Schlumberger crosses Olympic hurdle
The IT and oilfield services company delivers an identity and access management system that will be used at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
Oilfield and information technology services company Schlumberger on Wednesday said it has delivered an identity and access management system to Olympic officials. The system, part of a broader set of logistics software tools that Schlumberger is providing for the games, will coordinate accreditations for 200,000 people involved in the Athens event, the company said.
The accreditation system is "a critical tool that ensures efficient management and secure authorization of a large number of people's movements during the Olympic Games," Dimitri Beis, technology general manager for Athens 2004, said in a statement.
Schlumberger is combining a physical ID badge and scanning system with back-office database applications in the accreditation system. According to the company, the technology manages registration processes to ensure that only eligible participants can attend and participate in the games, and indicates the areas that each participant is authorized to access.
The system also provides data to other Schlumberger applications handling tasks such as transportation, medical encounters and accommodations. The accreditation process includes security checks by law enforcement agencies, as well as immigration checks for non-Greek citizens.
Schlumberger, with principal offices in New York, Paris and The Hague, Netherlands, has been providing accreditation systems for the Olympics since the 1992 Barcelona games. The company said it customizes the application for the specific language, local law enforcement and immigration requirements.
The Athens accreditation system amounts to one leg in a longer Olympic challenge for Schlumberger. The company has a contract to provide IT expertise at four games over the course of eight years: Salt Lake City last year, Athens, Turin in 2006 and Beijing in 2008.