MGM Grand Hotel, Casino & Resort
OEM:MICROS Systems, Inc.

Las Vegas, Nevada

It took four years and $1 billion to build. It combines more facilities and recreational opportunities than any other single resort in the world, including the largest hotel (5,005 rooms) and the largest casino ever constructed. It’s called the MGM Grand Hotel, Casino & Resort. On any given day, this resort processes tens of thousands of transactions in numerous bars, restaurants, showrooms and other revenue centers. Designing and installing an advanced point-of-sale (POS) system to accommodate this high volume of transactions efficiently was no small task.

“The MGM Grand was very unique in terms of its scale,” says Dan Interlandi, senior vice president of sales and marketing at MICROS Systems, the OEM whose 8700 Hospitality Management System was installed in the MGM Grand’s food and beverage outlets. “MGM wanted the most advanced POS technology available—and that’s what we delivered. In a matter of days, we got 145 touchscreen-based POS terminals up and running in 33 different revenue centers—including eight restaurants, several bars, two concert showrooms and a theme park pool area. It was an enormous undertaking.”

Touch Cuts Training Costs

By installing touchscreens on all of the resort’s POS terminals, Beltsville, Maryland-based MICROS enabled MGM managers to reduce employee training costs while eliminating durability problems associated with traditional, flat-keyboard terminals with fixed keys.

“By definition, hotel & casino resorts confront high employee turnover,” Interlandi says. “Touchscreens are a natural fit for this environment because they make the training process fast and easy. And unlike a keyboard, which gets dirty and becomes less resilient over time, a touchscreen is durable over the long haul.

“In addition,” Interlandi adds, “touchscreens do away with legend sheets, which have to be slipped in and out of a flat keyboard. In general, touchscreens are more flexible. For example, at 10:30 every morning, the touchscreen will automatically switch from breakfast to a lunch menu. That kind of flexibility helps the restaurant and bar managers avoid unnecessary confusion so they can focus on serving customers.”

For the MGM Grand Resort project, MICROS selected Elo TouchSystems as its touchscreen supplier. “Our main requirements in selecting a touchscreen were durability and processing speed,” says Interlandi. “Elo TouchSystems delivered the durability, the high-quality and high-performance product we needed. Elo’s touchscreens were priced right and were in plentiful supply. And we knew Elo had the engineering talent to provide dependable on-going support.”

An Innovative POS System

To give managers at the MGM Grand maximum control over their operations and expenses, MICROS opted to install its 8700 Hospitality Management System (HMS), which comprises SCO Unix-based software running on industry standard file servers. The 8700 HMS operates 24 hours per day. The system’s multi-user capabilities enable MGM managers to reset the entire POS system at the end of each day without affecting front-of-the-house POS operations.

The 8700 HMS links directly to a liquor dispensing system, which automatically rings up a drink charge on the bartender’s touchscreen terminal as the drink is poured through a dispensing gun. The system reduces the number of keystrokes the bartender must enter, thus speeding service to customers.

The 8700 HMS also interfaces with MGM’s credit-card processing system. This enables cashiers and bartenders to perform the entire “close check” process on one device—their touchscreen POS terminal—rather than from multiple POS and credit authorization devices. The end result is faster customer service.

Simple Interface Shields Complexity

Although the POS system MICROS tailored for the MGM Grand is sophisticated and innovative, Interlandi and his colleagues considered it critical that end users be shielded from its complexity.

“The most efficient POS system is the one that’s simple to use even if you’ve had limited training time. The touch interface plays a vital role in achieving that level of simplicity. The touchscreens shields the complex inner workings of the POS system so that users can focus on what’s important—serving customers.”

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