Following a change in ownership like most Football clubs Ipswich Town Football Club recognised the need for a major IT overhaul. With the Club doing well in the league, behind the scenes there had been a huge lack of investment into their systems and hardware both at the Stadium and training ground over the years.
Where little has changed in over 15 years at the start of a project such as this, planning and strategy is key. Following a full audit of the whole organisation the priority is to look at what is impacting staff and what will have the most positive impact once changed, to visitors and clients. A major downside of aged infrastructure is how unproductive this is for staff, equipment is unreliable, unpredictable and as a result users become frustrated and lose confidence.
Connectivity at the stadium was poor and it was lacking an end-to-end WIFI solution. CSCM installed a new leased line and firewall specific to the club, which now gives them much faster internet and it also means data is more secure. CSCM upgraded the WIFI throughout hospitality to enhance the visitor experience and also in all the offices to ensure staff benefitted from the much-improved quicker service.
By removing the old on-premise exchange server and introducing cloud services the club migrated to MS365, the club now has a fully managed MS365 solution that is protected, giving them peace of mind their emails are secure and backed up. It also opened the ability to send and receive emails on mobile phones, which gives staff the flexibility they had never had regarding working remotely. One of the management objectives of this project was to show its staff, stakeholders, and customers a more modern image and that Ipswich Town is well placed for future flexibility and change when it comes to technology.
All old PC’s were replaced throughout the whole organisation, CSCM managed this project right from recommending the specifications, sourcing the hardware, logistics, set up and installation. The club was still on windows 7 and now all users have a new device and are using windows 10, this also included all hardware at the training ground. As a result, staff raise less support calls and productivity, and morale has increased.
To add much needed layers of data security CSCM embedded key applications including Mail Protect, Endpoint Detection and Response, Prey and Multi Factor Authentication. There have been numerous other application upgrades and replacements, such as Artifax move to IVVY and the accounts system moved to Sage.
To enhance the supporters and visitors experience CSCM worked with the club’s existing partners ADI to embed new pitch side LED’s, new LED big screens and additional new screens throughout the stadium, as well as new video conferencing systems at multiple locations. CSCM also worked with Apex and Stat Sport to install pitch side player tracking.
The club were utilising internal staff as IT support, as a result response time to issues was slow and problems were not always resolved due to lack of knowledge. CSCM has now taken over as the official IT and Cloud Partners of the club, so they benefit from full time IT support, which includes match day onsite support, support for major events, day to day IT support calls and troubleshooting as well as proactive monitoring, to ensure all required updates are managed.
With clients in the sports and hospitality sector the main driving factors behind an IT solution is embedding the best technology to support the precision of systems. Behind this is the complex cabling and network designs, lastly the vital match day and ongoing user support.
