Reflection on Harrah’s Case

Reflection on Harrah’s Case

 

On Tue Apr 15, consultants from “Four Experts” presented their suggestions regarding Harrah’s new Business Strategy and marketing focus. They explained the challenge Harrah’s was facing and what the executive management decided to overcome that challenge.

The consultants did a good job in presenting the current situation, what are available resources, what the target is and how it should be achieved. It was clear from their presentation that Harrah’s main objective is to focus on improving Customer Relations.  In order to do this, they suggested a targeted marketing approach. This approach required development of a new IT system to collect customer information from all locations, combine it and analyze and process it collectively and produce marketing reports.

The “Four Experts” highlighted three-prong business strategy. They suggested Harrah’s should focus on improving Customer Relationships, enhance Closed-loop Marketing and expand Total Rewards. They thoroughly explained each of the three goals. To improve Customer Relationships, they stated that Harrah’s should categorize high worth, VIP customers and provide white-glove services to them. It should also target non-gamer clients as well. Customer data should also be stored centrally so that any of Harrah’s casinos should be able to access it on demand.

Customer Service has always been the focus for Harrah’s ever since its inception and should continue to be the main objective of the company. There are 28 major brands of casinos at the Las Vegas strip alone. Each of them offers somewhat similar games and services. What differentiates Harrah’s from the competition is its customer service. I disagree with consultants’ suggestion that customers should be categorized. It may be deemed ethically wrong to differentiate between the high profile and regular customers. I think each customer should be treated as the most important customer regardless of how many games s/he plays or how much business s/he brings. When each customer gets the best services, s/he will feel special and would always want to return to a Harrah’s casino in future.

The consultants also presented another important marketing tactic and that is to introduce Total Rewards program. In the Total Rewards program, Harrah’s would focus on ‘low-rollers’ and non-gamers and add low-bet slot machines to introduce them to the gambling world. Once they start playing, they will most likely continue enjoying the games and move on to bigger games.

I was mostly impressed with their presentation, however, I think slide 18 had little relevance to the topic and they may have put a better image on slide 21. In short I agree mostly with their suggestions. If I were presenting to C-Level team, I would follow the same agenda except that I would move the Business Strategy after the Target Projects. I would first explain the current situation, what challenges Harrah’s is facing right now, what its goal is and which strategy it should adopt in order to achieve that goal.

Harrah's High Payoff from Customer Information

Harrah's High Payoff from Customer Information

Problem/Issue Statement:

When Bill Harrah started his gambling business in 1937 in a small bingo parlor in Reno, NV his main focus was on providing a comfortable, fair and entertaining game experience to his customers. As his business grew, his customer service focus remained the same. By the year 2000, Harrah’s had opened its 21^st location, making it one of the largest gaming companies with 40,000 employees, 36,635 slot machines and 1,075 table games,

11,521 hotel rooms and 92 restaurants serving 19 million customers.

These 21 locations throughout the US were run independently by individual casino managers. Decision making power remained with them and they ran their casinos as they deemed suitable according to their own focus. Each casino manager had his/her own marketing strategy. Some focused on advertisement campaigns while others strived for beating the completion. Along with its expansion, Harrah’s also experienced a major problem. The main focus on customer service that was the baseline this business was built on was lost over time. Harrah’s top management did not have a clear understanding of who their customers were, what did they expect from Harrah’s and what would win their loyalty and generate repeat business. Customer relationship management and business branding needed to be focused.

In order to combat this problem, Harrah’s needed to gather all customer related information from several different sources. This was a huge task and demanded substantial investment in IT since each of its locations ran independently and retained its own customer data. Data had to be collected from all sources, compiled in a uniform fashion, stored in a single database format and reports had to be generated based on aggregated data. This infrastructure would support operations, special discount offers, “Total Rewards” – a customer loyalty program and analytical applications. Spotlight was on “closed loop marketing” as it was the area of special attention.

Situation Assessment:

Harrah’s new business strategy focused on creating single brand image throughout all its locations, re-establishing relationships with old customers, attracting new customers and retaining these relationships. As the competition grew rapidly, Harrah’s had to react quickly to stay ahead of the game by investing in an IT system to combat the problem. This system would have to understand customers’ needs by gathering historical data, know their priorities by analyzing surveys, predict their habits by generating projection reports and to create a market plan targeted specifically for them.

