SKYCITY Entertainment Group Limited is the leading entertainment and gaming business with a great brand and an iconic status as a New Zealand and Australian listed company. It operates monopoly casinos in New Zealand (Auckland, Hamilton and Queenstown) and Australia (Adelaide and Darwin), alongside a variety of industry-leading restaurants and bars, luxury hotels and convention centres.
Entertainment is SKYCITY's core business. It has a strong and enviable collection of assets, including some of the most significant urban monopoly casino licences in New Zealand and Australia. SKYCITY aims to provide the best possible gaming and entertainment experiences to its customers, and deliver healthy long-term returns to its shareholders.
SKYCITY Entertainment Group conducts its day-to-day business in accordance with its commitment to corporate and community responsibility. The company's range of policies ensures its operations are carried out with the highest integrity.
The Code of Business Practice reinforces the company's existing commitment to the SKYCITY community, which includes employees, shareholders and our customers.
SKYCITY's most valued asset is its staff. The company demonstrates its commitment to fair and consistent employment relations through employment policies that aim to provide leadership that values an empowered and diverse work force, with the highest standards of integrity, ethics, mutual trust and individual dignity. Provide staff with training opportunities to ensure they develop to their full potential. Provide recognition and reward superior individual and team performance.
SKYCITY plays an active leadership role in developing tourism by promoting the cities and regions where it operates as international visitor destinations.
SKYCITY Entertainment Group Limited operates under an Environmental Policy that governs the company's approach to important environmental considerations. The company's main environmental contributions relate to energy and water use, waste management, and the handling of raw materials.
Host Responsibility
Across SKYCITY Entertainment Group properties host thousands of visitors every week and take responsibilities as a host very seriously. All SKYCITY properties have comprehensive host responsibility initiatives to ensure guests enjoy an environment that is safe, responsible, and regulated.
Community Contribution
Since SKYCITY Entertainment Group opened its first casino in Auckland in 1996 the company has been determined to not only provide a good return for its shareholders but to be a responsible corporate citizen and an effective community leader, wherever it operates. Its community contribution, while comprehensive, can be categorised under financial contribution, leadership and fostering the local way of life. It also has SKYCITY Community Trusts which is an independent Trusts aim to help local and regional organisations carry out community assistance and development work, focussing on projects related to health, education, community welfare, arts and culture. The Trusts call for applications once a year with close-off dates in March for Auckland, July for Queenstown and September for Hamilton.
Senior Management
SKYCITY runs under the supervision of dedicated senior management.
Nigel Morrison (CEO) is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of SKYCITY Entertainment Group Ltd.
Alistair Ryan (CFO) is responsible for all financial matters including financial reporting, group treasury, investor relations and internal audit.
Peter Treacy is General Counsel and Company Secretary takes care of SKYCITY's government relations, legal, regulatory, compliance and company secretarial functions.
Gráinne is a General Manager Group Services and Human Resources takes care of human resources.
Mike Clarke (CIO) was appointed to the role of Chief Information Officer for SKYCITY in July 2008. Mike has wide experience in IT Management having previously held roles such as Regional Director with Lotus IBM Asia Pacific based in Singapore, and Managing Director for 3Com in Australia and New Zealand before moving into a consulting career. Mike is responsible for the planning, implementation and management of SKYCITY Information Technology Systems and is focussed on delivering systems to improve business effectiveness and customer experience.
David Christian (Adelaide General Manager)
Ejaaz Dean (President International Business) is responsible for the overall management of SKYCITY's International Business operations for all SKYCITY casinos.
Simon Jamieson (General Manager) SKYCITY Hotels Group Auckland took on responsibility for Facilities Development for the New Zealand sites in February 2010.
Tamsyn Alley is responsible for all marketing initiatives for the Auckland property and brand.
Aaron Morrison is responsible for overseeing and pursuing corporate business development and strategic growth opportunities on behalf of the SKYCITY Group.
Arthur Pitcher was appointed General Manager of SKYCITY Hamilton in June 2008.
