Michele Hyron has quite a job on her hands. The chief
integrator for theLondon 2012 Olympicsis leading the
team with responsibility for the event's technology, and as such is
embarking on one of the world's biggest IT projects.
The 16-strong Atos Origin team was formed in November last year,
and is working closely with other suppliers and the technology team
at the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games
(LOCOG).
Hyron has worked on Olympic Games IT since 1999, when Atos
Origin first won the contract, and says she is comfortable with the
four-year process. Throughout 2009, the team will be working on
designing and building the IT systems needed to stage the event.
Atos Origin needs to coordinate and oversee the work, getting
everything in place before the extensive testing phase begins in
2010.
And while the UK is rocked by thousands of job losses and the
news that we will be hit harder by the recession than most of the
world, it is business as usual for the Olympics IT teams, according
to Hyron.
"The recession won't affect the project," she says. "We are
always aiming to be more efficient, and the budget is always quite
constrained."
Hyron has worked in a variety of roles to learn skills needed to
lead the technology team. "I went to Athens as an integration
manager, and Beijing as operations manager," she says. "In these
two roles I learned a lot about all the different processes of the
games, what the system integration is like, and how important it is
to test all the systems in the venues exhaustively.
"It has also taught me how important it is to keep very focused
on the plans from the beginning. We need to keep up to speed
because we don't have any second chances."
London 2012 IT programme
The London Olympics IT team is in the first phase of the
programme, which involves working on the planning strategies and
architecture requirement, building the systems that are required.
In 2010, the testing phase begins, which continues until the
operational phase in 2012.
The IT section of the Olympic programme is taking steps to
become more sustainable, Hyron says. The
Beijing Olympics introduced the Commentators Information System
(CIS) so journalists and commentators can get all the results and
athlete information they need remotely, leading to fewer people
travelling to the host city.
The wireless network being rolled out across the venues will
limit the number of PCs LOCOG has to provide, as it will be easy
for those to need access to the network to log on using their own
computers. Hyron said the team is also looking at using
virtualisation, and at ways of reducing use of paper.