List of Plausible Alternative Courses of Action:

To understand customers’ preferences, Harrah’s had to mine the data, run experiments using different marketing tools s such as special offers, and to learn what best met customers’ needs at the various casinos. These requirements gave birth to Harrah’s Winners Information Network (WINet) – creating a single customer view. WINet consists different components: Data and Source Systems; Patron Database (PDB); Marketing Workbench (MWB); Operational Applications; WINet Offers; and Total Rewards.

Data and Source Systems: Data is captured and collected from a variety of source systems such as hotel reception recording details of a customer’s stay. This information would include age, demographics, preference data, frequency of visits, etc. Another source of data would be the slot machines and gaming tables capturing customer’s playing habits, number of bets placed, high and low bets, etc. Some of the data is recorded automatically (i.e. slot machines) whereas some data is recorded manually such as the reception clerk entering customer information or the dealer recording the games played and bets made over a specific period of time.

Patron Database: At the end of the day, data collected from all sources is loaded into the Patron Database (PDB). Before the data is uploaded into PDB, however, it has to go through validity and sanity checks. If any abnormalities are noticed, data is send to a temporary holding area where it will be reviewed by the management manually. Once the final data is loaded into PDB, it becomes a searchable record based on customer name, casino, hotel, games played, events attended, etc.

Marketing Workbench: After the data is finalized in PDB, it is then sent to the Marketing Workbench (MWB) which is Harrah’s data warehouse. Daily, monthly and yearly data is held over an extended period of time for historical analysis and comparison reports.  Marketing analysts can analyze customer attributes to determine each customer’s preferences and predict what future services and rewards they will want.  A major use of MWB is to generate the lists of customers to send offers to.

Operational Applications: Operation applications are based on an employee’s observations. For example, the pit boss may offer $50 free chips to a frequent, valued customer or an additional night stay to an out-of-state customer.

WINet Offers: This is Harrah’s proprietary application to generate discount offers for valued customers. A marketing analyst enters target profile to generate a specific offer and PDB runs the report against all customers and returns the list of customers who match the search criteria.

WINet collected and combined data from all of the casinos recording detailed customer profiles including demographics, specific games played, the time and duration of their visits and their ages etc. The repository for this data used a patron database (PDB) that served as an operational data store. All of this information was fed into a custom data warehouse called “Marketing Workbench” (MWB) and further analyzed to generate different reports that were based on aggregated customers’ information data. At the time of WINet’s inception in 1994, PDB held 40GB data and MWB 80GB for 7 million customers. By 2002, PDB had grown to 300GB and MWB 360GB holding detailed records to 20 million customers.

WINet would gather all customer data from different sources, compile it together and process the end-of-day report after performing several sanity checks. If any abnormalities are noticed in the end-of-day reports or if they didn’t make logical sense, this data would be held in a suspended file to be reviewed manually. Once the reports are generated, management is enabled to identify customer requirements and generate prediction reports based on these reports. They would also be able to prepare marketing plans specific to different customer profiles, market areas and business goals. This allowed Harrah’s to reconnect with its customers by offering them customized offers that are prepared specifically to appeal to their tastes.

Total Gold program along with closed-loop marketing identified customers’ key interest areas. Harrah’s was now able to prepare specific marketing offers for these customers so that they would return to a Harrah’s casinos for their gaming pleasures.

Since changing its business strategy and adopting the new WINet system, Harrah’s had not only recovered its lost customers and won their loyalty back but also attracted many new ones. After a successful marketing campaign, Harrah’s recorded the following benefits:

• A doubling in the response rate of offers to customers;
• Consistent guest rewards and recognition across properties;
• A brand identity for Harrah’s casinos;
• An increase in customer retention worth several million dollars;
• A 72 percent increase in the number of customers who play at more than one Harrah’s property, increasing profitability by more than $50 million; and
• A 62 percent internal rate of return on the information technology investments.

Harrah’s is now ahead of its competition but to stay ahead it has to continue to make full use of WINet system. Other casinos are now following Harrah’s model and investing more in their IT system to generate similar report for targeting their customers. Harrah’s should continue expanding its WINet system.

