In an upcoming trend, sports are channeling beyond branding exercise ? the reasons for this may be sponsorships or technological support.
Technology providers are seeing a bigger pie, largely untapped in this space. Domestic IT companies like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Mahindra Satyam and few others have already started their play in this niche vertical and exploring more. However, it may take two to three years to come into full force.
Having renewed its relationship with the Federation Internationale de Football Association (Fifa) deal, Mahindra Satyam has initiated negotiating with other sporting events and has bid for the Commonwealth Games 2010 and Olympics 2016 for providing technology solutions. The services include IT infrastructure, web application support, transportation management, content management and distribution, space and material management systems.
Apart from getting engaged to a large government sports academy in the West Asia, Mahindra Satyam will soon be associated with a sporting event in Singapore. TCS too is not behind with its partnerships with Formula 1 racing teams Ferrari, Ducati and several major marathons worldwide. According to Sharat Kumar, group delivery head ? Continental Europe, Mahindra Satyam, the company is moving forward to bid for major international cricket events. Interestingly, there are no competitors in this space which is more of an event-management solution system with various software modules focusing on specific areas such as accreditation, transportation, volunteer, space and material management. ?For the 2010 FIFA World Cup, about 125-130 employees are extending support,?? he said.
Recently, TCS was appointed as official technology partner to the cycling team ? Cervelo Test Team (CTT) till 2012. Partnering with leading sports adds up to a great branding exercise, say sources in TCS. The focus is going beyond business and TCS is putting in place a specialised team to work with Cervelo and identify how technology can be better leveraged to enhance the performance of the team.
?There is an increased use of technology in sporting events which are typically serviced by local companies. However, there is a greater opportunity around architectural designs, complex scheduling patterns or logistics management which are the market opportunities,?? according to Hari Thalapalli, chief people officer, Mahindra Satyam.
?More opportunities can be created with new applications such as data management or maintenance of existing applications or implementing any packages,?? says Rajeev Mehta, an analyst at India Infoline.
?Building IT infrastructure and customising applications for various activities is a great opportunity in sports verticals. The budget for tech services may be is in the range of $3-10 billion across all games.? says Sabyasachi Satpathy, partner, Tholons, an IT advisory firm.