Standardize a CMS Rationalization Strategy

Drive greater value for your operations when you decouple your applications

Analyst Perspective

Casino management system (CMS) technology has come a long way. No longer focused just on slots, a CMS today is meant to help make more intelligent casino operations decisions and is a key component for both employee and guest experience. However, dissatisfaction with CMS vendors persists due to their struggle in keeping up with the needs of the industry. Although a bundled/single-vendor approach is not considered a viable long-term option, operators still need to take the time to understand the full potential of a CMS and either rationalize what capabilities need to be decoupled or face application sprawl.

Standardize a CMS rationalization strategy that assesses your CMS, analyzes decoupling inflection points and dispositions, scopes application categorization, and prioritizes relationship management.

Use this time to assess whether you must sustain or replace your casino management system

Monica Pagtalunan

Research Analyst, Industry
Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Info-Tech Insight

Decoupling is inevitable; appropriate decoupling is essential. Rationalizing a decoupled module is necessary to fully understand the complexity of your technical architecture and business operations and maximize the module’s value and return on investment.

CMS dissatisfaction is evident

As the industry innovates, CMS vendors claim they innovate too.

Outside pressures and requirements of innovative casinos have encouraged CMS vendors to keep up with emerging trends.

“Our Las Vegas-based SYNKROS R&D team is continually engineering new improvements, tools, features and product offerings to meet and anticipate [industry] changes.”
– Tom Soukup, SVP & Chief Systems Product Office, Konami, quoted in Gaming America

“IGT embraces opportunities to collaborate with our customers in the development, and prioritization, of our next-generation system upgrades and advancements.”
– Ryan Reddy, SVP Product Marketing & Payments, IGT, quoted in Gaming America

… But casino operators still express dissatisfaction with the system.

• Casino management systems are not system-agnostic. It’s not as simple as a plug and play. Adding third-party capabilities becomes challenging for operators to implement and interface.
• Vendor lock-in causes feelings of being trapped by long contractual obligations. The cost of switching matters – it can be a multimillion-dollar decision. Operators must consider slot hardware, game mix, APIs, and interfaces.
• Unfairness due to vendor oligarchies. There is protest across the industry that big powerhouse casinos “own” CMS vendors, with more say in the system configuration roadmap. This explains the dissatisfaction smaller operators feel with CMS.

6.7

54%

The CMS is viewed as a support function rather than an enabler of growth

33% of surveyed marketing stakeholders gave their CMS a Net Promoter Score of 6/10 or below (SoftwareReviews, 2023).

The CMS was not made to be a marketing system. Historically, casino management systems started as accounting systems, with marketing capabilities as an afterthought. Marketing departments have been stuck and limited to the type of marketing within the system, which accounts for the traditional mass direct mailing methods that casinos are still primarily using.

The CMS can’t be all things to all operators

Nobody shops in one store anymore.

Over time, operators are typically more inclined to selectively source best-of-breed modules from different vendors that are integrated with the CMS rather than adhering to the initial purchase of the full bundled suite of modules. Reasons are:

• Major CMS vendors offer very little differentiation between each system. Levels of variety are driven by the marketplace. Selling and negotiation power is highly sought after as a strategic benefit when selecting a CMS provider. The more you drive systems to commodities, the less expensive selection and maintenance can be.
• A vendor’s prerogative limits innovative capabilities and integrations. Operators that rely on a CMS for all configurations will be disappointed by the time taken to configure, quality of features, and interface constraints that are placed on an operator.

Regardless, satisfaction with your CMS is important as the system dictates the future decisions around your application portfolio.

Rationalization is compulsory to avoid application sprawl

Decoupling is inevitable.

Application sprawl: inefficiencies with your application portfolio are created by the gradual and non-strategic accumulation of applications.

Although a bundled approach could provide a decreased level of application complexity and simplified vendor management, a best-of-breed approach is almost inescapable.

Adding applications is a necessary evil. Ideally, a decoupled approach would offer maximized business value and solution functionality. But consider the various obstacles to actualization when it comes to application sprawl:

• Challenge maintaining and upgrading systems which leads to difficulties in testing and prioritizing staffing support.
• Redundancy of features caused by inefficient spending and poor roadmap strategy.
• Disparate applications and data. This creates issues when it comes to having a single version of truth/source of record. Application architecture becomes extra challenging when databases are inherited and kept in its place.