Michelle Baillie Casino Manager at SKYCITY Queenstown Casino in May 2008.
Brad Morgan is directly responsible for the operations and performance of SKYCITY Darwin, as well as development plans for the property.
2. Strategic Role of IT in Entertainment and Hospitality Industry
The fast paced world of casino resorts is one of the many specialized fields within the hospitality and entertainment industry. For owners or managers of casinos, their goal is simple: to be able to seamlessly integrate the many aspects of their property and empower their staff to consistently exceed the customers' expectations. IT helps raise the bar by providing solutions that can help this industry deliver an outstanding experience to the customers which results in customer delight, generate new revenues and demonstrably improve operational efficiencies. IT can find right solutions that are uniquely suited to fit the technology needs of casinos, hotels, resorts, restaurants etc.
Information system can design uniquely suited solutions to the fast-paced world of casino management as it can provide a complete set of tools for guest management and history, recreation management, accounting for multiple guest types or comps and timeshare/condo management. IT can integrate number of operations into a single system, which can result into an exceptional guest service.
Information Technology at SKYCITY
Mike Clarke, CIO of SKYCITY says 'IT is central to SKYCITY Entertainment Group's operations' (http://cio.co.nz/cio.nsf/mis/59BA4CD154524361CC257727001055A6). SKYCITY is committed to staying competitive with the technology that is available and is a high level IT employer with specialists in a number of fields. IT team offers technical support/assistance to every department within SKYCITY. From implementing new systems to maintaining existing systems and supporting technology users through the IT Service Desk. Their areas of expertise include computer equipment, telecommunications, software, business intelligence, gaming, support services technology, as well as other various technologies.
IT Infrastructure
IT infrastructure is a composition of seven major components of any company or organisation. These components are Computer Hardware Platform, Operating Systems Platforms, Enterprise Software Applications, Networking/Telecommunications, Consultants and System Integrators, Data Management and Storage and Internet Platform (ref tb). Platform is hardware and/or software architecture that serves as a foundation or base. The terms "platform" and "environment" are used interchangeably.
Computer Hardware Platform
PC environment in SKYCITY is composed of HP, Windows, Dell and Mac. Standard hardware systems used are HP 8200E SFF i32120 250G 2.0G 27 PC, HP 8200E SFF i52400 250G 4.0G 27 PC, HP Compaq 8000 Elite SFF Business PC, Dell Laptop, Canon and HP printers. Mac is generally used by marketing studios. Server Environment is formed of HP, Windows, HP-UX, and Mac. There are three main server rooms of which handles all the hardware, other one for the applications and one for Mac.
Operating System Platform
An operating system, or OS, is a software program that enables the computer hardware to communicate and operate with the computer software. When considering a new operating system it is most important to think about how you intend to use the computer. After deciding your computer's primary function, you will need to decide what kind of networking and administrations tools you need and the level of security you desire. SKYCITY uses Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 7 and Mac as well.
Enterprise Software Applications
Enterprise softwares are the applications which any business would use to assist and support the organization in solving enterprise problems. In most cases, when the word "enterprise" is combined with "application", it usually notes a software platform that is too large and too complex for individual or small business use. Enterprise applications are designed to be deployed across a variety of corporate networks, intranets or the Internet and also meet strict requirements for security and administration management. Unlike consumer or small business applications, which are used for a specific business function (e.g. accounting software or a graphics program), an enterprise application provides business logic and supports an entire organization and all its departments, in an effort to lower costs and improve both productivity and efficiency in the enterprise (http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/enterprise_application.asp).
In SKYCITY key systems like PeopleSoft, Micros, CRM, Opera, Clarity, and many others are there to keep the business humming. SKYCITY uses Citrix (used by majority of employees) and VPN (Virtual Private Network, used especially by the executives and directors). This platform helps the SKYCITY employees to access SKYCITY applications and servers from any remote location. Some of the applications and its description are given below:
Avaya - Telephone Provider
BEIMS - Asset and plant management system used for maintaining building assets & coordinating property maintenance.
