UK Premier League Club Partners with Ricoh to Deliver Cost Savings, IT and Business Process Transformation

Case Study

West Ham United FC Premier league club Infrastructure Management

UK Premier League club partners with Ricoh to deliver cost savings, IT and business process transformation

When West Ham United FC moved to its new home at to IT. In partnership with Ricoh, West Ham has not just the London Stadium – scene of the London 2012 Olympic transformed its IT infrastructure, it has been a catalyst for Games – it was a chance to take a radical new approach business process change and smarter working.

Executive summary

Name: West Ham United FC Benefits Location: London, England • Cuts capital and on-going costs - £60k on hardware, Size: 220 staff £180k annually on support Activity: Premier league club • Transforms IT, enables business process change and Challenges smarter working • Old and out-dated IT infrastructure • Reduces hardware footprint – virtualised servers, 50% cut • Managing relocation to a greenfield site in desktops devices • Business need to re-engineer processes and ways of • Creates a platform for business improvement applications working like better business intelligence

Solution • Ricoh IT Services • Infrastructure Management • IT transformation project • Ricoh support services Case Study West Ham United FC

Challenges As part of the analysis process, West Ham carried out a market review to determine strategy, benchmark Ricoh against other West Ham United FC is one of London’s most iconic football providers and to choose the best organisation to help deliver clubs. It was founded in 1895 and three of its former players improvement. Mike Bohndiek, Head of IT at West Ham United - including captain Bobby Moore - were in England’s 1966 FC says, “Ricoh offered West Ham a more holistic package than World Cup winning team. More recently, the east London many other providers. We were impressed with the depth of club has moved from its original home at Upton Park to the the Ricoh offering but also the range and quality of Ricoh’s London 2012 Summer Olympics stadium at the Queen partner relationships which have given West Ham unprecedent- Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford. Besides the HQ at the ed access to leading-edge products and services. Considering London Stadium, West Ham has several other locations the scope of the whole project - taking a concrete shell and around London, including the main training ground turning it into a smart working environment - Ricoh was the complex, the famous Academy and two retail outlets. stand-out partner for West Ham in so many ways.” West Ham’s IT infrastructure at Upton Park was in place for several years, but had become old and tired. Along with silo Solution systems and an ageing server estate, the club had 400 devices. Ricoh IT Services has designed a converged IT solution based on a Many of these were broken or redundant and some 20 percent thin-client and cloud-based infrastructure, which has been de- were still running Windows XP. Football clubs have some specif- ployed at the London Stadium and across other locations. It gives ic challenges that impact IT, like gathering and then sharing West Ham an IT infrastructure that is more efficient for users and 5GB of video after every match, that is typically shared via tape. managers, is flexible and scalable to meet demand as it increases The move to the London Stadium was a catalyst for change, and enables greater mobility without compromising security. not just of equipment, but also how IT could improve the Other key features are: simple, quick needs-based disaster recov- way the club operated. In particular, it demanded more ery plans and centralised and automated application deployment. flexible and mobile working. West Ham has expanded its The solution comprises a NetApp server and storage FlexPod commercial operations – increasing profile, more marketing architecture; Cisco Meraki networking and unified communica- and sponsorships, and greater outreach – which underlined tions technology; and Citrix application and desktop virtualis- the need for more remote working. The London Stadium ation software. 400 existing PCs have been replaced with 230 itself requires more mobility since, for example, it is a 15- thin-clients and on-site hardware replaced by a virtual server minute walk from the finance office to the on-site shop. environment. Microsoft System Centre is used for systems man- Another catalyst for change was West Ham’s partnership with agement and monitoring. The new IT infrastructure integrates Ricoh and its knowledge, expertise and innovation. The club had with additional Ricoh services and solutions, including a Ricoh carried out a gap analysis between its existing IT and what it hoped Managed Print Service and Ricoh digital display equipment. to achieve at the London Stadium. Ricoh was key in helping West As well as day-to-day business operations of West Ham, the Ham set out a vision of how it could improve and modernise IT IT infrastructure also supports the club’s customer-facing resources, whilst also impacting business processes positively. operations, such as the call centre and on-site and remote retail outlets. Benefits Ricoh has helped West Ham achieve significant capital and on-going cost savings. But the new IT infrastructure has also delivered a transformation in the way IT is used and how it enables smarter and more efficient working. “The transformation project that Ricoh has helped West Ham deliver is critical to the business and a significant catalyst for change. Staff have seen IT go from a poor relation into something that really works for them day-to-day. It has challenged thinking across the business. Before it was muddling along with an adequate IT service, now it’s become an enabler for better, smarter and more productive working,” says Bohndiek. “Even now, we are continuing to unlock the true potential of the technologies as we continue to drive IT forwards.”

