EBCI - Caesars Southern Indiana

Oracle Cloud Optimization

The Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians (EBCI) is a sovereign nation located within the borders of the United States in the Qualla Boundary, which encompasses untouched mountains, rivers, and forests and is located next to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  In August 2022, Caesars Entertainment, Inc.(NASDAQ: CZR) (“Caesars”) and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (“EBCI”) announced their partnership in the development of Caesars Virginia. The $650 million project will be a tourism engine and economic driver for Danville and the broader region. The full-service entertainment facility will create thousands of construction and operational jobs and is scheduled to open in late 2024.

Scope of the Project

Elire was engaged with EBCI via Oracle, with Oracle recommending Elire as an Oracle Cloud Services Partner to support the Oracle Cloud optimization work needed. Elire was tasked with extending the Caesars Southern Indiana/EBCI Operational footprint of Oracle Cloud beyond their initial implementation as they grow their operations opening new racetracks and casino business lines in 2023. This project involved the expansion of two new legal entities for Cloud HCM and ERP, as well as implementing the following Cloud modules and functionality as a part of the ongoing Oracle Cloud ERP & HCM implementation project.

The Elire project team was comprised of dedicated staff to provide Project Management, Functional Consulting, and Technical Leadership. Throughout the project, Elire conducted Functional Workshops to review and validate business processes along with Technical Workshops, configure Oracle Cloud utilizing a modified agile methodology, and perform multiple rounds of testing.  

Elire also supported advisory efforts including an improved payroll business process, configuration of additional life events that were missing, domestic partner related business process, implementation of intercompany accounting, and optimization of Procurement and Inventory items and tasks – specifically around Unit of Measure.

The Challenge

EBCI/Caesars runs a highly complex organization with plans to continue adding new businesses to its existing enterprise. The Elire team spent considerable time re-defining their current enterprise to ensure flexibility and opportunities in Oracle Cloud to meet the growth goals of the leadership team. The Elire team also discovered issues in current configurations which did not meet the needs of Caesars Southern Indiana (CSI).

During the project it was discovered that the existing Enterprise work structure was not correctly defined, which caused a challenge for expansion project where all modules wouldn’t work seamlessly. Additionally, the work structure was already configured and in use by the CSI Business Unit, that made it further challenging, as the redesign cannot only be done with the already configured structure.

The project team resolved this challenge by renaming the EBCI Business Unit to CSI Operating Company LLC BU for all workers currently affiliated with CSI Operating Company, and the name change was propagated through the database. The team then defined the EBCI Holdings LLC as a Legal Entity, and defined a EBCI Holdings LLC Business Unit that is not below a Legal Entity.

Success Delivered

The Project was successfully delivered on time and on budget July 31, 2023, with the Elire team able to deliver above what was in the original SOW. Elire reconfigured the Enterprise structures for CSI, with key efficiencies achieved including the ability for the Sandy’s (RRKY) New Legal Entity and EBCI Legal Entity to operate by themselves. The CSI has shared service capability and can view and access both Sandys’ and EBCI. Additional re-design was completed on several integrations and core configuration components to improve the client’s ability to use Oracle Cloud in a more streamlined fashion. The team also provided unofficial training during prototype sessions and UAT, educating the users with Oracle functionality.

Elire has started providing Managed Services to CSI as they continue to stabilize in their second year of being on Oracle Cloud. This support is ongoing including continued initiatives planned for 2024.

Interested in learning more about how Elire can assist your Cloud team? Visit our Cloud Services Page or contact our team at [email protected].