Evaluation of Alternatives:

Harrah’s had a major task to come up with a solution to reconnect with its customers in order to do targeted, closed-loop marketing. It had to come up with a strategy to understand and manage relationships with their customers. They believed that strong customer service relationships cannot be built without extensive customer knowledge. Their decision to invest in IT and develop the WINet system proved to be very profitable. It was a great success as shown by the increase of customers and profits after the implementation of the new system. 72% Customers now play at more than one Harrah’s casinos and profitability has increased by more than $50 milltion.

Recommendation:

Although WINet system proved to be a great success, however, Harrah’s should not remain static with it. It is a model for other businesses and competitors are also trying to gain from Harrah’s strategy. Harrah’s should continue to expand WINet databases and run even more dynamic reports. It should also make use of social media, internet marketing and free vacation programs offered to its customers.

Presentation:

If I were presenting this case, I would explain the current situation to the audience, goal(s) to be achieved and cost of new system’s implementation. I would also show the measurable benefits to be gained from these changes. I would use MS PowerPoint to present case and would use MS Excel to calculate the before and after projected gains.

Reflection on Business Impacts of Microsoft Project

Microsoft Project is a project management software program that was first released in 1984 by Microsoft. Over the course of next 29 years, Microsoft has enhanced this program tremendously and has added a number of very useful features in MS Project 2013 version that are now vital for managing projects. It is no surprise that the number of Project Managers adopting to this tool has been constantly increasing over time.

MS Project offers integration with other Microsoft products such as Word, Excel and Outlook that are already very popular. MS Project is a desktop application, which means the Project Manager can work on the project schedule even if there is no Internet connection.

With MS Project, it is easy to manage project schedules and finances, communicate and present project details and status, and organize resources to ensure deadlines and commitments are met. It enables to simplify project management by providing tools and resources that facilitate project planning, resource allocation, resource leveling and financial management as well as collaboration among project teams.

MS Project presents the diagram of any complex project through Gantt chart that gives a reasonable and realistic timeframe for the completion of the project along with resource constraints.  It also tells about the activity with the greatest amount of slack as well as about the critical path.

Whenever our bank started a new project such as introducing a new product or expanding in a different region, the management made plans regarding resources needed, cost incurred and duration of the project. The calculations were done in MS Excel and presented through MS PowerPoint. Flow charts for the project were created in Visio. But if we used MS Project for scheduling and planning for the new projects we could reduce the cost of using three applications.

Microsoft project will provide us better scheduling and planning as well as manage our constraint resources. Divisions of bank that are working simultaneously on different projects can prioritize their projects along with resource allocation. We can assign the right workers for the different project.

We have four divisions in our bank and if we purchase 40 MS Project Standard licenses at $588.99 each, it is going to be an investment of $23,560. Each division will have ten licenses of MS project that will give it the opportunity to manage and schedule its different projects. Project Managers can get better evaluation budget allocated to different projects. This investment would be an added value for four divisions as it would enable effective and efficient project management to coordinate resources and budget wisely from start to finish.

In MS Project, we first define the project starting date then we enter the related tasks and specify the duration for each task.  You can include as little or as much details as needed for each task. As you enter this data, a Gantt chart is generated as a visual presentation of the project overview. MS Project will also allow our management team to allocate their resources appropriately to ensure the right team members are assigned to the project. It even allows you to enter the cost associated with resources to be able to track the budget. It will also allow the management to share PDF reports generated by MS project. This way we can avoid occurrence of numerous problems such as revising the budget, assigning the wrong workers to the tasks and estimating poor time frame for the completion of project.

Last year we had one project failure of expanding to Georgia that cost us a loss of $1 million. Investigation revealed that the failure was due to poor scheduling and assigning the wrong workers to the assignment.

MS Project can save us from a lot of hassle and it will give us the ease to schedule our projects and enhance the productivity of each division.

Bombardier - Reflection

Memo

Meeting with CALM consultants helped me gain a better understanding of how adopting ERP practices can improve the data processing. Implementing ERP in Bombardier was never an easy task. The comparison of ERP implementation between 1^st and 2^nd rollout presented by consultants clearly pointed out the areas that improved and the areas that did not do as well. During the discussion after the meeting we discussed the strategy to get better results in the third rollout.

