3‑1

3 Information System Digital Media

Summary of Information System and DigitalMedia for the Tokyo 2020 GamesUSUI Akihisa

This article reviews the overall management of information systems and digital media for the Olympic and Paralympic
Games Tokyo 2020 In particular the article shares the successes and reflections of the project focusing on the
management and governance considerations architecture and development system that are necessary when building
information systems for large‑scale events
Keywords：Information system IT governance Enterprise architecture In‑house development DX promotion

1．Introduction
The Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020
(hereinafter referred to as “Tokyo 2020 Games”) for the
first time in 57 years which were postponed by one year
due to the impact of the COVID‑19 that spread

2．Overview and Governance of Information
Systems
21

Overview of Information Systems Supporting
Games Preparation and Operation

Information systems can be broadly classified into thewere held

following three categories as shown in Figure 1 :without spectators but ended successfully without any

Olympic Diffusion System (ODS) which distributes

major operational disruptions As a member of thecompetition results and measurement results ; Olympic

Information Systems Department of the Bureau ofManagement System (OMS) which supports businessTechnology Services I gained valuable experience in all

operations common to each event with relatively few

phases of the Games from conception and planning torequirements unique to the host city which supports thedevelopment construction testing operation mainte-

management and operation of the Games ; Functional

nance and support This article reviews information

Area Applications (FA apps) which need to be built

systems and digital media among the various technology

from scratch by the host city to meet the uniqueservices provided in preparation for and during therequirements of the 52 functional organizations that will

conference

manage the Games or the functional areas of theworldwide from the beginning of 2020

organising committees that will be in charge of theseorganizations
Digital media for spectators included the official
website mobile applications dedicated websites forticket sales and official goods sales and e‑mail magazines Tokyo 2020 Games ID and Customer Relationship
USUI AKIHISATechnology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesThe Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 116‑123 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

116

Management (CRM) were introduced and operated as
the user management platform to support these services
for spectators
Excluding the ODS/OMS mentioned above the total

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 1

Overall Birdʼs‑eye View of Information Systems（©2021‑International Olympic Committee‑All Rights Reserved）

Table 1

Breakdown of Business Applications

No

Classification

NumberRemarks

1

BPO destination system

9

Ticket management
operations

2

Individual IT service contracts

8

Access control transportation service for related parties electronic medical record
system etc Individual IT service contracts

3

Use of SaaS7

HR (human resources
education portal etc

4

Extranet development

4

Information sharing sites with the Olympic and Paralympic committees of each country
news media etc There were about 120 small‑scale Web sites developed by non‑code
development

5

System development using PaaS

23

Systems developed by low‑code development such as immigration control torch relay
management lost property management and the COVID‑19 countermeasures

6

Outsourced system development

15

Financial accounting contract management official web/smartphone apps for games
etc

Total

66

warehouse management

etc

Systems used in outsourced

travel expense reimbursement

attendance management)

number of business applications deployed at the Tokyoand the total number of systems is 120 Therefore the2020 Games was 66 as shown in Table 1 The total

total number of systems can be considered one of thenumber of business applications in the past Games waslargest everapproximately 60 for the London 2012 Games 80 for the

As for individual topics as reported by the Interna-

Rio de Janeiro 2016 Games and 50 for the Pyeongchangtional Testing Agency (ITA) an independent interna-

2018 Winter Games which were held on a relatively

tional anti‑doping testing organization (1) a paperless

small scale Since the organizational design and businessdoping test record management system using tablet

services for the operation of the Games do not differ

terminals was introduced for the first time at thegreatly from one Games to anotherthe lineup of

Olympic Games As expectations for business innovation

applications is almost the same Although the number isthrough DX increase there is still ample potential for thesmaller than that of Rio de Janeiro 2016 Games theapplication of IT in new areas and for its use in future

extranet development shown in the fourth row of TableGames

1 utilizes a non‑programming development platform
Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