Every operator experiences some degree of CMS application sprawl

Standardize a CMS rationalization strategy

Decoupling is inevitable; appropriate decoupling is essential. Rationalizing a decoupled module is necessary to fully understand the complexity of your technical architecture and business operations and maximize the module’s value and return on investment.

Components of a CMS rationalization strategy:

• Current-state CMS assessment
• Inflection point analysis
• Disposition decision points
• App category scope: build vs. buy
• Relationship management: vendor and end users
• Sustain or replace CMS system decision point

Benefits of a CMS rationalization strategy:

• Reduce application sprawl.
• Build for better decision making.
• Gain focus on business priorities and eliminate silos.
• Improve stakeholder communication.

Not every decoupling reason is a good one

Avoid the following inflection points:

• Turnover and lack of knowledge transfer. This is where the complaint that “it doesn’t do what I want” can be refuted. For many operators, decoupling happens when a module is considered too difficult to navigate or process gaps are found. CMS training and vendor confirmation can solve this issue most of the time. Many operators end up decoupling right away without considering a conversation with their system vendor first for configuration opportunities.
• “Bright shiny new object syndrome” promotes surface-level satisfaction over deep satisfaction. It’s common for operators to purchase a new system just to have it. Consider technologies like server-based games that were implemented because of hype but did not gain a lot of traction or work as advertised.
• Vendor relations built within the industry leads to informal evaluation and selection of a solution. It is common in the industry to select a system that has been used in a previous job for familiarity's sake. Selection is often driven by relationships rather than the business value the system provides.
• Time sensitive configurations. If an operator finds the changes needed to be urgent, operators look to decouple. Consider the vendor’s timeline and roadmap as a longer period may be beneficial to ensure you’re not jumping or rushing into an initiative.
• Modernize a legacy app that the vendor is not maintaining. Vendor management becomes crucial in this instance. Understand whether these upgrades have a place in the product roadmap ahead.

43%

of surveyed operators used informal evaluation and selection methodology for CMS (SoftwareReviews, 2023).

Leverage Info-Tech’s model to decouple CMS applications

Application rationalization provides insight.

Consider the following common inflection points:

• The more strategic a process is, the more likely is the need to decouple (End-User Perspective). Components like jackpot, loyalty, marketing, and advanced analytics are complex processes that have historically been decoupled.
• Competition within a market and the desire to differentiate oneself (Business Value). With little differentiation from CMS to CMS, seek decoupled applications that could enable competitive advantage.
• Build a digital business (Business Value) by treating decoupled digital applications as a motivator for future IT optimization. On one end of digital, consider automating manual and paper processes – on the other end, consider the applications needed to be interfaced to enable a digital portfolio (e.g. iGaming and online sports betting).
• Time sensitive configurations (Application Alignment). Requesting configuration within the CMS system can take one to two years. If an operator finds the changes needed to be urgent, and strategic due diligence has been done, operators should look to decouple. Implementation and configuration of a decoupled module is quicker (e.g. regulatory-based configurations).
• Modernize a legacy app (Technical Health/TCO) that the vendor is not maintaining. If the vendor refuses to upgrade, you will be forced to decouple. Additionally, it may be too expensive to modernize, forcing the need to decouple.

The core outcome of rationalization is an assigned disposition for your CMS modules

Disposition: The intended strategic direction or course of action for the CMS.

1. Modernize CMS Module

   • Enhance (Upgrade)

     Move module to a newer version or release.

   • Re-platform

     Move module to a more modern hardware/operating system, translate application to new language, or reuse code in a modern environment.

   • Remediate

     Refactor application to a better structure to improve integration and flexibility.

2. Maintain CMS Module

   • Sustain

     Continue with application as-is.

   • Retrain

     Train users on core functionalities and features of application.

   • Support

     Develop a custom support model to improve the maintenance and performance of the application.

