Anilrgowda

WHERE does technolo gy place the developing world?
Imagine it takes an average of four hours for news to travel between Abuja and Lagos, yet these are two of the most important cities in sub-Sahara Africa’s biggest economy. Newspapers are still unable to circulate same information across the country due to transportation limitations. Call drop rate on the mobile phone networks is still very high; Nigerians depend basically on the four major GSM providers for voice communications while internet penetration is still extremely low.
In contrast, the developed world is bustling with new technological innovations everyday. The recent Windows Vista and Office System 2007 from Microsoft Corporation of the United States is already creating new vistas of business communication windows not only for traditional and core business operations, but the sports sector also now appear set to tap into the advancing technology world for optimal performance.
While in sub-Saharan Africa sports isn’t yet seen as a profit making business, the story is the exact opposite in Europe and North America. Part of Asia, especially South East Asia — Japan, South Korea, China — are joining the bandwagon of technological advancement and professionalisation of sports. That effectively leaves Africa at the backwaters of technology.
“Our new stadium has enabled us to really change the way our staff work and become more collaborative across different departments. The combination of 2007 Office System, Exchange Server 2007 and Windows Vista is helping this enormously by improving the mechanisms for sharing information and providing frameworks for users to collaborate on planning and coordination around specific events.
Even simple things like having a single shared calendar of upcoming activity will improve productivity and be hugely beneficial,” said Adrian Ford, commercial director, Arsenal FC at the November 30 launch of Vista at the club’s Emirates Stadium in London.
The English club already sees opportunities in the Microsoft products and intends to utilise them for effective productivity.
Another sport already aiming to benefit from this technology is Formula One racing which recently signed a deal with the McLaren Electronic System, MES to open collaborative windows.
Microsoft and MES recently announced a formal agreement that they are to be the official suppliers of engine control units (ECUs) to the Fédèration Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) Formula One World Championship for three seasons beginning from the 2008 to 2010.
“As part of the FIA’s commitment to reduce costs, increase competition, and support fuel efficiency and energy recovery initiatives in Formula One, it tendered the contract for the appointment of a supplier of standard ECUs and associated software.
The winning bid, jointly presented by MES and Microsoft, was confirmed by the FIA on July 5, 2006, following a meeting of the World Motorsport Council. The three parties have now finalised the contracts.
“MES will work with Microsoft to develop the ECU systems and will then manufacture and supply the units to all competing Formula One teams for installation on their vehicles.
The ECUs will monitor all aspects of the power train and gather data from over 100 sensors located on each car. Generating on average 100 KB to 500 KB of data per second, one car’s ECU will potentially gather more than one GB of information from the sensors during a Grand Prix race. This data will be continuously broadcast in real time back to systems located in the pit-side garage of each Formula One team for detailed analysis.
“These systems will provide enhanced capabilities to process high-fidelity health and performance information; the ability to store and compare historical data from tests drives, previous races and dyno runs; and the verification of car setup and race strategy simulations. As a result, faster vehicle setup and race strategy decisions may be made,” a Microsoft spokesperson explained.
Together, MES and Microsoft will streamline the ability of both Formula One pit-side racing teams and their engineering colleagues to access, share and analyse data in real time, to make quicker, better and more-informed decisions.
The two companies will continue to extend this technology during the life of the project. This will be achieved by integrating the latest high-performance computing using Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft SQL Server 2005, the 2007 Microsoft Office system, and other Microsoft software platforms and products as appropriate.
“With the best interests of motorsport at heart, we have introduced new regulations that will help cut costs while also retaining each team’s ability to compete hard and sustain safety levels,” said Max Mosley, president of the FIA.
“We have been involved in Formula One and other forms of professional motorsport for 15 years and already work with all the Formula One teams,” said Peter van Manen, managing director of MES.
“We are delighted to be working closely with Microsoft and the FIA to supply the standard ECUs to Formula One. Our work with Microsoft allows us to combine MES’ considerable knowledge and experience of providing systems at the highest levels of motorsport with Microsoft’s innovative technologies to deliver the best electronic system possible,” notes van Manen.
“In all industries, Microsoft’s aim is to provide people with the right technology and the right tools to enable them to succeed in their business, while also keeping costs to a minimum. This is exactly what we are offering to all of the Formula One teams.
We are very excited to be involved in this development with MES, of what we believe will be a robust, scalable and easy-to-use system. We are looking forward to working with MES and the FIA on this project over the coming years,” Manuel Simas, director of worldwide automotive industry at Microsoft enthused.
Microsoft UK Managing Director, Gordon Frazer believes that the new products from American IT dinosaur is developed to ease business operation and deliver on investment returns. “These products deliver game-changing innovation. We’ve made extraordinary investments in research and development and Windows Vista, the 2007 Office system and Exchange Server have been tested more thoroughly than any other software products in history.”
The London Gunners, as Arsenal FC are fondly called by their teaming fans, hope to maiximise critical products from Microsoft including for security implementation. “Increasing security and helping reduce IT costs. With enhanced security by design and by default, the new versions of Windows, the 2007 release and Exchange Server 2007 deliver breakthrough security features. They streamline deployment and management, helping reduce costs and enabling IT departments to focus on providing new capabilities that deliver strategic advantage.”
The new features include simplifying how people work together: From new Windows capabilities designed for mobile workers and unified messaging enabled by Exchange Server 2007 to workflow and collaboration tools in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, the new products revolutionise the way people work in teams and on the go.
•Finding information and improving business platform integration and availability of new search technologies and powerful, easy-to-use business intelligence tools will help enable employees to find and use information more easily, streamlining the path from idea to execution.
•Helping protect and manage content management and document retention tools combined with features to better protect data confidentiality make content authoring the starting point for automated business processes and regulatory compliance.