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Satyam to Service 2010 World Cup

By Erin Monda, TMCnet Contributor

Mahindra Satyam, a global services and information technology provider, reportedly has stepped up to a new contract - just in time for the FIFA World Cup.

Satyam will be providing IT services for the duration of the event, and is the first Indian company to do so. Dillbagh Gill, head of sport technology practices at Mahindra Satyam, admits that ''It was a departure for us. But we were confident we had the in-house expertise to put together a project team with the right skills.'

The World Cup's scale of operations, which are said to be more complex than even the Olympics, required a special solution. Satyam had to develop an Event Management Solutions system to accommodate the World Cup's operational needs. After all, the last World Cup, back in 2006, had around 323,000 guests in attendance. And that was just the physical audience. This year, FIFA estimates that 30 billion people will be tuning in from Germany alone. If it proves correct in its prediction, the World Cup will shatter the current record for most-watched sports event.

But the exposure is good for Satyam. According to the company, 'The time is ripe for consolidation and standardization of Event Management Services and offering them as a hosted service instead. Also the current breed of technologies and other services allow us migrate easily to this new model and realize the benefits of centralization.'

By proving successful at developing IT solutions for the World Cup, Satyam secures its reputation of skillful event management practices. For the World Cup, Satyam provides front-end platforms for the competition's online multi-lingual ticketing, transportation control, and FIFA's marketing platform (engaging and distributing information across all social media channels.) The EMS will manage the World Cup's staff administration and logistics and its entire personnel accreditation. It is estimated that by the end of the closing ceremony, Satyam's EMS will have generated around 6 Terabytes of data.

Satyam's EMS isn't just reserved for the World Cup. The solution can be used for other large scale events, and other companies can purchase similar systems. Satyam considers the new Event Management Services delivery model able to offer huge cost savings for their clients as well as other benefits such as timely commissioning, reduced ramp-up/ramp-down, global reach and overall improved solutions and services. The new EMS will allow clients to focus on their core business practices rather than having to spend time developing the technological landscape.

It goes without saying that Satyam is proud of its FIFA contract and the prestige it represents. But they're certainly marketing to it. Upon visiting the Mahindra Satyam website, users are greeted with a colorful, full-screen image of an athlete kicking a soccer ball. Emblazoned towards the right is a large 'Countdown to 2010 FIFA World Cup' timer that is constantly counting down, to the millisecond, until the World Cup begins.

At of this article being written, there are three days, 14 hours, 32 minutes, and some odd seconds and milliseconds to go.
Erin Monda is a TMCnet Contributing Editor. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Michael Dinan