Betting on collaboration

The Michigan Gaming Control Board was established in 1996 to license and regulate private commercial casino gaming and to oversee Native American casino operations in the state.

To ease its government reporting responsibilities, the board was looking for an enterprise solution that would:

• facilitate compliance with the Freedom of Information Act, which allows citizens to access current gaming operations information;

• automate the capture of data for financial earnings reports and tax returns for auditing purposes;

• offer casinos and gaming control offices a single point of access to customer and constituent data; and

• allow casino employees, suppliers and vendors to enter and update application information online in real time.

Developed by Xerox Connectk, the collaborative commerce solution chosen by the Gaming Control Board manages customer relationship and supply chain management. It consists of Livelink collaboration, workflow and search-and-retrieval software from Open Text and Dialog Server’s XML-based Web interface from ActionPoint. The two applications are integrated to deliver a single interface to manage and store the board’s information.

Nancy Horton, deputy director of the Gaming Control Board, explains, “MGCB required a simple, viable method of capturing large volumes of both electronic and paper-based data via the Web. The beauty of the Livelink/Dialog Server solution is that it enables the board to streamline administrative processing of employee applications, tax returns and supplier licenses by capturing, storing and organizing knowledge in a structured, secure manner.”

The enterprise solution is extended to include casino employees, the gaming control office, federal agents, traveling inspectors, suppliers, vendors and the general public, according to Andrew Pery, VP of global marketing for Open Text. The solution improves customer relationship management and supply chain management, he says, by facilitating secure access to auditing information, licensing, contract and application status, as well as information about public funds requested under the Freedom of Information Act.