Case Studies Alderney Gambling Control Commission - Automated Workflow
The Alderney Gambling Control Commission's new automated workflow system has delivered real improvements in efficiency and productivity.
Background
The Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) was established in May 2000. The Commission, consisting of the Chairman and three members, is independent and non-political, and regulates eGambling on behalf of the States of Alderney.
The Commission has to ensure that its regulatory and supervisory approach meets the very highest of international standards.
As well as new licence applications, regulation requires that for all existing licensees, any ‘minor’ changes (to a game; introduction of a new game; changes to processes) need approval by the Commission.
With a surge in the market place for online gaming, coupled with the ongoing promotion of Alderney as a centre of excellence for the eGaming industry, the AGCC was receiving ever increasing volumes of requests for authorisations. The number of live operations had doubled over a two year period with a proportionate increase in the number of change requests received.
Business Challenge
The manual system was just no longer able to cope with demand; turnaround times were increasing - leading to frustrations amongst potential and existing licensees. The Island’s reputation and that of its business partners (infrastructure suppliers) was potentially in danger of suffering temporary damage.
At this juncture the Comission could have chosen to employ more people to cope with demand – incurring the inevitable additional cost which would have had to be passed on to the licensees - running the danger of making the jurisdiction uncompetitive.
So the decision was taken to look for an automated solution and Itex was approached for assistance.
Solution
The need for an automated workflow solution was evident in order to facilitate submission of change control documents by email and by means of a web site.
Itex was commissioned to produce a system which would allow the AGCC to better manage changes requested by licensees
The system needed a three tier approach to accommodate the three types of requests received: new game; game change; and routine change.
Given the tight legislative framework in which the gaming industry operates, the competitive nature of the industry plus the need to protect any systems from fraudsters, security was of paramount importance.
Other specific objectives outlined in the briefing process were:
• Reduction of processing time – particularly for routine change requests;
• Intuitive user-friendly system;
• A resilient system;
• Accessibility from around the world – the AGCC has a global client base operating in different time zones.
Itex implemented a portal and workflow system on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.
The system has some excellent features which tackled all requirements including the key issue of security which was one of the main concerns. Users have dual level authentication as well as being issued with a key fob device displaying a six digit code which changes every minute.
The workflow has three streams which accommodates the multiple nature of the requests and users have 24/7 access via the web-based portal.
Benefits
The benefits of the new system were numerous and procedural improvements were immediate.
- The processing of low risk routine requests has improved significantly – the automated solution allows AGCC staff to consider approval with minimal delay. The time saved on these requests has enabled an improvement on the turnaround time for the other two categories of request;
- These clear improvements in processing time results in concrete benefits for licensees in implementing commercially critical solutions quickly
- the comprehensive document management system enables clients to upload documents and financial reports at any time;
- there is real-time visibility of progress both for AGCC and licensees;
- all documents relating to individual change requests can be viewed;
- a full audit trail is maintained