The SAS technology provides us with connectivity with Netezza and other UNIX databases.
“For instance, retail sales and food and beverage-there are a bunch of them. “A lot of the other additional data sources that we planned to access going forward are in Microsoft SQL Server,” explains Bonnie Laudig, Senior Database Administrator at Foxwoods. The primary IT environment used by the hospitality systems division runs on an AIX UNIX platform with SAS business analytics software and a Netezza data warehouse appliance as a data warehouse solution however, a challenge arose that threatened to prevent extension of the BI initiative beyond its initial scope. “We wanted to gather data on visitor activity outside of gaming including reservations, ticketing, point of sales, etc.” “The way you do that is by getting data to a data warehouse and using the tools that are out there to compile and analyze that data,” says Mike Kutia, Director of Hospitality Systems. However, the organization lacked information about patrons’ nongaming activities-hotel stays, shows, dining, leisurely pursuits-and whether or how that data correlated with the gaming. Like all casinos, Foxwoods has long been collecting data on the gaming activities of its patrons.
