Buying into a ‘Revelation'
Buying into a 'Revelation'
Point-of-sale at casino resorts is more fluid and fruitful thanks to software from InfoGenesis
By Steven Marlin
Blending high-touch and high-tech, InfoGenesis is providing the casino industry with software products designed to deliver a premium guest experience, from reserving a dinner to reserving a tee-off time at the golf course. Having built its reputation as a provider of POS systems for hospitality and food services companies such as cruise ship lines, restaurant chains, and resorts, InfoGenesis has its sights set on the casino industry.
At its recent user conference, the company spelled out its expansion plans, including the opening of an office in Las Vegas, where the company's casino staff will be based. InfoGenesis will continue to be headquartered in Santa Barbara, Calif. The Las Vegas facility will provide the company "with a customer-facing facility that houses support and field training," said Brad Bennett, vice president of operations at InfoGenesis.
It's all part of a strategy of helping casinos to provide an individual, yet consistent guest experience.
"The vision is about enabling guests to make room and dining reservations from the phone, over the Web, or via in-room TV, and allowing VIPs to be recognized as such at every touchpoint," said Brent Christensen, manager of strategic programs at InfoGenesis.
In action
Caesars Entertainment Inc. has standardized on InfoGenesis' Revelation software for delivering POS function-ality at restaurants, bars, gift shops, and other retail establishments, including those operated by lessees.
At Caesars Atlantic City, for example, InfoGenesis is delivering POS capabilities via IBM SurePOS terminals at customer-facing locations, including restaurants and bars, room service, its parking garage, casino floor, and salon and spa. Caesars is looking to expand its use of InfoGenesis beyond POS into areas such as dining room reservations, table management, food and beverage management, and guest intelligence.
During the summer, Caesars Atlantic City uses InfoGenesis to take beverage orders from beachgoers via handheld devices. The orders are transmitted to a beverage center, which prepares and delivers them in a fraction of the time it would take for a waiter to take the order manually. Charges for drinks are transmitted wirelessly to the hotel's billing system, eliminating the need to drag POS terminals and cables onto the beach.
Caesars Entertainment's Las Vegas properties are also extending their use of InfoGenesis beyond basic POS. At Caesars Palace Las Vegas, for example, handheld devices are being used for taking beverage orders at poolside; at Paris Las Vegas, InfoGenesis is being used for dining room reservations.
The ability of the InfoGenesis software to scale to an operation the size of Caesars Palace Las Vegas, where more than a thousand cash registers are deployed, is integral to its expansion plans.
"Caesars Las Vegas will be opening a new tower shortly, so the incremental functionality [of InfoGenesis] is important to us," said Carol Pride, chief information officer for Caesars Entertainment.
Revelation integrates with other systems in the Caesars operation, such as its revenue management system from Manugistics, a provider of supply-chain and logistics software. "It provides a clean and easy way to feed POS data into our revenue management system," Pride said.
That, in turn, enables Caesars to gain a better understanding of its customers and refine its promotional pitches.
"For us, understanding the total value of the customer is paramount," Pride said. "InfoGenesis aligns well with our customer marketing and customer service objectives."
The point of service
InfoGenesis' Revelation system accommodates any combination of services, such as dining, bar, room service, and gift shops. Its centralized database pulls food and beverage operations together, enabling managers to easily track menu items, packages and promotions, and server performance.
Revelation Universal Desktop, one of the InfoGenesis' newest offerings, allows customers to manage systems at the enterprise level, providing real-time access to data such as POS terminal status, sales, and food and labor costs.
From its start in 1986, InfoGenesis has looked to establish itself as a leader in POS systems for all verticals within the hospitality and food service industries, including gaming, resorts, cruise lines, chain hotels, stadiums, and airports.
"We got our start in resorts, then expanded into gaming and food services, as well as chain hotels and restaurants," said Bennett.
In the early 1990s it launched a reseller program that has grown to generate a large chunk of revenue. In 1997, it released its first Microsoft Windows-based front-and back-office applications and has evolved to become a Microsoft Gold Certified partner. The company's software development platform is Microsoft's Visual Studio, and the software itself is built around Microsoft's .NET, a set of programming standards that enable Microsoft and non-Microsoft programs to communicate.
"We use Web services to integrate with other third-party solutions," said Bennett.
InfoGenesis has built out its hosted, application-service-provider platform to include remote support. "We manage your file servers and will in addition handle day-to-day maintenance, all remotely," said Bennett.
