INDUSTRY

On the heels of success at Harrah's Entertainment, Inc., Teradata, a division of NCR Corporation and Compudigm International today announced plans to launch advanced data visualization technology for traditional retailers at National Retail Federation's annual Retail Systems show in Chicago today. Compudigm's seePOWER(TM) retail intelligence solution takes the massive amounts of detailed business data made quickly available by the Teradata(R) warehouse and presents it as intuitive visualizations that can be viewed over space and time. seePOWER presents a unified view of up to 10,000 data points at one time, making the power and speed of the database a critical component. "The Teradata warehouse with its unmatched power, capacity and speed is the only choice for Compudigm's requirement to query against atomic level data across the enterprise in real time," said Rob Berman, vice president of retail for Teradata. "It also represents a radical advance in the way executive decision-makers can leverage their Teradata warehouse." seePOWER on the Teradata platform provides a holistic view of all the data collected in the data warehouse, enabling retailers to see anomalies and trends in geo-spatially referenced data. From this information, they can quickly identify areas for business improvement such as space allocation, cross merchandising and store delivery. With the critical new business insights gained, retailers can make faster, smarter and more profitable decisions both at store level and enterprise-wide. "seePOWER taps the ability of the human brain to interpret pictures and animation much faster than numbers, so retailers can see patterns and opportunities in massive volumes of data that might otherwise be invisible or unintelligible using other reporting methods and tools," said Andrew Cardno, founder and chief technology officer of Compudigm. The seePOWER solution also utilizes predictive modeling, artificial intelligence, dynamic query generation and a number of other advanced, patented features like self organizing map (SOM) technology that can provide retailers with a level of query flexibility that is limited only by their level of curiosity. Harrah's success with seePOWER on Teradata Harrah's Entertainment has gained an enviable reputation as one of the world's most savvy and innovative users of information technology for operational and strategic use. With seePOWER and Teradata, the company has leveraged the full value of its Total Rewards loyalty card program and information technology infrastructure to consistently maintain industry-leading levels of customer service and satisfaction while achieving 17 consecutive quarters of same-store revenue growth. With 26 properties and more than 42,000 slot machines nationwide, Harrah's takes slot-machine performance data and the extensive Total Rewards customer data collected in its Teradata warehouse to visually connect individual customer behavior with individual slot machine performance. Using these visualizations, Harrah's has been able to optimize the product mix, floor configuration and the marketing and merchandising of its casino floors to ensure the right slot product is in the right location at the right time for its best customers. seePOWER also allows Harrah's to examine the performance and cost structure of individual machines, magnet games and related adjacency effects. Consequently, Harrah's can easily and quickly identify the games that do not deliver the operational performance or customer affinity to justify their cost. Such products can then be removed or payment terms re-negotiated. This capability to scientifically assess the performance of each slot machine individually and within a broader context has already provided Harrah's with savings in the tens of millions of dollars. "We have just scratched the surface with this tool and our innovative slot floor management capabilities are becoming an increasingly important component of our business," said Tim Stanley, chief information officer of Harrah's. "As we leverage more data from our Teradata warehouse and increase the use and sophistication of our decision science analytical tools, we expect to have many new ways to improve customer loyalty and satisfaction, drive greater revenues and decrease our costs as part of our ongoing focus on achieving sustainable profitability and success."