REDMOND, Wash., Jan. 22, 2003 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that, with the help of Accenture, the World Rally Championship (WRC) has seen increased brand awareness as well as scalability and reliability with its new Web site, http://www.wrc.com/. The WRC Web site, built using Microsoft®
Commerce Server and Content Management Server, takes advantage of Web services, bringing more interactive content to the site and offering more real-time services. This has helped to significantly increase viewers of the site.
The championship takes place in 14 countries across four continents with participants from around the globe. Previously, rally enthusiasts found it difficult to locate much information on the WRC site or keep up with rally events. When International Sportsworld Communicators (ISC) bought the television and commercial rights to the World Rally Championship in April 2000, the company’s goal was to transform the sport using compelling television and innovative media technologies. Part of its goal was to create an interactive Web site that is continually refreshed with high-quality content, downloadable images and live radio webcasts. ISC turned to Accenture, a leading management and technology consultancy, to develop the site, and together they chose to use the Microsoft platform, which offered ISC the most economical solution with quick production time.
“We recognized that not enough people had the opportunity to view the different rallies, so we worked with Accenture to pull together a new Web site that made the event information more accessible to everyone,”
said Simon Miles, chief marketing officer at ISC.
“Together, Commerce Server and Content Management Server have allowed us to easily publish fresh content that is tailored to the viewer and also to build and deploy Web services, allowing us to post real-time rally results. With the new site up and running, we have seen double the number of page views with no problems during peak viewing times, and WRC has become well-recognized around the world.”
Accenture has a close working relationship with Microsoft. Throughout the project, Accenture worked with Microsoft Consulting Services to put together a strong platform for the WRC Web site.
“We knew that Microsoft technology would be a perfect fit for the World Rally Championship Web site,”
said Stephen Deane, development manager for Accenture.
“The previous Web site was simple and static and did not give ISC much control over the content. Building the new Web site with Microsoft e-business technology gives ISC complete control over the content, which is now more dynamic and really brings the site to life.”
The site also was built using Microsoft Windows® 2000 Advanced Server, Active Directory®
service and SQL Server (TM) 2000. The site is hosted by Attenda Ltd., a leading supplier of outsourced Internet infrastructures based on Microsoft technology in Europe.
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