117

22
221

Role and Governance of the Technology Serv-

control In particular in IT service procurement fromices Bureau

overseas service providers

although Service Level

Establishment of System Procurement Guide-

Agreements (SLAs) were defined there were somelines

difficulties regarding the availability and promptness of

The Technology Services Bureau was literally in-user acceptance testing before release and failure

volved in the provision of all IT‑related services for the

response after release due to differences in the way ofTokyo 2020 GamesIts responsibilities include thethinking about system quality Even if a Japanese vendor

development of venue networks delivery of IT equip-

can cover a case as an implicit expectation even if it isment implementation of cyber security measures andnot specified in the procurement specifications it is not

implementation of information systems As a matter ofpossible to expect the same from an overseas vendor

fact there were various implementation patterns inThis is not simply an argument of which is better or

addition to the services supplied by the Technology

worse It should be noted again that the high‑quality

Services Bureau as the lead agency As shown in Tableawareness in Japan which is sometimes derided as

1 there are cases where a system of a reasonable scale isexcessive quality should not be expected globally as it

used in a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) contract

is and policies and rules should be firmly discussed

in which the business department outsources thebefore the contract is signed and at the project planningbusiness itself to an external party and there are also

stage

cases where a direct contract is made with an external
IT service vendor In light of this situation a scheme

222

Establishment of IT Solution Selection Criteria

was introduced at the end of 2017 to conduct reviews by

Except for ODS/OMS business applications are notspecialists from each department of the Technology

supplied by the IOCʼs worldwide partners and must be

Services Bureau from the procurement phase This isdeveloped independently by the host city for eachmainly an evaluation from the perspectives of cyberGames For the Tokyo 2020 Games full‑scale considera-

security system quality and project management The

tion of system planning began after the 2016 Games inreviews were conducted at three points in the system

Rio de Janeiro Based on a list of all the applications

lifecycle : when requirements were finalized when theactually developed for the past Games we discussed thesystem design was completed and before the system

necessity of each system operation of FA and optimized

was released Excluding the pre‑review about 200

the budget while weighting the system scales The

reviews were conducted for the final decision before theOlympic and Paralympic Games are transient events

system releaseand systems are often used for only two months before

The human resources of the organising committee are

and after the Games Therefore the challenge is how tolimited and there is no department appointed to perform

select the most cost‑effective and optimal solution The

quality control and quality assurance Therefore thecriteria shown in Figure 2 were developed to promote

best‑effort approach was taken by specialists from eachrational system selection The concept is to use existing

department of the Technology Services Bureau Fortu-

systems as much as possible without creating new ones

nately there have been no incidents that have had abecause of the transient nature of the event

significant impact on operations due to inadequate IT
services or cybersecurity issues from 2018 to the Games

3．Introduction of Information Systemtime of 2021 In particular for procurement by businessFAs who do not have specialized IT skills we believe

31

that we made a significant contribution to governance

The Organising Committee which was created in

Implementation Schedule

including pointing out items that should be included in2014 as a corporate entity with a limited term isthe procurement specifications and evaluating thescheduled to be dissolved in the middle of 2022 after aappropriateness of the prices On the other hand in thelifespan of about eight years Although it started with acase of the system used at the BPO site there were

small staff of a few dozen people the number of staff

issues such as insufficient disclosure of specifications

members reached 8 000 during the Games time and thefrom the vendor and gaps in interpretation of require-staff size increased at an accelerated rate each year In

ments because the system itself was not procured

April 2015 the number of staff members exceeded 300

One more point should be added in terms of quality
118

and the introduction of IT services to improve operation-

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 2

IT Solution Selection Criteria

al efficiency became inevitable In early 2016 each

32

operational department was drastically increased asshown in Figure 3 the introduction of systems forhuman resource management

financial accounting

contract management etc became necessary first andExamination and Implementation of System andBusiness Architecture

321

Introduction of Common System Infrastructure
Services

Although the Information System Division built

foremost At the time cloud computing was beginningvarious systems from scratch

to emerge in the so‑called mission‑critical systems but

strategically study the architecture that would serve as

there were few options The system was built on‑

the foundation of the system to avoid future bankrupts

premise at a data center contracted by the organising

before implementing and mass‑producing the systemcommittee because the system was used for a longFirst a cloud‑based e‑mail service was provided as aperiod of time until the dissolution of the organization

comprehensive IT service for the staff as well as a fileand because the system architecture for the convention

server for managing various electronic data Then we

required the implementation of individual measuresproceeded with the introduction of the infrastructure

