Datacom develops tailored mobile app for Special Olympics

Founded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver in 1963, the global Special Olympics movement supports over 4 million athletes in 170 countries with a volunteer network delivering over 44,000 competitions annually. In Australia, it has been transforming lives of people with intellectual disability since 1976.

The Challenge

In mid 2013, Special Olympics Australia approached Datacom looking for a way to assist friends, family and supporters to interact easily and more closely with the athletes. Datacom utilised their skilled volunteering hours to develop a mobile solution for Special Olympics Australia. This mobile solution provided access of information on the organisation for the general public as well as ways to donate, engagement opportunities, how to connect and profiles of competing athletes with relevant background information to show support. This information could readily be accessed over a mobile phone and was to be a conduit during peak period of interaction such as during major Special Olympics Australia competitions. 

The Solution

The mobile solution launched around the Special Olympics Asia Pacific Games in Australia December 2013 consisted of the app, available through an Apple App store, along with a mobile content server which allows the Special Olympics to easily change the content without the need for timely and expensive developers.

By working closely with the Special Olympics and maintaining close stakeholder management throughout the process Datacom was able to deliver a flexible and agile solution that met the immediate needs and can be developed further to support other mobile platforms in the future.

Additionally our charitable support for Special Olympics includes donating our corporate box at Sydney Olympic Park Allphones arena to be used as auction items for fundraising events, work place giving donations and awareness raising activities through our national conference.