As we had seen, Bombardier’s second implementation at St. Laurent brought better results as compared to its first implementation at Mirabel. The consultants highlighted the areas where we improved such as recognizing the value of early planning, explaining the reason for implementing ERP, understanding the business processes & key requirements, and focusing on data migration early in the implementation process. The areas where we did not achieve marked success are the ones we need to focus on for better results in third rollout.

The consultants discussed that we need to focus on building a business case for ERP with positive ROI, gain executive and organizational commitment, ensure proper project management and resource commitment, and invest in training and change management.

In order to improve the areas mentioned above and building the bridge between the management and employees, we need to implement a best practices frame work. After discussing the issues in second rollout with the consultants, it was evident that we have made major improvements as compared to the results of the first rollout and the best practice framework would be the key to success for the third rollout.

The presentation sessions to explain the ERP system and change management to the employees before training them for the new system helped them understand the ERP system better and addressed all of their concerns.  We should follow the same practice and hold more of these information sessions before training the employees. This will also enable the employees to have a clear idea about their changed roles and their responsibilities after the ERP implementation.

Furthermore, we need to have professional trainers on board to conduct the trainings as well as provide ongoing support to the users after implementation in order to reduce the difficulty level and ease the change process. Ongoing support after the implementation will also reduce the down time and resolve any issues quickly. Our employees should fully understand how much resources we have invested in this project and how this change is going to benefit us.

With this strategy we will be able to get even better results in the third rollout of ERP implantation that would surpass St. Laurent.

Bombardier " Successfully Navigating the Turbulent Skies of a Large Scale ERP Implementation"

Issue:

Bombardier started replacing its existing system with integrated system that will increase efficiency and effectiveness of overall operations. Company’s management felt the need of ERP system for sustaining in the competitive market of aerospace.

The first attempt of ERP implementation in 2000 was not successful as Bombardier has a large, complex system. Bringing change to such a large system resulted in lower performance than expected. Bombardier abandoned the ERP implementation mid project with a cost of $130 million. The employees were not ready for such a big change and were hesitant about starting a new implementation. Bombardier has taken this into greater consideration when planning how they are going to roll out ERP again.

Bombardier hired a team of consultants for creating a plan to implement ERP. They introduced one-company vision throughout Bombardier and also involved senior management. This second round of implementation was more successful due to these valuable changes. Bombardier was ready in late 2001 to move forward with their Bombardier Manufacturing Information System (BMIS) – a new integrated manufacturing system that would be implemented through SAP. The company successfully implemented BMIS at its Mirabel plant and followed suit with implementation at St.-Laurent.

Senior management would like to evaluate their situation and see how a Best Practices approach could assist with an even more successful next round of implementation. Bombardier assessed the improved processes and success of these plants and it would try to go for the Best Practices approach for the implementation of ERP to further improve its project.

 

Situation Assessment:

In order to achieve Best Practices for ERP implementation, Bombardier should define clear goals and objectives of each group. Once the management clearly defines these goals and objectives with proper ERP implementation, it would affect all departments and business processes effectively and the probability of achieving the ultimate goal will increase.

Bombardier should also prepare for business transformation. ERP basically facilitates information flow between all business functions and manages connections to outside stakeholders. Therefore both rules and processes are going to be changed during ERP implementation. Bombardier should ensure that a clear process is defined and implemented and this transformation from old to new system is going to be easy for the workers.

One of the main tasks for Bombardier is to choose the right software. To gain full value from an ERP system, Bombardier must match suitable software for its information needs, processes, functional requirements, and workflows. After thorough considerations, the management concluded that SAP is the best option to implement the BMIS system for manufacturing facilities.

Training and support are also essential. Highly qualified and experienced consultants will be needed for ERP implementation. The selected vendor to complete this project should have consultants available immediately for training the users to use the new system. The vendor should also provide extended support if any problems arise.

Allocation of the necessary resources across financial, managerial and training is a very important decision for Bombardier. Change management is also necessary in order for a successful implementation.

Timing for the implementation is another crucial step. Management will need to involve leads from all affected departments to plan what is the best time to implement ERP in their departments and how it should be done. For instance, Accounting and Finance departments are usually very busy during the year end closing so it may not be a good time for any process change.

Recommendations:

ERP implementation at both Mirabel and St. Laurent plants were successful but the process went smoother at St. Laurent. For the second round of implementation, they had more management support, clearer goals and better training. A better success achieved at St. Laurent was due to the fact that some of the mistakes made at Mirabel were corrected at St. Laurent and process was further improved.

