Caesars: Gambling Big on Technology

CaesarsGambling Big on Technology This case illustrates how selective studybase technologies skunknister defy an organizations craft strategy. The large investment do by Caesars Entertainment Corporation, formerly Harrahs, in its culture technology strategy has been tremendously successful. The results of Caesars investment at the clock time embroil * 10 better annual change magnitude in guest maunders. * 33 percent addition in gross market place revenue. * Yearly profits of over US$208 million. * Highest iii-year ROI in the industry. * A last-placework that think over 42,000 frolic machines in 26 cassinos across 12 states in the U.S. * Rated emergence six on the 100 top hat places to work in IT by ComputerWorld magazine. * pass catcher of a Leadership in development w arhousing Award from the selective education Warehousing Institute (TDWI), the premier association for selective schooling warehousing. The casino industry is highly matchedrivalry among existing competitors is fierce. Bill Harrah was a man ahead of his time when he opened his first bingo living room in 1937 with the commitment of getting to drive in all(prenominal)(prenominal) one of his nodes. In 1984, Phil Satre, death chair and CEO of Harrahs, continued that.In search of its warlike advantage, Harrahs invested in an enterprise-wide technology infrastructure to moderate Bill Harrahs original conviction cover your customers well and they leave behind be loyal. Caesars dispatch to Customers When Harrahs follow outed its patented lend RewardsTM political political program it was resigned to help build strong relationships with its customers. The program rewarded customers for their truth by trailing their gaming habits across its thence 26 properties and shortly maintains information on over 19 million customers, information the social club expenditures to give out, predict, and increase severally customers value.At Caesars the program conti nues to be a success because of its implementation of a service-oriented strategy. Total Rewards allows Caesars to give every customer the grab measurement of personal attention, whether its leaving sweets in the hotel room or fling forgo meals. Total Rewards works by providing each customer with an account and a correspond card to swipe each time he or she plays a casino game. The program pecks information on the come of time the customers gamble, their total winnings and losses, and their libertine strategies.Customers earn points ground on the amount of time they spend gambling, which they can then exchange for complimentary items such as free dinners, hotel rooms, tickets to shows, and even cash. Total Rewards helps employees find which level of service to provide each customer. When a customer makes a stockpile at any of Caesars brands, the service vocalization taking the call can involve the customers detailed information including the customers loyalty level, games typically played, past winnings and losses, and potential net worth.If the service congresswoman notices that the customer has a Diamond loyalty level, the service representative knows that customer should never involve to carry in line and should everlastingly put on free upgrades to the most expensive rooms. near everything we do in trade and conclusion making is influenced by technology, says Gary Loveman, Caesars chairman and CEO. The overabundant wisdom in this business is that the attraction of property drives customers. Our approach is different. We stimulate film by knowing our customers.For example, if one of our customers always vacations at Harrahs in April, they will begin a promotion in February cashable for a free weekend in April. Gaining Business Intelligence with a info Warehouse Millions of customers visit Caesars resorts each year, and tracking a customer base bigger than the population of Germany is a scrap. To tackle this challenge Caesars began developing a system called WINet (Winners Data Ne devilrk). WINet links all Caesars properties, allowing the company to collect and share customer information on an enterprise-wide basis.WINet collects customer selective information from all the company transactions, game machines, and hotel management and reservations systems, transforms and cleanses this data, and then places the resulting information in a central data storage store. Information in the data warehouse includes both customer and gaming information recorded in hourly increments. The marketing department uses the data warehouse to analyze customer information for patterns and insights, which allows it to create severalise marketing programs for each customer establish on spending habits.Most important, the data warehouse allows the company to make business lasts based on information, not intuition. Casinos traditionally continue customers as though they belong to a single property, typically the place the custo mer most frequently visits. Harrahs was the first casino to realize the potential of rewarding customers for see more(prenominal) than one property. Today, Caesars has found that customers who visit more than one of its properties represent the red-hot growing revenue segment.In the first two years of the Total Rewards program, the company standard a $100 million increase in revenue from customers who gambled at more than one casino. Caesars also uses BI to assure gaming machine exploit. Using the data warehouse, Caesars examines the performance and cost structure of each individualistic gaming machine. The company can quickly identify games that do not deliver optimal in operation(p) performance and can make a decision to move or replace the games. The qualification to assess the performance of each individual slot machine has provided Caesars with savings in the tens of millions of dollars.Former CIO Tim Stanley stated, As we leverage more information from our data wareho use and increase the use and sophistication of our decision science analytical tools, we expect to have many refreshing ways to improve customer loyalty and satisfaction, drive greater revenues, and decrease our cost as part of our ongoing counseling on achieving sustainable profitability and success. shelter and Privacy Some customers have concerns about(predicate) Caesars data and information collection strategy since they necessitate to keep their gambling information private.The good news for these customers is that casinos are in reality required to be more remindful of privacy concerns than most companies. For example, casinos cannot send marketing material to any underage persons. To flummox to strict government regulations, casinos must come across that the correct information security and restrictions are in place. Many other companies in reality make a great deal of money by selling customer information. Caesars has not joined this trend since its customer data and information are part of the companys competitive advantage. The Future of CaesarsIn the future, Caesars hopes to become device-independent by allowing employees to access the companys data warehouse via fluent devices. Managing relationships with customers is incredibly important to the health of our business, Stanley says. We will apply whatever technology we can to do that. For example, Caesars has been undergoing efforts to develop systems described as patron-based technology that foster communication with customers with slot machines. Ultimately, such data stash away through slot machines can be stored in a data warehouse and later analyzed to move on come on insight into customers and their needs. 0 Questions 1. Identify the cause poor information might have on Caesars service-oriented business strategy. 2. How does Caesars use database technologies to implement its service-oriented strategy? 3. Caesars was one of the first casino companies to find value in offering rewards to customers who visit multiple Caesars locations. Describe the personal effects on the company if it had not create any integrations among the databases located at each of its casinos. How could Caesars use distributed databases or a data warehouse to synchronize customer information? . Estimate the potential impact to Caesars business if there is a security erupt in its customer information. 5. Identify three different types of data marts Caesars might want to build to help it analyze its operational performance. 6. What might occur if Caesars fails to clean or scrub its information before loading it into its data warehouse? 7. Describe assemble analysis, association detection, and statistical analysis and rationalise how Caesars could use each one to gain insights into its business.