CIO 100: SKYCITY Entertainment Group

SKYCITY ENTERTAINMENT GROUP operates in the gaming/ entertainment, hotel and convention, hospitality, recreation, and tourism sectors. Its operations include casinos in New Zealand (Auckland, Hamilton and Queenstown) and Australia (Adelaide and Darwin), as well as industry-leading restaurants and bars, luxury hotels and convention centres.

This year, the trans-Tasman ICT team (84 based in New Zealand and 18 in Australia) will work on several projects around analytics, finance and supply chain and digital innovation.

Glen McLatchie is taking on the CIO role in April, following the resignation of Mike Clarke, who is now with the IT Advisory Group at KPMG. McClatchie came from Meridian Energy, where he was general manager information communication technology.

McLatchie says SKYCITY is a really interesting, fast-paced organisation, and like Meridian operates 24×7, “so I am used to that environment”.

In the past year, the ICT team completed several projects around gaming innovation. This year, they will focus on digital innovation projects and enhancements to the supply chain systems.

The group will also invest in customer experience technologies and systems operations automation with enterprise management software.

Some of the key challenges the team will face in upcoming months are implementation of two-speed IT and moving to digital platforms.