In a different league
Arsenal's head of IT explains the technology behind the club's £390m stadium, says Lara Williams
A career in IT can start in the most unlikely place. Paul Farmer joined Arsenal Football Club as an accountant more than 15 years ago – never dreaming that one day he would be responsible for the technology underpinning a £390m project to build the club a new home.
The recently opened Emirates Stadium accommodates up to 60,000 supporters, almost double the capacity of Arsenal’s old Highbury ground.
The brand new stadium required a brand new infrastructure. And talking to Computing in the stadium’s gleaming staff canteen, head of IT Farmer says overseeing the technology requirements of such a complex project has been the biggest challenge – and achievement – of his career so far.
‘It was an extremely daunting task,’ he says. ‘As with all building projects, IT goes in at the eleventh hour and that is a huge challenge which we have handled pretty well.’
Many would call that an understatement, considering the scope of the project. Two years of planning, which included weekly meetings with project managers and IT consultants, were needed to address how the site’s new multiple networks were to be developed.
The stadium opened to the public in August last year, by which time Farmer had succeeded in his promise to deliver a fully-functional access control system for fans entering the stadium – as well as hospitality and retail IT systems.
Farmer’s matter-of-factness in reeling off his achievements demonstrates a modesty that defines his career to date. It is certainly characteristic of someone that took a one-man IT function at Highbury and developed it into a technology infrastructure to service a world-class sporting facility without fanfare.
‘When I started at Highbury it was in the days of an old dual floppy drive commodore, then we got a few PCs and it just developed from there,’ he says.
And it is the changing nature of the football club, with its new challenges, that has kept Farmer loyal to the same organisation for more than a decade; something that on reflection he says was never a conscious plan.
‘In most jobs you develop the role as far as you can then move on to pastures green, but it has struck me that it has never happened because I have always had new challenges, which is quite unusual,’ he says.
Despite his origins as an accountant, he considers himself a hybrid of business and technology expertise gained from a hands-on background. ‘Until a few years ago it was just me, and I needed to know how the technology worked because I had to install it myself,’ he says.
Now Farmer manages a team of seven staff and his day no longer includes sorting out PC network problems. ‘If we have problems reported on any of the systems, ticketing or hospitality for example, my team provides the first level of support and then it is a matter of logging the problem with the relevant supplier,’ says Farmer.
Now that the stadium is up and running the immediate challenge is the fine-tuning of IT management. ‘We are working on getting everything exactly how we want it so that we are proactive to any issues that arise on the system,’ says Farmer. ‘So that if a problem does arise we know about it before the users do and we are resilient to it.’
And even if an organisation appears to have a faultless IT system, Farmer recognises that it is best to be prepared. ‘It is never exactly how you want it,’ he says. ‘I would have liked to have had everything totally managed by now and not have a care in the world but pigs don’t fly either.’
Farmer, however, remains self-assured. He says the best thing about his job is the variety and working for such a high-profile organisation.
‘Most of my time is looking at where we are in relation to management of the system because that is what we are still trying to achieve; total management and resilience of the stadium’s network,’ he says.
As well as meeting the IT management challenge, Farmer is planning to make Arsenal the UK’s first cashless stadium environment in a couple of season’s time.
‘Our intention was to be entirely cashless from day one, but building the new stadium was such a big job it was felt we should defer the cashless element,’ he says.
Membership cards will double as contact-less payment cards for low-value purchases, such as refreshments and merchandise, and will be enabled on all systems including the hospitality and retail systems.
The hardest thing about the project will be getting the supporters on board for another culture change after moving from the old stadium. Despite potential resistance from the fans, Farmer’s projects are driven by an underlying aim of providing a best-in-class experience for stadium visitors; supporters are his key customers.
Players, meanwhile, do not normally get a look in, although Farmer acknowledges he has to manage the odd BlackBerry or two. ‘Players and IT do not mix,’ he says. ‘I am glad I do not get involved with that because it can be quite demanding.’
One less thing to worry about, then, in a schedule so busy that one of the biggest challenges Farmer faces is getting home on time.