Boardroom bikers bring technology to The Tour

24.05.2010

Following Britain's cycling success at the 2008 Olympics, the sport is at an all-time high and research shows that it is the second fastest growing sport and past time in Britain. The summer of cycling has already started in London, with statistics revealing that cycle journeys on London’s major roads are now up 117 per cent.

Outsourcery, the UK’s leading cloud computing and unified communications provider, is proud to announce it is to be a sponsor and the Official Technology Partner for the Halfords Tour Series, The Prostate Cancer Charity Tour Rides and the cornerstone of the British cycling calendar, the Tour of Britain. The opening event is the Halfords Tour Series, which will be taking place in the financial district of Canary Wharf on 25th May.

Nearly 2 million adults were actively involved in recreational and competitive cycling between January 2009 and January 2010, and joint CEO’s, Piers Linney and Simon Newton, are among those swapping the boardroom for the bike.

Commenting on The Tour, Piers Linney said, “I have a keen interest in cycling and everything that comes with it – the community, the sport and the freedom. The races’ successes are that they offer something for everyone, from professional to family and mixed ability rides. We are also keen to support the health and well being of the company and it seemed to be an obvious and exciting opportunity for staff to get involved in such a sporting spectacle.”

Commenting on Outsourcery’s sponsorship, Hugh Roberts, CEO for The Tour of Britain, said, “We have been seeking a company to provide the UK’s biggest pro-cycling event with the ultimate mobile IT communications solution for some time and in Outsourcery we have found just that. The fit between us makes perfect sense – our events are provided with a mobile IT platform to enable us to operate at 100% efficiency and Outsourcery in turn has our events as a platform to show off their products and services to potential customers the length and breadth of Britain. The Tour of Britain is possibly the most technologically orientated and logistically complicated event on the British sporting calendar, and only a ‘best of breed’ supplier such as Outsourcery is capable of servicing our needs – we very much look forward to working closely with their team going forward.”

Outsourcery has taken on the challenge of providing the IT applications and support for the complicated logistics of this exciting eight-day race. The Tour will require flexible and mobile IT systems to keep pace with the bikers as they race around the UK and the Tour of Britain team grows from 15 to 600 during the races. The organisers, followers and participants will be relying on the technology for real-time communication and access to up to date information, using reliable cloud computing and mobile technologies, such as email, intranet, customer relationship management solutions (CRM), video conferencing and mobile voice and data communications solutions. The Tour will be guaranteed efficient, flexible and reliable communication and information delivery at every stage of the race. In fact the slogan being used by Outsourcery is ‘IT and comms for every stage.’

With Outsourcery deploying the hosted solutions, the Tour of Britain can confidently leave the IT to the experts and the cycling to the professionals.