Transforming tribal hospitality with technology
Transforming tribal hospitality with technology
Advances in technology can help make tribal gaming and hospitality more productive, secure, and sustainable.
Attracting and keeping staff
At this year’s State of the Nations address, it was revealed that tribal government gaming employs 63,000 people in California alone — an increase of 6,000 from last year.1 But as employment has expanded in tribal hospitality, so have challenges. A recent survey of 17 tribes in the northwestern US showed an average 52% turnover rate for gaming and hospitality.2
A contributing factor to the staffing shortages is a lack of remote work opportunities when compared to jobs outside tribal communities.3 In fact, less than 5% of tribal workers have remote work opportunities.4
Even when workers are available both remotely and in person, obstacles to productivity often remain due to budget constraints or lack of connectivity. This presents an opportunity to introduce more flexible devices, like the Lenovo ThinkPad® X13 Yoga, powered by Intel vPro®, An Intel® Evo™ Design and the latest Intel® Core™ processors with Windows 11 Pro, giving workers portable power, improved connectivity (5G-ready), and all-day battery life.
Break down even more obstacles to productivity with easy-to-access-anywhere professional development opportunities. This onboarding, and the welcoming sense of belonging to a community-based organization, can go a long way toward employee retention.
Adapting to new clients
The demographics for tribal hospitality are changing. The base of age 65+ customers who once were reliable repeat guests is beginning to decline. Younger crowds are now flocking to online gaming. In fact, 70% of online gamblers are between the ages of 18 and 39.5
Tribes have been taking online gaming seriously to protect the future of the business. A proposition that would have given control of online gaming to commercial interests outside the tribes was recently defeated in California due to strong opposition from tribal governments.1
Reorganizing in-person hospitality around a new generation of clients has meant courting fan clubs, making events more engaging, and analyzing patterns in customer preferences. There have also been major technological advances like optimizations to services made in real time based on customer behavior.
The ability to process this much data is within reach now, thanks to solutions like the Lenovo ThinkStation® portfolio that features a full range of powerful ISV-certified workstation options and brings unprecedented Intel® and Microsoft Windows 11 Pro performance.
Securing against increased threats
Security must expand to meet the growing needs of customers and staff, especially with the sensitivity of the data used in the gaming and hospitality industries.
Experts say gaming businesses must prepare for an increase in cyberattacks on top of the astounding 300%–400% increases in attacks they’ve seen over the past two years.6
Securing hospitality venues means more than just cybersecurity, though. AI-powered tools are making it possible to analyze security feeds for threats in real time while auditing transactions after the fact to track down inconsistencies from within the organization.
As Jennifer Boss of Tribal Gaming and Hospitality magazine explained, “It is easy to hide theft and fraud. However, we can use that same technology to track it down. It is our job to make the invisible, visible!”7
AI tools can also help with monitoring your data and managing patches automatically, so you’re always ready for known threats. Devices with Lenovo ThinkShield® and Intel vPro® platform protection, including Intel® Hardware Shield, feature advanced AI-powered endpoint protection — predicting tomorrow’s attacks today and enabling devices to self-heal from broad modes of attack instantaneously.
Sustaining a healthy environment and bottom line
Conservation of the land and resources is good for the future of tribal lands and good for business, too. Among the many reasons cited for the Indian Gaming Association (IGA) and the National Congress of American Indians joining together recently to reactivate the IGA/NCAI Tribal Leaders Task Force was to press for action on climate change initiatives.
Energy and waste management are among the top concerns of the hospitality and gaming industry, but they can also be top opportunities for process improvements and savings.
For example, outsourcing the lifecycle management of your hardware is a much easier and more sustainable way to maintain and phase out aging devices while ensuring environmental impact is minimized.
Even the act of transitioning to paperless documentation can dramatically streamline the budget, audit processes, and information storage within many organizations.
Simply monitoring these sustainability measures can reveal unexpected areas of savings. Many IT professionals discover they can reduce the impact of their technology through as-a-service offerings that include lifecycle management from end to end precisely matched to their needs. Lenovo TruScale Device as a Service (TruScale DaaS) eliminates overprovisioning and optimizes resources and costs through a predictable subscription model.
Finding the right partner
Lenovo is a trusted partner for hundreds of tribal-owned and operated organizations. We have multiple certifications highlighting our ongoing relationship with tribal nations. Explore solutions engineered to stay connected, secure, and productive, and take advantage of experts devoted to the needs of tribal IT teams.
Visit us today or contact your Lenovo representative for Tribal Organizations.
