**Rick Angelicola**

Director - International Business Development, IDA

Could you describe what is International Development Academy (IDA)?

International Development Academy (IDA) offers a full-time development environment that allows soccer players to maximize their potential and achieve their goals at their respective level. With over 20+ years of experience in elite soccer and education, IDA's core areas of expertise are player development, international pathway programs, and educational/athletic placement.

Currently, we have 5 locations represented by IDA Coaches – UK, Spain, Italy, and two in the USA (Boston and Daytona). Already more than 18 countries are represented by IDA enrolees with 75 college scholarships earned. We are proud of all these achievements, given the academy only started in 2020 and we have already had more than 200 IDA enrolees.

Wow! Seems you are doing something really well – what is the secret?

We provide a clear path for student-athletes looking to bring their game to the next level. Whether it be a post-Grad year, GAP Year, or a step along their path to pro, we have an option for everyone at IDA. Coupled with an extensive network throughout Europe and the US, IDA ensures a diverse range of educational experiences, resources, and pathways for all our student-athletes.

The team is composed of experts experienced at all levels of football and education and understands exactly what it takes to achieve those goals. Designed specifically for the aspiring soccer student-athlete, our immersive programs provide intensive training with top-level European coaches and competition, customized education, along with personalized guidance with the college placement process in the US. Our programs are designed so that our student-athletes sacrifice nothing in the classroom or on the field as they pursue their careers.

So how are the different programs structured?

As the needs of our student-athletes vary we offer a number of programs and services to meet their needs, including our full-time residential program, various short-term training programs, and personal advising services. The IDA curriculum is based on a holistic development of the athlete, the student, and the person. The schedule is customized to give our student-athletes maximum opportunity to train, develop, and showcase their abilities at the highest levels.

Seems that you are also working closely with academia. Is that correct?

Indeed, we collaborate closely with high schools, colleges and universities within the USA and abroad. We partner with education providers to ensure our student athletes receive the best education programming possible - in addition, we also partner with various schools to help their student-athletes and staff develop. The aim is to join forces and provide complete and diverse training and experiences to our enrollees in different parts of the world.

How is your partner channel structured and who do you partner with?

Our partner program is designed to allow us to collaborate effectively with multiple channels within the industry. Our partner types can vary from education agencies, brand ambassadors, football agents, etc., in which we rely on for third-party sales, recruitment, and marketing channels. We also partner with clubs, schools, and federations, to provide our services and our pathways for their student-athletes, coaches, and staff.

And that is how you identified the need for a Partner Relationship Management (PRM) software that would help you manage your partner network and scale your global reach?

Correct, that is how we found and chose Kiflo as a modern PRM that gives us the flexibility we need to scale and resource every one of our partners with the tools they need. Each partner type in our industry is unique so having the ability to tailor our partner management programs accordingly is invaluable to our success.

What is the role of CoMantis in your journey with Kiflo?

We hired CoMantis, recommended by Kiflo, to execute the integration between Kiflo and HubSpot. Our business is quite unique and special attention had to be paid to the process flows – how exactly leads and deals are created and where, avoidance of conflicts between data in Kiflo and HubSpot, leads acceptance rules, deal stages logic, partner application, approval, and onboarding, etc. CoMantis ensured that the data reporting, everything that the partners have brought to the table, has been accurately represented and communicated in our internal system.

Zapier was chosen as an online integration tool as it was the logical decision due to the ease in the integration of web applications and automation of workflows

So now you are also part of the Zap world?

Zap after zap we automated all key workflows so Kiflo and HubSpot could work together, in a synchronized way. Zaps like channel conflicts in leads and deals, automated creation and automated updates of partners, contacts, deals between the two systems, etc. were part of the scope.

CoMantis delivery was extremely helpful in guiding us through the whole integration – the logic behind every Zap, the trigger steps, and the action steps were meticulously examined, approved, and implemented.

How did you like the experience working with CoMantis?

Filip and the team were really passionate about not only helping us, but more importantly, educating us in a way that made the knowledge accessible and understandable.

Our ambitions for growth demand high work standards and high quality from our service providers and I am happy to share that CoMantis has delivered in all areas.

What is the future of IDA?

Our goal is to be the number one developmental platform in the world for aspiring student-athletes. We have seen tremendous growth in the last three years in both the number of student-athletes we work with, the quality of those student-athletes, and the success they are achieving. As we continue striving towards our goal, our partnerships become even more valuable and important to our success.

Thank you for your kind words, Rick!

Training the Athletes of the Future – a Soccer Academy Aspires to Become a Global Leader in the Development and Placement of Football Players