Infineon Raceway
Infineon Raceway (formerly Sears Point Raceway) has been hosting the best in motor sports entertainment since 1968, including the NASCAR Winston Cup Series, NHRA POWERade Drag Racing, AMA Superbikes and the American Le Man Series Sports Cars, to name just a few of the series that annually visit the Sonoma Valley. The raceway is owned by Speedway Motorsports Inc., which also owns similar facilities in Las Vegas, Texas, Tennessee, Charlotte and Atlanta. Over the past three years, more than $60 million has been poured into the facility to transform it into one of the premier motor sports and entertainment venues in the country.
An integral part of the upgrade involved installing modern voice/data networking and telecommunications infrastructure. With dozens of television crews and other news media descending on the raceway during high-profile events, not to mention the vast array of technology-based tools employed by modern racing teams and governing bodies, it was vital to create an infrastructure that could meet the most demanding requirements.
Sara Grafals, vice president of finance at Infineon Raceway, says, "We basically had equipment that was 20 years old. I'd been at the raceway nearly two years and I was looking for companies that could help us implement what we'd planned. PlanIT Solutions was one of the companies that gave us a bid for a new telephone system. They were very competitive, they had the range of products and services we needed, and as we went through the assessment process they made suggestions that allowed us to realize that we could be using the system, and technology in general, in many more ways than we originally envisioned."
PlanIT Solutions was awarded the contract and installed a Shoreline VoIP-based system. Sara says, "I regarded selecting the new phone system as a total headache, but as I learned more I found that PlanIT Solutions had the answers to all the questions I raised. We ended up choosing and implementing the Shoreline voice over IP telephone system for the raceway because it was demonstrably the best fit for our requirements."
The raceway then contracted with PlanIT Solutions to install the communications infrastructure for the new buildings. This also involved tying them together with existing facilities at the raceway, a task that included laying miles of fiber-optic and copper cable underground. To ensure that the optimal implementation was achieved, PlanIT Solutions devised a cable plan that met all the requirements of the raceway.
Jim Lewis, president of PlanIT Solutions, says, "We always do our very best for every one of our clients, but the raceway project was so big and so complex it presented a fantastic opportunity for us to employ our wide skills base to help them implement new technologies."
"When we contracted with PlanIT Solutions to do the phone system and cabling, I had no idea they also offered computing consulting, implementation, network management and all the other things they do," says Sara. "I kept hearing reports of how they were giving us great advice on our computing systems so I talked to them about taking that on as well."
The result was that Infineon Raceway contracted with PlanIT Solutions for an annual maintenance contract. PlanIT Solutions currently maintains for the raceway a total of approximately 40 computers plus a file server, an email server, the business-critical TicketMaster server, and the Shoreline telecommunications server. The company is also showing Infineon Raceway how to provide Internet access for media crews and VIP guests in a cost-efficient way.
"Although we do a lot of remote maintenance for the raceway, because they are in a constant state of change, we also have a PlanIT Solutions technician on-site twice a week to keep on top of the dynamic nature of their requirements," says Jim. "Just like with every other client, we tailor our services to fit their needs."
The raceway employs a full-time staff of approximately 40, plus hundreds of seasonal employees during major sporting events. As well as standard office productivity software, the company runs a TicketMaster Web-based ticketing system. This is core to the business, permitting spectators to purchase tickets on-line in advance of any event. And as part of Speedway Motorsports Inc., Infineon Raceway must comply with all the standard reporting requirements of a publicly listed company. The accounting system operates across a WAN centered in SMI's Charlotte (NC) headquarters.
"We wanted to show the raceway how to get the most out of today's technologies without spending a cent more than they had to," says Jim. "To accomplish this, we used a combination of new fiber and VDSL over existing copper to extend the communications infrastructure throughout the property. We showed them how to utilize older computers for some of the non-critical services they wanted to provide. And we provide a very responsive help desk service to them for the daily issues that will always arise in such a dynamic environment.
Today, PlanIT Solutions is providing CIO-type advice to the raceway, showing how to turn some of their traditional cost centers into revenue centers. A telecommunications audit has already identified many services which can be restructured or replaced with more cost-effective options, potentially saving the raceway thousands of dollars each month on their telephone bill alone. And by providing a range of value-added services to visiting media and race officials, the raceway will be able to avoid many other expenditure they have traditionally had to bear. Additionally, such enhanced services will also be offered to the hundred-plus tenants that occupy buildings around the raceway, enabling them to benefit from modern technology while permitting the raceway to generate additional revenues.
"I've been very pleased with the work PlanIT Solutions has done for us over the last year," Sara says. " If I don't even know I have an IT system then I'm a happy person, because if I don't have to think about it, that means everything's working fine. And the people at PlanIT Solutions are very dependable. They're extremely responsive, especially in an emergency situation. I can call them at the drop of a hat, even outside business hours, and know that they'll come and fix my problem quickly. That means I can focus on my real job, which is helping to make this the greatest facility in the country."