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With a worldwide television audience of 3.5 billion, the Rugby World Cup was the world's biggest
sporting event in 2003. It is the showpiece of the International Rugby Board-the organization that
administers the sport-and the financial engine that drives the development of rugby worldwide.
Using Microsoft technology and within a timeframe of only 14 weeks, the IRB created a robust and
secure online publishing system that met the demands of editorial teams in London and Sydney and
millions of rugby fans in 194 countries. The system handled usage levels that on occasions saw four
million Web pages opened per hour and provided live match updates from stadium sideline to Web
site within seconds. Published in English, Spanish and French, the RWC 2003 Web site also included
live match audio, video replays of matches and an archive of statistics. The intelligence collected about
site usage will be applied to plan future sites and solicit potential sponsors, while the platform and
functionality now in place will be employed on other IRB business projects.
Situation
As the governing body of a sport played
in more than 100 countries, the International Rugby Board
(IRB) is a multi-million dollar organization responsible for
the advance of rugby. Every four years, the IRB stages its
showpiece event-the Rugby World Cup (RWC). Contested by the
sport's leading 20 nations over six weeks, the RWC is the
third-biggest event on the world sports calendar, behind the
Olympic Games and World Cup Soccer. It brings together the
world's best rugby players for a 48-match tournament telecast
live to 3.5 billion people.
Although steeped in the tradition of a
game that traces its roots to 1823, the IRB has been at the
forefront of technology use, especially for the purpose of
disseminating information. Following the success of the official
Web sites built for the Olympics of Sydney 2000 and Salt Lake
City 2002, the IRB wanted to create an online experience to
emulate those events. It also wanted to deploy technology
that could be used again for future IRB tournaments.
For RWC 2003, held in 10 cities around
Australia, the IRB envisaged a Web site that included match
and player statistics, live audio and video, full replays
of matches and an archive of previous tournaments. It had
to be driven by a quick and easy publishing process that would
allow a team of 10 producers in London and 21 journalists
in Sydney to compile up-to-date information. It also had to
be browser-based, so no matter where production staff were
in the world, with the correct authorization they could access
the system and publish material.
The editor of the IRB Web site, Dominic
Kelly, explains the project had both short and long-term requirements.
"It was the biggest sporting event in the world for 2003 so
we needed a world-class news and information Web site that
was worthy of the event," Kelly says. "That was the short-term
requirement. But we also wanted a system we could reuse for
future tournaments, such as the RWC in France in 2007 and
other IRB tournaments like the Under 19 and Under 21 World
Championships."
"We didn't have much time to build a Web
site for this World Cup, so we needed a solution that was
not only easy to control, robust, reliable and would meet
our high standards, but also one that could be delivered in
three months."
And, as if the time constraint and amount
of information required wasn't difficult enough, the site
also had to be published in English, French and Spanish.
Scoring the world's largest sporting
event this year involved many moving parts and technical experts
working in partnership. Managing a live system with this much
information means constant assessment and rapid response.
Andrew Barkla
Vice President & General Manager
Asia-Pacific
Unisys
Solution
In 2002 the IRB conducted a lengthy selection
process to identify a suitable content management system for
its online properties. The IRB chose a system based on Microsoft®Content
Management Server 2003, as part of a wider IRB technology
strategy built around Microsoft products. The RWC 2003 project
team comprised Unisys as infrastructure and hosting provider
and Microsoft Consulting Services as application developer
for the Web site.
The system consists of two servers running
Content Management Server that allow authors to create and
modify content; a clustered Microsoft SQL Server™2000
database that holds all the tournament statistics; and a Web
usage analytics server that allows detailed analysis of usage
patterns. It also has two servers hosting interactive Web
games and e-mail newsletters for subscribers; two servers
that run Microsoft Operations Manager 2000 to monitor the
Web site infrastructure; and two domain controllers that provide
authentication and authorisation.
The massive volume of visitor traffic
to the Web site was handled by nine Web servers.
The RWC 2003 project also demanded the
content management system be able to communicate with other
information sources, such as the tournament's main database.
