Briefs

Feb 6, 2001. CIO magazine writes about the success of Harrah Casino,
that was able to increase revenues by a factor of 2, without spending
billions on a fancy new building.  How ? Harrah invested into winner's
information network (WINet), the industry's first national customer
database.

That real-time access is key to enabling Harrah's Total Rewards
program.  A customer who receives a promotion in the mail will call
Harrah's to inquire about it, and as soon as the customer service
agent gets on the phone, a slew of information identifying the
customer pops up on the agent's computer screen. It indicates the tier
(platinum, gold or diamond) the customer falls into, where he usually
plays, how much he's won or lost, and even what he might be worth.

See the full story at
http://www.cio.com/archive/020101/harrah.html