Harnessing the Infrastructure and Data Involved in Information Management

Harnessing Information Management, the Data, and Infrastructure
1. Ascertain the importance of information management for the company or industry that you have chosen
Caesars Entertainment is an American gaming corporation that is headquartered in Paradise, Nevada. The company owns and runs various hotels, casinos, and golf courses under different brands. Information management is of great significance for the company and the gaming industry as a whole. Information management is largely significant for Caesars Entertainment for the reason that it facilitates the preservation and sustenance of policies, procedures as well as codes of practice established for the company as a whole. One of the advantages is its influence in the company’s internal operations. From an internal perspective, information management facilitates Caesars Entertainment in ensuring there is sufficient movement of workflow of data with the parallel departments. For instance, consumers that come to the hotel and request information about tickets to the casino and the different services rendered for gaming are able to automatically taken to the sales department that delineate and satisfy the needs of the consumers and offer any solutions. The same case can be perceived from the consumers that visit the casino for gaming and desire to stay in the premises for a number of days. Basically, information management ensures that consumers are routed to the different department that satisfy their needs. Most of all, information management makes certain that the data collected is dealt with by the fitting employees. As a result, information management enables the company to attain business intelligence and at the same time guarantee satisfaction of all its consumers and personnel (Willcocks, 2013).
Another importance of information management in the gaming industry is increased revenue. As is usually stated within a casino, “the house always wins”. Information management makes this possible. Imperatively, one of the most important approaches of increasing revenue is the generation of more efficacious work settings that do not have any kind of wastages. Caesars Entertainment is able to attain increased productivity owing to proper information management. For instance, if personnel spend less time searching up documents or has extensive information on the consumer preferences in spending, in totality this increases productivity. In the same line, information management facilitates decreased costs. The twofold bonus of decreasing costs and enhancing revenue is obviously possible, nevertheless, and is one of the means companies can physically evaluate the value of information management over time. Explicitly in terms of decreasing expenses, products or services can be rendered faster, in an inexpensive manner and to a higher quality. Nonetheless, to be accurate, the manner in which they accomplish this largely depends on how the company manages its information (Price, 2016).
2. Analyze the fundamental impact of IT architecture or enterprise architecture on information management for your chosen company or industry. Determine if IT architecture impacts the effectiveness or efficiency of information management and vice versa
IT architecture is delineated as the knack and skill of designing and delivering valuable technology approaches and strategies. Caesars Entertainment, similar to all other organizations, have to have the capability to outlines strategies for solving business issues with information technology. IT architecture has a great impact on information management for Caesars Entertainment. Through IT architecture, the personnel of the company have the ability to provide dependable and consistent communication and accessibility of data between its consumers, personnel and the executive members of the company. Without doubt, IT architecture influences the efficacy of information management within the organization. It facilitates proper data handling, which enables smooth flow of practices within the company. Caesars Entertainment deals with numerous consumers on an everyday basis ranging from those taking part in the casino to those necessitating leisure in the hotels and golf course. In particular, IT architecture ensures that all consumers can gain accessibility to all services rendered real-time devoid of any delays and schedule their various needs. For instance, when a client comes from the casino subsequent to gambling and misplaces his key card for the hotel room, through IT architecture, the personnel at the front desk are able to contact the IT professionals to come up with a new code that can open the room for the consumer (IASA, 2016).
3. Suggest at least two (2) data storage methods regarding database, data warehouse, and / or date mart for your chosen company or industry. Provide a rationale for your response
With the continued increased popularity of the gaming industry, there is a mounting demand in the number of casinos across the globe. This progression and development brings into play the significance of data storage. Government rules and regulations implemented for the gaming industry guarantee a safe and legal market and supplement security requirement to data storage employed in gaming machines. One of the suggested data storage methods for Caesars Entertainment is databases. The objective of several information systems is the transformation of data into information so as to create knowledge and understanding that can be employed for making decisions. To accomplish this, the data storage system should have the capability of taking data, placing it into perspective, and providing implements for accumulation and analysis. This is an aspect that is necessary for the company and a database provides this solution. A database is a systematized assemblage of associated information. It is an organized collection, for the reason that in a database, all data is labelled and linked with other data. All information in a database ought to be correlated as well and distinct databases ought to be generated to manage unconnected information. Databases will facilitate the company to store different sets of consumer data such as the names, emails, age, kinds of memberships, games preferred and also the different events applicable and suitable for them (Bourgeois, 2014).
Another data storage method suggested for the company is data warehouse. In delineation, a data warehouse is a form of data base but is dissimilar from other databases in that it more often than not comprises information from manifold systems all in one place. Secondly, it is solely for reporting and the users can gain accessibility through potent reporting software. In addition, the data contained inside is clean, which makes this data storage method distinctive and truly dominant. Data warehousing is recommended for Caesars Entertainment because the company will no longer need to spend several days every month ensuring that the data is ready for reporting. Rather, they will be able to run such reports as and when they are demanded, normally in a matter of seconds. Therefore, the time spent in the preparation of data can be employed in the analysis of the data. Moreover, data warehousing is more suitable because manual endeavors are susceptible to mistakes, largely restricted and has to be reiterated and redone each time a new report is necessitated. In the present day, gaming companies and casinos of all sizes have a wide range of inexpensive options accessible to them to carry out data warehouse technology (Smithline, 2014).
4. Determine the optimal data storage method between the methods that you suggested in Question 3
Taking into consideration the suggested data storage methods suggested above, data warehousing can be considered to be the most optimal one. Data analytics plays a vital role for Caesars Entertainment. In particular, in the contemporary setting, big data plays a pivotal role in targeted marketing in the gaming and casino industry. Taking into consideration that Caesars Entertainment owns casinos and hotels, it is imperative to collect and store data for targeting marketing. Data warehousing is considered to be the most optimal approach as it provides a suitable platform for the development of a better understanding of what its consumers have a preference to do at its different venues. A great deal of the data dealt with Caesars Entertainment emanates from boarding passes given to consumers for the casinos, loyalty cards that facilitates the company to perceive consumer habits in various sources such as gaming, accommodation, as well as restaurants (King, 2014).
Moreover, data warehousing is deemed an ideal method for the reason that it accumulates structured data from different sources to facilitate comparison and analysis for enhanced business intelligence. The warehouses are beneficial for the reason that they are employed in the correlation of wide-ranging data so as to provide superior decision-making insight into company performance (Informatica, 2017). Data warehousing will be the most optimal method of data storage for the reason that it will transform the manner in which is reaches consumers, offering its marketing department with a distinct outlook and perspective of real-time and historic consumer data. This will facilitate the company to ascertain campaigns to actual consumer habits. For instance, Caesars Entertainment can use data warehousing to gain historical and real-time data on the level of spending not just on slot machines but also on the tables. As a result, the company can attain cost savings owing to efficacious promotions, as Caesars Entertainment will have the ability to develop and deploy personalized marketing in a span of days rather than weeks (King, 2014).


References
Bourgeois, D. T. (2014). Information Systems for Business and Beyond. New York: Saylor Academy.
IASA. (2016). What is IT Architecture? Retrieved from: https://www.iasaglobal.org/itabok/what-is-it-architecture/
Informatica. (2017). What is Data Warehousing? Retrieved from: https://www.informatica.com/services-and-training/glossary-of-terms/data-warehousing-definition.html#fbid=LA3cy-9BNxl
King, L. (2014). The Casino Giant And The Quest To Cut Odds On Your Gambling Habits. Forbes. Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/leoking/2014/10/27/the-casino-giant-and-the-quest-to-cut-odds-on-your-gambling-habits/#53caa2fc32e5
Price, J. (2016). 3 benefits of effective information management. LinkedIn. Retrieved from: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/3-benefits-effective-information-management-james-price
Smithline, A. (2014). What, Exactly, Is a Data Warehouse? Raving Flash. Retrieved from: http://www.ravingconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/7-7-14HowDataWarehousingMeansSmarterStrategy.pdf
Willcocks, L. (2013). Information management: the evaluation of information systems investments. New York: Springer.