Last year, Infor Inc. took a retro step (for a software company) and set up Hook and Loop Digital, a creative agency with brick-and-mortar digs in New York City. The H&L team strives to transform clients — from NBA teams to shoe retailers — with digital user experiences that are anything but retro.

“We’re working closely with Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment — both the basketball team and the stadium and the entertainment center,” said Marc Scibelli (pictured), chief creative officer and head of digital transformation strategies at Infor. The organization has tasked H&L with improving fans’ digital experience at Barclays Center, home of the Brooklyn Nets, Scibelli explained at Inforum 2017 in New York.

BSE wants to engage fans as soon as they walk into the venue, Scibelli told Dave Vellante (@dvellante) and Rebecca Knight (@knightrm), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio. (* Disclosure below.)

H&L is working on applications to differentiate Barclays Center from other next-gen stadiums, according to Scibelli. “How do you find the shortest beverage bar line? How do you find the cleanest bathroom? How do you get […] drinks and food delivered to your seat?” Scibelli said, listing some of the apps’ functions.

Full service

H&L is also working with Nets coaches on digital tools and applications to ratchet up players’ games on the court. When the team’s management first approached H&L with this idea, the company admitted they knew practically nothing about basketball. They did know, however, how to bring the data science together.

“We can bring the AI in; we can bring all of that together for your performance coaches and work with them — just like we didn’t know a lot about farming and agriculture, but we can work with feed companies,” Scibelli explained.

H&L culls telemetry data from players on performance metrics like ball arc and also monitors Internet of Things devices. “The trick is bringing it to them in real time, bringing it so that they don’t have to go into deep Excel documents; that’s what they were doing before,” Scibelli said.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Inforum 2017 event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Inforum 2017. Neither Infor Inc. nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE