Harrah`s Entertainment, the most recognised and respected name in the international casino-entertainment industry, with 21 casinos in 17 different markets, has chosen an enterprise business intelligence solution from Cognos to help extract insight and understanding from its data warehouse, which contains information on more than 19 million customers.
In the highly competitive gaming market, the need to attract and retain customers is critical to business success. Using Cognos` business intelligence solution for CRM, Harrah`s has been able to better target its marketing campaigns and even offer tailor-made packages to clients based on their individual gaming preferences.
"Using Cognos in our Total Rewards card program, we can track each players` gaming patterns and preferences across our 21 locations in the United States," says Tracy Austin, Vice President of Development. "By uncovering trends in the data, Cognos BI allows us to determine the destination, dining, and gaming choices of our customers. Using this insight, we are able to build complimentary and special offer programs that are customised to the individual customers. This level of customer service has been unheard of in the casino entertainment world -- until now."
In 2000, Harrah`s Entertainment received the prestigious Best Practices in Data Warehousing Award from The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI) in recognition of the highly successful Total Rewards customer-loyalty program - today driving double-digit same-store sales growth. Cognos and NCR both play a strategic role in this customer-focused IT initiative.
The Cognos implementation has also helped to debunk certain business myths, reports Cognos SA`s MD, Peter Gerson. "Industry experts once believed that players had fierce loyalty to one location, but Cognos` cross-market analysis has revealed that players enjoy moving from resort to resort and city to city, allowing for more options when building special offer programs," he explains. "The total solution has resulted in a smarter, more focused communication with customers and the ability to maximize each customer relationship."
Harrah`s Entertainment chose to deploy the Cognos solution based on the flexibility, breadth and depth of the solution, as well as Cognos` strategic partnership with NCR.
"Cognos provides employees at Harrah`s Entertainment with the tools they need to dig deep into customer data and retrieve insight that contributes to their competitive edge," says Ben Plummer, vice president of marketing at Cognos. "With Cognos, they have taken their CRM efforts to entirely new heights and have been recognized by the entire industry for their leadership in customer loyalty initiatives."
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Founded more than 60 years ago, Harrah`s Entertainment, Inc. is the most recognized and respected name in the casino entertainment industry, operating 21 casinos in 17 markets in the United States under the Harrah`s, Showboat, Rio and Players brand names. With a combined database of more than 19 million players, Harrah`s is focused on building loyalty and value with its targeted customers through a unique combination of great service, excellent products, unsurpassed distribution, operational excellence and technology leadership. More information about Harrah`s Entertainment, the leading consumer-marketing company in the gaming industry, can be obtained at www.harrahs.com
Cognos
Cognos is the world`s largest and most successful vendor of enterprise business intelligence solutions that leverage Internet technology to make information easily accessible to everyone in your enterprise. Founded in 1969, Cognos does business in more than 120 countries and employs some 2,600 people worldwide. With more than 2 million BI licenses in over 16,000 organisations worldwide, Cognos solutions are licensed for use by a wide range of customers, including Global 3000 corporations.
Our business intelligence solutions and services are sold directly and are also available from more than 3,000 worldwide partners and resellers and supported by an experienced field force of more than 1,400 customer-facing personnel. For more information visit: http://www.cognos.com
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