Buddy - The Buddy system manages each team and records all team changes which result from the addition of new employees, shift transfers, status changes, promotions and resignations.
Business Objects - Business Intelligence reporting and analytical tool
Cactis - Group gaming Complementary and Commission play tracking
Citrix - Application that delivers normal applications like word, excel, power point, outlook and PeopleSoft over the network (at work) and remotely i.e. from home connecting through internet.
Clarity - Data warehouse
Cognos Planning Analyst - Analyst is a flexible tool used by financial specialists to define their business models. These models include the drivers and content required for planning, budgeting, and forecasting.
Cognos Planning Contributor - Contributor streamlines data collection and workflow management. It eliminates the problems of errors, version control, and timeliness that are characteristic of a planning system solely based on spreadsheets.
Dacom - Gaming machine management and monitoring system from Aristocrat Leisure Industries - used to provide auditing information and to track machine security.
Datasync - Interface between Dacom & SGM for LM Points and Cash Payments.
DFS - DFS allows administrators to group shared folders located on different servers by transparently connecting them to one or more DFS namespaces. A DFS namespace is a virtual view of shared folders in an organization.
DNS - A database system that translates an IP address into a domain name. For example, a numeric IP address like 207.219.116.4 is converted into netlingo.com. It is also referred to as domain name service and domain name server.
iTrak - iTrak is a security and surveillance system which manages incidents, high-risk customers and security breaches. It also stores information about items lost and found on SKYCITY sites and controls visitor badging.
KeyPro - KeyPro is the electronic key management software installed on administrator PCs. It controls the KeyWatcher cabinets remotely. Each KeyWatcher cabinet has a local SQL database which enables audit-trail reporting and access control
Loyalty - Action customer loyalty - Earn points on Gaming and F&B; redeem points for merchandise, car parking and food & beverage - across SCEG properties
Micros - Point of Sale used in Food & Beverage and retail outlets. Micros has interfaces to the Hotel, Loyalty and stock control systems (as appropriate)
Microsoft Exchange - Exchange is a popular Microsoft messaging system that includes a mail server, an e-mail program (e-mail client), and groupware applications.
Opera - Property Management System (PMS) that provides multi-sit management of Hotel, sales and conferencing business functions
PeopleSoft -
Finance/supply chain - general ledger, accounts payable, inventory management, purchasing
Human Capital Management - Human Resources system utilised to track applicants and employees
Enterprise Learning Management - Training system utilised by HR to track employee training
Portal - Front end access & security channel for PeopleSoft
Rapid Roulette - Rapid roulette is just an electronic version of the normal roulette game. Meaning that customers place their chips via a touch screen terminal rather than placing their chips on a 'table'. It also means that the results are automatically displayed on the screens.
ReiverNet - Internet Service Provider for hotels.
Respak - ResPAK is a restaurant booking system currently used in Orbit, The Observatory, dine, Ming Court and Fortuna. The system offers reservation functionality, a guest history database and a real-time floor plan which restaurant hosts use during meal periods
Scannet - Car park system used to manage car parking transactions, leaseholders, staff parking etc. It is interfaced with each entry and exit device, recording transactional details and allowing capacity management. Also interfaces with Loyalty to allow earning of action points by cardholders.
TABS - Telephone Accounts Billing System Tracks hotel room telephone calls and calculates the cost to be included on the guest's bill.
Zeacom - Call Manager system that controls all incoming/outgoing phone calls for the CISCO phone system. It also controls all the call queuing, music on hold and recorded messages on the SKYCITY phone system.
Networking/Telecommunications
Data and voice communication networks have become much faster and portable. According to Laudon and Laudon, 2010, increasing usage of voice and data communication as well as Internet access are taking place over broadband wireless platforms, such and as cell phones, handheld digital devices, and PCs in wireless networks.