3. Consolidate CMS Module

   • Absorb

     Adapt and configure module to handle operations transferred from redundant systems.

   • Merge

     Combine functionality onto a common platform.

4. Retire CMS Module

   • Decommission

     Eliminate application altogether.

   • Replace

     Eliminate application or module altogether and replace with a new or alternative app.

5. Retire the CMS

   • Replace

     Eliminate the system altogether and replace with a new or alternative system.

*Depending on the number of items that fall into the Modernize CMS Module or Retire CMS Module there is another option to retire the CMS entirely. Ensure your vendor is keeping up with the needs of your business.

Align inflection points to dispositions

The core outcome of rationalization is an assigned disposition for your CMS modules.

Bad Inflection Points

Good Inflection Points

Activity: Align inflection points to dispositions

1. Input current and potential CMS applications or modules below and assign an inflection point with its associated disposition. Impartiality is crucial in this step. Again, not every decoupling reason is a good one.
2. Once complete, holistically view your disposition chart. Depending on the number of items that fall into the “modernize CMS module” or “retire CMS module”, there is another option to retire the CMS entirely. Ensure your vendor is keeping up with the needs of your business.

Set boundaries and scope for your decoupled CMS modules

Buy vs. Build

Info-Tech Insight

It is never recommended to build. While this is an option some organizations pursued in the past, it is no longer considered to be particularly viable.

Relationship management is crucial

Vendor Management

Realize your CMS' expected value by:

• Demonstrating your value proposition. Even small operators that are having difficulty influencing the roadmap of a vendor can change the way the whole ecosystem works. If IT and the business don’t know their value, they won’t be able to sell themselves to their vendor.
• Implementing effective negotiation and collaboration tactics. Operators should look to negotiate with their current contract to upgrade items for free or at least a discounted cost. Constant collaborating and communicating with sales reps and developers is crucial.
• Ensuring performance. A CMS contract is a long commitment. A good vendor will help you identify upgrades or gaps you’re unaware of. If there’s a constant need to modernize or retire modules or applications, your CMS provider is not providing the value you expected.

Business Relationship Management

Create CMS business value by:

• Focusing on a trusted strategic relationship. Don’t just do well at the basics but also focus on the strategy that can move the organization to where it needs to be.
• Building a culture of accountability by facilitating the relationship between the business and the vendor. Regardless of who owns the system, IT needs to be a partner.
• Speaking the languages of both IT and the business, convey what the business wants in technical terms.
• Keeping track of external and internal views, ensure IT understands what’s going on within the business (i.e. shadow IT) as well as outside the industry (i.e. emerging technologies).

Sustain current CMS: Build the foundation for your application portfolio management

Reduce unnecessary costs and drive innovation.

Addressing the issues of application sprawl and poor application rationalization can help alleviate the sense of being locked in with the CMS, which may seem inflexible and difficult to improve due to these problems. APM identifies areas where you can reduce core spending and reinvest in innovation initiatives.

Replace current CMS: Leverage Info-Tech’s services for proper software selection

Improve software selection to ensure the casino management system you select truly aligns with the business’ needs.

Research Contributors and Experts

• Blake Rampmaier

  Chief Information Officer
  Boyd Gaming

• Candi Green

  Executive Advisor
  Info-Tech Research Group

• Edison Barreto

  Executive Counselor
  Info-Tech Research Group

• David Croft

  SVP of Gaming Optimization & Strategy
  Tangam Systems

• David Farlin

  Executive Counselor
  Info-Tech Research Group

• Robert Fayle

  Applications Advisory Lead
  Info-Tech Research Group

• John Ware

  VP of Global IT Services & Support
  Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment

• Don DeChamps

  Executive Advisor
  Info-Tech Research Group

Bibliography

“Casino Management Systems.” SoftwareReviews, n.d.

“CX Solutions.” Aristocrat Gaming, n.d.

“IGT Advantage Product Catalog 2022 Edition.” IGT, 2022.

“Light & Wonder Systems.” Light & Wonder, n.d.

Suleman, Aater. “How to avoid drowning in application sprawl.” Venture Beat, 2021.

“Viewpoints: Casino Management Systems.” Gaming America, 2022.