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The Interview
icki Chavez Munoz meets IGT’s new Regional Vice President of EMEA, Sabby Gill, and finds out his background, plans for the future, and what he brings to the gaming giant
There are not many gaming professionals in operations with an IT background, but with some useful pointers from the press release issued by International Game Technology (IGT), we made the journey to the global industry leader’s Amsterdam offices to meet Sabby Gill, IGT Regional Vice President of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
With a career in information technology, Gill who was head hunted from Hewlett-Packard where he was VP & GM of Partner and Mid-Size Enterprise Business in HP Software within the EMEA region, has a brief to expand IGT’s sales coverage and implement a global functional business partner strategy designed to leverage the full resources of IGT for growth in international markets.
As a mainstream casino operator with the essential knowledge in IT, I was about to enter a dialogue across disciplines, but fortunately with sales and marketing as common denominator. Sabby, as he is known, has that engaging first impression that makes you feel at ease, and he started with a verbal resume of his career, which needless to say, goes beyond HP.
Ricki Chavez Munoz: I expect that a career as WW Sales Operations Director at PeopleSoft, Inc., a company specialized in HR Management Systems, Financial Management Solutions, and other systems including customer relationship management software, is extremely helpful in your new IGT role?
Sabby Gill: “Yes it is, in addition to the other roles at CA, Oracle and most recently at HP. I must have been in almost every customer facing position you can imagine and all of that experience is coming in handy in my first eight weeks here at IGT. We’ve neglected some of our key customers over the last few years and customer satisfaction has taken a bit of a hit, we’ve not deployed our resources effectively and have always gone for the big deals and not necessarily serviced some of the smaller regions the way that IGT should have. That’s all going to change”
RCM: On the sales side in this industry and I expect other people might have told you this also; casino operators are fairly conservative and fond of keeping to casinospeak with casino minded providers. How are your plans to meet all types of gaming operators?
SG: “You don’t end up being number one and 2.5 times bigger than your next competitor without knowing the intricacies of your customers. We’ve done OK in the past, but expect us to level change the way that we react and interface with the market. We’ve upgraded our account teams and the support infrastructure with additional tools and resources, we’ve taken the best from the industry and ensuring these are adopted effectively. The one area that I was extremely conscious of when upgrading the teams was ensuring that we had industry knowledge and expertise, you can’t teach credibility. That comes with experience. That’s what we’ve done by hiring from within the industry.”
RCM: Craig Churchill, IGT’s senior vice president of International Sales, has said that you have ‘the ideal background for leading the growth of IGT in the EMEA markets,’ and I can see that your enthusiasm is contagious, but how does it translate in terms of customer relations and service as a key ingredient in these rather cynical deal making days?
SG: “That’s a great question. From the interaction I’ve had so far with customers, they are all experiencing similar issues, when you think about what we offer it is not to dissimilar to the industries I have worked in previously, there are solutions that need to show customers value and a high return on their investment. Isn’t that what sales is all about? This industry has relied on product and solution selling, customers require value selling. We need to show differentiation, and with all that IGT has to offer we are in an extremely good place to offer this more than any of our competitors, that’s why I am so excited with the opportunity that I have in running this organization.
RCM: You know, whenever I speak to an IT guy, there is a feeling that the language they use filled with initials and acronyms kind of put you at a disadvantage, but right now I feel that we are both on similar levels of language use. This is good news for all casino guys who need to get more into IT but without the inhibitions that the discipline carries for the uninitiated.
SG: “As I mentioned earlier, you can’t teach credibility. The past experiences I bring to this role, make me credible to customers. When they hear the vision and strategy we have and the future direction that IGT EMEA is taking and how IGT as a company continues with its Customer First purpose and promise, they get excited and keen to learn more. The enterprise software background and the disciplines and principles I’ve learned will be critical to my success here and from what I have seen so far, very much welcome by both IGT and our customers.
RCM: A comment I heard from you at G2E 2012, during the signing of the Letter of Intent with Holland Casino for the development and implementation of IGT’s new MOSAIC project, was related to player experience.
SG: “Yes, simply that IGT’s casino management solution will help Holland Casinos increase customer loyalty, but not only that, the player experience will be enhanced with IGT’s provision of unparalleled flexibility, relationship management functionality, and the tools necessary to optimally manage promotions and casino operations. – A bit of a mouthful – but being recognized as a partner and playing the role of a trusted business advisor to Holland Casino will absolutely allow us to deliver on their vision, and I am extremely excited the future outcomes the relationship will allows us both to experience.”
RCM: The main thrust of IGT’s sales strategy in EMEA is installations, such as Italy’s Casino de la Vallée, with a predominant mix of IGT’s MegaJackpots, Core For-Sale games and the industry leading sbX casino management system. Do you have any other large installs ongoing or in the near future?
SG: “One important installation is that of Evian. They installed sbX in April 2010 (with 53 new AVPs) and at the end of their fiscal year (October 31st, 2010) a first evaluation was made to ensure that they realized the benefits they expected:
• the growth of the casino on the whole exercise was 13.76% against +1.26% the prior year
• The entire floor benefited from the growth, the customers played other machines when all AVPs were occupied
• All main indicators increased (Gross Win, Theo Win, Drop and attendance)
Since the ROI rapidly increased (14 months), the board of directors voted for additional budget to be allocated and allowed Evian Casino to purchase an additional 18 new AVPs in FY11.
Today the casino growth on FY2011 is +16.58% (from November 2010 to August 2011), more than the national average across other casinos and similar solutions available. These good results are directly attributable to the decision to install sbX and to use its possibilities combined with the wide games library available on AVP cabinets and the marketing strategies put in place,
RCM: Finally, I noticed there were a lot of changes to your Amsterdam offices, with a new lobby in construction and changes to the gaming showroom.
SG: “When you have a brand like IGT with great solutions, I am a very firm believer that showing off what you have to the best of your ability is key and to do it well. We’ve just extended the lease here in Amsterdam for another five years and further commit to the EMEA IGT business, so upgrading the infrastructure and using the opportunity to include the new offerings in our show room was the right move. I want customers and prospects to come see us and get the full user experience with our solutions, we’ve got great references across Europe that assist us in doing this too, but they also want to upgrade to the latest and greatest which is what we incorporate here.”
Patti Hart, IGT CEO, has said that at the company is committed to “offering a streamlined, integrated, innovative systems solution, IGT will help provide a cutting-edge player experience”, and Sabby Gill shows that he has the will, determination and energy to carry this imposing strategy to step up IGT’s regional market share and in his words “level change” and enhance the global industry leader’s technological presence in casino floors in EMEA.