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www.ricoh.co.uk Case Study West Ham United FC

West Ham has achieved significant cost savings through West Ham is looking at additional ways to utilise the new IT things like rationalising and reducing the need to refresh IT infrastructure. One project is focussed on better business equipment so often; creating more efficient systems and intelligence. Since moving to the London Stadium, the num- processes; and partnering with Ricoh to streamline suppliers ber of season ticket holders has jumped from 28,000 to and cut out multiple contracts and warranties. 52,000. More accurate business intelligence will enable the club to understand fans better – such as families or group Cloud technologies and server virtualisation have helped to types – and tailor services for them more effectively. reduce the size, cost and management overhead of IT resources. For example, reducing PCs by almost 50 percent Ricoh Solution/Products and replacing them with thin clients has saved around £60,000. Unifying and bringing down support costs through • NetApp FlexPod things like virtualising servers and removing out-of-warranty • Cisco Meraki equipment has realised annual savings of up to £180,000. • Citrix application As well as cost savings and efficiency, the Ricoh solution has • Microsoft System Centre improved mobility. Cloud-based applications and better • 230 thin client desktops and laptops networking has seen an increase in the use of devices such • Ricoh Managed Print Service as tablets and smartphones. By changing the way staff use hardware, further cost savings have been realised by having • Ricoh digital signage a smartphone for working off-site and a thin client in the office, at a cost of around £700, instead of £1,500 for a laptop, phone and desktop PC. Ricoh Service Quality & Support West Ham was particularly impressed with Ricoh’s A recent trip to Nigeria by West Ham’s managing director to approach to change management and the way it close a business deal further illustrates greater mobility and developed a bespoke training and familiarisation plan smarter working. He used a laptop in a hotel to log securely for staff. into the corporate network and work, as if in his office in “Most IT suppliers offer end-to-end services and people, but London, to get the contract authenticated and finalised. I think the breadth of Ricoh people that touched the West Previously, this would have been done using a series of Ham project, at all levels, has been impressive and, from my emails, which was slower and far less secure. experience of similar transformation projects, unique. So often when your main supplier contact is unavailable More reliable IT resources have helped to reduce the number of everything falls apart. But Ricoh has the scalability and a very ‘red flags’ that plagued the old system. Bohndiek says, “While comprehensive absence and backup plan so we had the same intangible, slick and reliable IT is hugely valuable for people level of service excellence and continuity whoever we dealt turning up in the morning and being able to get things done. with. I would highlight Ricoh as being particularly strong in We can manage IT much more efficiently, such as rolling out delivering this kind of service and support.” software updates instantly and non-invasively, whereas before Mike Bohndiek, Head of IT, West Ham United FC we’d have to stop users working while we updated their PCs.”

“The transformation project that Ricoh has helped West Ham deliver is critical to the business and a significant catalyst for change. Staff have seen IT go from a poor relation into something that really works for them day-to-day. It has challenged thinking across the business. Before it was muddling along with an adequate IT service, now it’s become an enabler for better, smarter and more productive working.”

Mike Bohndiek, Head of IT, West Ham United FC

www.ricoh.co.uk