Caesars: Gambling Big on Technology

CaesarsGambling Big on Technology This pillowcase illustrates how database technologies can support an organizations art dodge. The large investment made by Caesars Entertainment Corporation, formerly Harrahs, in its data engineering science strategy has been tremendously successful. The results of Caesars investment at the age include * 10 percent annual clear in node visits. * 33 percent increase in gross market revenue. * Yearly profits of over US$208 million. * Highest terce-year ROI in the industry. * A network that cogitate over 42,000 gaming apparatuss in 26 casinos crosswise 12 states in the U.S. * Rated number six on the carbon best places to work in IT by ComputerWorld magazine. * Recipient of a leadership in Data W behousing Award from the Data W behousing show (TDWI), the premier connector for data warehousing. The casino industry is highly emulousrivalry among existing competitors is fierce. Bill Harrah was a man ahead of his time when he opened his fi rst bingo parlour in 1937 with the fealty of getting to know to distributively atomic number 53 one of his nodes. In 1984, Phil Satre, president and chief executive officer of Harrahs, continued that.In search of its free-enterprise(a) advantage, Harrahs invested in an enterprise-wide technology infrastructure to oppose Bill Harrahs original conviction Serve your clients well and they will be loyal. Caesars Commitment to Customers When Harrahs implemented its patented arrive RewardsTM program it was resigned to help gird strong relationships with its clients. The program rewarded nodes for their loyalty by tracking their gaming habits across its whence 26 properties and currently maintains reading on over 19 million customers, information the company uses to give way, predict, and maximize separately customers value.At Caesars the program continues to be a success because of its implementation of a service-oriented strategy. Total Rewards allows Caesars to give any customer the appropriate amount of personal attention, whether its leaving sweets in the hotel fashion or offering superfluous meals. Total Rewards works by providing each customer with an account and a corresponding card to swipe each time he or she plays a casino game. The program collects information on the amount of time the customers gamble, their total winnings and losses, and their betting strategies.Customers advance points based on the amount of time they spend gambling, which they can because exchange for complimentary items such as free dinners, hotel rooms, tickets to shows, and even cash. Total Rewards helps employees determine which level of service to provide each customer. When a customer bring abouts a reservation at any of Caesars brands, the service representative fetching the call can view the customers detailed information including the customers loyalty level, games typically played, past winnings and losses, and potential net worth.If the service represe ntative notices that the customer has a Diamond loyalty level, the service representative knows that customer should neer have to wait in line and should always receive free upgrades to the around expensive rooms. Almost everything we do in marketing and purpose making is influenced by technology, says Gary Loveman, Caesars chairman and CEO. The prevailing wisdom in this bloodline is that the attractiveness of property drives customers. Our approach is different. We stimulate demand by discriminating our customers.For example, if one of our customers always vacations at Harrahs in April, they will receive a promotion in February redeemable for a free weekend in April. Gaining Business Intelligence with a Data Warehouse Millions of customers visit Caesars resorts each year, and tracking a customer base larger than the population of Germany is a challenge. To tackle this challenge Caesars began developing a system called WINet (Winners Data Network). WINet links all Caesars prop erties, allowing the company to collect and share customer information on an enterprise-wide basis.WINet collects customer data 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 warehouse. Information in the data warehouse includes both customer and gaming information put down in hourly increments. The marketing de rolement uses the data warehouse to disassemble customer information for patterns and insights, which allows it to create individualized marketing programs for each customer based on spending habits.Most important, the data warehouse allows the company to make business decisions based on information, not intuition. Casinos traditionally treat customers as though they belong to a single property, typically the place the customer most frequently visits. Harrahs was the first casino to realize the potential of recognize cus tomers for visiting more than one property. Today, Caesars has found that customers who visit more than one of its properties represent the fastest growing revenue segment.In the first two old age of the Total Rewards program, the company received a $100 million increase in revenue from customers who gambled at more than one casino. Caesars also uses BI to determine gaming machine murder. Using the data warehouse, Caesars examines the performance and equal structure of each individual gaming machine. The company can promptly identify games that do not deliver optimal operational performance and can make a decision to move or convert the games. The capability 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 warehouse and increase the use and sophistication of our decision science analytic tools, we expect to have many new way s to improve customer loyalty and satisfaction, drive wideer revenues, and decrease our costs as part of our ongoing focus on achieving sustainable profitability and success. Security and silence Some customers have concerns about Caesars data and information collection strategy since they want to keep their gambling information private.The good news for these customers is that casinos are actually required to be more mindful of privacy concerns than most companies. For example, casinos cannot send marketing material to any underage persons. To adhere to unrelenting government regulations, casinos must ensure that the correct information security and restrictions are in place. Many other companies actually make a great deal of money by selling customer information. Caesars has not get together 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 allowi ng employees to access the companys data warehouse via erratic 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 cheer communication with customers by slot machines. Ultimately, such data collected through slot machines can be stored in a data warehouse and later analyzed to gain further insight into customers and their needs. 0 Questions 1. come out the effectuate 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 get value in offering rewards to customers who visit multiple Caesars locations. Describe the effects on the company if it had not built any integrations among the databases lo cated at each of its casinos. How could Caesars use distributed databases or a data warehouse to sync customer information? . Estimate the potential impact to Caesars business if in that respect is a security breach 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 cluster analysis, association detection, and statistical analysis and explain how Caesars could use each one to gain insights into its business.