Tech Sunday: What are the main IT requirements of a gaming company?

Trevor Bezzina: At the very core of every gaming company are the needs to efficiently manage affiliate networks, speed up billing processes and ensure conformity to legislation. In Europe, there are various legislations governing gaming companies, so the eGaming services provider needs to be aware of the different regulations in every country in which it operates.

CRM solution is particularly beneficial for handling client issues

It is also important for the provider to establish a link between the online betting system and the company’s back-end system that handles invoicing and all other financial aspects.

Such requirements are critical for the effective running of the eGaming services provider, who must ensure that its IT infrastructure is flexible enough to address these needs.

What are the advantages of having a fully-integrated software solution?

Our solution enables industry standard functionality that leverages from the flexibility of Microsoft Dynamics NAV – an Enterprise Resource Planning solution which is currently in use by over one million users in 42 countries.

It is specifically designed to encompass eGaming back-office operations onto one, fully-integrated platform, helping eGaming services providers achieve greater financial freedom.

Featuring a rule-based approach, the fully-integrated solution allows for complete auto- mation of business processes, eliminating the necessity to retain external systems or any form of manual documentation while establishing a systematic method for the daily running of the service provider’s business.

Through its flexible integration interface, the solution provides the capability to retrieve information from any front-end appli-cation, eliminating human intervention. This reduces the margin of error normally associated with manual applications.

The system also enables more auditable processes and greater user accountability, while ensuring faster and more accurate transaction processing. The solution simplifies the processes involved and relieves system users from the burdens associated with training, as the learning curve for new system users is kept to a bare minimum.

What was your role in developing Exigy’s eGaming Process Platform?

I held a managerial role for coordinating the project and guiding the business consultants in establishing and collecting the typical requirements of an eGaming service provider and designing the solution that caters for these needs.

The design and delivery phases entailed: defining the relation between the affiliate network entities and the billing aspect of the solution, mapping manual processes to automated processes, establishing the customisations needed to the in-built processes of Microsoft Dynamics NAV and integrating the client front-end with the solution back-end.

I was also responsible to lead the software development team towards developing the solution from start to finish and overlooked the delivery of end-user training.

When was the platform developed and what did the development entail?

The platform was developed over a two-year period between 2009 and 2010, utilising industry best practices and standards and taking advantage of the latest trends in technology.

The development of the solution entailed the introduction of the affiliate network entities within the system, the integration of new entities into already existing system entities, the creation of the actual billing functionality which mimics the processes involved in the manual inputting of invoicing, the customisation of the system’s in-built bank reconciliation functionality and the customisation of the system to cater for the legal aspect.

What does the platform offer?

The platform provides a robust, yet flexible, solution that manages all aspects of gaming operations, starting from the very core value-adding activities and moving on to secondary operations necessitated through the complex nature of the business.

In ensuring efficient maintenance and full control of multiple affiliates – agents, shops and channels – the solution caters for the automatic calculation of agent commissions and instant updating of commissions, bonuses and deposit accounts. The solution’s powerful reporting functionality enables visibility into detailed management statistics as well as enhanced shop and agent reports. A number of Gaming Authority reports are designed according to specific local legislative requirements.

The platform also provides billing processes management. Collecting information from the betting channel level upwards, the solution automates the daily upload of betting transactions whereby entries are validated according to a number of predefined rules.

The billing engine within the platform enables the application of an unlimited number of rules and computation formulas to uploaded transactions. Billing reports with detailed information on monthly, per billing cycle, yearly and per shop basis can be generated. Summary reports with information on what has been billed to individual channels can also be produced.

With a centralised function for all bank-related processes – such as automated bank guarantees, deposit management, payment processing and bank reconciliation – the solution also enables greater control of corporate finances.

Payments are automatically generated and payment files created and uploaded to respective bank payment processing systems in the required format. Upon payment generation, the information is instantly available to the client, based upon payment type and bank account information.

What maintenance and support do you offer for the eGaming Process Platform?

We provide ongoing support on any issues that the client may encounter, including end user enquiries on how to use the solution, process issues, new user scenarios that need to be created, changes to the billing aspects brought about by changes in the legislation, the design of any new processes as needed by the client and re-training on any new aspects introduced.

What other eGaming solutions do you offer?

While the eGaming process platform provides a holistic view of all day-to-day transactions taking place within the affiliate network, a Customer Relationship Management solution takes this a step further by providing a contact management solution that can be adapted to the particular needs of the eGaming services provider.

Seamlessly integrating with the eGaming process platform, the CRM solution is particularly beneficial for handling client issues, generating follow-ups according to customer status and automating the sending of invoices, overdue reports and customer statements.

Another beneficial solution is Collaboration, which provides the eGaming services provider with better document management capabilities for storing, searching and handling important documentation such as legal notices and agreements with affiliates.