Introduction to Competitive Advantage in Information Systems
As you read, think about how using, protecting, and managing information and data could support an organization's competitive advantage. Conversely, failure to protect data, particularly personal information, could reduce or destroy any competitive advantage within a business. How does understanding customer information and data support current operations? How might it impact future operations?
Data Asset in Action: Caesars' Solid Gold CRM for the Service Sector
Collecting Data
Data drives the firm. Caesars collects customer data on just about everything you might do at their properties - gamble, eat, grab a drink, attend a show, stay in a room. The data's then used to track your preferences and to size up whether you're the kind of customer that's worth pursuing. Prove your worth, and the firm will surround you with top-tier service and develop a targeted marketing campaign to keep wooing you back.
The ace in the firm's data collection hole is its Total Rewards loyalty card system. Launched over a decade ago, the system is constantly being enhanced by an IT staff of seven hundred, with an annual budget in excess of $100 million. Total Rewards is an opt-in loyalty program, but customers consider the incentives to be so good that the card is used by some 80 percent of patrons, collecting data on over forty-four million customers.
Customers signing up for the card provide Caesars with demographic information such as gender, age, and address. Visitors then present the card for various transactions. Slide it into a slot machine, show it to the restaurant hostess, present it to the parking valet, share your account number with a telephone reservation specialist - every contact point is an opportunity to collect data. Between three hundred thousand and one million customers come through Caesars' doors daily, adding to the firm's data stash and keeping that asset fresh.