"A business that relies on its IT systems to run almost every aspect of its operations 24 hours a day, seven days a week, needs more from its hardware vendor than simply a stack of boxes," says Paulo Moreira, Information Technology Manager at Montecasino.
The billion rand casino and entertainment complex north of Johannesburg utilises CompaqProLiant servers and Compaq storage technology to control almost every aspect of its business from the casino and food and beverage systems to security and access.
"Our customers interact with our Compaq servers from the moment they enter the building," says Moreira. "Our decision to go with Compaq stemmed from the company`s willingness to enter into a partnership that covered all aspects of our IT infrastructure from design and implementation to post-sales and support.
"In addition, the company has taken full responsibility for its systems, allowing us to deal directly with them. Our gaming system, which is imported from the US, was spec`d by its developers to run on a competing vendor`s systems. However, we felt that we could not achieve the degree of co-operation and accountability with the vendor`s local office as we could from Compaq. In fact, so successful has the implementation of the gaming app on our system been that the developer is now seriously considering specifying Compaq equipment for its application.
"Our IT system controls almost every aspect of our operations, from the 1 700 slot machines, 80 computerised tables and food and beverage systems for a number of retail areas to the call centre, security, access and parking systems and even our internal voice-over-IP system (VOIP). In order to stay up and running 24x7 we needed an environment that offered high availability and a high level of redundancy. The design of the Compaq system is certainly unique for the local gaming industry in terms of its sophistication and capabilities. Since we require real-time control of our gaming and other activities, we installed three Compaq HA/F200 clusters with industry-standard ProLiant ML370 servers running on Microsoft`s Windows NT platform as well as a StorageWorks RA4100 storage sub-system.
"Redundancy has been built into the system almost every step of the way, including dual Pentium III CPUs, dual network cards, mirrored disks and even a dual fibre channel architecture to eliminate any single point of failure and has enabled us to achieve 100% uptime since going live."
Adds Moreira: "What I believe to be important to this project is the close client/vendor relationship which enables us to deal directly with the manufacturer and Compaq`s ability to create a solution for us instead of simply selling us products. The company designed its solution around our applications, providing us with greater flexibility during installation which was achieved ahead of schedule, leaving us with plenty of time for benchmarking. The success we have at Montecasino leaves considerable scope for future projects."
Says Tony Bogatie, Business Unit Manager, Industry Standard Server Group, at Compaq: "Compaq internationally has transitioned itself from being a product supplier to a solutions provider and the Montecasino project is proof of our success in this area. The specification, design, integration and configuration of the system was a collaborative project involving all stakeholders, a strategy which ensures that Compaq remains accountable for the project`s operational success.
"In addition, Compaq, with its channel partners, is involved in the supply of value added services and support for the client, creating a long-term partnership with the client that will see us involved in building onto the system as the client`s needs change. While the actual service and support work is outsourced to a third-party, we maintain full management, working with both Montecasino and our channel to ensure maximum uptime. In addition to the installation and commissioning of the system, Compaq also supplied a High Availability Support contract, a maintenance proposal that was tailored to meet their needs, directly to the client."
Adds Bogatie: "IT can no longer be a matter of dropping boxes. Instead, vendors are having to take an active role in the development of solutions for their customers if they are to build long-term loyalty. Compaq no longer simply develops leading-edge technology, but also the best methods of gaining the most benefits from that technology."
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