IBM has announced a new partner program in which it will serve select sub-markets in order to drive business for its partners while speeding customer implementations with specialized, local knowledge. One industry segment where IBM has already demonstrated success is the rapidly growing $50 billion casino industry.

At the center of IBMÆs leadership in the casino industry is the System i platform, used by more than 70 percent of U.S. gaming and hospitality organizations, according to a new study by International Technology Group (ITG).*

To help grow its leadership position in sub-industries in which IBM believes the System i can provide a unique business advantage -- like casinos -- the company announced its new System i Vertical Industry Program (VIP), designed to meet the needs of specific customer segments by partnering with local Independent Solution Vendors (ISVs) and business partners that specialize in these specific industries.

The program will focus on building a strong community of solution providers, resellers, and integrators focused on solving very specific customer needs through co-marketing activity, sales support and stronger connections among partners. Customers will benefit from competitively priced solutions optimized to integrate with the System i for faster and simpler implementations.

The System i VIP for the hospitality and casino industry includes solution providers Agilysys, Bally Technologies, InfoGenesis and Infinium from Infor to help IBM increase its reach to casino resorts around the world with local and specialized expertise. Globally, these five companies provide more than 80 percent of the solutions critical to hospitality and casino management.

ôThe System i VIP will allow IBM to provide greater value to its System i partners as well as existing and prospective customers,ö said Kevin Patterson, director of worldwide sales for IBM System i. ôOur efforts in the hospitality and casino industry are a particularly good example of what can be accomplished when we team closely with our partners. System i has dominated this industry for years and with our renewed focus and sophisticated integration, we expect to capture an even larger segment of the casino market.ö

IBM and its four casino-focused partners provide an integrated suite of solutions anchored by the System i platform. Integrating each of the partnersÆ solutions on the System i creates a ôCasino-in-a-boxö that provides a complete IT infrastructure to handle every facet of a casino resortÆs business -- from property management, casino management, and point-of-sale to financial and human resources management.

Also part of the System i VIP program for hospitality and casino customers is the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), which is closely aligned with the industry. UNLV will provide skilled IT employees for the local hospitality and casino customers the System i VIP will serve.

UNLV also recently joined the System i Academic Initiative and its College of Business will begin teaching System i-based curriculum tailored to its students in the Fall semester. Approximately 80 percent of UNLVÆs undergraduates settle in Las Vegas, so its IT students will now be well equipped to operate the business systems most commonly used in Las Vegas casinos.

Casinos and hotels operate on a continuous basis and any downtime is guaranteed to impact profits. For that reason, more than 94 percent of respondents to the ITG study cited the incomparable reliability of System i as a critical reason for employing the platform.

ITG also found that it costs 51 to 57 percent less to run lodging and casino management applications on System i compared to Windows-based servers over a three-year period.

Other System i capabilities valued by casino customers include high-level system integration, exceptional scalability, low staffing requirements for system and database administration as well as distinctive strengths in disaster recovery, security and virus protection. It was generally agreed that the capabilities of System i in all of these areas were -- by wide margins -- better than those of competitive platforms, primarily Windows servers, according to ITG.

ItÆs these characteristics that have made the following casinos long-time System i users: The Seminole Hard Rock Hotels and Casinos in Tampa and Hollywood, Fla., combine gaming and dining with spas, world-class shopping and lush pools to create a vacation destination. Seminole connects its hotel and back office systems to the System i and, like all casinos, requires that its systems are constantly available. Seminole put the reliability of System i to the test when Hurricane Wilma hit the area in 2005 and both of its properties continued to run without any issues.

With 16 casino entertainment properties in the US, Boyd Gaming is one of the most geographically diversified companies in the gaming industry. Its properties include the Suncoast Hotel and Casino and Sam's Town in Las Vegas, Nev., as well as properties in Louisiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Indiana, and New Jersey. Boyd runs the majority of its business critical applications on the System i because of its reliability. Throughout the recent Super Bowl, which provided a busy weekend for the casino industry, Boyd's Vice President of Information Technologies Denny Frey says he was at home watching the game, secure in the knowledge that System i would handle any transaction spike.

In addition to the hospitality and casino industry, IBM will launch more than 80 VIPs for System i in 15 countries this year, working closely with IBM partners to focus on such industries as small local retailers in Australia, small health facilities in the UK and retail banks in the US. By helping partners maximize their expertise in a particular local sub-industry, the program will allow partners to replicate their efforts in similar sub-industries elsewhere in the world.