A data quality aspect of the solution features in-line matching of millions of customer records, identifying and grouping issues to allow customization of records, like linking a sale on a customer's favorite wine with promotions on a particular gaming machine.
The solution opens more doors for real-time promotions while customers are taking in their casinos - say, a text notice of a dinner special at a restaurant they typically dine at - adding a growing layer of marketing possibilities, Martin says.
As a result, for the 9.2 million customer records from its loyalty card program marketing segmentation expanded four-fold to 160. Slot revenues grew by 4 percent from related loyalty promotions gleaned from the new information, while cutting the slot promotions budget by $1 million per month and reducing monthly database marketing by $1 million. Hotel and resort retention increased 14 percent in four months, and new member acquisition grew by 160 percent in the first year.
Category: Performance management
Implementation Site: Salesforce.com
Provider: Coupa
Salesforce took a page out of its own service provider book when it engaged Coupa for a hosted multitenant eprocurement solution to replace manual purchasing processes based on an old ERP module.
Two years into U.S. engagement, Salesforce has put more than $1.3 billion in spending through the system and is nearing completion of a global rollout. Domestically, about $720 million of indirect spend per year goes through Coupa, of which Salesforce was able to save 2.54 percent thanks to spend analytics and purchasing efficiency.
The system is accessible to all employees regardless of role and requires little training. Punchout capability allows direct purchasing from approved supplier catalogs and is seamless to the purchase order process. Paperless receipt management allows mobile users to send snapshots of receipts directly to the system. Requisitions, approvals and drag and drop expense reports connect an e-wallet to users online or via iPhone. Finally, executive dashboards provide updated views of spending, supplier performance, liquidity and savings.
Greg Tennyson, VP of global procurement at Salesforce.com, says the speed to implement was much quicker than an on-premise tool, and unusually, Salesforce introduced Coupa and drove adoption through an opt-in model. "Our philosophy was to implement, build it and they will come. Once we had some business units on the tool we then built out the interfaces, but it was the ease of use that drove the adoption."
In the hosted approach, features are updated every three to four months versus proprietary systems that update every two or three years, Tennyson says. "The innovative cycles are much quicker in a multitenant SaaS solution than on premise or in a private cloud." Those fast cycles also mean more IT dependency on getting releases tested and rolled out as intended. With savings ahead of schedule, the pressure is on to keep those innovations coming.
Category: Other
Implementation Site: Microfinance Information Exchange, Inc.
Provider: Pervasive Software
Researchers, evaluators, and governmental and regulatory agencies look to Microfinance Information Exchange, Inc. (MIX) to make informed investment decisions. That makes timely publication of fresh data a primary business goal of the nonprofit online data provider.
Facing complex data transfer and integration with multiple providers (such as Salesforce and foreign exchange rate feeds) to acquire and publish data to its new website, MIX sought a cost-effective, flexible solution that could be quickly deployed. Pervasive Data Integrator and Pervasive DataCloud addressed their complex data transfer/integration needs.
Prior to Pervasive, data was updated manually in order to have visibility to the process and the data itself. Peter Magnaye, CIO for MIX, says the goal was to move from high-touch to high-tech, meaning less manual intervention to provide the freshest data possible.
With the Pervasive solution, MIX moved from 24-hour batch updates to automated loading as at intervals as short as 30 minutes. Magnaye says the solution not only increased the frequency of data loads but also the complexity of their data integration, allowing the company to check some data parameters before copying and after copying in post-processing checks.
The solution enabled MIX to gather operational or quality metrics around the data as well as measures of completeness, eventually allowing the creation of complex audit rules. Prior to using Pervasive MIX business analysts would have to "manually check, visually inspect, do some random calculations" to see if all the data was accurate and complete, Magnaye says. "Now we are able to automate it and send feedback to our business analysts so that they are in a good position to make a decision as to whether the data is ready for public use or not."
This piece is brought to you by the Information Management editorial staff.