There was a disagreement among the employees regarding the scope of the project. The VP of operations and project sponsor continued to show support for the project but the plant manager did not agree with scope of the project and some internal managers felt that the new system was being forced upon them and did not welcome the change. IT was also complaining that users were not providing sufficient information for training materials. But at St. Laurent, mangers were more involved. Plant managers felt that it was their own project not just IT‘s and they took ownership of the processes at the early stage. This sense of ownership helped tremendously in getting all the employees involved. The vision of the project was clearer when it came for implementation at St.  Laurent. Before training the employees, they were thoroughly explained via presentations, all of the proposed changes which enabled them to be mentally prepared.  They understood that there was a need for change and they were working together towards the goal. These presentations should be continued for all further facilities. It was very informative for employees to see how Bombardier was doing versus its competitors and how new ERP system will improve company’s vision.  

 

Insufficient training was given at the Mirabel plant and it was given at a very early stage when the implementation started. By the time the implementation completed, most of the employees could not remember everything they had learned during training. For St. Laurent, the management scheduled the training at the right time. Both facilities also required long term support since some of the problems arose several weeks or even months later after the change completed. Also, some of the problems were very complex and required more in-depth follow up.  For the next round of implementation, Bombardier should make sure that there are at least few people that stay on for an extended period at facilities to provide support. 

 

The changes regarding training were made at both plants should be carried forward with some further enhancements. Training should be scheduled closer to implementation with a more generalized theme and then have some refresh courses. Users should have a chance to experience the system before they actually start working. This way users can understand new system better and it will eventually enhance their productivity.

 

Employees’ willingness plays a vital role in adopting a new system. Change is always difficult to embrace but if the employees are convinced that this system will bring a positive change for the company, they would work for it efficiently and effectively. 

 

Presentation:

 

In order to present this case, the consultants should explain the ERP system and how it will benefit Bombardier. They should also identify the successful steps taken as well as mistakes made during the implementation. They can use visual charts and MS PowerPoint for the presentation.

Reflection - The Puerto Rico Education Project System Development in an Island Paradise

Reflection - The Puerto Rico Education Project

System Development in an Island Paradise

 

Memo

Dear Gary Johnson,

I had a meeting with the consultants from JAGR regarding whether USCO should continue with the existing team members with few changes in corporate policy or they should send the unhappy employees back to US. Before the meeting, I was sure that this project is becoming a failure because of poor evaluation, planning and administration. This project should be evaluated as international project because of its scope and prevailing conditions in Puerto Rico.

After listening to JAGR consultants’ presentation and Q & A session, I now have a clearer picture of the scenario and I realized that we could have kept those employees away from the hassle and frustration if this project was assessed as international project.

According to weighted decision criteria of JAGR, cost, time efficiency, positive impact on future projects, and morale are the deciding factors among the available alternatives. As a matter of fact, this project is already over the budget and not meeting deadlines.  Therefore, I agree that cost and time are the major factors that we need to work on. Employees’ low morale needs to be addressed at its earliest.

To bring this project back on track, if we send the unhappy employees back to the US and hire the Puerto Rican programmers for their replacement, I think that will affect the morale of remaining employees and their families. It may also cause a gap between native Puerto Rican programmers and foreign US programmers. Puerto Rican programmers are young and may lack the necessary experience and expertise and may take longer to come up to the speed with the project. Also, we’ll have to bear the cost of moving the disgruntled employees back to US and it will become the sunk cost. We may have to grant them severance pay for their settlement in US.

After going though the pros and cons of the above aforementioned alternative, I strongly recommend that USCO should reassess the project as “International Project” instead of domestic project. The policies should be reestablished for governing compensation, taxation, housing, schooling costs, career tracking and many other factors. We should also allocate some time to reorganize the project. Meanwhile intensive language and cultural orientation should be provided not for the employees only but for their families as well.

During the reorganization, employees can also readjust with improved compensation plans along with better schooling facilities. After attending the language and cultural training, their families would be able to better mingle with the local community. This will eventually boost employees’ morale and productivity. Once these changes are successfully applied, we will be able to see the project back on track.

With best regards,

Tom Ballard