Introduction
Chelsea Football Club combines shopping outlets, hotel and catering facility centre, over 24 hospitality suites, 6 restaurants, 12 bars and over 60 executive boxes located at Stamford Bridge, the home of Premiership Champions. Modern sports facilities have developed into far more than simply arenas for sport; a whole range of industries has developed at the stadia, to service the large numbers of people that regularly attend events there. These diverse operations offer tremendous opportunities for enterprising clubs, but also bring with them challenges, and require wide ranging changes to infrastructure.
The Challenge
Chelsea Football Club needed to implement an integrated, EMV Chip & PIN compliant card payment system to service all areas of the leisure centre. Within the unique retail environment of a football stadium, which experiences sudden, high volumes of demand, great pressure would be placed on the system. This provided real logistical challenges to the suppliers involved, as the system had to:
-- Be fully EMV Chip & PIN compliant
-- Support the diverse range of applications required, from hotels and bars to fine dining
-- Support LAN connectivity
-- Allow mobile terminals to roam to different areas as diverse as retail outlets and pitch side private boxes
-- Cope with the short term, high volume usage associated with match days
-- Offer market leading security for transactions
The Solution
Working alongside 3C International, Dione provided a combination of fixed Xtreme(TM) terminals for bar and hotel applications and mobile Xplorer(TM) terminals for payment at the table.
The Xtreme(TM) PIN Pad is ideal for fixed use applications, and its high security, ergonomic design and intuitive user interface have made it one of the most popular Chip & PIN terminals in the world.
The Xplorer(TM) mobile terminal has received security accreditations, from PCI PED, APACS confirming its status among the most secure terminals on the market today.
In addition to this, Dione's terminals are manufactured to the highest specifications, using robust materials designed to withstand rigorous use in tough retail environments, for a prolonged period of time.
The terminals were all connected into a central payment application resident on a business-wide server, providing a fully integrated payment solution with full resilience powered by 3CIntegra's software to all areas of the business.
Results
Since the system went live in February 2005, it has been a great success. The solution has fulfilled all of Chelsea Football Club's requirements, and extensive trials ensured that any teething problems were fixed before it came online.
"Both expanding the Chelsea Football Club service offer and ensuring a high quality level of those services to visitors is a real challenge. The 3C's payment solution together with the Dione's terminals helped us to smoothly cope with the industry requirements while answering end-user needs, be it parking, restaurant, hotel, etc." explains Peter Stubbs, Financial Controller, Chelsea Football Club.
"I am delighted that Dione was chosen to provide terminals for the payment system at Chelsea Football Club. I see it as a real endorsement of the quality and usability of Dione's products, and of the company's ability to deliver on prestigious and large scale projects." Francisco Lopez, Director of Sales and Marketing, Dione.
"Stand-alone Chip & PIN is a must-have system for today's UK retailers. While choosing 3C International, the Chelsea Football Club opted for an all-in-one credit card payment solution. Compliant with the latest EMV requirements, the 3C's solution operates 120 Xplorer devices and 40 Xtreme pin pads all linked to Chelsea Football Clubs LAN(1) infrastructure", says Michael Balzer, Chief Executive Officer, 3C International.
About 3C International
3C International is the leading card payment processing company. Founded by Jan Stenbeck in 1986, 3C is part of the major alternative pan European telecom operator Tele2 AB.
Operating for 20 years in over 24 countries worldwide, 3C's mission is to deliver high quality and cost effective payment solutions to enable customers to optimize their business.
3C is providing innovative card processing solutions for various industry and market segments, such as Retail, Hospitality, Vending, Ticketing, Kiosks, Car Parks, Pay & Display and eCommerce. With a mix of local and global solutions 3C can assist customers in reducing their operating cost related to card processing. Product Development, Project Management, Managed Services, Consultancy and Customer Service form part of the complete service offering 3C is providing to the market.
To know more about 3C International, please take a look at www.3cint.com.
About Dione
Dione Ltd, a fully owned subsidiary of Lipman Electronic Engineering Ltd, is the UK's leading supplier of secure Chip & PIN smart card payment terminals and managed services. Dione has developed a state of the art range of high-security terminals, offering the highest level of fraud-protection currently available, for a wide range of applications. In addition to traditional retail environments, Dione provides secure card payment solutions for unattended use in kiosks, portable terminals in the hospitality industry, multi-lane retailers and the vending industry.
To know more about Dione Limited, please take a look at www.dione.co.uk.
About Chelsea Football Club
To know more about Chelsea Football Club, please take a look at www.chelseafc.com
(1)Local Area Network
© 2006 Business Wire