The 160-employee company was acquired last year by private-equity firm Warburg Pincus, which named Terry Cunningham as president and CEO. The appointment of Cunningham, a software industry veteran who founded Crystal Decisions in 1984 and went on to head Veritas Software, symbolizes InfoGenesis' ambitions of becoming a world-class provider of enterprise software (see sidebar).
"Warburg invested in us because they believe the hospitality market is underserved by current technology vendors," said Christensen.
Hands-on usage
The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City has been using Revelation since it opened in 2003. Borgata is taking advantage of Revelation's Web services capabilities to deliver comprehensive performance dashboards for staff and management, including real-time business and staff performance views.
For Borgata, one of the strengths of Revelation is its open architecture, based on Microsoft .NET and SQL database standards.
"We see an advantage in its being built on top of the Microsoft framework," said David Farlin, vice president if information technology at Borgata. "It has proven to be an extremely reliable system."
It's also a system that's designed to give managers the tools they need to do their jobs. "It doesn't become an IT-owned system," said Farlin. "It puts a lot of control in their hands."
Borgata has linked InfoGenesis to its hotel, casino, and inventory management systems. In the future, it's planning to link it to dining room reservation, table management, and customer-relationship management systems, said Farlin.
InfoGenesis' stated goals of making Revelation easy to integrate with other systems fits nicely into Borgata's own plans.
"The goal is to provide staff at all levels with instant information about each customer's preferences," Farlin said. "A restaurant manager should know that a particular patron needs to be seated at Table 13."
Borgata is also excited about the prospect of deploying advanced POS technology within the Revelation platform, such as handheld devices and radio frequency ID.
The Revelation software is only one component of InfoGenesis' value proposition to casinos; equally important is service and consulting. "We're primarily a software development company but we offer a totally integrated solution incorporating hardware, software, implementation and training," said Bennett.
The Revelation platform is standardized to address the widest spectrum of business issues. However, customers aren't left to fend for themselves in implementing the system; an integral component of InfoGenesis' value proposition is its ability to build custom-tailor solutions.
"Companies might face similar business issues, but because of cultural differences you have to adjust your approach," said Christensen. "One company may be focused on leading-edge technology, while another might be very conservative."
The company is looking to continue to apply its technology and vision toward helping casinos deliver the ultimate in customer satisfaction. Noted Bennett: "Our vision in the next five years is to establish ourselves as the leader in the guest experience space."
SIDEBAR 1
InfoGenesis at a glance
InfoGenesis
1351 Holiday Hill Road
Santa Barbara, CA 93117
(800) 242-5434
Fax: (805) 681-8609
www.infogenesis.com
Contacts:
Scott Martiny, vice president of sales
Nancy Naretto, marketing projects coordinator
Founded: 1986
Products:Revelation POS software for multi-revenue outlet operations in hospitality industry
Major markets and applications:Gaming, university foodservice, restaurants, resorts, cruise lines, chain hotels, stadiums, airports, business dining, healthcare, retirement communities
Major customers:
American Airlines Center
ARAMARK
Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa
Caesars Entertainment
Colonial Williamsburg
Four Seasons Hotels
Gaylord Hotels
Hyatt International
JFK Airport
Mandalay Resort Group
Royal Caribbean Cruise Line
The Compass Group
Vail Resorts
SIDEBAR 2
A new direction
InfoGenesis benefits from Cunningham, who has enjoyed technology business success
InfoGenesis' acquisition by private-equity firm Warburg Pincus marked a major milestone in the company's quest to become the leading software company in the hospitality and foodservice industries. That commitment is personified in CEO Terry Cunningham.
Cunningham founded Crystal Decisions, the business-reporting software company, in 1984. Under his leadership, Crystal developed its flagship product, Crystal Reports. In 1994, Cunningham sold the company to Seagate Technology and continued on as president of Seagate Software. The next four years were focused on planning and executing 11 mergers and acquisitions valued at more than $300 million. The result was a high growth, extremely profitable software company with 1,800 employees in 22 countries.
In 1998, Cunningham put together one of the largest software mergers ever undertaken, combining Seagate's Network and Storage Management Group with Veritas Software. He was president and COO of Veritas, with approximately 3,500 employees and close to $700 million in revenue. In 1999, he retired from Veritas and has since served as an angel investor and board member of several companies.
