Case Studies:Driving Operational Excellence Through IT Managed Services

Engagement Overview

A leading tribal gaming and hospitality operator with multiple resort and casino properties across the U.S. and Caribbean. AIS was engaged to deliver a comprehensive Managed Services solution that supported responsible IT transformation while aligning with their operational priorities and growth strategy.

Before AIS stepped in, our client’s internal teams often waited days for new integrations to go live—delaying sales promotions and customer experiences. By introducing automated pipelines, AIS cut integration time nearly in half. This meant marketing campaigns launched faster, guests enjoyed new features sooner, and IT teams could focus on innovation instead of troubleshooting.

Business Challenge

When the team received the green light to start on the work, we leveraged our extensive DoD experience building landing zones and embedded best practices as the foundation of the program. Rather than getting other teams started or diving into manual builds, we spent our first two-week sprint creating basic templates, establishing a source-code repository, and setting up the DevOps automation for quick, repeatable deployments.

Taking the time to lay this foundation helped us avoid snowballing technical debt that would be difficult to fix later. It smoothed our path for future sprints, and we were able to get everything done and support the productivity of other teams without creating any blockers. Plus, building automation into the system has empowered the team to redeploy quickly in the event of a crash and allows our engineers to provide even more value. The success of this approach unfolded in real-time, which sold the team on the value of establishing agile business practices and automation from the start.

Design and delivery

With a growing footprint and complex IT ecosystem, the client faced several critical challenges and needed a Managed Services partner who could ensure high availability, rapid incident resolution, and scalable support for their Azure-based infrastructure and data platforms. Specifically, AIS needed to address:

• Legacy complexity and scalability needs: Existing Oracle-based systems and fragmented integrations limited agility and performance.
• Operational continuity: Gaming and hospitality operations demand near-zero downtime and strict compliance with service-level guarantees.
• Cost predictability and efficiency: Leadership sought a fixed-price managed model to replace ad-hoc support and reduce risk.
• Knowledge retention: Frequent escalations and lack of documented solutions slowed resolution times and increased dependency on senior engineers.

The AIS Solution

AIS implemented a Managed Services framework built on three pillars:

1. Proactive Monitoring & Incident Response
   • 24×7 monitoring of Azure workloads, Dataverse applications, and integrations.
   • Automated alerting and tiered escalation workflows to meet severity-based SLAs.
2. Knowledge-Driven Operations
   • Establishing a robust knowledge base integrated with ServiceNow for ITSM.
   • Shift-left strategy to empower Tier 1 engineers with documented solutions and training.
3. Scalable Support Model
   • Offshore delivery blended with onshore governance for cost efficiency.
   • Flexible capacity planning to accommodate client’s evolving workloads, including AI Ops and analytics platforms.

Key Outcomes

Our engagement delivered measurable improvements across all major performance indicators:

• 100% SLA Compliance
  Every ticket met severity-based response targets without exception, ensured urgent issues were addressed promptly.
  • Benefit: Predictable IT performance reduced risk of revenue loss from downtime and ensures compliance in regulated industries.
• 99.99% System Uptime
  Through proactive monitoring and rapid remediation, downtime was limited to mere minutes per month, safeguarding gaming and hospitality operations.
  • Benefit: Safeguard profitability in an industry where even 1 hour of downtime can cost $10K–$100K in lost revenue.
• 30% Reduction in Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR)
  Leveraging smart troubleshooting workflows and a mature knowledge base, incident resolution accelerated significantly, minimizing business impact.
  • Benefit: Real-time monitoring can cut unplanned downtime by 30–50%, saving $250K–$500K per hour in industries like manufacturing or gaming.
• 95–98% First Call Resolution (FCR)
  Most issues were resolved on the first contact, reducing friction for end users and improving overall service experience.
  • Benefit: Each avoided escalation saves hundreds of dollars e; high FCR reduces total ticket volume and improves employee productivity.
• Shift-Left Efficiency
  Tier 1 handled ~30% more tickets than before, freeing senior engineers for strategic initiatives and reducing operational costs.
  • Benefit: Cuts labor costs for escalations and accelerates projects that drive revenue growth.
• High adoption of documented solutions drove consistency, speed, and quality in issue resolution.
  • Benefit: Reduces training costs and onboarding time for new staff, saving thousands annually.
• 100% Customer Satisfaction
  Formal surveys and quarterly business reviews reflected impeccable client feedback, underscoring the success of the managed services model.
  • Benefit: Avoids churn and opens upsell opportunities, directly impacting top-line growth.

Strategic Impact

Beyond operational metrics, AIS helped client by moving from Oracle to Microsoft Dataverse and Fabric, unlocking:

• Real-time insights instead of batch reporting.
• AI-powered automation and Copilot integration possibilities.
• Faster integrations and reduced operational overhead.
• Scalable, secure architecture aligned with modern compliance standards.

Dataverse provided a low-code, SaaS-based data platform integrated with Power Platform, allowing our customer to manage structured business data securely and consistently across applications.

• AIS’s modernization solution reduced integration time by 40% and achieved 100% uptime with implemented Azure APIs and automated workflows,
• AIS replaced static Oracle reports with interactive Power BI dashboards connected to Dataverse and Fabric. This upgrade enabled real-time analytics and predictive insights, replacing batch reporting and improving operational visibility across all properties.
• By integrating Dataverse with Copilot and Azure OpenAI, AIS unlocked generative AI capabilities for HR chatbots and advanced decision-making. This innovation reduced routine HR inquiries, freeing staff to focus on strategic initiatives—a leap that was impossible with Oracle’s legacy stack.
• Dataverse empowered the client to build custom apps and workflows without heavy coding, cutting development cycles and reducing reliance on specialized Oracle DBAs. This means new customer-facing features weeks faster, driving competitive advantage.
• With advanced encryption, granular access controls, and Microsoft Purview auditing, AIS strengthened client’s compliance posture and reduced audit preparation time compared to Oracle’s traditional security model. This improvement lowered regulatory risk and safeguarded sensitive data across all properties.

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