Everton FC gets a kick out of IT

Everton FC has upgraded its entire IT network and fully outsourced its payment processing system.

The upgrade started last summer with payment transaction operations having been outsourced to IT services company Logic Group over the last two months.

Payments from ticket sales and other sources are now securely transferred from the club to Logic Group's servers in London before going to the appropriate bank.

Phillip Davies, systems analyst at Everton, told silicon.com the outsourcing of the payment processing has been a "massive change" for the IT department.

Previously Everton had to transfer payment files to the banks at the end of each day manually. Davies said: "[Now] it's all done automatically - we don't have to do a thing".

The importance of a reliable and efficient way of processing payments is clear: the club takes more than £10m per year in ticket revenue alone, with three club shops and the hiring of executive boxes bringing in around 16 per cent of annual revenue.

Logic Group has provided the club with financial transaction software and technical support for around eight years but has now taken full responsibility for payment transactions.

The IT department has seen benefits as a result of the outsourcing. Davies said: "It saves the hassle of having to train new staff, looking after hardware and so on."

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With no need for a server to deal with processing of payments, space has been created in the server room for future IT upgrades. In addition the club estimates it has saved around £30,000 in just two months as a result of the outsourcing.

Davies added that football clubs are happy to share their IT knowledge. "I can go over to Liverpool's IT department and they'll show me what they use," he said.

West Ham recently made enquires about Everton's wireless network.

While football clubs are competing on the pitch, it seems they are happy to share knowledge to improve the way they all use IT for their business.

Read how Arsenal FC and Southampton FC are using IT.