leading to a more active and engaged user base. The digital platform includes be poksereal-time authoring and editorial tools, along with unified content and digital asset management capabilities, providing the club’s content editors with unprecedented publishing speed and agility. The Manchester United official app and website will be the go-to destination for breaking Manchester United news and match day coverage.

Manchester United’s Group Managing Director, Richard Arnold comments:

“This app will allow our 659 million Manchester United followers to easily connect to the club they love, wherever they are in the world. Fans will now have the opportunity to follow all Manchester United matches through the app with up-to-the-second notifications and updates.

Just days after launch, the Manchester United Official app reached number one in the App Store’s sports category download charts in 68 markets around the world. The app was also top ten within the sports category in a further 123 markets.

The app was created by a dedicated project team from HCL Technologies and Manchester United, ensuring a truly collaborative approach to the project. The team not only built the new app and website, but also created an advanced underlying platform that will give the club the ability to adapt as new technologies emerge.”

HCL Technologies’ Corporate Vice President, Ashish Gupta, comments:

“Our partnership with Manchester United has been one of continuous co-innovation. HCL’s digital experience platform has driven significant business transformation combining digital product strategy and technology innovation to deliver a compelling user experience. The Manchester United official app has received excellent reviews from a worldwide fan base with downloads in over 210 markets.

Manchester United is a great example of a modern, forward-thinking global organization that is embracing transformative solutions to realize their digital potential. We are excited to help Manchester United achieve this important milestone and look forward to many years of continued success.”