Harrah's Leverages Force.com Platform to Build Custom Applications for Managing Room Reservations, Air Travel Programs and Player Relations
Global entertainment company uses cloud computing to drive new business and reap operational
improvements
SAN FRANCISCO - November 24, 2008 - Salesforce.com [NYSE:
CRM], the enterprise cloud computing company, today announced that Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. has
used the Force.com Platform to build applications designed specifically for managing room
reservations, air travel programs and player relations. These innovative new capabilities,
built and deployed in just a matter of months, have delivered significant operational improvements
as well as supported increased business to the company's 50 casinos domestically and abroad.
Harrah's Entertainment is one of the 51,800 companies of all sizes, industries and
geographies that comprised the salesforce.com customer base as of October 31, 2008. Revenue and
subscribers will be recognized as the service is delivered.
"At Harrah's we know that innovation helps us continually surprise and satisfy our customers,
as well as keep us a step ahead of our competitors," said Tim Stanley, CIO and senior vice
president of innovation, gaming and technology at Harrah's Entertainment. "When we discovered
how we could leverage cloud computing to develop new systems and enhance our existing capabilities
that we use to run our business, we were thrilled to take advantage of the Force.com Platform."
In addition to reservations agents within the casinos, Harrah's has nearly 50 branch offices
and 250 independent representatives who help customers participate in the company's air travel
programs, book rooms, and enjoy casino amenities. Prior to innovating several new custom
Force.com applications, many of these interactions were manual and time consuming. Booking a
room, for example, might require the field representatives to fax reservation requests to the
appropriate casino and took days of back and forth manual coordination to process. A new
capability now allows Harrah's representatives to make room requests via a secure Web portal, and
confirmations are received within hours.
Another innovative capability developed on the Force.com Platform integrates information from
airline vendors and legacy travel management systems to provide Harrah's with a single, easy-to-use
scheduling and yield management tool for its best customers. The application makes all travel
options and occupancy rates immediately available, and has helped Harrah's accommodate increased
VIP and International business.
"We have been advocates and innovators with a variety of SOA, SAAS and other enabling tools,
technology and platforms for years and Force.com has shown strong promise as a viable, scalable and
flexible platform for several new capabilities we can envision for our business," added Stanley.
"We have now delivered several new applications that provide demonstrable benefits to our business
- and we are already pushing ahead into a wider array of new and enhanced capabilities including
deeper integration with some of our existing CRM and transactional systems. It's been a high value
and low cost initiative for us."
About the Force.com Platform and AppExchange
The Force.com platform (http://www.force.com/) reinvents the traditional development,
deployment and distribution of any business application. Developers, customers and partners can use
Force.com to easily create and deliver a new generation of Software-as-a-Service
applications. Force.com allows applications to be easily shared, exchanged and installed with
a few simple clicks via the Force.com AppExchange marketplace, enabling all the innovation that
Force.com unleashes to be easily distributed to the entire Software-as-a-Service community.
The Force.com AppExchange economy continues to expand, with thousands of customers installing
applications via the AppExchange. Customers of all sizes can quickly and easily extend the benefits
of Software-as-a-Service business applications throughout their enterprises using the Force.com
AppExchange, found at http://www.salesforce.com/appexchange/.
About Harrah's Entertainment
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, innovative products, unsurpassed distribution, operational
excellence and technology leadership. For more information, please visit www.harrahs.com.
About Salesforce.com
Salesforce.com is the enterprise cloud computing company. The company's portfolio of Salesforce CRM applications, available at http://www.salesforce.com/products/, has revolutionized the ways that companies collaborate and communicate with their customers across sales, marketing and service. The company’s Force.com platform (http://www.salesforce.com/platform/) helps customers, partners and developers to quickly build powerful business applications to run every part of the enterprise in the cloud. Based on salesforce.com’s real-time, multitenant architecture, Salesforce CRM and Force.com offer the fastest path to customer success with cloud computing.
As of January 31st , 2010, salesforce.com manages customer information for approximately 72, 500 customers including Allianz Commercial, Dell, Japan Post, Kaiser Permanente, KONE, and SunTrust Banks. Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase salesforce.com applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available. Salesforce.com has headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "CRM". For more information please visit http://www.salesforce.com, or call 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE.
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