Will Hewlett-Packard Co do better as the official hardware supplier for the World Cup than IBM Corp managed with the Olympics two years ago? Sponsoring such high profile events can reap huge rewards in terms of profile and publicity, as long as everything runs smoothly. So HP, in collaboration with its partners Electronic Data Systems Corp, Sybase Inc and France Telecom SA, has been working hard to wire up its systems and networks, which include chemical analysis and medical systems ready for the games to begin. The set up consists of 130 Unix and Windows NT servers in 15 locations and three countries, which will manage the World Cup 98 external web site (http://www.france98.com), run office applications, including email; provide accreditation for around 50,000 team personnel, volunteers, press and others, handle ticket sales and store schedules, team and player data, as well as statistics. There are separate systems for journalists located in 11 press centers throughout France. The Web site, expected to handle between 25 million and 50 million hits per day and hosting the World Cup Electronic Store, is being run by 30 HP Domain servers and has been fully operational in e-commerce mode since March.
