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By Mark Henricks
When you settle into your seat at the 2010 FIFA World Cup, spare a moment from yelling your team on to victory to give thanks to Mahindra Satyam.
Mahindra Satyam, an Indian information services and technology provider, is providing the IT backbone to the World Cup, a task that includes issuing 3 million tickets, managing 250,000 accreditations and overseeing the deployment of 150,000 volunteers across sites in several South African cities, according to DNA India. Back in Hyderabad, Satyam will also run a help desk that provides answers in eight languages to soccer fans with questions about the World Cup.
This edition of the quadrennial global frenzy is expected to be the most-watched sports event ever, eclipsing even the Olympics, by snaring a projected 30 television billion viewers -- yes, according to promoters, an audience equal to nearly five times the Earth's total population will tune in at some point. Teams representing 32 countries, from Algeria to the U.S., will face off over four weeks, starting June 11, in ten venues in eight cities.
To cope with the IT demands posed by this outpouring of sports enthusiasm, Mahindra Satyam has deployed a team of 200 people and more than $1 billion in assets. The effort also required developing an event management solutions system capable of handling the massive volume of online multi-lingual ticketing as well as administration, logistics, accrediting and transportation for the people and properties involved in staging the matches.
Finally, Satyam's mission includes FIFA's social media marketing platform -- all-new since the last Cup in 2006 -- which includes press releases and other documents with built-in links to share content with others via Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Yahoo. According to TMC.net, the event management system will have generated 6 terabytes of data by the time the last second ticks off the final match.
Satyam is receiving an unspecified amount of financial compensation for its efforts. But the company is apparently generating a significant value in marketing in return. It is one of just 13 official sponsors of the event, along with the likes of Adidas and Sony, and its logo and name will be spread across the stadiums as well as throughout the televised coverage. The company hopes the exposure will improve the perception of it as a capable provider of IT services and products to top sports events.
Satyam is also signed on to provide IT for the 2014 cup to be held in Brazil, as well as the Singapore Youth Olympics. And, India DNA reports, the company is finalizing deals in the United States with the National Basketball Association and NASCAR.
Satyam's image could use some burnishing. In 2007, when it was offered the contract to provide IT services to the World Cup, it was still being run by Ramalinga Raju, who founded Satyam Computers 20 years earlier. Last year, Raju resigned from the company after admitting to a massive financial fraud. He was later arrested and is currently jailed in Hyderabad while he and other former Satyam officials await trial on criminal charges. Mahindra Group, a large Indian conglomerate, purchased the company last year and operates it as a subsidiary.
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