Don't look for Sema Group, the European company that's the main technology sponsor of the 2002 Winter Games, to advertise its affiliation with Salt Lake City.
Not that the company is trying to avoid any association with the scandal surrounding the city's Olympic bid. It's just that Sema Group doesn't see a need to sell its services as a systems integrator."We are not about to launch a media blitz," said Tidu Maini, Sema Group's senior vice president of corporate marketing and communications, said at a press conference in New York City on Monday.
Maini said the company's only trying to impress a few hundred potential customers, who are technically savvy enough to be watching what happens in Salt Lake City. Or doesn't happen.
Technology failed miserably at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta, humiliating longtime Olympic sponsor IBM. The computer giant declined to renew its IOC contract, which ends with the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, Australia.
"We are not trying to prove any whiz-bang technology," Maini said of Sema Group. "You get the best credit when things actually work. . . . It's the non-event that will make us famous, rather than the event."
That means successfully coordinating the computers used by the Salt Lake Organizing Committee to do everything from posting event results to issuing access credentials to deploying some 20,000 volunteers.
Monday's press conference, called to announce that the company had formally signed on as a sponsor with the International Olympic Committee, marked only the time Sema Group sought publicity for the $100 million-plus deal.
The first attempt ended in disaster when company officials were upstaged in December 1998 by IOC member's Marc Hodler's accusations of widespread bribery in the bid process.
The IOC had been about to announce that the little-known company was taking over for longtime Olympic sponsor IBM for the next four Games, starting with Salt Lake City.
But officials from the French and English company were forced to wait as Hodler detailed his allegations to the press from a podium set up for the announcement in the IOC's lavish headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Maini described the series of events that day as "sheer coincidence" and said Sema Group is committed to the IOC. "It's a great movement. We believe in it," he said.
As for the scandal, Maini said the company is taking a long-term view. "Certain incidents happen in the life cycle of the Games," he said. "We're happy with the actions the IOC took."
IOC Director General Francois Carrard said he recalled being "impressed by the professionalism Sema displayed in that turmoil. . . . When Tidu speaks of the long term and his confidence, we appreciate that very much."
Sema Group expects to have 150 employees working in Salt Lake City in 2002. Currently, more than 30 are already here. Another 100 based in Spain are writing special software.
The company has worked before on Olympic Games, including the 1992 Summer Games in Barcelona. "We've gone in with our eyes open," Maini said. "We don't take risks."
But unlike other clients, the Games need technology systems that work only for about two weeks. Plus, there's no delaying the opening ceremonies because of a software glitch.
Maini said the company is investing several hundred million dollars in the sponsorship, which continues through the 2008 Summer Games at a site that will be selected next year.
Sema Group is one of five companies that have signed on as international Olympic sponsors for the 2002 Games and beyond. The others are Coca-Cola, Sports Illustrated and Time magazines, VISA and John Hancock life insurance.