Stepping up to the next level

“Since the FIFA World Cup is important for the Germany soccer team, it’s also important for major German companies. It was a must that we were involved,” says Thomas Wolter, T-Systems Enterprise Services’ executive vice president of systems integration. Deutsche Telekom was already a major IT player in the German event market, providing event management systems, access and security as well as network solutions to major professional sports clubs. Being involved in the FIFA World Cup, with its massive appeal to potential customers around the world, took them to the next level. “The tournament is pushed market awareness about Deutsche Telekom as an IT provider in Germany and also helped transport the brand abroad,” Wolter added.

The T-Systems division of the company provided support services for the event network, systems integration and IT operations at all venues as well as the central IT Command Centre, and also hosted all IT Solution applications at a highly secure data centre located in Germany. This ‘fortress’ acted as the nerve centre for the entire FIFA IT Solution, housing the servers that support the Event Management and Event Information Systems.

Toshiba - helping people keep on the move

In recent years, computer technology has evolved tremendously and its implementation at the World Cup was certainly no exception. In 2002, 90% of the computers used at the competetion held in Korea and Japan were desktops. Four years on, FIFA exclusively used Toshiba Tecra notebooks - three thousand of them, in fact - enabling the user community to perform their day-to-day activities using leading edge technologies and quality tools.

All of those involved with the running of the tournament thus had access to information, statistics, match data and online reports via their personal notebook PCs – a boon for FIFA and German Organising Committee employees who were travelling between the twelve host cities. The thousands of press representatives at the stadium Media Centres also put this technology to good use. The Tecra notebooks further enhance the mobile working experience through integrated Toshiba EasyGuard technologies, which deliver seamless connectivity, improved data security and superior system protection.