The Equestrian Sport NZ database project has been underway for some time now and has been causing issues for members and stakeholders since its launch.

The ESNZ board and management decided late last year to end the current contract with the supplier and to start reviewing options for a replacement database – either as a fix up of the current system, moving to an established alternative system or to start from scratch.

The reasons for this were as follows.

  • The current database was not serving the needs of our members or customers
  • It was not performing for staff and is difficult to manage
  • The code is not stable

The board made the decision that it was not prudent to put sticking plasters on a system that was not delivering and was not sufficiently stable to give confidence.

Since then our dedicated project manager Kate Brown and National Operations Manager Emma Gowan have been working almost entirely on the new spec and functional system required to deliver a forward focused, fit for purpose database and data management system that fulfils the needs of our members in the first instance.

SO, WHATS HAPPENING NOW?

  • A new vendor has been contracted to support the current system and they have already made significant improvements to how it operates.
  • A Discovery phase is nearly complete with a range of workshops held with stakeholder groups both in person and online. Thank you to all those that have been involved and given their feedback so far. A survey will also be sent out in the very near future asking members for their input. 
  • Staff have embarked on researching the data cleansing work that needs to be done urgently to ensure the integrity of the data before we transfer it into another system.
  • It is likely all results from the past two years will need to be reloaded to ensure they are pulling through to profiles correctly. We will notify members prior to us doing this.
  • The project team continues to investigate suitable companies and providers.
  • Two ESNZ board appointments have been made – both with significant IT, data and commercialisation experience in NZ corporate environments.

We are committed to ensuring the replacement is a good fit and is backed by a strong technical partner supporting it into the future. The timeframe for moving to a new system will become clearer in the coming weeks. The cost of the project will be covered by savings and cashflow into next year once we have established the best system and the final cost profile.