[February 11, 2005]

Jackpot for Mariposa CRM

By David Sims, TMCnet CRM Alert Columnist

The received wisdom in the gaming industry is that as far as CRM goes, experience has shown that horizontal providers aren’t that useful without a good deal of customization. Which is why vertical CRM providers Mariposa, Compidigm and Casino Marketing Workbench are cleaning up at the tables.

Venture Catalyst Incorporated has just announced that Thunder Valley Casino has licensed Mariposa, VCAT's marketing, CRM and business intelligence software system.

In an official press release Greg Shay, chief executive officer and president of Mariposa noted that he was pleased: "Thunder Valley Casino is a premier northern California [near Sacramento] property and we are honored that they have chosen Mariposa as their CRM solution."

The casino and gaming industry is relatively late to CRM. A recent report prepared by Conrad & Co. President David Lysne warns that casinos need “a good BS detector to effectively sort through the growing landscape of new fangled marketing systems that will come across your desk.” Though these marketing systems perform very similar functions, he notes, they carry “different labels like CRM (Customer Relationship Management System), Business Intelligence (BI), data warehouse or data mart, loyalty and recognition system, customer profiling and Decision Support Systems (DSS) to name a few.”

Mariposa is currently used at a number of casinos, including Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino in San Diego, California, the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and the Greektown Casino in Detroit, Michigan. Mariposa has also been licensed to the Stratosphere Casino Hotel & Tower and Arizona Charlie's Boulder and Arizona Charlie's Decatur in Las Vegas, Nevada, as well as Jackson Rancheria Casino, Hotel & Conference Center near Sacramento, California and Don Laughlin's Riverside Resort Hotel & Casino in Laughlin, Nevada.

Mariposa provides a fully-integrated marketing and business intelligence system for the gaming industry. Developed to work in conjunction with existing player tracking, slot accounting and other data collection systems, Mariposa can be used to improve the way casinos do business. The software provides gaming properties with tools to create, execute and track sophisticated multi-channel, targeted marketing campaigns, as well as analyze both customers and products on the casino floor.

It uses a proprietary modular suite of applications, including Campaign Management, Data Visualization, with easy-to-read mapping features, a Data Warehouse, including "Predictive Modeling," and a Player Contact System.

San Diego-based VCAT is a provider of consulting services and technology in the gaming and hospitality market.

David Sims is contributing editor and CRM Alert columnist for TMCnet.