Toyota revs up IT in race for F1 success

Motorsport division brings IT systems in line with cutting-edge demands of F1 technology

Toyota Motorsports streamlines IT

Toyota Motorsport is updating its IT systems as part of a plan to top motor racing’s Formula One (F1) Constructors Championship in the next four years.

The technology underpinning the race is expected to perform as well as the cars, and is subject to just as rigorous and disciplined a programme of continual change.

Toyota Motorsport chief information officer Thomas Schiller says the IT function is a major contributor to the team already exceeding expectations, placing fourth so far in this year’s contest.

‘Top management decides the goals and targets for the next season. Our target this year was fifth,’ he said.

But this success has been three years in the making, following the decision of parent company Toyota Motor Corporation to enter the F1 arena in 2002.

‘All the work Toyota Motorsport does depends on the reliability of the IT resources we provide to the business,’ said Schiller.

This technology is all the more important in Toyota’s case because of its responsibility for the end-to-end development and manufacture of the cars. It is one of the few F1 constructors to undertake the entire process in-house, at a 3,000 square-foot, purpose-built facility in Cologne.

Toyota has had to improve its IT following a decision to update its development facilities in line with the cutting-edge technology requirements of F1.

‘We started out by looking at the reallocation of resources, focusing on what makes the car quicker,’ said Schiller.

‘We decided that ensuring the reliability of the IT environment and the use of standards would best realign the IT function to the core business.’

Schiller outsourced the IT infrastructure to partners, including the car maker’s own corporate IT division, Toyota Information Systems (TIS).

‘Outsourcing increases our resources significantly, but not the cost of these resources. There is no risk involved as TIS is located here, directly next to us,’ he said.

Schiller has also overseen the standardisation of business processes, using SAP enterprise resource planning software.

‘We’ve gone for the whole SAP suite. We use it for all our business systems because we have a number of service providers and they can connect to SAP in a standard way,’ he said.

In 2005, a new layer of performance management and monitoring software from specialist vendor BMC was installed, which Schiller says has further helped streamline IT assets and anticipate issues and outages.

Toyota Motorsport now monitors the status of its IT systems using BMC’s software, although the management and hosting of those systems is handled by TIS.

‘BMC is delivering the capability of continuous monitoring on outsourcers’ service level agreements,’ he said.

‘The monitoring also delivers proactive management, like the first step we took at the start of 2005 when we set up a BMC-monitored satellite link.’

Toyota uses its IT management tools to monitor this key communications link between the race team, which transmits telemetry data during races from the competition cars to the designers at the Cologne facility.

Since the start of the year, the overhaul has reduced the IT budget from eight to six per cent of Toyota’s total spend. This year, the division has experienced only one-and-a-half hours of system downtime.

The company has also reduced its overall IT assets, cutting the number of PCs by 10 per cent and design workstations by 20 per cent, as well as consolidating its server environment by 15 per cent.

But the pressure to deliver the best possible performance is not about to end.

‘Next year we must build on our success and achieve regular podium places,’ said Schiller. ‘And
the year after that we must be winning or always challenging for first or second position.’