Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games Final Gate successfully passed by Atos Origin

Paris, 21 December 2005 - Atos Origin, the Worldwide Information Technology (IT) Partner for the Olympic Games, today announced the successful completion of the second and final technical rehearsal for the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games. The rehearsal simulated the three busiest days of the Games, testing 500 different scenarios including hardware failures, security attacks, staffing issues, competition postponement, etc. This key final testing phase in the preparation for the Games is designed to ensure the readiness of staff, technology and procedures before starting the countdown to the Games which start on February 10th.

The week-long technical rehearsals finished on 16 December, were carried out by a 720 strong team, and were led by the Torino 2006 Organising Committee for the Olympic Games and Atos Origin. The testing exercise simulated the three busiest days of the Games (February 15-16-17) and covered the IT systems, communication, sports, security, venue management and press operations to ensure that all staff, technology and procedures are in place in order to respond to any situation at Games times.

Scenarios were set by a shadow team of 39 officials who then assessed the response of the operating team. They included: hardware failures, software bugs, sport changes, users’ complaints, staffing problems, security attacks, network breaks, power outages. All of the exactly 500 scenarios played have been kept totally secret from the operations team.

Testing took place across 23 venues, both in city and in mountains, and involved all the 15 sports. All the competitions were simulated from the real venues, enabling to exercise on the Games infrastructure, and in real Games environmental conditions.

Representatives from the media and sports participated in the trial, using the Atos Origin applications as they would do during the Games, including:
the Commentator Information System (CIS), a browser-based application that displays results a fraction of a second after the event on touch-screen PCs at the venue broadcast sites ;
INFO2006, an Intranet that will provide information to accredited media and the Olympic Family of athletes and IOC officials.
The rehearsal was the final major testing phase in the run-up to the Games. Last October, the first technical rehearsal was completed successfully, with IT systems functioning as expected. The results of the first rehearsal were fed into the final tests, which were completed on 16 December.

“The preparation by the Torino 2006 Organising Committee and Atos Origin for this second technical rehearsal was outstanding,” commented Jean-Benoît Gauthier, Director of Technology for the International Olympic Committee (IOC). “ The cumulated experience of Atos Origin played a key role in getting ready for this crucial technology milestone”.

“The second set of technical rehearsals test several scenarios that might occur during the Games. Lessons learnt from the first technical rehearsal last October and previous Games experience really helped the team perform successfully. I am confident that we are now well prepared for the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games” said Patrick Adiba, Atos Origin Executive Vice President Olympics and Major Events.

The Atos Origin contract with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is the largest sports-related IT contract covering: Salt Lake City in 2002 (operating as SchlumbergerSema); Athens in 2004; Torino in 2006; Beijing in 2008; Vancouver in 2010; and London in 2012. Atos Origin has primary responsibility for Information Technology, relating to IT consulting, systems integration, operations management, information security and software applications development for the Olympic Games. For the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games, under TOROC Technology Department supervision, Atos Origin, as the lead systems integrator, is managing a consortium of more than 10 technology partners and suppliers.

About Atos Origin
Atos Origin is an international information technology services company. Its business is turning client vision into results through the application of consulting, systems integration and managed operations. The company’s annual revenues are more than EUR 5 billion and it employs over 46,000 people in 40 countries. Atos Origin is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic Games and has a client base of international blue-chip companies across all sectors. Atos Origin is quoted on the Paris Eurolist Market and trades as Atos Origin, Atos Euronext Market Solutions, Atos Worldline and Atos Consulting.

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Emilie Moreau

Atos Origin

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