The Fan Lifecycle Framework: How Smart Clubs Turn Data into Loyalty
Reading time:
13 mins
Martin Stern is currently leading SAP Analytics Cloud and S4/HANA implementations at the DFB, bringing structure and clarity to the core systems that power German football from the inside out.
Before that, he helped SK Rapid Vienna digitize everything from finance to fan engagement, building roadmaps that actually shipped.
In this interview, Martin breaks down what most IT roadmaps in football get wrong, why internal alignment beats outsourcing, and how to manage expectations when “just make it work” is the unspoken brief.
One of the key success factors for a functioning IT roadmap is a realistic assessment of the availability of capacities, experience and skills within your own organization. It does neither work nor make sense to assign all tasks exclusively to an external service provider and a few internal employees (or perhaps even just the internal project manager).
For reasons of quality and, above all, acceptance, a broad base of internal employees must be members of the project team or at least regularly involved.
A clear, comprehensive digital strategy is the first essential step. What do I really need as a club?
What do I want to achieve? How do I achieve this and what do I realistically need to invest in it?
And am I ready and willing to do so? Without commitment any (digital) strategy is prone to fail.
Stakeholder management and the associated expectation management are very often underestimated. By definition, a sports organization focuses on sport. The available resources are primarily invested and attention is directed towards this area. IT projects then simply have to be completed, should at best not tie up any resources and must function immediately and without delay. However, IT projects are always subject to a certain degree of complexity and require money, time and employees. Otherwise, project goals cannot be achieved. After all, any IT-related project will support the overarching focus area of sport.
What struck me in the conversation with Martin is how much clubs underestimate their own role in digital transformation. He makes it clear that realism matters more than outsourcing. Without genuine internal involvement, projects may be delivered, but they won’t be accepted or effective. Strategy also needs to come before tools. Too many clubs talk about being “digital first” but skip the tough questions of what they actually want to achieve and whether they are ready to commit the necessary resources. Finally, Martin underlines how crucial stakeholder and expectation management are. In football, attention naturally flows to the sport itself, which often means IT projects are treated as side tasks that must “just work.” But these projects carry complexity, require investment, and need proper ownership if they are to support the overarching focus on sport.
