Festival of Speed IT races to the challenge

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Festival of Speed IT races to the challenge

Stately homes need CIOs too. They do if they are Goodwood in West Sussex. Glorious Goodwood is world famous for flat horse racing and the Festival of Speed and Goodwood Revival have become major motorsport events.

The Goodwood business is essentially a sports and leisure venue that includes a hotel, airfield, motorsports circuit, golf course, health club and horse racing circuit. At the heart of these facilities and events is the Goodwood Estate headed by Lord March.

By Mark Chillingworth | 26 June 2012

CIO: Describe your organisation?

Ann Stupple: We have a 365 day business, as well as the famous events there is the golf course, hotel, a flying school, airstrip and organic farm. We sell our own organic produce at the farm shop as well as serve it in the hotel and sell it to other retailers. Horse racing takes place from May to September. Ticketing for events and membership are the main revenue sources.

CIO: What are the challenges of your role?

Ann Stupple: As a company they are very fast moving, Lord March is very entrepreneurial, therefore so is the rest of the board. It is all very interesting to me, dealing with the size of the pig herd to Formula 1 drivers the next and property management systems. The little things are just as important.

CIO: Describe the demands placed on the technology and infrastructure here, especially during one of your big events?

Ann Stupple: My role is to make sure that my strategy supports the business strategy. We sell our own organic produce as well as serve it in the hotel. We have a farm shop and sell it to other retailers, so stock control systems are required.

CIO: Are you on the board and if so, why is it important?

Ann Stupple: If I’m not on the board then I can’t contribute on what IT can and can’t do for the business.

CIO: Goodwood has an incredible reputation in motorsport and horseracing, but the UK is awash with events in both sports, is competition harsh?

Ann Stupple: There is no one in Europe or the world that does what we do with the Goodwood Revival and the Festival of Speed motorsport events. The Revival is always themed and the scale of it is theatre, it is unique. Goodwood has never been a follower.

CIO: Is the competition to get exhibitors and sponsors the real challenge rather than getting race fans to come to your events?

Ann Stupple: It’s not like Formula 1. At the Festival of Speed attendees get very close to the drivers and the cars and it’s a much more involved for the attendees. Getting sponsors is not a challenge. Businesses want to partner with an organisation that has a great heritage yet deal with it in a modern way. Glorious Goodwood is the pinnacle of the social scene and its appeal in horse racing is as strong as ever.

CIO: How does technology help Goodwood host its famous events like Glorious Goodwood and the Festival of Speed?

Ann Stupple: Sponsors have high expectations in terms of connectivity and that is the challenge. We are able to offer the same quality of network as you would get at exhibition buildings like Excel or the NEC, yet we are out on the park. We take the network down every year after the events. Auctioneers Bonhams run auction of classic cars that is the biggest in the world, so they need really good connectivity. At the 2012 Festival of Speed Bonhams will be running the largest auction of Vintage cars for 10 years. The Festival of Speed sponsors Audi bring 30 to 40 staff with iPads that have seamless access to their networks anywhere in the park. Sponsors and exhibitors have a dedicated level of bandwidth bespoke to their requirements.

CIO: As well as delivering technology services to your commercial partners at these events, how important is it for your audience, the event attendees?

Ann Stupple: For attendees it is nice to have public WiFi available to access Twitter, Facebook and we have an App for most events.

CIO: Is the new communications infrastructure a continuing strategy for improving the organisation?

Ann Stupple: I have been here for two and half years. The first challenge was to make the infrastructure fit for purpose for a company the size of Goodwood that was dependent on IT. The new network installed last year with Etherlive, replacing our old un-managed switches and put in wireless point to point network to ensure there is no point of failure across the estate. Etherlive were already a provider of connectivity to exhibitors, so the relationship stemmed from there. Now we can offer the press good levels of connectivity, which is really important to the horse racing fraternity.

CIO: WiFi is a good productivity tools for many CIOs and their organisations, what benefits has the new network delivered to the Goodwood Estate?

Ann Stupple: We use the WiFi for ticket scanning at the gates, which allows the gates to be monitored for efficiency and ticket validation. In corporate hospitality the people there like to have connectivity, when there is between 40 and 50,000 people at an event the telecommunications signal is always an issue, but not if you provide WiFi.

CIO: Describe working with Lord March?

Ann Stupple: Lord March took over in 1993, he had been a professional photographer and still is. Motorsport is his passion. He wanted to bring motor racing back to Goodwood as the sport is such a key part of the estate’s heritage.

CIO: Describe your management team?

Ann Stupple: The diversity of what we need in system terms means we have a team of myself and two others looking after the IT strategy and implementing it. I have a project co-ordinator for application development and reporting. Infrastructure and support is outsourced. We are involved with all areas everywhere we can make the operations more efficient for our people or enhance the customer experience. Infrastructure and support is outsourced. We are involved with all areas everywhere we can make the operations more efficient for our people or enhance the customer experience.

CIO: What is the IT budget?

Ann Stupple: My budget is about 1.1 per cent of turnover. It is true to say I’m required to run a tight ship. From an organisational point of view we have a very large overhead, running the estate, so we must make sure every pound spent is on the right thing.

CIO: What is your technology plan for the next 12 months?

Ann Stupple: We want to have one view of the customer, no matter how they interact with us. It is not good if we don’t use all the customer information, so we are getting all our customers onto our CRM. I’m currently looking at putting in our own disaster recovery into the hotel.

CIO: Who are their main suppliers?

Ann Stupple: Etherlive for networks, Microsoft Dynamics platform for CRM plus add-ons for ticketing, RMS for Retail and Great Plains for finance. CMS are our outside infrastructure provider. My criteria for choosing my suppliers is very much about the relationships; do I trust them, can I rely on them; and quality of advice? I’m very busy and I don’t have the time to double check on them. They are partners, not suppliers and I have as few of them as possible. Also they have to fit into the brand and cultural ethos of Goodwood.

Useful links

Festival of Speed: www.goodwood.co.uk/festival-of-speed/welcome.aspx

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