PSV will invest in the coming year to make its IT infrastructure ready for the future. An important role in this is reserved for Simac from Veldhoven, which has been providing IT management for a year now. The fact that Simac is a big PSV fan makes the collaboration even easier.
PSV collects data from all training sessions and matches. Each player is known how many meters he has covered and how many ball contacts he has had. "The coaching staff wants to have access to that data 24 hours a day. Even if they are on their way to a European away game. That is only possible if they have a well-functioning digital workplace," says Roy Smits, manager ICT at PSV. He is supported by Pim Broere, account manager sponsorship at the KNVB Cup winner:
"Take our scouts, who are always on the road spotting talent. They need to be able to work mobile anywhere so they can enter data and keep in touch with colleagues."
Matchday
Since July 1, 2021, the management of the infrastructure and workstations has been in the hands of Simac. The infrastructure includes approximately 70 servers and 70 switches at three locations: in addition to the Philips Stadium, it involves the PSV store in the city center and De Herdgang where PSV's talents and pros train.
''Simac understands everything. They always have a department that can solve a specific problem.''
Especially on match days, a well-functioning infrastructure is crucial, Smits says. "That already starts with buying and collecting tickets, for which we deploy websites and apps that almost all run on one of the seventy servers Simac manages. Those show everyone the right content at the right time. We don't offer a fan with a season ticket or an address in Groningen a ticket for that night's game on game day, but a fan without a season ticket from Brabant does."
When that fan buys a ticket and then arrives at the stadium, he must have his bar code scanned several times: at the barrier of the parking garage, at the entrance to the stadium and at the entrance to the correct compartment. "Those devices also run on the network that Simac manages. The same goes for the 300 TVs, 300 cash registers and the LED boarding along the field. If the network is down, we can use an emergency battery and a manual switch to turn on just the lights. Then we can play soccer, but that's all that's said."
Teams
Outside of game days, PSV is an ordinary company with over 300 employees. Among them are the trainers and scouts, but also the people who take care of the financial administration, maintain facilities, devise marketing campaigns and recruit sponsors. "I myself work in the Partnerships & New Business department. We try to link all the great companies inside and outside the region to the PSV brand," Broere says.
Over the past two years, Broere has noticed how dependent he is on a well-functioning IT environment:
"Previously, I conducted most of my conversations with corporate clients on-site. Now much of it is through Microsoft Teams. It is extremely important to have a well-functioning laptop and a good connection to the network, so that I always have access to all files. Not only from the stadium, but also from home or on the way to a client. That makes my job a lot easier."
The 300 workstations are all equipped with laptops with access to Microsoft Office 365 and Teams, among others. Smits: "We even linked the landline phone number to Teams, so employees are no longer dependent on a fixed workstation. They can sit down to work anywhere in the stadium, even if there is no desk with a network cable there."
Warm band
PSV and Simac have maintained a warm relationship for many years. Simac is a partner of PSV and has a business room in the Philips Stadium. CEO Eric van Schagen is a board member of the PSV Football Foundation, which manages PSV's shares.
"We had more frequent conversations with the people at Simac about the possibilities for cooperation. We knew what they did and could possibly do for us. When the contract with our previous ICT service provider expired, it was only natural to put Simac on the long list," Smits says. Simac survived every selection round and ended up on the shortlist with two other ICT service providers.
"We investigated which party can provide the services, the quality and the price that we want. And which party suits us in terms of culture and way of working. In the end, what was decisive was Simac's warm heart for PSV. They come from the region and already do a lot for PSV. Working together with Simac just feels right. It's very simple: if Simac couldn't deliver what we wanted, we would never have left the IT to them. IT is just too important for that."
Flawless
Simac's takeover of IT management went extremely smoothly. That has everything to do with the approach taken. "PSV is not a very large organization, but it is a complex organization with a great diversity of processes and systems. That is why we deliberately chose to keep the existing infrastructure and workstations intact at first. Now that Simac has a good overview and knows how everything works, we can implement improvements step by step. Not because the existing infrastructure is not functioning well, but because new technologies are becoming available and we want to take steps forward towards the future," Smits explains. As an end user, Broere hardly noticed the transition.
"That one went off without a hitch. Of course, at the time we got new laptops I was a bit skeptical. All the important files were on my old laptop. But once I picked up my new laptop and logged in, everything was back as it was. That's worth a compliment."
"Simac now provides first-line, second-line and third-line support. It is clear to all end users who they need to go to. And the most important thing for me is that Simac understands everything. They always have a department that can solve a specific problem."
Azure
On the list of improvement plans is the management of all laptops and all databases. The organization's growth requires a new, tighter approach. Simac will also get to work cleaning up the eight-year-old IT environment. "The biggest project concerns the databases that are now in Cloud|NEXT, Simac's private cloud. Simac is going to transfer those to Azure, Microsoft's public cloud. This will give us more flexibility in terms of capacity and availability. We need that because we are going to use data even more intensively," Smits says.
As an example, he cites the data PSV collects and stores from all matches. "To compress the dataset, we now only record the start and end point of each pass. But soon we will have analysis models for which we also need the data of the ball over all intermediate coordinates. That means we need to store much more data. Azure provides the opportunity for that."
"We're not going to pay for use of Azure until we push the button to access data. But if we don't push that button during a free weekend or a summer break, we don't have to pay either."
Wifi network
Another major project is the replacement of the Wi-Fi network in the Philips Stadium. The current network is still functioning well, but the equipment is outdated and at the end of its lifespan. PSV therefore initiated a new selection process. And once again the choice fell on Simac, which will install the Cisco network equipment. Security will receive extra attention.
"We have sensitive data that may be of interest to the outside world. Don't forget that twenty to thirty percent of our employees are famous people. The last thing we want is for their data to be on the street. That's not good for our image, but neither is it good for Simac's."
At the same time, PSV would like to share more data with supporters in the stands via the wifi network. Not only about when the stadium opens or the match starts, but also statistics about players. Who gives the most correct passes? Who covers the most meters? "Right now we post statistics on Instagram after every game. But we might soon be able to do that live during the match as well. That will make attending a match even more special."
