SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS DEFENSIVE GAME PREPARATION

The San Francisco 49ers have always been leaders. The team entered professional football in 1946 as the first major league professional sports franchise on the West Coast. Forty nine years later, they became the first NFL team ever to win five championships with their victory in Super Bowl XXIX.
 
As leaders, the 49ers know that information can help win football games. The more you know about what your opponent is most likely to do in any given situation, the greater your advantage. The 49ers' defensive coaching staff has always excelled at gathering, analyzing, and communicating this information to players. But in the pressure-cooker atmosphere of the NFL season, anything that makes the process more efficient or effective will deliver returns on the football field.

THE SOLUTION

The 49ers asked Helium to review their entire defensive game plan information flow process, and to identify and implement improvements. Using the proven Roadmap process, Helium began by mapping out the defensive staff's existing workflow and information flow patterns. They then identified the best opportunities for gains in efficiency and effectiveness. Working closely with the coaches and drawing on commercial products, specialized hardware, and custom software, Helium implemented targeted changes that save the coaches time and improve the value of their work.
 
Helium and the 49ers determined that the team's greatest opportunities for improving the Defense's level of preparation were in the areas of opponent analysis and player education. Starting early in the 2002 off-season, Helium began implementing targeted system improvements. One key element was the creation of the "49er Defense Toolkit," an integrated package of play data and play diagram management tools. The Toolkit leverages the power of the Helium Data Managment Components to integrate a variety of types of football data in an extremely flexible and powerful manner.
 
The 49ers knew they could rely on Helium to help them in this mission-critical area of their organization. Helium made no changes to systems or workflow without first gaining the enthusiastic acceptance of the users, ensuring that the change was completely safe, and verifying that the change would materially contribute to the team's ongoing success on the football field.

RESULTS
The 49ers' defensive coaching team estimates that they have saved approximately 70 man-hours per week due to the improvements that Helium designed and implemented. In addition to the time savings, much of the coaches' is preserved in a form that has greater long-term value to the team.
 
"We demand intelligence, precision, teamwork, and a total commitment to winning from everyone in our organization, and that's why we selected Helium to help us use technology more effectively. Their laser focus on our goals and expert command of technology makes them an extremely valuable part of our team."
 
—Steve Mariucci, Head Coach, San Francisco 49ers