Giants’ CIO Focuses on Tech Innovation
Jinfo Blog

10th November 2010

By Jan Knight

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Having just watched my favourite team (San Francisco) win the Baseball World Series (apologies to those who realise the word 'World' is a bit of a misnomer) the following headline in Information Week couldn’t help but catch my eye. 'Dear SF Giants CIO: I'm Sorry' (http://digbig.com/5bctgr). As a new contributor to VIP LiveWire I immediately wondered if and how I could get away with including this in a post. CIOs can learn from this story as can technology vendors who might have an overly narrow view of the extent of their markets. The author, Fritz Nelson, does a good job, albeit possibly reluctantly (he’s a Los Angeles Dodger fan), of giving credit to the winning San Francisco Giants baseball team for the advanced use of technology and information sharing in their ongoing business practices. Nelson discusses an unusually integrated technology system: teleconferencing, call centre, call routing and even a CRM system where season ticket holders are identified by name when they call. In addition, a distributed antenna system (DAS) installed throughout the ball park supports about 30,000 cell phone users potentially texting at one time. The park also has 266 WiFi access points and regularly supports as many as 5,000 fans at a time. Between the 3G and Wi-Fi coverage, AT&T (the park’s sponsor) the team has invested seven figures this past offseason. In addition, for training purposes, the team incorporates a high tech video product, Sportsmotion, which allows sensors, positioned on the players during training and rehabilitation after injury, to measure physical performance. The CIO of the SF Giants says he spends most of his time on innovation and only about 10% of his time 'keeping the lights on'. This is a lesson that many start-ups and small businesses should learn early on. While keeping the lights on is necessary, the lights may shine brighter if you can keep innovating!

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