NHL scores with automated workflow, database

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By Jennifer Disabatino

(IDG) -- Up until a few years ago, National Hockey League draft runners got as much exercise as the draft picks.

Then the NHL did away with the practice of sending runners to and from team tables with the names of draft picks handwritten on pieces of paper. Today, NHL teams send their requests via e-mail. NHL officials also shaved hours off the process of making their draft picks by putting background information on the prospects into a database, where teams, scouts and even journalists can research the picks.

The NHL culls background information on players from local press clippings and other sources. If, for example, a player has been a candidate in a previous entry draft, he is ineligible for the current entry draft. Officials also can track what kind of season the player has had.

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Built on Notes 5 and Domino, the collaborative technology, from Lotus Development Corp. in Cambridge, Mass., the NHL database contains information about all prospective draft picks. Those found to be likely picks have been vetted by NHL scouts and will automatically pass on to the next phase of the workflow process. For those who have not been vetted, their playing histories will be compiled from scouting reports and local news coverage, pulled from the database and reviewed by NHL officials before the draft pick is approved.

Players in the draft come from semiprofessional hockey leagues and college teams.

"This year, I will say, was probably our most successful year," said Peter Del Giacco, vice president of IT for the NHL.

During the weekend of June 23 and 24, the NHL's 30 teams set up on the floor of the National Car Rental Center, the home rink for the Florida Panthers in Sunrise, Fla., for the 2001 NHL Entry Draft. There were 60 workstations, which were connected to two Notes servers, available for the teams, NHL officials and journalists.

After a few years running the NHL entry draft on Notes and Domino, Del Giacco said he and his IT staff have made the two-day event more efficient. Del Giacco figures he has shaved at least a couple of hours off the second day of the draft. Because of the media coverage on the first day, the process is slower because each draft pick gets a close look, his records are scrutinized and he is interviewed by reporters.

Part of what Del Giacco has done, however, is to automate the workflow process of the draft. Here is how it works:

A team sends a request for a player as a draft pick in a Notes e-mail message. That message is automatically routed to the central scouting desk. If the player is preapproved for the entry draft, the team's request is then automatically forwarded to the central registry desk. If approved there, the name goes to the podium, where there is also a workstation, and NHL officials see the name and announce that the player has been drafted. Notes also sends a message to post the player's name as a draft pick.

If, at any step of the process, teams or NHL officials need more information about a player, they can find it in the database. Likewise, reporters can assess a player's strengths and weaknesses and how his skills would fit with the rest of the team, Del Giacco said.

Before the database was started, getting the information to make a decision took hours. Or sometimes teams made blind decisions.

"Teams can run various types of reports. They don't have all day to make these decisions," Del Giacco said. "We also wanted to generate something that was point, click -- fairly easy to use. We also didn't want to take six months to write it."

When the NHL first built the database and workflow rules four years ago, it took one person two months. Now a few people tweak the system each year after the draft, based on problems or recommendations for improvements, Del Giacco said.