In large company setups there large number of small local-area networks linked to other LANs to firm wide corporate networks for which number of powerful servers support a corporate web site, a corporate intranet and extranet (Laudon & Laudon, 2010). And these servers are linked to other large computer supporting backend systems. Similarly for networking and telecommunication SKYCITY depends on Windows Server, CISCO, VPN and HP. DBMS: Oracle, SQL.
Consultants and System Integrators
According to Laudon and Laudon, 2010, Software integration means ensuring the new infrastructure works with the firm's older systems and new elements of infrastructure work with one another. These older systems are generally older transaction processing systems created for mainframe computers that continue to be used to avoid high cost of replacing or redesigning them. It is not necessary to replacing these systems if the older ones can be well integrated into contemporary ones.
Leading consulting firms providing this expertise to SKYCITY are HP, CISCO, Microsoft. The different components of the IT Architecture are used to clearly define an enterprise-level framework of application functions, packages, solutions and infrastructure which will ensure the desired processes, information, events and business structure are implemented effectively from a business perspective.
Data Management and Storage
In many relevant business processes, entities like customers, products, accounts, contracts and locations play a central role. A database is an integrated collection of logically related records or files which consolidates records into a common pool of data records that can easily be accessed, managed, and updated. These entities are known as data and many companies suffer today from low-quality data scattered across the enterprise in various application silos. Improving data quality and managing it more efficiently to optimize business processes is part of Data Management.
SKYCITY operates a large and complex technology environment supporting a wide range of business critical system. Electronic backups are a business requirement to enable the recovery of data and applications in the case of events such as natural disasters, system disk drive failures, sabotage, data entry errors, or system operations errors. SKYCITY has Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Management Studio which is an integrated environment for accessing, configuring, managing, administering, and developing all components of SQL Server, as well as combining a broad group of graphical tools and rich script editors that provide access to SQL Server to developers and administrators of all skill levels. Developers get a familiar experience, and database administrators get a single comprehensive utility that combines easy-to-use graphical tools with rich scripting capabilities (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=08e52ac2-1d62-45f6-9a4a-4b76a8564a2b&displaylang=en#Overview).
Internet Platforms
Internet platforms overlap with, and must relate to, the firm's general networking infrastructure and hardware and software platforms (Laudon & Laudon, 2010, p. 206). SKYCITY uses Microsoft server which provides a secure, easy-to-manage, modular and extensible platform for reliably hosting Web, sites, services and applications. It controls without giving up reliability or security.
3. Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is a technology which not only provides the platform but also a hosting provider. It is also an application hosted as a service and provides storage services on the Internet. Cloud computing is a combination of all the above. According to Laudon and Laudon, 2010, Cloud Computing is a model of computing where a firm or an individual obtain computing power and software applications over the internet, rather than purchasing their own hardware or software. The key cloud platform providers are:
Company
Offerings
Services
Rackspace
Mosso
Hosting, Storage
IBM
Public and Private Cloud
Hosting, Storage
Google AppEngine
Hosting, Storage, Platforms, App services
Amazon
Amazon Web Services
Hosting, Storage, Platforms, App services
Microsoft
Azure Services
Hosting, Storage, Platforms, App services,
Saleforce.com
Force.com
Hosting, Storage, Platforms, App services,
(http://www.cumulux.com/Cloud%20Computing%20Primer.pdf)
Benefits and Advantages of Cloud Computing
Simplified Cost and Consumption Model: Prioritizing activities that align with core business needs and drive tangible business value and top-line revenue are top IT concerns. This focus has driven IT organizations to reassess the costs of procurement and maintenance of infrastructure and non-core applications. Cloud computing allows companies to better control the capex and opex associated with non-core activities. (http://enterprisefeatures.com/2011/03/8-key-advantages-that-cloud-computing-delivers-to-it/).
Enterprise Grade Services and Management: Typically, 70 to 80 percent of IT budgets are devoted to maintenance of existing infrastructure - a massive overhead. Cloud computing offloads this burden from the shoulders of companies, freeing core IT resources to focus on initiatives that drive revenue growth (http://enterprisefeatures.com/2011/03/8-key-advantages-that-cloud-computing-delivers-to-it/).
