Focus on technology | January 26, 2009
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The Games start with Vancouver2010.com
By the time this issue is in your hands, the one-year countdown to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games will be on. It is estimated that more than one million people will descend on Vancouver in the months of February and March to experience Olympic fervour first-hand.
As passionate spectators gather to cheer on their native countries, Olympic fans around the globe will turn to the Internet for live streaming, breaking news and medal updates. The site expected to get the most traffic is Vancouver2010.com, The Vancouver Organizing Committee’s (VANOC) main information service delivery hub.
With this expected to be the most technologically advanced games to date, the Web site becomes critical. It will handle e-commerce sales, ticketing, multimedia presentations, photo and video galleries and live updates. Delivering the Vancouver2010.com enterprise Web portal is Bell, the exclusive Telecommunications Partner to the 2010 Winter Games. Like the other advanced IT solutions Bell will deliver in time for the Olympic Games, this site is already generating quite the buzz.
Visually impressive and highly user-friendly, this interactive Web site will meet the changing needs of VANOC. When the Games begin in February 2010 the site will evolve again, becoming an extension of the media to be used to publish results and schedules as well as profiles of athletes and their ongoing progress.
For those unable to travel to Canada’s west coast in 2010 to experience the Olympic Games in real life, the Web site will serve as a window into the competition and festivities. And, for those planning to attend the games either as a volunteer or spectator, the site offers everything required to organize the Olympic experience.
Vancouver2010.com and beyond
Bell’s IP network ensures the Web site and the communication during the Games run flawlessly
As the exclusive Telecommunications Partner to the 2010 Winter Games, Bell is delivering the technology solution that will help deliver the Games to the world, including an IP-based network solution, IT security and enterprise Web solutions.
During the phase one request period, which ran from Oct. 3 to Nov. 7, Canadian residents were given the opportunity to request tickets online for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. During this five-week period, Vancouver2010.com processed requests for $354 million in tickets. And, in the final two days alone, the Web site accommodated the creation of 149,000 new accounts and six million unique page views.
“When the Games are on, Vancouver2010.com will be one of the most visited sites in the world with an expected 1.5 billion page views in 17 days,” says Bell’s Vice-President of Olympic Services Justin Webb.
One of the primary challenges facing the Vancouver 2010 Organizing Committee (VANOC) was similar to that facing many other large Canadian enterprises—how can you best architect, design and manage a complex Web site environment when you’re not really sure how many visits you’ll need to accommodate.
“We could have had 1,000,000 or 100,000,000 unique page visits during phase one of the ticket request period,” says Webb. “And so, with the right load balancing across two data centres and Bell’s commitment to the improved usability and capacity, we were not only well prepared for phase one of ticket sales, but will also continue tracking the value of that traffic to prepare for the next phases.”
Bell is delivering an end-to-end solution—with both back-end and front-end support—to provide Vancouver2010.com with capacity and capability, and with the ability to support a breadth of application functionality, from e-commerce to customer relationship management (CRM) to analytics.
From the back end, Bell provides the infrastructure needed to deliver VANOC’s message to the world while maintaining a high level of security and redundancy. With so many different applications being plugged into this one site—including volunteer forms and processes, online shopping and eventually, timing and scoring—the content management requirements are increasingly important. “With the implementation of this Middleware it is possible for many different people to manage various bits of content in a controlled and functional manner without crashing the site,” says Webb.
From the front end, Bell consults with its Enterprise customers, as it has with VANOC, to help determine the overall design and strategy processes of the site. This includes the look and feel of the site, how it should be navigated and what its primary functions will be.
“What Bell brought to the table for VANOC, and what we offer our other Enterprise clients as well, is the ability to coordinate with a variety of different business units within one organization and achieve a consensus in terms of usability, practicality and functionality,” says Webb. “Our team of experts has a solid history and methodology behind them which they use to complete each task quickly, efficiently and successfully.”
The Best of Vancouver2010.com:
Torch Relay: learn when the Olympic flame will pass through your community
Ticketing Information: request tickets online for a chance to see a medal moment live
Meet the Mascots: play games with your kids and design mascot art
Spectator Information: view everything you need to know like bus schedules and city maps to make your Olympic visit flawless
Sustainability and Aboriginal Participation: learn about Vancouver 2010’s sustainable practices and how indigenous communities are participating
Countdown Photos: submit your own photo for a chance to be featured on the Vancouver 2010 home page and be part of Canada’s countdown to 2010!
Work and Volunteer: apply online for a once in a lifetime volunteer and/or work opportunity
For more information visit www.bell.ca
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