-Steven Marlin
Point-of-sale at casino resorts is more fluid and fruitful thanks to software from InfoGenesis
By Steven Marlin
Blending high-touch and high-tech, InfoGenesis is providing the casino industry with software products designed to deliver a premium guest experience, from reserving a dinner to reserving a tee-off time at the golf course. Having built its reputation as a provider of POS systems for hospitality and food services companies such as cruise ship lines, restaurant chains, and resorts, InfoGenesis has its sights set on the casino industry.
At its recent user conference, the company spelled out its expansion plans, including the opening of an office in Las Vegas, where the company's casino staff will be based. InfoGenesis will continue to be headquartered in Santa Barbara, Calif. The Las Vegas facility will provide the company "with a customer-facing facility that houses support and field training," said Brad Bennett, vice president of operations at InfoGenesis.
It's all part of a strategy of helping casinos to provide an individual, yet consistent guest experience.
"The vision is about enabling guests to make room and dining reservations from the phone, over the Web, or via in-room TV, and allowing VIPs to be recognized as such at every touchpoint," said Brent Christensen, manager of strategic programs at InfoGenesis.
In action
Caesars Entertainment Inc. has standardized on InfoGenesis' Revelation software for delivering POS function-ality at restaurants, bars, gift shops, and other retail establishments, including those operated by lessees.
At Caesars Atlantic City, for example, InfoGenesis is delivering POS capabilities via IBM SurePOS terminals at customer-facing locations, including restaurants and bars, room service, its parking garage, casino floor, and salon and spa. Caesars is looking to expand its use of InfoGenesis beyond POS into areas such as dining room reservations, table management, food and beverage management, and guest intelligence.
During the summer, Caesars Atlantic City uses InfoGenesis to take beverage orders from beachgoers via handheld devices. The orders are transmitted to a beverage center, which prepares and delivers them in a fraction of the time it would take for a waiter to take the order manually. Charges for drinks are transmitted wirelessly to the hotel's billing system, eliminating the need to drag POS terminals and cables onto the beach.
Caesars Entertainment's Las Vegas properties are also extending their use of InfoGenesis beyond basic POS. At Caesars Palace Las Vegas, for example, handheld devices are being used for taking beverage orders at poolside; at Paris Las Vegas, InfoGenesis is being used for dining room reservations.
The ability of the InfoGenesis software to scale to an operation the size of Caesars Palace Las Vegas, where more than a thousand cash registers are deployed, is integral to its expansion plans.
"Caesars Las Vegas will be opening a new tower shortly, so the incremental functionality [of InfoGenesis] is important to us," said Carol Pride, chief information officer for Caesars Entertainment.
Revelation integrates with other systems in the Caesars operation, such as its revenue management system from Manugistics, a provider of supply-chain and logistics software. "It provides a clean and easy way to feed POS data into our revenue management system," Pride said.
That, in turn, enables Caesars to gain a better understanding of its customers and refine its promotional pitches.
"For us, understanding the total value of the customer is paramount," Pride said. "InfoGenesis aligns well with our customer marketing and customer service objectives."
The point of service
InfoGenesis' Revelation system accommodates any combination of services, such as dining, bar, room service, and gift shops. Its centralized database pulls food and beverage operations together, enabling managers to easily track menu items, packages and promotions, and server performance.
Revelation Universal Desktop, one of the InfoGenesis' newest offerings, allows customers to manage systems at the enterprise level, providing real-time access to data such as POS terminal status, sales, and food and labor costs.
From its start in 1986, InfoGenesis has looked to establish itself as a leader in POS systems for all verticals within the hospitality and food service industries, including gaming, resorts, cruise lines, chain hotels, stadiums, and airports.
"We got our start in resorts, then expanded into gaming and food services, as well as chain hotels and restaurants," said Bennett.
In the early 1990s it launched a reseller program that has grown to generate a large chunk of revenue. In 1997, it released its first Microsoft Windows-based front-and back-office applications and has evolved to become a Microsoft Gold Certified partner. The company's software development platform is Microsoft's Visual Studio, and the software itself is built around Microsoft's .NET, a set of programming standards that enable Microsoft and non-Microsoft programs to communicate.
"We use Web services to integrate with other third-party solutions," said Bennett.
InfoGenesis has built out its hosted, application-service-provider platform to include remote support. "We manage your file servers and will in addition handle day-to-day maintenance, all remotely," said Bennett.
