Cisco and Harrah's announced a ten year partnership that will see Cisco communications and security products deployed throughout the casino chain. Physical security is just part of the deal, but that's what makes it so interesting. I want to see Cisco rollout the whole vision at one site. If Harrah's uses Cisco for networking, telephony, unified communications and security, we'll finally be able to see how "Cisco-fied" the security products really are.
Over the last year or so Cisco has been engineering a security architecture based on innovations plus acquistions of Sypixx and Broadware. But until recently, it has been hard to see how the new physical security products were particularly "Cisco-flavored." The Harrah's engagement will work out all the bugs, I'm sure.
The question is, of course, how long will it take.
Read the press release:
Cisco Media Relations: Industry Analyst Relations: Investor Relations:
Charles Sommerhauser Sarita Kincaid Marisa Ross
Cisco Systems, Inc. Cisco Systems, Inc. Cisco Systems, Inc.
925 371-6341 408 768-0054 408 527-9830
csommerh@cisco.com skincaid@cisco.com mariross@cisco.com
Harrah’s Media Relations:
Jacqueline Peterson
702 494-4829
japeterson@harrahs.com
Harrah’s Operating Company and Cisco Systems Foster Innovation Through 10-Year Global Strategic Collaboration
Next-Generation Guest Experiences and Capabilities to Be Enhanced in Harrah’s Properties Worldwide
SAN JOSE, Calif, and LAS VEGAS — May 20, 2008 —Harrah’s Operating Co., a subsidiary of Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc., the world's largest provider of branded casino entertainment, has signed a broad-based, 10-year global strategic agreement with Cisco. This strategic collaboration will help enable the delivery of compelling next-generation guest experiences through the use of Cisco products and allow Harrah’s to remain at the forefront of innovation in the casino entertainment industry.
Harrah’s has established a collaborative relationship with Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG), the company’s global strategic consulting arm. The strategic agreement envisions that Harrah’s will continue to work together with IBSG and other Cisco divisions to assist Harrah’s in implementing innovative technologies. This will help Harrah’s to accelerate its status as an innovator and enhance its personalized guest experiences and world-class interactive customer relationship management capabilities.
This strategic collaboration will also facilitate the transformation of the company’s digital backbone and the implementation of a next-generation security and surveillance infrastructure. The upgrade is designed to significantly improve facility security and safety, support new “smart service” initiatives that enable even more proactive employee service, and help Harrah’s deliver on its bold vision to launch the next wave of industry-leading guest experiences.
“We are engaging with Cisco to help us architect and enable the next generation of our innovative vision for guest offerings across our existing portfolio of worldwide resorts as well as exciting new resorts, new channels and new guest experiences that we are developing from the ground up,” said Tim Stanley, chief information officer and senior vice president of innovation, gaming and technology at Harrah’s Entertainment. “This strategic agreement is key to our vision of creating value for Harrah’s, our partners and most importantly our guests through our digital migration initiative. Critical to that vision is our Cisco network which serves as the digital backbone to enable innovative guest service opportunities, highly personalized guest offerings and interactions, and new and improved ways for us to reach and interact with our customers.”
Harrah’s is upgrading its digital backbone to power numerous new capabilities over the next few years and is implementing a new digital security and surveillance infrastructure across North America and abroad. Upon completion of Harrah’s digital migration program, Cisco will have helped enable the deployment of one of the largest Internet Protocol networking-based physical security implementations in the gaming and entertainment world.
Among the applications to help enhance operational excellence and customer experience, Harrah’s will implement Cisco® digital video technology, which will provide greater visibility to guest areas such as hotel registration desks, valet parking areas and outdoor entertainment venues. This will enable Harrah’s to have real-time responses to situations. For example, it could enable new capabilities that would allow additional staff to be dispatched to the hotel check-in area when guest registration lines become too long.
“As part of the 10-year global strategic agreement, Harrah’s will collaborate with multiple Cisco technology groups to identify and create new and compelling guest offerings,” said Bill Stuntz, vice president and general manager of Cisco’s Physical Security business unit. “Through an ongoing dialogue started more than a year ago, Harrah’s has embraced the network to serve as a highly secure platform to drive a new customer experience vision that will help it meet its long-term business objectives.”
“Harrah's is focused on harnessing new capabilities to transform customer experiences in ways never before seen and in so doing, enabling Harrah’s to remain an industry leader in customer service,” said Howard Lock, director, transportation and hospitality for Cisco IBSG. “IBSG is helping Harrah's explore, validate and accelerate the adoption of innovation to deliver unique guest experiences, employee empowerment and operational excellence.”
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Cisco, (NASDAQ: CSCO), is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.
About Harrah’s
Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. is the world's largest provider of branded casino entertainment. Since its beginning in Reno, Nevada, more than 70 years ago, Harrah's has grown through development of new properties, expansions and acquisitions, and now owns or manages casinos on four continents. The Company's properties operate primarily under the Harrah's®, Caesars® and Horseshoe® brand names; Harrah's also owns the London Clubs International family of casinos and the World Series of Poker®. Harrah's Entertainment is focused on building loyalty and value with its customers through a unique combination of great service, excellent products, unsurpassed distribution, operational excellence and technology leadership. For more information, please visit www.harrahs.com.
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Hi Steve,
I like your point about finding out how "Cisco-fied" the security products are. I have been examining their reference and configuration guides. Certainly the security products have become "Cisco-fied" to the extent of utilizing advanced Cisco networking features such as multicast and QoS.
However, I can't see how these "Cisco-ifications" are really delivering innovation for video surveillance. Indeed, as I examine in depth at http://ipvideomarket.info/reviews/show/95 , I think Cisco's approach is the opposite of what is needed to drive value and innovation in video surveillance. To solve the live monitoring problem, Cisco is spending energy and resources on network optimization whereas focus on analytics would ultimately provide a far better and cheaper solution.
Cisco may have a vision but it could certainly turn out to be a mirage.
Best,
John
Posted by: John Honovich | May 21, 2008 at 02:46 AM