THE PR blurb produced by Atos Origin, the French IT services company that took over from IBM as the worldwide information technology partner of the Olympic Games, is clear, succinct - and plain wrong.

“The group,” it says, “develops, implements and manages a critical, but invisible, IT system.”

Yet here, after battling my way through extra layers of Beijing Olympic security, I am looking at it.

On the 11th floor of what I would describe as a “stealth” building, so sombre I doubt that many visitors to Beijing’s Olympic Green even notice it, in spite of its location within yards of the Water Cube, row after row of computer screens glow behind a transparent glass wall.

This so-called TOC, or “Technology Operation Centre”, is one of the essential nerve centres of the vast logistical exercise that is an Olympic Games in the 21st century.

As Jeremy Hore, the Aussie former oil industry field engineer who is guide-in-chief during my exclusive visit, explains, the systems monitored here, designed and built by Atos, fall into two main categories.

The GMSs, or Games Management Systems, support a range of vital functions including accreditations, sports entries and qualification, the complex transport and accommodation schedules and protocols for VIP activities.

As Hore, who now rejoices in the faintly sinister job title of Chief Integrator, explains, the registration system for accredited individuals is “the biggest system we have”.

“We have to integrate with the police for the background check [and] with foreign affairs because the pass is used as a visa,” he says.

As we speak, a figure on the wall signifies that 343,848 people had so far been issued with an accreditation badge.

Lightening speed

The other side of Atos’s Beijing activities comprises the Information Diffusion Systems that take the timing and scoring data recorded by Omega and distribute it at lightning speed to the international media.

Not for nothing does a slogan on the technology centre’s wall proclaim that “Every second counts”.

The intranet for on-the-spot media seems, so far as I can tell, to resemble the system used for the last summer Games in Athens in 2004 fairly closely.

As he talks me through the Commentator Information System, an application incorporating very simplified touch screen controls, that gets data in live time to TV commentators though, Hore gives me a glimpse into the future.

For the first time at the Beijing Games, Atos is sending this system remotely to 15 broadcasters around the world in Europe, North America and Asia.

“It enables them either to send fewer people, or to have more people better informed,” he says.

The broadcasters have to pay for this service.

Nonetheless, I sense a cost-saving opportunity for the electronic media that may somewhat thin the ranks of the 20-odd thousand journalists present in Beijing in future Olympic Games.

Hore also points out to me a row of light blue-shirted operatives at the back of the room, whose role is to monitor system security.

“They have caught all the viruses,” he says.

As I ask him about the problems Atos has encountered, I notice a man hobbling painfully to his place at one of the work stations with a heavily strapped leg which he proceeds to rest on an adjacent seat.

This turns out to be the chief network architect, who had the misfortune to break his knee running up the stairs a week or two before the Games.

“His knee-cap broke in six places,” Hore says; it seems he took all of two days off.

Other problems included adding or deleting information very late in the day to take account of whether or not countries such as Iraq and Brunei were going to compete in the Games.

Brazilian footballers causing big effort

Translating the names of the Brazilian footballers, whose playing names are generally different from those in their passports – and therefore on their accreditation badges – was another wrinkle.

“We didn’t expect how much effort there would be,” Hore says.

One volleyball team didn’t even want to reveal their true weights.

Atos is one of 12 International Olympic Committee TOP sponsors who have paid a combined $866 million in cash and value-in-kind services for the privilege over the four years culminating with Beijing.

Why do they do it?

The answer, as far as Atos is concerned, is provided by Philippe Germond, the company’s chief executive.

“I believe it will just provide a good platform for Atos Origin to demonstrate its technological strength to the world and especially its customers in China,” he says.

“The expertise that we gain from delivering this complex and time-critical project will be transferred to other global clients that are looking to us to deliver similar high-performance IT infrastructures where real-time data is paramount.”

The company, whose Major Events unit has been around since 1989, are clearly gluttons for punishment.

Their Olympic contract was extended in 2005 to include the Vancouver and London Games.

Furthermore, as Hore explains, it has many other irons in the fire.

It is hoping, for example, to perform a similar role at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

Hore says it is also bidding for both the 2010 Asian Games, to be staged in Guangzhou, and the youth Olympics.

Their team for London is set to build up rapidly once the Beijing Games are over.

David Owen is a specialist sports journalist who worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing.