I believe that Fashion Wholesaler would not benefit enough from the installation of Microsoft Project (MS Project) to outweigh the cost of implementation and training.
MS Project is a software application designed to enable proper planning using organization of tasks, calculation the duration of each task involved and evaluating the most effective way to complete a project within budget and on or before the expected deadline. This software has many functions that are extremely helpful to businesses that often rely on heavily calculated project timelines. As a first time user of this software I found it very frustrating to use. Because of the level of intricacy and detail in order for someone to operate this software to its full capability I believe that training would be mandatory prior to implementation.
In regards to answering if Fashion Wholesaler should adopt MS Project I think the answer to that is No. Fashion Wholesaler does not work enough with massive projects, tight timelines and extensive budgets to warrant the time and money needed to install and train employees on this software. Currently, Fashion Wholesaler relies on Excel, Microsoft Word and AccountEdge software to complete orders both large and small. MS Project could cost anywhere from $34/month or $1,160/month depending on how many computers/users would be engaged with the software. Since Fashion Wholesaler is a very small company of about 5 full time employees that work in the office if we were to entertain the idea of implementation we would only need it on one computer - the main server. Let's take the low end price of $34/month to calculate expenses:
Price: $34/month. Equates to $408 for the year.
Now since this software is so detailed and extensive some training will be required. Since we would all have to learn to be proficient on the software we can calculate the cost of training each employee roughly. I am going to calculate conservatively and assume it will only take people two hours of training to become proficient.
Receptionist 1: $15/hour * 2hrs = $30
Receptionist 2: $10/hour * 2hrs = $20
Designer = $30/hour * 2hrs = $60
Logisitics Manager = $25/hour * 2hs = $50
Total = $160. This total is the amount of money lost in salaries that could have been spent working on processing orders, creating garments, and working on other projects.
MS Project IT Specialist salary = $175/hr * 8hrs = $1,400.
Now if you take into account the bill for the specialist that is a total of $1,560. Now add in the fee for the software we are looking at $1,968 for implementation, training and first year expenses.
Knowing that Fashion Wholesalers do not operate enough projects to utilize this software it doesn't seem to make much sense for them to invest in it and waste the time or money in implementing it properly
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Harrah's Entertainment: Case Prep & Reflection
Problem/Issue Statement:
Harrah's main operating strategy focuses primarily on their vast customer knowledge and rewarding customer loyalty. With competitive casinos growing rapidly Harrah's needed to start focusing on implementing creative, consumer friendly advertising and marketing campaigns and information technology. In order to keep ahead of the competition Harrah's needed to invest heavily in both of these areas. In the technology aspect investment was required to aid in the integration of data from other sources for use in their patron database and their marketing workbench. Harrah's wanted to really understand their customer's preferences by running experimental advertising and mining data to try and meet their patron's needs. In order to really accomplish these two aspects Harrah's adopted a new IT system, which included a revamped customer loyalty program, data warehousing, and closed loop marketing. The main issue was that Harrah's was operating all of it's facilities as independent entities with all aspects of the business being run by the individual casino managers. Marketing and promotions were all done on a casino level bassi and customers were not fully understood or managed properly - especially when it came to cross-property customer action. Harrah's did not know their customer's preferences and were not taking full advantage of specific target marketing. Another issue of this problem is that there is no true brand image or clear strategy for the company to grow and expand.
Situation Assessment:
The problem of how to build and maintain customer relationships and ensure Harrah's has a more cost effective plan to expansion. The context of the problem focuses on expanding into other locations and maintaining their competitive advantage over the other casinos. It is imperative for Harrah's to invest and develop their software to aid in creating unique customer profiles and experiences and ensure more highly detailed target marketing offers.
List of Plausible Alternatives:
The aspects of their business differentiation strategy that have been already put to good use are the development of WINet (operational data store), which collects patron data from various sources and integrates this data into making each patron's experience with Harrah's more exciting and more personal. WINet allowed Harrah's to create personalized offers targeted to specific markets and demographics to increase their customer's presence in their casinos. By creating and implementing this database Harrah's was able to leverage their customer database to created personalized promotions to their vast customer base. Additionally, Harrah's created their Total Rewards Program, a loyalty program for their patrons. Total Rewards tracks all of their customers activities within their facilities and then rewards them with various promo's their system has analyzed that would appeal to each demographic depending on where their customers frequent in the casino. Harrah's also implemented closed-loop marketing to develop and retain results for future use within the company. This allowed Harrah's to figure out what types of campaigns/advertisements were most effective and therefore held the highest value for the company.