especially in terms of security

functions that support the various IT services As a

it was essential to

From the latter half of 2018 onward the main task wascommon infrastructure for these systems user authenti-

the implementation of business applications Some of thecation and data linkage functions between systems werebusiness applications such as torch relay management

introduced

and rate card management (catalog sales of goods andAs shown in Figure 4

the services for GamesIT services to convention officials for a fee) were usedstakeholders were provided in a hybrid architecture that

before the actual convention but most of them werecombines on‑premise virtual servers and public cloudbasically limited to use for a few months during thecomputing (For details please refer to 3‑2 of thisconvention For this reason system development was

special issue )concentrated one year before the conference
Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

119Figure 3

Figure 4322

Outline Schedule for System Implementation

Overview Diagram Centered on the System Common Infrastructure

Business Architecture Designbusiness requirements from scratch for managing the

The core systems led by the financial accounting

FA operations that provide services to the people

system did not have strong requirements specific to theinvolved in the Games (humans) such as arrivals &Olympic and Paralympic Games and could be covered bydepartures

existing IT solutions such as the application of packaged

athletesʼ village Also we were in a state of complete

software (COTS)

exploration regarding the operational requirements fortransportationaccommodationand themanaging the many items (goods) required before andOn the other hand in 2016 we needed to analyze the120

during the Games including the technology equipment

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

as well as the large amount of sports equipment (fromspecial issue )tennis balls to beach volleyball sand) used for competition The management of “goods” for the Olympic and

33

Paralympic Games was called “event logistics” and had
special requirementsofOlympic

Diffusion

System(ODS) Olympic Management System (OMS)

All FAs have an operations

manual that defines their responsibilities along with theIntroduction

and Face Recognition Technology
331

Olympic Diffusion System (ODS)

knowledge inherited from the past Games but although

The ODS is continuously provided by the IOCʼsit describes what to do (what) there is no follow‑up on

worldwide partners across multiple Olympic Games andhow to do it (how) Furthermore there is no document

operates closest to competition operations among thethat describes the comprehensive business flow across

many information systems

multiple FAs and the boundaries of responsibilities

Analysis (BIA) of the Technology Services Bureau

among them Therefore in September 2016 immedi-

evaluates system failures that could disrupt competitions

ately after the Rio de Janeiro 2016 we launched a project

during the Games as having the greatest impact Of all

The Business Impact

to study Enterprise Architecture (EA) and analyzed

the systems ODS is the one with the highest criticality

mainly business architecture (BA : Business Architec-

In fact the day‑to‑day operation of the ODS wasture) (For details see this special issue 3‑3 )rigorously conducted by deploying a system to check the

The departmental design of the Organising Commit-

accuracy of the competition results information distrib-

tee consists of 52 FAs in a so‑called functional

uted in real time from 140 servers deployed at eachorganization Although each organization started upcompetition site (For details please refer to 3‑6 and 3‑7

quicklyof this special issue )there were many scenes in which cross‑organizational discussions stalled This BA study projectis one of the roles expected of the Information System

332

Olympic Management System (OMS)

which has relationships with all business

The OMS provides distribution of competition results

divisions although it is a temporary matrix organization

management of volunteers management of athletes

Division

The cooperation of the various FAs helped to realize theincluding competition schedules

motto of the Organising Committee “One Team” andservices Accreditation is a photo identification card

and accreditation

this project increased the momentum of the field toward

issued to Games stakeholders and centrally manages thethe success of the convention

authority for all services including detailed control of
the areas where athletes can enter and exit each venue

323

Development System for Introduction of Busi-

the availability of food and beverage services in theness Applications

athletesʼ village dining rooms and the service grades of

The core system described above was developed

bus and fleet transportation services OMS is also ausing the waterfall method On the other hand the othersystem provided by the IOCʼs worldwide partners acrossbusiness applications although small in scale required

multiple Games and is a set of systems that implement

the simultaneous development of many systems Be-

the specific business requirements of the Games For thecause it is inefficient to procure each system individuallyTokyo 2020 Games OMS has also been enhanced forin the past Games a system platform was selected in

web accessibility (For details see 3‑6 and 3‑7 in thisadvance and systems were mass‑produced on that basis

special issue )The London 2012 Games were based on a website
development package and the Rio de Janeiro 2016
Games used scratch development based on a certain
development framework both of which were on‑premise environments