So while a site structure was created through Microsoft Content
Management Server 2003, procedures to store data and show
information such as match results, player details and updated
tournament statistics needed to be incorporated.
"We did a lot of research into possible
solutions," says Kelly. "We were already working to IT
strategies based on Microsoft standards, and we thought it
best to keep consistent with those standards since we were
facing such a tight deadline. So, apart from the huge imperative
to get the solution working in time, there was a comfort factor
for us attached to the expertise of the Microsoft name."
The IRB's IT Manager, John Corbett, says
Microsoft Content Management Server 2003 was chosen for its
price, ease of use, solid strategic fit with other Microsoft
products at the IRB and the availability of product expertise
through a wide network of Microsoft partners and Microsoft
Consulting Services. However, Corbett says there was some
trepidation about using products that were so new at the time,
especially when it came to integrating them with other technology.
"There were minor hiccups concerning integration,
but overall the project was a success," Corbett says.
"The World Cup site was built and managed
with technology that can now be used to maintain other IRB
sites. This has obvious advantages, such as centralized hosting
for all sites and training on a single system. It's also easy
to transfer functionality and data between sites."
Compuware provided testing tools to help
Microsoft and Unisys developers simulate millions of users
hitting a system. These tests were conducted by Devtest.
Benefits
Corbett says he was impressed that the
content management system for the IRB's major event was delivered
on time and on budget, with the full functionality required.
He says this was a result of the expertise of Unisys and Microsoft
Consulting Services.
Speed and Ease of Use
Both Corbett and Kelly say the strengths of the browser-based
system are its simplicity and speed at publishing information
on the Web site. For example, match statistics got from the
sideline to the Web, television screens and journalists within
10 seconds. It could have been even quicker but minor sacrifices
regarding workflow were made because of the launch deadline.
However, the system is designed so it is easy to make adjustments
and add functionality that would make the time-to-publish
40 percent faster.
High Usage of a Content-Rich Web Site
That Generated Revenue
Through its RWC production team in London, the IRB offered
a premium service for a one-only payment of US$25 that included
access to all parts of the site, live audio, video highlights
and full replays of all matches 24 hours after completion.
Kelly says there was "solid" uptake
of this service, especially by rugby fans in the US, where
matches were not shown on television until three days after
they were played.
"We derived significant income from this
service,?says Kelly. "The main RWC site was also the major
referrer for the online merchandise site. We had many visitors
move on to the rugbyworldcupstore.com, earning us a percentage
of the sales through that site too."
According to Kelly, the most impressive
content was the live updates with running statistics during
games. This "match-tracker" provided commentary in three
languages, updated every 20 seconds. Combined with an archive
of statistics from the tournament database, this kept hard-core
fans up to date with the rugby action.
Says Kelly: "People who couldn't get to
a TV screen could stay tuned to the game through our Web site.
Many of the games were played about 8pm Sydney time, which
is 10am in London. I'm sure we gave a lot of people stuck
in offices throughout Europe and the UK a real sense of the
game through the text commentary."
"And, if you were a supporter of a particular
team, you could go into that country's section and find all
the news."
Intelligence-Gathering for Sponsors
The support of the IRB's commercial partners was vital to
the tournament's success. They provide a large amount of income
that the IRB invests in developing rugby around the world.
The IRB wanted to ensure these sponsors were catered for through
the site with their own sections.
It also wanted to retain enough business
intelligence from site usage to be able to show sponsors,
and potential sponsors and advertisers, how the site was used.
"We need to prove that 'x' number of
people visited this part of the site on this day, as well
as other useful information about how people use a Web site,"
says Kelly. "This helps us mount a case for why sponsors should
be part of our tournaments. We had a business intelligence
tool attached to the site that provided this information,
which will be very useful now."
The next IRB tournaments are the Under
19 World Championships, which will be held in South Africa
in March and April 2004, and the Under 21 World Championships,
to be held in Scotland in June 2004. The Microsoft and Unisys
technologies that proved so successful for the RWC 2003 will
be used again at these tournaments.
Microsoft Consulting and Unisys delivered
a solution with all the functionality we needed-within budget
and within the required time frame.
John Corbett
IT Manager
International Rugby Board
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2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
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