The organiser of golf's Open Championship outsourced the development and support of its website to help keep up with changing consumption and provide interactive services to millions of golf enthusiasts.
Every year for four days the .Net based TheOpen.com becomes one of the 1,000 most visited websites in the world and it needs 100% availability.
The R&A, which organises the event held this year at Royal Lytham & St Annes, uses Moldova-based IT services firm Endava to design and support its website. During the event the site monitored by staff 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
R&A’s digital media manager Kevin Bain said the most popular parts of the website get millions of visitors: “For the 2012 event it was a case of looking at the sites and seeing what were the most popular.” The leaderboard was the most visited with fans keeping the page open for days.
The leaderboard was upgraded and the website for the first time introduced a course tracker. This application enables fans to follow groups around the course to receive live information. It uses GPS technology and Google maps. A person with a handheld device follows the golfers and sends a message via the device when a shot is taken.
TheOpen.com features include: Real-time scoring on leaderboard with three views Tournament player performance stats centre Mobile feeds for site scoring apps Course live view - GPS player mapping systems to show player grouping, scores - all overlaid on a course map Interactive course guide Social media functionality
This year saw the mobile leaderboard viewed more than the main website leaderboard for the first time.
Cadbury is another UK company that outsourced development work to Endava when it required the creation and maintenance of a digital platform to support online consumer engagement activities. The company's mini-websites include Olympics-related online gaming site SpotsvStripes.com.
A contract with the nearshore supplier provided the right cost, flexibility and the right environment for Cadbury to work closely with the supplier using agile software techniques.