For Tokyo 2020 Gamesa PaaS

333

Face Recognition Technology and Congestion
Detection System

The Tokyo 2020 Games introduced an access control
system based on face recognition at all competition

platform that enables low‑code development wasvenues including the athletesʼ village and the Interna-

selected for small‑and medium‑scale business applica-

tional Broadcasting Centre This control system whichtions The platform was called “Software Factory” andutilizes an IC chip embedded in the accreditation card

application development was carried out while maintain-

has contributed greatly to the efficiency of entrance

ing a system that included IT engineers under quasi‑

checks at each venue and the strictness of identity

contractual agreements (For details see 3‑4 of thisauthentication

In addition

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

a congestion detection
121system installed in the main dining hall of the Athletesʼ

contributing significantly to ticket sales and information

Village showed the congestion status to the athletes

distribution during the Games (For details please referencouraging them to avoid the three‑density areas andto 3‑10 of this special issue )contributing to the thorough prevention of infection(For details see 3‑7 and 3‑8 of this special issue )4．Digital Media
41

5．Difficulty in Transferring Knowledge to
the Next Convention
ODS/OMS are used continuously at multiple Games

Official Website and Mobile Apps

and are provided to the next convention after repeated

The Tokyo 2020 Games official website and mobile

improvements On the other hand how to efficiently

application (hereinafter referred to as GTWA : Gamestransfer the knowledge of business applications devel-

Time Website and Mobile application) which distrib-

oped for each event to future events has become an

uted various information on the Olympic and Paralympic

important issue in terms of reducing the cost burden on

Games to the entire world successfully completed its

the next host city In fact we were handed over with theservices without any system problems caused bydocumentations from the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Games but

cyberattacks

While people around the world were

unfortunately this did not lead to significant cost savings

forced to live with severe restrictions due to the COVID‑

because the deliverables were too fragmented to rebuild

19 pandemic the distribution of information on thethe system As a result the most effective way was toGames through digital media attracted a great deal oftransfer the knowledge of the former staff members

attention and recorded the largest number of uniquebrought in from Rio de Janeiro through human resource

users in the history of the Games According to a reporttransfer Knowledge transfer to the next Games in Paris

from a content delivery network operator (2) the

2024 was done through the provision of documents via

streaming playback time via the Internet was more thanextranet

double that of the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Games In the past

viewpoint of cost efficiency in Tokyo the development

Games GTWA was established and operated for eachdocuments were kept to a minimum and written ingame but from the Tokyo 2020 Games the scheme wasJapanese which in my personal evaluation was not anchanged to one in which IT services are provided acrossefficient knowledge transfer Knowledge transfer acrossmultiple Games

countries from the past Games was also at the same

similar to the ODS/OMS scheme

QA

and meetings

Howeverfrom theDigital media will be positioned as an important medium

level

for future Gamesand advanced services will besomething that works only during the period of theprovided in line with the progress of IT technology in theorganising committeeʼs activities at minimal cost was aworld (For details please refer to 3‑9 of this special

factor in the first placeissue )and the requirement to build and operate

In general a large volume of deliverables delivered

GTWA was built through agile development using

under a traditional lump‑sum contract enables vendor

Scrum Although it was a difficult project to manage

replacement at the time of system renewal or transition

involving several overseas service providers no major

However due to the recent changes in system develop-

problems in progress or quality occurred and stable

ment methods knowledge about systems is becoming

services were provided thanks to the teamwork fostered

more and more proprietary In fact in the quality

across organizations and companies

evaluation results of a service provider involved in aconvention that promoted agile development there was

42

Tokyo 2020 Games ID

CRM

and Service

Linkagean example in which Talent Retention Plan was cited as
an issue

The purpose of CRM is to maintain relationships with

In such a changing environment the IOC in an

people around the world who have expressed interest in

attempt to transfer and pass on knowledge has left

the Tokyo 2020 GamesThe Tokyo Games werebehind video images of key persons involved in theoperated in a grand scope integrating CRM services

