Legendary tennis venue Wimbledon transforms media and visitor communications services with Alcatel-Lucent solution

Paris.- Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced that The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC), home of The Championships, Wimbledon, has deployed Alcatel-Lucent’s communication solutions to provide more dynamic services for the media, spectators and staff. The phased deployment, carried out by Alcatel-Lucent business partner Actimax and managed by telecoms and IT consultancy MAC Systems, will also enable the organisation to improve billing accuracy, consistency and increase revenue streams.

The AELTC is responsible for staging the world’s leading tennis tournament, Wimbledon, host to more than 450,000 visitors – including more than 600 journalists – each year. Based on Alcatel-Lucent’s IP telephony platform, the new solution lets the media create customised user profiles, and allows easy access to Internet and phone services with handsets that deliver unique voice and graphical support in multiple languages.

Key users will also benefit from Alcatel-Lucent’s unified communications tools that enable them to easily participate in audio conferences and share documents online. In addition, the tools improve collaboration among AELTC employees and let freelance staff access system resources remotely.

“Millions of people worldwide rely on the media to follow The Championships, so it is imperative that we can provide them with fast, flexible 21st century services,” said Jeff Lucas, head of IT at AELTC. “Thanks to the new solution from Alcatel-Lucent, we will be able to provide more comprehensive support for our users, which should improve their experiences during the event.”

Prior to deployment of the new system, the media booked communication services through a variety of outsourced providers. This approach proved time-consuming and costly, with the AELTC having limited control over service quality or pricing. Now it can guarantee a high standard of service with a consistent pricing structure.

Actimax was responsible for the implementation of the new systems, which also included using Alcatel-Lucent’s contact centre technology to support the AELTC Ticket Office. Furthermore, by streamlining internal call reporting, AELTC has been able to rationalise the time it has taken to produce reports.

The project was designed and managed by MAC Systems, which recommended the Alcatel-Lucent and Actimax partnership to AELTC based on the two companies’ extensive voice and data experience. Actimax is now undertaking the second of the two main deployment phases, while future plans being considered by AELTC include the use of XML applications to feed real-time information – such as tennis scores and court changes – to telephone handsets.

“AELTC is utilising technology to transform its facilities and enhance the experience of all visitors to the venue. This is an ambitious project and given the range of solutions being installed, a phased rollout is the best way of meeting AELTC’s unique requirements and minimising internal disruption,” said John Massey, managing director at Actimax.

“World class venues like AELTC maintain their reputations through the continued provision of world class services,” said David Parker, vice president for Alcatel-Lucent’s enterprise activities in the UK and Ireland. “Alcatel-Lucent has a proven record in the leisure and hospitality sector, helping major venues and sporting organisations integrate their networks, people, processes and knowledge in order to improve service and become dynamic enterprises.”