Faster Provisioning of Systems and Applications: Traditional methods to buy and configure hardware and software are time consuming. Cloud computing provides a rapid deployment model that enables applications to grow quickly to match increasing usage requirements. It can accommodate "peak times" where a company needs to scale up dramatically, such as a holiday season or special event (http://enterprisefeatures.com/2011/03/8-key-advantages-that-cloud-computing-delivers-to it/).
Right-Size to Address Business Changes: Clouds are elastic. They can contract if necessary to meet changing business needs. In a cloud, an organization can quickly and easily right-size its environment if necessary (http://enterprisefeatures.com/2011/03/8-key-advantages-that-cloud-computing-delivers-to-it/).
Ease of Integration: An increasing number of enterprise applications require integration with third-party applications that are often hosted outside the enterprise firewall. The cloud with its configuration flexibility, integrated security, and choice of access mechanisms has a natural advantage to serving as a core platform and integration fabric for these emerging applications (http://enterprisefeatures.com/2011/03/8-key-advantages-that-cloud-computing-delivers-to-it/).
Highly Secure Infrastructure: By taking a system-based - not point-based - approach, cloud environments can perform security at all levels (applications, middleware, operating system, compute/store/network). This will safely support highly mobile users that need a variety of connection options - coming into the cloud from secure and non-secure networks (http://enterprisefeatures.com/2011/03/8-key-advantages-that-cloud-computing-delivers-to-it/).
Compliant Facilities and Processes: Many midsize companies don't have the resources needed to manage audit and certification processes for internal data centres. Compliance standards cut horizontally - like Sarbanes-Oxley - and vertically, such as PCI DSS and HIPAA. Cloud facilities and processes that address both areas can help companies address regulatory and compliance processes (http://enterprisefeatures.com/2011/03/8-key-advantages-that-cloud-computing-delivers-to-it/).
Flexible and Resilient with Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery: Managing business continuity and recovery internally requires a dedicated focus so companies typically concentrate only on the most critical applications. Utilizing cloud environments allows organizations to safeguard their full IT infrastructure because the cloud's inherent scalability integrates disaster recovery capabilities (http://enterprisefeatures.com/2011/03/8-key-advantages-that-cloud-computing-delivers-to-it/).
4. Recommendation of Cloud Computing
Casinos can get competitive with SaaS from SAS. SaaS delivery offers speed and lower up-front capital investment, which is important to any company. Immediate campaign management and analytical capabilities of secure patron data will allow delivering the right campaign at the right time to the right people. SAS will directly support SKYCITY's loyalty program. It will help identify the guests who react favourably to the campaigns and will help grow the market share. SAS Solutions On-Demand can help organizations sustain flexibility while boosting competitiveness.
Cloud environments will allow users to access additional compute resources on-demand in response to increased application loads. As a shared resource, the cloud will provide flexible, automated management to distribute the computing resources among the cloud's users. Cloud environments take advantage of the built-in redundancy of the large numbers of servers that make them up by enabling high levels of availability and reliability for applications that can take advantage of this. The cloud is a natural home for service-oriented applications, which need a way to easily scale as services get incorporated into other applications. Users will only pay for the services they use, either by subscription or transaction-based models. By enabling IT resources to be consolidated, multiple users can share a common infrastructure, allowing costs to be more effectively managed without sacrificing the security of each user's data. Clouds are managed dynamically based on service-level agreements that define policies like delivery parameters, costs, and other factors.
An online casino can be launched with the help of cloud computing in order to improve the real-time experience for its end-users. As a result, users can now make bets at much faster speeds in addition to other improvements. The adoption of the cloud as a managed IT service will reduce the latency SKYCITY is experiencing with its systems. The cloud will allow the company to provide a constant stream of real-time information in addition to processing the large amount of data submitted by users. It can get data from back-office systems to all the connected websites with as low latency as possible. Push system will reduce the latency to two seconds, and can support upwards of a few million users concurrently.
