SkyCity Entertainment Group(MIS100 2009)

By CIO staff | Friday, July 24 2009

2008 ranking:55

Senior IS executive: Mike Clarke, CIO
Reports to: Nigel Morrison, chief executive officer
Size of IS shop: 85

PCs: 1300
Mobile PCs: 130
Terminals: 550
Hand-held devices: 175
Total screens: 2155

Industry: Arts, entertainment and recreation
PC environment: HP, Windows
Server environment: HP, Windows, VMWare
DBMS: Oracle, SQL
Address: Federal House, 86 Federal Street, Auckland Central
Website: www.skycity.co.nz
Key IS projects this year: Datacentre expansion/migration; Disaster recovery/business continuity; contact centre.

SkyCity will drive revenue and maximise EBITA by delivering an improved customer experience and entertainment experience, which will be assisted by enhancing system capabilities and reinvesting in new gaming technology, says CIO Mike Clarke.

SkyCity will invest more staff resources into areas of ICT innovation this year, so that while staff numbers are unlikely to change they may reflect a different mix of skills.

Important IT investment areas include business intelligence system development and ongoing investment in customer contact technologies. This includes a Zeacom call centre solution built on Cisco IPTel, which has been well received and will be significantly developed over the next year.

Understanding the value of well-managed loyalty programmes, SkyCity will engage in CRM system enhancements and process improvement in 2009. Other projects include the extension of wireless technologies and a Web 2.0 project.

SkyCity is a an “HP shop”, says Clarke. In terms of managed services the time for wholesale outsourcing is over — selective outsourcing is more relevant in today's market.

“We are a 24x7 environment and this creates pros and cons around outsourcing. We are also heavily regulated, so security is of paramount importance.”

Clarke says SkyCity has some interest in utility or cloud computing, despite storing highly sensitive data and needing correspondingly high levels of data security.

“Enhancing IT and systems capabilities and reinvesting in new technology and core operating systems is one of our strategic priorities and remains so.”