Inside the Chicago Cubs' Major League Upgrades
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CASE STUDY INSIDE THE CHICAGO CUBS’ MAJOR LEAGUE UPGRADES Andrew McIntyre and Justin Piper say the Chicago Cubs’ facility and technology improvements are designed to At a Glance bring the organization into the 21st century, enhance the fan experience and make the team more competitive. ORGANIZATION: Chicago Cubs LOCATIONS: Chicago; Mesa, Ariz.; La Gina, Dominican Republic The team is in it to win it EMPLOYEES: 300 with a series of massive I.T. STAFF: 10 construction and IT projects, DESCRIPTION: The Cubs have spent set to culminate in the the past two years designing and implementing a comprehensive new IT restoration of Chicago’s infrastructure and unified network at their new Chicago front office, Mesa spring Wrigley Field. training facility and Dominican Republic baseball academy. Now, as the team celebrates Wrigley Field’s 100th birthday, it’s preparing to bring state-of-the-art IT design back to Chicago to support the famed ballpark’s upcoming restoration. TWEET THIS! 2 CASE STUDY When Weeghman Park opened on Chicago’s North “The trailers and multiple staff locations created a silo effect Side in April 1914, 21,000 baseball fans flocked to the in the operation of our business, with a lot of people not seeing 14,000-capacity stadium. A hundred years later, fans still or interacting with each other,” McIntyre adds. “With the new pour into the facility, renamed Wrigley Field in 1926. Soon, facility, we had the ability to redesign how we communicate, though, they’ll have a restored and tech-friendly ballpark in how we interact, how we work together. It helped us to get which to cheer on the Chicago Cubs. to know each other on a personal level, especially during this The front-office goal is straightforward and aggressive, massive transformation that was occurring.” like the team’s on-field style: transform its facilities from The Cubs started construction in December 2011, among the oldest and smallest in Major League Baseball taking a former warehouse and garage on Clark Street to best-in-class. To date, the organization has completed down to the studs and building it back up. In addition to three major construction projects, adding a new office in designing and building a new core IT infrastructure, the Chicago, a baseball academy in the Dominican Republic, and Cubs looked to replace the strategic applications used by a ballpark and player development facility in Mesa, Ariz. the various business units. Before the move, most were All three facilities sport state-of-the-art IT infrastructure running Microsoft Office 2003 and Windows XP with limited to support staff and visitors locally and to enable greater Internet access and a 12-year-old analog phone system. communication and collaboration across the sites. Now the “You could almost look at the Cubs as a 100-year-old club is preparing for the final phase of its facilities upgrade: startup,” McIntyre says. “We had outdated IT systems the restoration and expansion of Wrigley Field. and processes throughout the organization. There was a lack “The projects are all part of the Cubs’ strategic plan,” says of investment on the IT side — up and down the value chain.” Andrew McIntyre, the club’s senior IT director. “They’re With CDW’s assistance, the IT team first looked at all stepping stones toward building the best organization in of the Cubs’ data and voice needs, and then worked to baseball, on and off the field.” build a long-term deployment strategy. Ultimately, the plan outlined how the organization would build a scalable, Rounding First redundant infrastructure and network, McIntyre says. Before construction began, the Cubs had the dubious honor “We really look to protect client investments,” says CDW of having the smallest front office in the league. When the Project Manager Joe Orozco. “We do things once, and we do Ricketts family bought the team in 2009, they launched an them correctly.” initiative to transform and grow the business. As they hired CDW’s procurement expertise was also extremely staff, it soon became clear that Wrigley Field didn’t have the valuable, McIntyre adds. Orozco and his team helped them office space to accommodate the newly acquired talent, so select Cisco infrastructure technology and purchase all the they added trailers outside the ballpark. equipment. “That was a huge asset for us, because they “When we hit our fourth doublewide, the family and saw where we were going, and they were able to help us senior leadership team decided it was time to bring people design and develop a solution that would meet our needs, together under one roof,” McIntyre says. That set plans in not just for now but for the future,” he says. motion for the Cubs’ new Clark Street office. It was a great partnership, says Orozco, because the Cubs’ technically savvy IT team was open to the ideas and expertise that CDW brings to