Nate Helwagen
Developer, Enterprise Systems Analysis & Integration Team, Live! Casino & Hotel
Supernova Award Category
Data to Decisions
The Problem
This successful business wanted to do more to ensure that their guests were catered to when they were on the property, but were unable to make timely, relevant offers for them because they couldn’t look at trends in their business while they were happening. At best, their business intelligence was a day behind their business. They knew that by not being able to perform analytics in near real-time, they were missing additional touch points with their guests.
The Solution
Live! Casino & Hotel needed a solution that could migrate the data continuously to their enterprise data warehouse so that they could perform a comparion between the previous load of data and the new snapshot of data. They settled on Attunity Replicate, data migration software with continuous data capture (CDC). With Attunity Replicate, they could pull information quickly from their production gaming system without impacting server resources in order to drive near real-time offers and analytics.
The results
Live! Casino and Hotel has been able to cater to all guests by using the data-in-motion via Attunity Replicate combined with the historical data-at-rest in the Teradata enterprise data warehouse (EDW.) They have been able to add operational alerts for employees around the property to notify them of events that require their attention. And, they have been able to create another watchful eye on the business which has allowed to better serve their guests and employees.
Metrics
The Enterprise Systems Analysis & Integration team at Live! Casino and Hotel had to spend thousands of dollars on consultants who had built the solution with SQL Server and Teradata that took approximately 4 hours to export data so that they could perform a comparison between data versions to determine changes. Once they switched to Attunity Replicate for data migration, they lowered costs by eliminating the need for extensive use of expensive consultants, saved storage space on their hardware, and achieved multiple efficiencies with a near real-time environment. And, most important, they were able to leverage real-time data to better serve their guests.
The Technology
Live! Casino and Hotel had approximately 100 tables in SQL Server requiring a full backup of the live operational system to load data on a reporting server. Then the tables were loaded into Teradata, where they performed a comparison between the previous load and the new snapshot to determine what was new/changed. The entire process took 4 hours end-to-end. Using Attunity Replicate to move data, they were able to move data in real-time eliminating the 4-hour data loading process.
Disruptive Factor
The team at Live! Casino and Hotel found an efficient way to better serve their guests using real-time data in the Teradata EDW. By leveraging Attunity Replicate’s CDC capabilities, their data latency is now under a minute. They’ve eliminated an inefficient process that was taking them hours to generate data for analysis that was over a day old. The simple process leverages Teradata Utilities; requires little monitoring and resources; and has helped them provide additional value for their guests.
Shining Moment
Live! Casino & Hotel has an integrated view of their business with Attunity and Teradata so that they can better entertain their guests when they are on the property.