Harrah's Case Reflection

Re: How to leverage business analytics/intelligence programs?

Good afternoon All,

            I would like to review what we went over last week during our consultation meeting with Aces consulting. They did a good analysis on our operations and IT infrastructure while showing us how our decisions thus far have helped us become one of the leading casino competitors in the industry. This email is, more or less, geared towards our interpretation of their suggestions on how we should leverage our future business analytics decisions and intelligence programs. As mentioned earlier, we have had great success but are on the fence about moving forward with further expansion. I want to give my opinion and then I am looking forward to reading the responses from the rest of you.

            Aces consulting have suggested that we move forward with option #2 which involves us continuing the path of aggressive IT investment & Business analytics. I, for one, disagree with this decision and am more inclined to continue what we were doing and maintain alternative #1 which is remain at status quo. Since our inception of our new business strategy in 1997 we have reaped enormous returns like a 72% increase in the number of returning players to one of our properties and a 62% IRR based on our IT investments. Our strategy is to get to know our players and tend to their needs. We have exhausted most valuable, non invasive, IT systems to do this. Our numbers show this so I think that dumping millions of dollars into further expanding this would not yield a positive NPV for the investment. Alternative #1 is the best option because I do however feel that we could and should concentrate on Customer Service as an area that could bring back more customers. We already have the information to bring customers in, our next step is to continue to focus on ensuring a pleasurable gaming experience while they are here. According to destinationcrm.com, if a customer had an enjoyable time at Harrah’s, gambling spending would increase by 24 percent. If they did not, it would decline by 10 percent. With this in mind, we should consider our focus on Customer Service as our option to grow. I look forward to hearing all of your opinions.

- Alexander Slavtchev