Feature: Andrew Cosgrove price tag so it’s important to be aware of the costs involved and to eliminate any unnecessary modules when planning your budget. Another budget awareness tip is to make sure you negotiate service fees as they can vary widely from one vendor to another.
reliable automated tech support system so it’s always advisable to make sure you get the kind of after sales service that meets all of your operational requirements. Economies of scale and budgets come into play especially for smaller operators as it becomes very difficult to compete against the big corporations on a
head-to-head basis so in order to remain competitive every penny invested has to create a positive impact on results. Words like Business Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence are great buzz words and they are truly amazing tools to have at your fingertips, but they do come at a price and if you’re daily win per unit is below $100 a day then you may need a lot of slot machines to justify what can be a very large investment. There are cheaper alternatives to the systems vendors AI and BI solutions and any progressive company knows that and will invest in them and their staff whenever appropriate in order to make sure that they maximize the benefits and remain competitive. Reasonably priced online courses for everything from creating automated dashboards to creating your own apps are also readily available and investing in your existing employees will almost always give you a healthy return on investment. As previously stated, most systems are available in modules and each one may come with a separate 42
Organization and training are factors that need to be analyzed early on in the purchasing process as it’s very nice to buy and own a formula one car but not so nice to find out after the fact that you actually need someone who can drive it for it to make any real money! It’s essential that operators recognize and make the necessary changes to their organization in order to accommodate the system so that it may be used to its maximum potential. Operators should be asking questions such as, “do I need to change the company’s organizational structure to accommodate the necessary changes?” or, “do I need to hire more staff?” or even, “should I invest in extra training to maximize the systems potential?” On site training for operations staff is pretty standard but without the necessary resources in place early on, it can prove difficult to maintain the necessary momentum after the initial support period has ended which can and will cause delays in seeing any real return on investment. As with any major project it’s important to have a solid business case for your system and it’s equally important to be clear on your product requirements and project roles and responsibilities. Your company will also need to have the right organizational structure in place and have a solid plan that will not only direct, manage and deliver your system on time and on budget, but one that will also keep your staff motivated to meet and exceed your customers expectations on a consistent and long term basis.
MY MINI-BLOG Andrew Cosgrove is a seasoned slot operations veteran and certified project manager with over 24 years of hands on experience in Latin America and the Caribbean. Andrew has worked on both the operator and supplier side of casino slots and continues to help clients succeed and exceed customer expectations. Andrew can be reached at andy. cosgrove@hemingwaycasinoconsulting.com or see http:// hemingwaycasinoconsulting.com/ www.casinolifemagazine.com
