How Nildram helped with the (now successful) London 2012 Olympic Bid
Aim
London's bid to bring the Olympic flame to the UK rests on a campaign co-ordinated by London 2012 Ltd. To ensure the effectiveness of its corporate messages, the organisation turned to Nildram to provide its tailored telecoms services.
Background info
The enthusiasm surrounding London's bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympic Games is infectious. From business leaders and politicians to sports stars and celebrities, people are gladly being caught up in the extraordinary excitement that is driving the bid towards the final decision to be announced in Singapore next July.
Ambassadors supporting the bid include Sir Steve Redgrave, Daley Thompson, Paula Radcliffe and most recently Cherie Blair, who commented: "I have always been a great supporter of the plan to bring the Olympic Games to London in 2012 and look forward to helping that aim become a reality."
London is competing against Paris, New York, Madrid and Moscow. The organisation charged with overcoming these competing proposals is London 2012 Ltd, a partially governmentfunded body that is using a raft of ingenious communication methods to highlight the merits of London and bring the Olympic flame to the UK.
Solid Solution
Cathy Gibbon, web and e-marketing manager at London 2012, says the organisation's website - hosted by leading Internet services provider Nildram - is an important component in the make-up of the tender. "While we're pitching for the games, we've got to show that we can do a professional job, so we can't allow our website to be compromised or our online information to be inaccessible. Ultimately, we need a solid solution and reliable platform on which to deliver our online presence."
London 2012's original website was provided by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, but with a brief demanding a permanent technical solution, it was clear additional assistance was required. Syzygy, an Internet solutions company working with London 2012, proposed Nildram. As one of the leading providers of specialised Internet services in the UK, Nildram was able to offer a one-stop-shop solution and secured the lucrative contract to provide London 2012 with fully managed leased lines, a centralised firewall and a dedicated Web server package.
Nildram has enabled us to achieve our objective of establishing and retaining an online presence. They've allowed us to do our job well and have made my life easy.
By the end of 2003, London 2012's communications and online presence was based on specially designed hosting solutions and fast, reliable leased lines. "Nildram allows people to access the London 2012 website. It also enables us to communicate with our supporters and helps us understand who and where they are," Cathy explains. "In the simplest terms, Nildram has the components we need to get the website in to the public domain and keep it there."
Website Dependability
Cathy goes on say that website dependability is an important factor in maintaining an effective corporate presence. As a result, she admits to incorporating "realistically firm" stipulations relating to downtime. "In previous jobs, I've experienced weekly outages that have damaged the reputation of the organisation. So, apart from downtime required for necessary maintenance, we demanded that outage was kept to an absolute minimum. Nildram's service allows us to do that by ensuring that our website is available irrespective of levels of traffic."
Communication is key for London 2012 and the organisation provides its growing band of supporters with emailed monthly newsletters and important updates. The delivery of these crucial pieces of information is guaranteed through Nildram's leased lines, which are linked to third-party software that provides delivery reports and log files. Meanwhile, London 2012's supporters' details are stored securely on a SQL database housed at Nildram's headquarters
Cathy acknowledges that Nildram's centralised firewall, dedicated hosting services and leased lines have helped London 2012 achieve a number of its goals. "Nildram has enabled us to achieve our objective of establishing and retaining an online presence. They've allowed us to do our job well and have made my life easy."