To Dion Duran and Anitra Robertson,
I thought you may be interested in my own experiences.
I joined Rank Leisure Division in early 1997 to help set up a GIS team as
part of the Property & Development Department, tasked with providing
information for site search and selection for their cinema, bingo, casino
and nightclub operations.
After Christmas 1997 three of my colleagues were made redundant as part of
a cost cutting exercise which affected the whole of the Leisure division.
The remaining 3 personnel, Andy Thompson, Jonathan Walker and myself were
moved to form a new "Market Intelligence Department" within the Gaming
Division (Grosvenor Casinos and Mecca Bingo). In this role we enhanced the
use of MapInfo to analyse the wealth of customer data in the Gaming
Division and provide decision support to the Marketing function. Alongside
this we continued to help with decision support for Rank's development
programme.
In 1998 a number of factors threatened the breakup of the department,
including the possibility of further redundancies, individual career
aspirations and approaches by other companies.
We have now come to a much better arrangement, we decided to leave and
form our own company. Rather than lose our skills and the potential loss
of expertise to competitors, Rank signed an outsourcing contract with us.
The newly formed GeoBusiness Solutions Ltd specialise in spatial modelling
and customer analysis and provide the expertise to support site location
and marketing decisions.
This is good for us because:
- we are now in control of our own destiny
- we can continue working together as a team
- it offers a chance to work in other markets
- it allows us to expand our skills with new technologies
This is good for Rank because:
- it offers flexibility in terms of resourcing (problems with staffing is
now our problem)
- it provides greater accountability - most projects have to show cost
benefits
- they manage to retain key GIS personnel as well as let them go!!
- the service will benefit from the wider experience from other industries
Obviously there is a risk but we managed to secure financial backing
without mortgaging everything we own.
So, it just proves that cost cutting can be a positive experience! Good
Luck!!
Regards
Steve Halsall
GeoBusiness Solutions Ltd
PO Box 346
Aylesbury
HP17 8ND
UK
email [EMAIL PROTECTED]
url www.geobusiness.co.uk
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