For two weeks from Monday (26 June), the eyes of the sporting world will be focused on a few well-tended patches of grass in south-west London.

And for nearly five million people, the Wimbledon tennis championships web site will temporarily become one of the most visited sites on the internet.

But if you are Jeff Lucas, IT director of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, the host of Wimbledon, it means much more than two weeks’ work each year. Months of planning and preparation is essential for one of the most visible uses of technology in the world.

‘We want people to enjoy the tennis here as much as they can without the technology having an impact on them. It is about watching tennis in an English garden,’ says Lucas. ‘But outside here, we are very keen to make sure we use as much technology as we can to get that experience to people who cannot come here.’

The start of Wimbledon might represent the beginning of summer for many in the UK, but for Lucas it is the culmination of a year’s work – every year.

‘We run the ballot for ticket applications in January, and start to accredit press at that time, and our press office opens and uses our systems. In late March and early April, we run what we call our spring test,’ he says.

‘We try to run the tournament, with all the component parts, or as much as we can. We do everything from running the tournament, generating scores, creating TV graphics on the computers, and we run an information system at the ground – the Wimbledon Information System – that contains a lot of historical information, a very rich archive of material,’ he says.

‘From spring we start to roll out the systems. The referee’s office opens in early May to take enquiries and entries. The players start to arrive about 10 days before Wimbledon for the qualifying rounds, and then it all starts to wind up quite significantly.’

Preparations started as last year’s championships came to a close. ‘The second week of the tournament is the best time to get everyone together to talk about what we want to do next year, while they are all here. You work all year to get there, and as it is happening you are already starting to think about next year,’ says Lucas.

‘The week after the championships is also quite a hectic time because people are taking stuff away. The broadcasters remove their equipment, and IBM comes to take all its kit out, although the core servers are here all year round. There are two weeks of intensive activity of stripping everything out. And then we go back to being a private members club.’

The wider role

Lucas has been running Wimbledon’s IT since 1995, after joining from drinks firm Grand Metropolitan, now part of Diageo.

‘What attracted me to the role was that it is an executive level position, not just IT but everything to do with the running of the club. I enjoy the opportunity to participate in that,’ he says.

‘I am also involved in some of the commercial aspects of what we do, looking at strategy and so forth. I like the idea that you can do something one year, enhance it and move it on and grow the systems.’

The role is a unique mix of two quite different jobs. ‘I have a small team, only six of us, and we all wear two hats – one running the championships and one running a small business. We find that running a small business becomes a bigger part all the time. During the off-season we expanded the systems we run, and we now have over 100 regular users,’ says Lucas.

‘We find that as the championships come along, we only get a three-month window, between September and December, to do anything for our back office.’

Sponsor and key IT supplier IBM also plays a critical role.

‘IBM has two people that work here permanently. They are, to all intents and purposes, part of the team. That team grows from January onwards, focusing on different aspects. IBM brings in huge amounts of temporary kit, mainly PCs and printers, which are configured and distributed around the ground,’ he says.

‘They also train the data entry people – good tennis players who are IT literate, who capture all the scores and statistics from the show courts. We have more than 200 people in IT during the tournament. Ramping up to that is an interesting time.’

During the championships, Lucas says his main function is making sure everything is running smoothly.

‘I’m the fittest I’ll ever be on the last day of the tournament – the rest of the time is spent wandering around talking to people ensuring everything is going fine,’ he says.

‘I get here about 8am during the championships because play generally doesn’t start until 11am, so the morning is when, if anything needs to be done, it gets done. I have a meeting about 9.30am with the referee and the TV graphics people to make sure everything went well the day before and to resolve any issues. And in the afternoon I have a meeting with the web team.’

The web site itself is run by IBM in Atlanta, in the US. ‘IBM has an overall consulting and management operation to keep an eye on everything, but the three key things for them are TV graphics, feeding through to the media information system, and the web site,’ says Lucas.

Disaster alerts

The feed of graphics to broadcasters is a critical function, because if it stops working television viewers worldwide know instantly.

‘The BBC has a red telephone in the TV graphics room where IBM’s operations are. If that were to ring you would be in trouble. I’m happy to say it hasn’t rung for a while. Although somebody did ring it last year and said, “We haven’t had anybody call on this phone, is it still working?”,’ says Lucas.

IT projects too often have a reputation for being late, over budget, and not meeting requirements. But for Lucas, these are simply not an option.

‘The one thing we cannot ever do here is be late,’ he says. ‘You need a discipline for delivery. If you work in an industry where you are allowed to let things slip, then they will slip. If I moved into another role now, I would be much more confident of being able to achieve a deadline. That is a lesson that you learn here – it is simply not an option to let things slip.’

If you are a tennis fan, you would think the role of Wimbledon IT director would be your dream job – but don’t expect to see much play, even when the sun shines.

‘I usually only get to see the tennis on television,’ says Lucas. ‘The best time to see anything is in the evening, I have seen more doubles matches on Centre Court than anything. But it is always pleasant to stop and remind yourself why we are here and what it is we are doing.’