the table. “They view CDW as trusted advisers, and that’s really what a Front-Office Network partnership is,” he adds. The Cubs’ first task was to quadruple network Bandwidth Spikes bandwidth. For the core network, McIntyre and his team went with Cisco switches and security appliances and Upward Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) virtual private network (VPN) connectivity between locations. Meanwhile, the team installed Cisco 2602E wireless access points 2011 5Mbps throughout to give Wi-Fi a boost. They also implemented Avaya Voice over IP (VoIP) 2012 20Mbps telephony with four-digit dialing from any team location, a new customer relationship management platform, an enterprise 2014 100Mbps data warehouse and business intelligence software. TWEET THIS! 800.800.4239 | CDW.com 3 “We had Access databases and Excel spreadsheets everywhere. There were a lot of disconnected systems and a lot of manual processing of information,” McIntyre says. “The infrastructure upgrades were all enablement tools to help us deliver strategic applications that leverage the cloud, the web and Software as a Service for efficiency, communication and collaboration gains.” As the Cubs designed the new front-office building, McIntyre and his IT team set their sights on major development projects planned for Mesa, the Dominican Republic and, ultimately, Wrigley Field. Their top goal was to ensure staff a unified experience across all the facilities. “It’s all about productivity and efficiency,” says McIntyre. “If you’re part of the Cubs organization, you should be able to walk into any building and have access to our network and all the organizational resources.” Rounding Second For years, the Cubs had rented a facility in the Dominican Republic to house its Latin American training academy, where it prepared international players to come to the United States. But there was just one problem. “We were in the worst facility in all of the Dominican The Cubs Score Republic,” McIntyre acknowledges. “Now, we’re in one of the best.” with New Data To attract and recruit talent, the Ricketts family purchased land outside of Boca Chica and built a new Center Tools academy and living quarters. They opened the new facility The Cubs analyzed their needs and looked at a variety of in spring 2013. networking solutions before making new purchases for the Designing the IT infrastructure was clear-cut, but team’s major technology and building renovation projects of the last couple of years. The team’s IT staff kept coming to the because the team was operating in a foreign country, same conclusion, however: “Cisco is really the right answer there were plenty of surprises during the implementation, for us,” says Senior IT Director Andrew McIntyre for the Cubs. McIntyre says. “You can’t just call up your local carrier representative.” A desire for consistency across the major renovation sites McIntyre, who worked closely with CDW Solution proved critical to McIntyre’s decision to stick with Cisco, long a key member of the Cubs’ data center lineup. In addition, Architect Tom Doyle to design the network, flew down since the Cubs have a small IT staff, they didn’t want to have months in advance to interview local carriers and figure out to learn and manage different tools in each location. who could provide required services. Despite the challenges, the Cubs met all their goals. Consequently, for the core of its network, McIntyre and his team went with Cisco Catalyst 4500X and 2960X series Of particular note, increased bandwidth has improved switches and Cisco 5515 Adaptive Security Appliances. They productivity at the academy, and the VoIP system has also installed IPSec virtual private network connectivity slashed costs on international calling. between its major office, training and ballpark facilities. Rounding Third The Cisco products provide the Cubs with the right balance of innovation and reliability, says CDW Account Manager In January 2013, when Justin Piper arrived in Mesa for his Stephanie Smith. They are, in essence, the Ernie Banks and first day as the general manager of the Cubs’ spring training Ryne Sandberg of the team’s IT infrastructure. business operations, the facility didn’t exist yet. “They were moving dirt and doing all the utility work,” Piper recalls. “The Cubs are really making an investment in their future,” Smith adds. The team had previously worked out of two Mesa sites, Hohokam Stadium and Fitch Park, for year-round training. 4 CASE STUDY 800.800.4239 | CDW.com 4 “We were looking to upgrade our facilities and bring them all ballpark depends on wireless access, so the Wi-Fi network together into one space,” Piper says. had to be strong and comprehensive enough to support it. Construction crews started laying the foundation in April. By “One of the top priorities in Mesa was to have that VPN August, it was time for CDW Network Associate Engineer Kaley service back to Chicago,” Cline says.