Scaling INSEAD’s global negotiation tournament with a resilient and adaptable platform
01 Challenge
Digitalizing a high-stakes first international negotiation tournament with real-time reliability, operational flexibility, and global coordination.
00 Solution
A dual-platform ecosystem for tournament orchestration and participation, blending custom business logic with flexible rule management and live control.
00 Services
Strategy
Product
DesignEngineering
04 Outcomes
Automated critical workflows, reduced manual overhead, and delivered a scalable infrastructure to support INSEAD’s global tournament growth.
The NCMC is an INSEAD initiative that connects scholars and practitioners to advance research and education in evidence-based, sustainable negotiation and conflict management.
Managing the complexity of global negotiation tournaments with minimal risk and maximum efficiency
The INSEAD Negotiation and Conflict Management Collaborative (NCMC) launched the first INSEAD negotiation tournament open to and thus bringing together students and alumni from around the world. These events require particular business logistics, such as advanced team pairing, coordinating time zones, secure access to team information, and scoring systems tailored to each team.
The tournament administration system becomes an essential piece of infrastructure when hundreds of people are participating simultaneously. Any technical failure could compromise the event’s integrity, and the diversity of participants' locations further increased the unpredictability and complexity, making resilience and adaptation essential for the project's success.
A robust and adaptable digital ecosystem for tournament orchestration and participation
To meet INSEAD NCMC demanding requirements, we delivered two integrated digital platforms:
Admin Platform: A back-office application that enables the organizing team to manage the whole tournament process, from team matching and participant registration to rule setup and real-time tracking.
Participant Platform: A simplified interface that allows students to sign up, create teams, and engage in negotiating matches with complete control and transparency.
The architecture blended custom-built components with proven off-the-shelf solutions. This hybrid strategy allowed for mid-event alterations, maintained high performance, and guaranteed quick delivery within budget.
The system can adapt to last-minute changes in tournament rules without causing any problems.
Strategic product development to ensure resilience and support scalable tournament operations
Our team used a structured strategy to complete the project:
- The admin platform was the main focus of the initial development, which was followed by testing to make sure tournament-specific issues were resolved as soon as possible.
- In parallel, the participant experience was designed and implemented, prioritizing usability and clarity for a global student base.
By combining strategic planning, UX-focused design, and technical engineering, it was delivered to INSEAD NCMC an infrastructure that could change with times and adjust to changing demands.
The mixed architectural strategy was essential for maximizing investment and adaptability at the same time. Custom development was used for the core functionality, while modular plug-ins were used where standardization worked well.
A flexible and resilient platform that simplifies tournament management and supports INSEAD NCMC global expansion
The new platform has transformed how INSEAD NCMC manages its global negotiation tournament by simplifying operations and facilitating scalable expansion.
From a manual and risk-prone setup to a future-ready system, INSEAD NCMC successfully ran its first global negotiation tournament with confidence, control, and the ability to scale for future editions.
The platform plays a key role in advancing their vision for global leadership in Negotiation Competitions.
The results also included:
—Significant reduction in manual operational work, especially around team registration, pairing, and access control.
—Real-time visibility and control, allowing organizers to instantly respond to last-minute changes.
—Adaptable rule engine, enabling dynamic updates mid-tournament without disruption.
—Scalable infrastructure, ready to support more participants, new formats, and future geographic expansion.
All names, teams, and data shown in the platform visuals are fictitious and used solely for illustrative purposes, in order to preserve the confidentiality of tournament participants and competition details.
