World Rally Championship: Web-based Sports Portal

Developed and launched in just 14 weeks, leveraging the resources, skills and energies of the Accenture Microsoft alliance, the World Rally Championship website uses the latest Microsoft .NET Server technologies to elevate web traffic and brand recognition to new heights.

What do you get when you combine fast cars, fantastic locations and Microsoft .NET Server technology? A pioneering online presence for the World Rally Championship (WRC), that's delivering motorsports excitement to desktops worldwide. Developed and launched in just 14 weeks by the powerful team of Accenture, Microsoft, and Attenda, www.wrc.com uses the latest Microsoft .NET Server products to elevate Web traffic and brand recognition to new heights for WRC, by delivering interactive content, real-time race results, video clips and commentary.

International Sportsworld Communicators (ISC) is the exclusive rights holder for the World Rally Championship. ISC's goal is to develop the WRC brand as a major sports entertainment property, making the sport as popular as Formula 1 racing. Unlike sports that are restricted to one or two countries, WRC events span 14 countries on four continents. From January to November the WRC tours Monte Carlo, Sweden, Argentina, Kenya and Australia before finishing in Great Britain. So ISC needed a global re-branding strategy that would play as well in Sydney as in Stockholm.

ISC wanted to provide rally enthusiasts with an unequalled Web experience, enabling them to "see and experience" the races in real time as if they were attending in person. This presented some daunting challenges, including:

• Appealing to the sport's global audience by supplying a virtual race experience, while maintaining the sense of community that defines the WRC.
  
  
• Conforming to brand standards across other WRC media channels—namely broadcast, print and gaming.
  
  
• Creating a scalable and flexible platform to keep pace with WRC's projected growth.

ISC faced another challenge: finding partners who could "make it happen" quickly, competently and at reasonable cost. ISC chose Accenture, Microsoft and Attenda for their combined experience of industry insight, technical skills and Web hosting ability.

"ISC's previous website relied on third-party content and as a result it had little control over the message," says Stephen Deane, project manager-Accenture. "ISC wanted Accenture to help it create a new website that would strengthen the World Rally Championship brand. We agreed that the first phase of the project should be to develop a publishing platform that would give ISC control over its website and allow it to sustain an online presence."

The new publishing platform would need to accept content from partners, sponsors, broadcasters and new media associates, with updates appearing on the live WRC website in real- or near-real time. Accenture recommended using Simple Object Access protocol (SOAP) and XML Web services to enable the rapid upload and acquisition of content. Before each rally begins, a SOAP "results service" is used to upload details on the route and the competitors. Once the event is underway, an "update service" is used to send stage times, split times, penalties and retirement information back to the WRC.com site. At the rally site, special equipment records timing information as cars pass by and transmits this information as radio waves (via an overhead aircraft) to the Event Management System in the rally headquarters. When these signals are received, they trigger an event that "calls" the XML update service. When retirements or penalties are registered as official they are sent using similar services.

Microsoft .NET Server Products Used

Content Management Server 2001

Commerce Server 2000

Application Centre Server

SQL Server 2000

Exchange Server 2000

Windows 2000 Advanced Server

Windows Media Server

Visual Basic

SOAP and XML Web services were the logical choice for the WRC implementation, because they allow an easy-to-maintain, near real-time interface that operates effectively even over relatively low-bandwidth connections. This method of integration has proved to be a fast and robust way of tightly coupling the Event Management System with the website from all 14 rally locations, such as Kenya or Argentina. Information flows out to WRC fans across the globe, providing them with a near real-time view of the rally as it unfolds.

To ensure a robust, scalable system capable of meeting WRC's business requirements well into the future, Accenture selected a combination of servers and development tools from the Microsoft .NET Framework. The WRC website uses Microsoft Visual Basic (to build and deploy Web services), and runs on Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server using Active Directory. This allows the WRC Web team to manage and share information on network resources and users while acting as the central authority for network security.

The two-tier architecture of www.wrc.com includes Web and database layers. The Web layer uses Microsoft Content Management Server 2001 to drive all WRC content, including uploading of rally reports by journalists and a site-wide search engine. Commerce Server 2000 provides advertising management, personalization and subscription to wrc.com, delivering a user experience that matches individual interests, and allowing more precise and effective marketing to the wrc.com audience.

Data for the wrc.com website is stored in Microsoft SQL Server 2000, including information such as maps of rally routes, hotels in the areas and details on the cars and manufacturers. Microsoft Windows Media Server delivers streaming audio and video, enabling rally fans and the media to view on-demand video and/or listen to live commentary during rally stages. In the Accenture solution, all of these Microsoft .NET Server products work together to ensure that information and results are pushed to the website and lag only a few seconds behind the actual event.

The close alliance of Accenture and Microsoft is key in delivering complex solutions such as www.wrc.com. Accenture system architects and developers communicate directly with Microsoft personnel involved in the rollout and development of the .NET Server products and the .NET Framework to identify technical and business issues, resolve problems at the level of code, and maximize the power of the platform to deliver an enhanced user experience. As with any new technology platform, having direct access to the originators of that technology leads to a faster, smoother implementation.

"ISC partnered with Accenture to create the definitive World Rally Championship website, delivering an unequalled online experience to the sport's many millions of fans," says David Richards, chairman of International Sportsworld Communicators. "Keeping pace with innovative new media applications is critical to transforming the image of WRC, enabling us to access and win the hearts and minds of new enthusiasts around the world."

WRC's new media business model is aimed at interacting with all segments of the WRC audience. With an eye to the future, Accenture is now helping ISC to increase the amount of time consumers spend on the WRC site. For example, Accenture is incorporating streaming audio and video into the platform, enhancing the way ISC can communicate with spectators through SMS and mobile device links. The www.wrc.com website is also being configured to handle a Sony WRC Playstation 2 virtual gaming competition. By 2005, ISC plans to be a top-five content provider for all broadcast and new media in the motorsport industry.