The 160-employee company was acquired last year by private-equity firm Warburg Pincus, which named Terry Cunningham as president and CEO. The appointment of Cunningham, a software industry veteran who founded Crystal Decisions in 1984 and went on to head Veritas Software, symbolizes InfoGenesis' ambitions of becoming a world-class provider of enterprise software (see sidebar).
"Warburg invested in us because they believe the hospitality market is underserved by current technology vendors," said Christensen.
Hands-on usage
The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City has been using Revelation since it opened in 2003. Borgata is taking advantage of Revelation's Web services capabilities to deliver comprehensive performance dashboards for staff and management, including real-time business and staff performance views.
For Borgata, one of the strengths of Revelation is its open architecture, based on Microsoft .NET and SQL database standards.
"We see an advantage in its being built on top of the Microsoft framework," said David Farlin, vice president if information technology at Borgata. "It has proven to be an extremely reliable system."
It's also a system that's designed to give managers the tools they need to do their jobs. "It doesn't become an IT-owned system," said Farlin. "It puts a lot of control in their hands."
Borgata has linked InfoGenesis to its hotel, casino, and inventory management systems. In the future, it's planning to link it to dining room reservation, table management, and customer-relationship management systems, said Farlin.
InfoGenesis' stated goals of making Revelation easy to integrate with other systems fits nicely into Borgata's own plans.
"The goal is to provide staff at all levels with instant information about each customer's preferences," Farlin said. "A restaurant manager should know that a particular patron needs to be seated at Table 13."
Borgata is also excited about the prospect of deploying advanced POS technology within the Revelation platform, such as handheld devices and radio frequency ID.
The Revelation software is only one component of InfoGenesis' value proposition to casinos; equally important is service and consulting. "We're primarily a software development company but we offer a totally integrated solution incorporating hardware, software, implementation and training," said Bennett.
The Revelation platform is standardized to address the widest spectrum of business issues. However, customers aren't left to fend for themselves in implementing the system; an integral component of InfoGenesis' value proposition is its ability to build custom-tailor solutions.
"Companies might face similar business issues, but because of cultural differences you have to adjust your approach," said Christensen. "One company may be focused on leading-edge technology, while another might be very conservative."
The company is looking to continue to apply its technology and vision toward helping casinos deliver the ultimate in customer satisfaction. Noted Bennett: "Our vision in the next five years is to establish ourselves as the leader in the guest experience space."
SIDEBAR 1
InfoGenesis at a glance
InfoGenesis
1351 Holiday Hill Road
Santa Barbara, CA 93117
(800) 242-5434
Fax: (805) 681-8609
www.infogenesis.com
Contacts:
Scott Martiny, vice president of sales
Nancy Naretto, marketing projects coordinator
Founded: 1986
Products:Revelation POS software for multi-revenue outlet operations in hospitality industry
Major markets and applications:Gaming, university foodservice, restaurants, resorts, cruise lines, chain hotels, stadiums, airports, business dining, healthcare, retirement communities
Major customers:
American Airlines Center
ARAMARK
Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa
Caesars Entertainment
Colonial Williamsburg
Four Seasons Hotels
Gaylord Hotels
Hyatt International
JFK Airport
Mandalay Resort Group
Royal Caribbean Cruise Line
The Compass Group
Vail Resorts
SIDEBAR 2
A new direction
InfoGenesis benefits from Cunningham, who has enjoyed technology business success
InfoGenesis' acquisition by private-equity firm Warburg Pincus marked a major milestone in the company's quest to become the leading software company in the hospitality and foodservice industries. That commitment is personified in CEO Terry Cunningham.
Cunningham founded Crystal Decisions, the business-reporting software company, in 1984. Under his leadership, Crystal developed its flagship product, Crystal Reports. In 1994, Cunningham sold the company to Seagate Technology and continued on as president of Seagate Software. The next four years were focused on planning and executing 11 mergers and acquisitions valued at more than $300 million. The result was a high growth, extremely profitable software company with 1,800 employees in 22 countries.
In 1998, Cunningham put together one of the largest software mergers ever undertaken, combining Seagate's Network and Storage Management Group with Veritas Software. He was president and COO of Veritas, with approximately 3,500 employees and close to $700 million in revenue. In 1999, he retired from Veritas and has since served as an angel investor and board member of several companies.
-Steven Marlin