Games who answer questions in an interview format

that had been operated by the IOC for some time As aand opened them to the Organising Committee for future

result 8 2 million users registered almost twice asGames In the COVID‑19 pandemic we the staff of themany as at the London 2012 Games the largest everorganising committee had to work at home as well as122

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

the companies but the recording of online meetings andhad proceeded only after the business requirements

the provision of user manuals in the form of video images

were completely determined delivery would not haveworked very efficiently Furthermore with the rise of

been possible even in time for the closing ceremony of

non‑code and low‑code platforms the need for knowl-

the Paralympic Games (For details please refer to 3‑5edge of manufacturing processes is shrinking In theof this special issue )future it is expected that a new standard for knowledge

Based on this experience we believe that a scheme oftransfer will be formed in sync with the evolution of ICT

in‑house production by in‑house engineers on a low‑and system platforms and the promotion of DX

code platform called “PaaS” is fully feasible

The

presence of engineers who are less restricted in theirscope of activities by contract and who can discuss and6．Conclusion

co‑create new value with business departments on an

In the Japanese IT industry the pros and cons of theequal footing is necessary to accelerate DX by each“vendor‑dependency” structure are often discussed

company itself Furthermore whether they are in‑

The business application development project describedhouse engineers or external resources under a quasi‑

above was promoted under a scheme similar to in‑house

contractual agreement IT departments need to contin-

development in which external resources secured under

ue to produce results in order to maintain them over thea quasi‑contract on a long‑term basis collaborated withlong term In the Tokyo 2020 Games the Technology

in‑house IT staff

Services Bureau which has a so‑called Information

This scheme

called “software

factory” has been used in the past Games to mass‑

Systems Department

continued to emphasize theproduce relatively small‑scale systems (average man‑importance of IT within the organization and may havemonths per system : about 6 man‑months) This scheme

contributed in no small way to overcoming the final

was born out of necessity as the development of thechallenge of the spread of the COVID‑19

system had to be started at a stage when the business

Finally I personally hope that the importance of IT

requirements were not yet clear and a lump‑sum

will be increasingly recognized as companies promote

contract was not suitable In fact all the members who

DX and that the treatment of IT personnel in Japan will

participated in the project worked in the same environ-improve and that the mobility of human resources will

ment and with the same ambitions as our staff members

also increase

I would like to express my great appreciation to themonce again
Here is an example

References

In a normal competition(

personnel are shifted to the competition site as the event
approaches and the system operation and maintenancesystem is re‑established This is to concentrate on
training for the operation and maintenance of theservices that have been established so far

and toprepare for the actual operation of the competition The
development of a system to support the operations of theTokyo Games however was an urgent task as thecoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19) countermeasures
were to be added to the normal Games operations The()

International Testing Agency (ITA), Tokyo 2020 : ITA succeeded infully implementing anti-doping program for Olympic Games despite
challenging COVID-19 circumstances, Sep. 2008. (1) International
Testing Agency (ITA), Tokyo 2020 : ITA succeeded in fully
implementing anti-doping program for Olympic Games despite
challenging COVID-19 circumstances, Sept. 13, 2021.
https://ita.sport/news/tokyo-2020-ita-succeeded-in-fully-implement
ing-anti-doping-program-for-olympic-games-despite-challenging-covid19-circumstances/) C. Sakakeeny, Tokyo streaming traffic runs rings around Rio, Aug. 16,2021.
https://www.akamai.com/blog/performance/tokyo-streaming-trafficruns-rings-around-rio(Received Feb 9 2022 ; Revised Feb 28 2022)

Games Delivery Office which serves as the businessdivision led the cycle of formulating business rules andorganizing them into systemization requirements on a
weekly basis As a result the delivery of the system wascompleted without major delays toward the entry
schedule of the parties involved We believe that wewere able to achieve this because of the maturity of the
Software Factory scheme that was launched at the
beginning of 2018 If the design and development phases

USUI Akihisa
Akihisa Usui graduated from Kumamoto
University with a bachelorʼs degree in engineering in 1995 and was transferred to theTechnology Service Bureau from Fujitsu Limited in 2015‑03 Since then he has been
engaged in governance formulation planning
development and operation of information
systems in general Prior to the Games time hewas the Director of Information Systems
Department

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020123