INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE EXTRANET SYSTEM

The International Olympic Committee is at its center, but each Olympic Games depends on the close collaboration of many organizations and individuals from around the world. In order for an Olympic event to be successful, the specific details of how the event will be conducted must be discussed, defined, and documented.
 
For each sport, an international team — including members of the International Sports Federation that governs the sport, representatives from the Olympic Organizing Committees, and other sport experts — creates extensive documentation detailing the technical requirements of each event. The team members are diverse; they are unified by their shared interest in sport, but often divided by distance, time zone, culture, native language, and level of comfort with technology.

THE SOLUTION

The IOC needed a way to facilitate communication among the team members, encouraging collaboration and consensus. The existing method, which depended on paper documents and fax communications, was slow, error prone, discourgaged collaboration, and required a fresh start for each Olympic Games. Helium was engaged to design, develop, and deploy an Extranet system that would increase efficiency while promoting collaboration and unity among the participants.
 
In Helium's analysis of the project's goals, they found that while many users were technically naive, they were excited about working with the IOC. Leveraging that enthusiasm, they created a personalized navigation stucture that emphasizes the value of each user's contribution by helping them locate the documents they are most likely to need. The design captures the essence of the Olympic spirit by providing a cooperative atmosphere, and reminds users of the importance of what they are doing.
 
The project's technical requirements were driven by the harsh realities of third world technology infrastructure, the volume of data that had to be made easily available, and the need to promote harmonious collaboration. Helium architected and implemented a system based on emerging Internet standards that leveraged the cross-platform capabilities of the web. In addition to design and implementation, Helium provided extensive project management, training, and maintenance.

RESULTS
Deployed in 1999, the IOC Extranet System was first used for the Sydney Olympic Games. It is now in use around the clock, helping people manage the technical requirements of all the Olympic Games. The IOC, with Helium's assistance, has also developed a second extranet system for managing marketing documents that is based on the same extranet technology.
 
"Our Extranet system has greatly increased the efficiency with which we can organize the Olympic Games. With their total dedication to user acceptance and satisfaction and deep technical strength, Helium produced a system that was very well received by our diverse user base and has stood the test of time."
 
—Jean-Benoit Gauthier, International Olympic Committee