Harrah's team was able to leverage each of these areas to build up their customer base, attract more frequent visits and really focus their marketing programs so that they had the most impact. These strategies elicited a 62% internal ROI, a 14% revenue growth in same location sales, and increase the frequency of return visits by their loyal patrons.
Even though Harrah's has spent time and money developing these platform their competition is not far behind them in learning how to leverage their own technologies to create personalized experiences for their customers. In order for Harrah's to continue to "strike while the iron is hot" and remain the leader in the gambling industry they need to continue to leverage their already developed technologies and consistently enhance these systems and databases to ensure their are leveraging the highest amount of information from each platform. It is in Harrah's best interest to continue to researching their customers and finding out what really draws them back to Harrah's again and again. Leveraging that data could possible help Harrah's predict future activities. This will help Harrah's maintain long lasting relationships with their patrons.
Another alternative Harrah's needs to look into is the way they will be revamping their website. I think since they are on the road to doing so placing targeted advertisements on their home page will be a great way to get customers to purchase additional items outside of a room or food by offering special pricing/discounts on other amenities Harrah's offers. Integrating their Total Rewards program would give Harrah's the opportunity to track where on their site their customers visit and able to target their needs better.
Evaluation of Alternatives:
The alternatives discussed above are all very important for Harrah's to leverage. But more importantly I think ensure their IT infrastructure is capable of handling their new found technologies and that their staff is well versed in how to operate all these new features is very important. If a customer has a great front end experience with their targeted advertising but gets to the concierge and has a difficult time that customer may not want to come back and deal with the potential hassle again. These two aspects need to have very high valuations in Harrah's mind to create an amazing 360 degree experience for their patrons. Since Harrah's has first mover advantage in expanding their business in this arena they need to make sure they are consistently brainstorming new, creative ideas to keep them ahead of the curve and keeping their customers wanting to come back for more. Harrah's has prospered since creating this one brand image and consolidating all the data into one stream that is available to each of their locations and they shouldn't rest on their laurels else one of their competitors is going to find a way to outshine them one day.
Recommendation:
After hearing the presentation and what the consultant's recommended it is important for Harrah's to continue to expand and grow to maintain their leading position in the gaming market. In order to continue to stay at the top of their game Harrah's needs to look into two specific options:
1) Improve and enhance their already successful IT system and marketing ventures.
2) Invest, expand and upgrade their locations.
In order to do these two successfully Harrah's needs to work first on improving and elaborating their IT system and marketing efforts; possibly by using their online presence to offer an online booking system, discounts and coupons for activities within the facilities, and advertisements on their site. This would be convenient for their customers but it would also entice them to come back for more each time they visit their website or check their email. I believe that if Harrah's can capitalize on generating higher revenues from these activities will allow them to retain the capital needed to invest in new properties. It requires a large investment to get a new property up and running to the same capacity as the already existing ones and I believe this should be a long term plan for Harrah's but not part of their immediate concerns.
Since Harrah's is currently the market leader I think they need to look into creating experiences for non-gambling visitors. Putting some effort and time into creating some target marketing to attract non-gamblers to come and enjoy a spa day, a special events - food festivals, wine festivals, etc - or even a concert or party would greatly expand their presence into untapped demographics that could help expand their bottom line.
It is in Harrah's best interest to leverage these options to help expand their bottom line and continue to stay atop of the casino market.
Harrah's main operating strategy focuses primarily on their vast customer knowledge and rewarding customer loyalty. With competitive casinos growing rapidly Harrah's needed to start focusing on implementing creative, consumer friendly advertising and marketing campaigns and information technology. In order to keep ahead of the competition Harrah's needed to invest heavily in both of these areas. In the technology aspect investment was required to aid in the integration of data from other sources for use in their patron database and their marketing workbench. Harrah's wanted to really understand their customer's preferences by running experimental advertising and mining data to try and meet their patron's needs. In order to really accomplish these two aspects Harrah's adopted a new IT system, which included a revamped customer loyalty program, data warehousing, and closed loop marketing. The main issue was that Harrah's was operating all of it's facilities as independent entities with all aspects of the business being run by the individual casino managers. Marketing and promotions were all done on a casino level bassi and customers were not fully understood or managed properly - especially when it came to cross-property customer action. Harrah's did not know their customer's preferences and were not taking full advantage of specific target marketing. Another issue of this problem is that there is no true brand image or clear strategy for the company to grow and expand.
