Big Data for Gaming and Hospitality Improved by eConnect Software
(PRWEB) February 14, 2014 -- Big Data is the new nickname for business intelligence, which has also been called data analytics. The bottom line is that most of these Big Data sources have been around and available for years, regardless of the name we give them. They are systems which harvest data from various sources and then present and format that data in a way that people can use and understand. The most robust Big Data solutions have clean dashboards that alert the users to issues that may not have been obvious before, and they provide the users with the ability to drill down into the data. Big Data systems on steroids have the ability to collect massive amounts of data from various sources. One of the most demanding sources is digital video surveillance, Network Video Recording systems ( NVR) often use the most computer processing power, the most hard drive storage, and the most network bandwidth of any data system within a businesses’ ecosystem. The power of Big Data solutions is the ability to organize and present that data to the users so they can drill down to specific events, and validate the data with the digital video from the camera associated with that data. This is where the steroids come in.
If you watch professional sports, you know that each team is studying film on their competitors before, during, and after the game. This gives the coaches and players insight into trends and tendencies enabling them to create a strategy and game plans to give themselves better chances to win. By getting together with the other coaches and players, they can have a conversation about weaknesses and opportunities, not just the opponents but their own areas for focus and improvement.
In the business world video is used in surveillance mostly for shoplifting, building security and to capture incidents that may need to be used in official investigations to protect the business from unforeseen liabilities. This is really great, but there is a missed opportunity here. The surveillance cameras can be a valuable resource for business operators who want to review production footage along with the correlating data reports.
Airports & Travel Plaza's
Labor/Revenue Reports with video of customer foot traffic and length of patron waits. eConnect helped F&B facilities at the McCarran Airport in Las Vegas realize that their labor allocation was costing them money as they did not have enough staff members to service long lines and they were losing customers because of the wait times. This was not something that the top level management had noticed until they measured the performance along with the video footage.
Retail- Grocery, Convenient Stores & Department Stores
• Retail POS systems are a huge area for financial losses as cashiers may miss scanning the barcodes either by accident or due to some form of collusion with outside parties. There are also incidents where expensive inventory items are mislabeled with the wrong bar codes causing losses that go unnoticed for long periods of time. (This is not something you can expect a cashier to catch or even care much about). The power of data review alongside the video becomes very attractive in these cases. In many cases businesses already have the investment in the Video systems, the POS systems and other data and reporting systems. Big Data on steroids just brings it all together for them. The investment in Big Data on Steroids is insignificant compared with the money and inefficiencies missed by not bringing these systems together.
Food & Beverage
• Restaurants, Bars, Fast Food, Stadiums and Resorts all have the same problem, they get super busy, they see a lot of cash move through their operations, but they are vulnerable to theft. The checks and balances are not there. They have the POS reports which they review for financial analysis and separately they have surveillance systems they review for general security and basic loss prevention. This leaves them with the opportunity to tie the 2 systems together and also add in their inventory and labor system data (Big Data) giving them a completely transparent overview of their business.
Casino Gaming
• No industry spends more money protecting assets than the casino gaming business. They have huge investments in camera systems player tracking systems, loyalty programs, POS systems and they realize that the Big Data on steroids gives them an edge when monitoring their floor operations. Generally speaking, the casino operations team is doing a lot of analysis on games, player activity, player incentives and more, and historically the surveillance departments have been independent to the rest of the operations, now with Digital Video systems management is demanding access quick access to the video systems so they can validate what the data systems are reporting. This is truly Big Data on steroids.
In the last few years, eConnect has enabled companies like HMS Host, Delaware North, Bellagio, Venetian, and many more to harness the existing Big Data investments and realize returns and operational improvements. These Big Data systems are creating value for the business and ultimately providing their customers with a better guest experience.
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Chris Swanger, eConnect, http://www.econnectglobal.com, +1 (702) 683-4766, [email protected]
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