The 2010 Soccer World Cup in SA was the first to have had a constant uptime of IT systems, says Mahindra Satyam.
“I can honestly say it has not been 99%, but 100% uptime. No systems were ever down,” says Dilbagh Gill, head of sport business and Fifa executive relationship at Mahindra Satyam.
The company was Fifa's official IT services provider for the tournament and, as another World Cup first, used a fully Web-based events management system, instead of the third-party software Fifa had been using previously.
Gill says the system worked perfectly and after the first week, all glitches and potential problems were smoothed out. He adds that most of the challenges were identified and tackled during the Confederations Cup last year.
“IT services are like the goalkeeper [in soccer]. No one remembers the goals the keeper saves. The less you hear about us, the better we're doing our job... and this has just been a wonderful experience.”
Gill explains that from a technical perspective, there have been no issues. The ticketing glitches South Africans experienced when the systems crashed in the final sales phases were not related to Mahindra Satyam, as it only dealt with media ticketing and accreditation, according to Gill. Match is Fifa's official ticketing services provider.
Clouding 2014
Mahindra Satyam will start work on the 2014 World Cup, in Brazil, by September.
After the success of the first-time Web-based system, Gill says a move will be made to the cloud for the next tournament.
Fifa is set to make tremendous return on the software implemented for this World Cup, according to Gill, because it is extensible to Brazil 2014 and can be used for other Fifa events in the meantime.
Pack up
Gill says the IT Command Centre (ITCC), from which Mahindra Satyam had been operating, will be packed up and closed from this evening.
He adds that nearly a billion dollars' worth of assets had been put in place for the World Cup and will now have to be returned.
The assets are loaned by sponsors and are handed back to them at the end of the event, explains Gill. “We don't have to bring any of the hard equipment with us.
“We had to decide how to kit it [the ITCC and stadiums] out and what's required in each room according to the number of people. There are 33 000 pieces of assets, like laptops, cellphones and so on.”
He adds that Mahindra Satyam has put in 200 man years of support in SA for the 2010 World Cup.
“Now that the World Cup is over, we will continue our regular work here, which is non-sport IT.”
Playing match-maker
Gill explains that the ITCC handled things like Fifa's extranets, accreditations and volunteer registrations, and provided the basic IT services, all via the Web-based system.
“Registration, issuing of letters, everything happens online. Volunteers can track their applications at any point in time online. The system also matches people for positions, for example someone with a truck licence with a position that requires one.”
Gill says Mahindra Satyam's goals for the system were scalability, reusability and robustness. “The software is used by volunteers so it's got to be very simple, while still being robust, because they only get like a day's training.”
The system also took care of things like the online polling for the Golden Boot award, for which the results were instantaneously generated after the final match, according to Gill.
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