Situation Assessment:
The problem of how to build and maintain customer relationships and ensure Harrah's has a more cost effective plan to expansion. The context of the problem focuses on expanding into other locations and maintaining their competitive advantage over the other casinos. It is imperative for Harrah's to invest and develop their software to aid in creating unique customer profiles and experiences and ensure more highly detailed target marketing offers.
List of Plausible Alternatives:
The aspects of their business differentiation strategy that have been already put to good use are the development of WINet (operational data store), which collects patron data from various sources and integrates this data into making each patron's experience with Harrah's more exciting and more personal. WINet allowed Harrah's to create personalized offers targeted to specific markets and demographics to increase their customer's presence in their casinos. By creating and implementing this database Harrah's was able to leverage their customer database to created personalized promotions to their vast customer base. Additionally, Harrah's created their Total Rewards Program, a loyalty program for their patrons. Total Rewards tracks all of their customers activities within their facilities and then rewards them with various promo's their system has analyzed that would appeal to each demographic depending on where their customers frequent in the casino. Harrah's also implemented closed-loop marketing to develop and retain results for future use within the company. This allowed Harrah's to figure out what types of campaigns/advertisements were most effective and therefore held the highest value for the company.
Harrah's team was able to leverage each of these areas to build up their customer base, attract more frequent visits and really focus their marketing programs so that they had the most impact. These strategies elicited a 62% internal ROI, a 14% revenue growth in same location sales, and increase the frequency of return visits by their loyal patrons.
Even though Harrah's has spent time and money developing these platform their competition is not far behind them in learning how to leverage their own technologies to create personalized experiences for their customers. In order for Harrah's to continue to "strike while the iron is hot" and remain the leader in the gambling industry they need to continue to leverage their already developed technologies and consistently enhance these systems and databases to ensure their are leveraging the highest amount of information from each platform. It is in Harrah's best interest to continue to researching their customers and finding out what really draws them back to Harrah's again and again. Leveraging that data could possible help Harrah's predict future activities. This will help Harrah's maintain long lasting relationships with their patrons.
Another alternative Harrah's needs to look into is the way they will be revamping their website. I think since they are on the road to doing so placing targeted advertisements on their home page will be a great way to get customers to purchase additional items outside of a room or food by offering special pricing/discounts on other amenities Harrah's offers. Integrating their Total Rewards program would give Harrah's the opportunity to track where on their site their customers visit and able to target their needs better.
Evaluation of Alternatives:
The alternatives discussed above are all very important for Harrah's to leverage. But more importantly I think ensure their IT infrastructure is capable of handling their new found technologies and that their staff is well versed in how to operate all these new features is very important. If a customer has a great front end experience with their targeted advertising but gets to the concierge and has a difficult time that customer may not want to come back and deal with the potential hassle again. These two aspects need to have very high valuations in Harrah's mind to create an amazing 360 degree experience for their patrons. Since Harrah's has first mover advantage in expanding their business in this arena they need to make sure they are consistently brainstorming new, creative ideas to keep them ahead of the curve and keeping their customers wanting to come back for more. Harrah's has prospered since creating this one brand image and consolidating all the data into one stream that is available to each of their locations and they shouldn't rest on their laurels else one of their competitors is going to find a way to outshine them one day.
Recommendation:
After hearing the presentation and what the consultant's recommended it is important for Harrah's to continue to expand and grow to maintain their leading position in the gaming market. In order to continue to stay at the top of their game Harrah's needs to look into two specific options:
1) Improve and enhance their already successful IT system and marketing ventures.
2) Invest, expand and upgrade their locations.
In order to do these two successfully Harrah's needs to work first on improving and elaborating their IT system and marketing efforts; possibly by using their online presence to offer an online booking system, discounts and coupons for activities within the facilities, and advertisements on their site. This would be convenient for their customers but it would also entice them to come back for more each time they visit their website or check their email. I believe that if Harrah's can capitalize on generating higher revenues from these activities will allow them to retain the capital needed to invest in new properties. It requires a large investment to get a new property up and running to the same capacity as the already existing ones and I believe this should be a long term plan for Harrah's but not part of their immediate concerns.
Since Harrah's is currently the market leader I think they need to look into creating experiences for non-gambling visitors. Putting some effort and time into creating some target marketing to attract non-gamblers to come and enjoy a spa day, a special events - food festivals, wine festivals, etc - or even a concert or party would greatly expand their presence into untapped demographics that could help expand their bottom line.
It is in Harrah's best interest to leverage these options to help expand their bottom line and continue to stay atop of the casino market.
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