May 31, 2006 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Many of the office applications and collaboration tools provided as hosted applications these days are designed to make business more efficient by replacing interactions that would previously have taken place in person. And many of the Web's entertainment technologies offer simulations of events that might really have taken place.
In a unique amalgamation of the two ideas, minor league hockey organization the Ontario Hockey League has begun conducting its draft online through an interface resembling those used in many online fantasy sports pools.
Designed by Canadian application developer Trinitas (trinitas.ca), the Draft Manager platform was originally designed for the OHL in 2001, when the league decided to move its draft online. There was a time, of course, when the OHL's draft-day events took place in an arena and newly drafted players mounted a stage to don the uniforms of their new teams. But at the expense of a little drama, the new system has been a big improvement for the league, says Trinitas director of business development Scott Hicks.
The scene at a live draft is busy, says Hicks. General managers are close together, complicating the drafting process for them. And many of the young men who attend go un-drafted. Attending the proceedings from the privacy of their office or the security of their homes makes for a better environment across the board.
But the greatest benefit, he says, is to the league. Unlike major sports leagues like the NBA or NFL, whose drafts draw massive television audiences, there isn't much of an audience demand for a live OHL draft. And without the potential returns, there is a big impetus to save costs on the event.
"[The online draft] saved the Ontario Hockey League tremendous amounts of both time and money," says Hicks. "Obviously from a cost point of view, they eliminate the cost of renting a venue, travel expenses and all the other costs associated with a draft. From a time point of view, basically once the players are loaded into the system they're ready to go for a draft."
The OHL estimates the savings provided by the draft manager at between $10,000 and $15,000 per year, says Hicks. And because teams have their own expenses associated with the draft, the number can be hard to estimate.
The Draft Manager application itself is built using AJAX, ColdFusion and Oracle, and is designed to share information with several other applications also built by Trinitas. The league's scouting application enables scouts to input player data throughout the year, and that information is available to the Draft Manager product when the time comes. During the draft, selections are fed, in real time, to the OHL's Web site, ontariohockeyleague.com.
The online draft is unique as a hosting project, in that the application is only online for a few hours a year, but during that time demands perfect performance. Hicks says Trintias has the advantage, there, of being a division of an established Canadian ISP, Internet Light and Power (ilap.com), making hosting just another part of the project.
"Draft day we make sure that the system is completely redundant with multiple servers, multiple connections, power generators," he says. "We monitor the database, the applications and the network just to make sure that there are no interruptions during draft day."
Being a division of the hosting provider makes it possible for Trinitas to develop applications that operate seamlessly with the infrastructure backing them up, as well as with other applications employed by the customer.
"It's kind of a one stop shop," he says. "You can come to ILAP for your high-speed connection or T1 or 10Meg, but what also can fall under one roof is development plus the hosting. So if you're looking for somebody to design a site or an application, but you're also looking for somebody to host it, you can come to one place and have that all done."
