Introduction
The Olympic Games are held once in every four years. The games which include the winter and summer games involve thousands of athletes drawn from more than 200 nations from around the world. In addition to that, the event is hosted by cities that are selected by the International Olympic Committee which decides where and when the Olympic Games are going to be held (Toohey 15).
Thesis Statement
With reference to the given question, this paper will provide a brief history about the Olympic Games. This paper will also discuss the impact that IT and IT strategy has had on the Olympic Games. On the other hand, this paper will also identify issues that the Olympic Games face with regard to the IT strategy.
Background of the Olympic Games
The word Olympics was derived from the word Olympia which is a holy place in Greece that is believed to have been the only place that the Olympics took place in the world. The Olympic Games have been divided into two major categories. The categories are the ancient Olympics which were first held in 776 BC in Olympia, Greece (Toohey 45).
The other major category is the modern Olympics which were first held in Athens, Greece in the year 1896. In the years 1916, 1940 and 1944, the Olympic Games were cancelled to the world wars that were taking place then which led to very few countries agreeing to participate during the 1980 and 1984 Olympics.
In the ancient Olympics, the winner got all the wealth they deserved while the looser remained poor as they were before the Olympic Games. The Olympic Games were a common practice in the Greek culture and some games were eve played during the Persian Wars.
The games coincided with the Battle of Thermopylae but still went on without any cancellations whatsoever. In the modern Olympics, the winners get to walk away with the gold medal which is medals that have been carved from 100% gold with the runners up getting the silver medals and the bronze medals respectively (Toohey 52).
Impact of IT in the Olympic Games
IT has been a major tool in the organization of the Olympic Games in the past century. This has been due to the technological developments that have been seen in the IT sector.
These new technological developments have been used in the Olympic Games before in the departments that are involved in the organization of the event. One of the main departments that IT has been used in the Olympic Games is the ticketing department.
In this department, IT has had a significant impact in that this is the department that has been tasked with the mandate of having to sell the tickets for all the games that are scheduled to take place during the Olympic Games.
On the other hand, this department is also mandated with the task of making sure that all the people that go into the stadiums have bought their tickets. This department is faced with so many challenges when it comes to selling the tickets for the events.
These challenges have been addressed by the improvement of in technology in that most of the people who buy their tickets can now be able to buy their tickets over the internet which eases congestion at the centers where the tickets are sold.
This has also had a huge impact because most of the ticket buyers can now be able to buy their tickets well in advance and this in turn reduces cases of fraud within the department.
Future Directions of the Olympic Games
The IT department in the Olympic Games is working tirelessly in a bid to making sure that technological developments are made so as to make the running of the Olympic Games smoother.
Some of the measures that would be taken by the IT department in the Olympic Games include the development of new software that will be used in the Olympic Games events. The Ticketing department will be able to make more efforts in a bid to be able to sell their tickets more accurately so as to reduce the cases of fraud.
The introduction of smart phones will also have a huge impact on this department in the future. The smart phones will be used by the customers and also by the departmental staff in a bid to making sure that everything runs fine.
The IT department will introduce the use of QR (Quick Response) codes where the customers can scan them by using their smart phones and this will enable the staff to be able to know of any queries that may arise and thereby solve it as quickly as possible.
The departmental staff will also create codes on the tickets which will be scanned by the smart phone thereby detecting any use of fake tickets which costs the department millions of shillings.
The smart phones will be used by the ticket personnel in-charge at the gate that will scan the tickets before one is allowed to enter the stadia and this will in turn reduce cases of people with fake tickets gaining access to the stadia using those tickets. This will be a huge development to the ticketing department.
Works Cited
Toohey, Kristine. The Olympic Games: A Social Science Perspective, London, UK: John Wiley and Sons, 2007. Print.