“We work 16 hour days, seven or eight days in a row, and the last thing I want to do is spend half that time building game logs in Excel. Shoflo’s flexibility frees up a lot of my limited time to make the game and everything else around it so much better.” -Nikki Sim
Brady Brown, Director of Marketing and Game Operations for the Salt Lake Bees, had been spending almost full days writing 70 or more game scripts per season in Excel. He found his workflow to be extremely labor-intensive, and found himself spending 5 to 6 hours on each game log even though he knew all the elements needed for each script. Formatting issues would arise almost every game log and cause unnecessary challenges.
“I hated using Excel. There was always some format issue. I had a template that took a long time to develop and in the end, I was looking at about 4 different Excel sheets that weren’t very well organized. I was consistently trying to find a better way.”
After discovering Shoflo, the bees made the jump from Excel. Nikki Sim, Game Operations Manager, was lucky enough to take the helm for game scripts with the Bees in 2018, their first year using Shoflo. Brady expressed how envious he was that Nikki never had to develop their script inside of Excel. “Nikki got to have all the fun and the easiness,” he laughed.
“With Excel, it would take a majority of 8 hours of game log work per game. We usually had at least three versions per game on a good night. Shoflo allowed us to stay a day ahead."
The Bees confirmed Shoflo cut their scripting time by 50% or more with its collaborative workflow and ability to work on multiple scripts simultaneously. Shoflo allows everyone access and the ability to make their changes directly in the app. Changes are seen in real-time so Brady can focus on other things. (Efficiently changing their pre-game workflow was only half of the satisfaction the Bees experienced with Shoflo- it changed the game for them when it came to their in-game entertainment.)
“This season using Shoflo, our general manager brought a NEW first pitch onto the field with 10 seconds to go,” Nikki remembered. “I had absolutely no time. I just threw a new line in Shoflo and radioed upstairs, saying, "Hey, we have another first pitch. All the information's in Shoflo so look there." No one in the stands would've known that there was a last first pitch added with 10 seconds to go. That’s when our general manager pulled me aside and said, "Okay, I think Shoflo's worth it.”
Nikki loves the ability to be mobile on the field and call her games right from her phone. Shoflo’s ability to broadcast changes in an instant (real-time) means fewer radio calls and less scrambling to get the entire team on the same page. “It’s already in Shoflo,” is all Nikki needs to say to her team, and there is no more guessing if the video board is going to misspell a sponsor or if the PA has the right name.
“Jeff [Bees Announcer] is super old school, so I was really nervous at first when we switched,” she laughed. Nikki utilizes Shoflo’s ability to host JPEG images directly into her scripts, so her PA has a great visual reference along with his script, and ensuring he’s saying the right read. “There are sometimes where you wouldn’t have enough time,” Nikki recalls with Excel, for the PA or Video Boards.
“Having those small images made sure everyone knows it’s the right one. It’s visual, quick, and there are fewer mistakes. In Excel, it would take a bit longer realize or we might not realize at all,” she recalled. “Whereas with Shoflo, I can anticipate it, and if it's wrong, its a quick switch!”
Brady and Nikki, plus one more full-time employee, make up the small but mighty team at the Bees to ensure all 70 games run smoothly and correctly. Shoflo provides a new piece of mind for not only the team but their GM as well.
“Our GM would ask us a question, and I immediately just pulled out on my phone,” Brady said with a sigh of relief. “He has stopped worrying about us forgetting something, because he can see it now, and if we need to add something, it’s not a problem.”
Shoflo has granted Nikki and Brady the ability to spend more time in places that matter the most. When asked where they used their time savings this season using Shoflo, Brady shared, “I now get to see my kids more during the season,” with a smile on his face. “We are more accurate, less stressed, and have more time to actually try to make the show better, rather than put down what the show is going to be. We can actually create content,” they both agreed.
The Salt Lake Bees are proud to be an ambassador team for using Shoflo in the MiLB.
“We believe in your product. It saves at least 50% of our time on game scripts, and we’re very thankful for that,”
