By ONG BOON KIAT

GERMAN IT vendor Wincor Nixdorf has scored an eye-catching retail technology deal to provide point-of-sales (POS) hardware, software and services to Genting Singapore's Resorts World at Sentosa (RWS).

It is the latest IT deal by RWS to come to light, following a string of them in recent months. The 49-hectare integrated resort, which is expected to cater to over 12 million visitors next year, has already awarded large-scale IT projects to Cisco Systems, Dell, Lenovo, NEC Asia, Singapore Technologies Electronics (ST Electronics) and Singapore Telecommunications, as it gets ready to open the doors of its casinos, hotels and malls next year.

Wincor Nixdorf, a major provider of IT solutions to retail banks and retailers and has presence in over 100 countries, said that its deployment at RWS is of a 'reasonable size' for Singapore, and a strategic one.

'The deployment is important because it includes integrated hardware and software for a prestigious customer,' Andrew Phay, Wincor Nixdorf's Asia-Pacific vice-president and head of retail, told BizIT.

He said that RWS chose Wincor Nixdorf - which has its regional headquarters and service management operations in Singapore - because of the vendor's end-to-end offerings and strong support capabilities here.

Wincor Nixdorf's solution at RWS will span front-end POS to back-end merchandising systems.

It includes self-service kiosks at the casino floor to provide visitors with information. They will also be able to use their casino membership cards to check and redeem points for hotel stays and other promotions, as well as print entrance tickets for future casino visits.

'RWS visitors will be able to securely check their gaming points, change their PIN number and redeem membership points,' said Mr Phay.

A fleet of 86 multi-functional POS systems will be deployed at RWS's own retail outlets. The resort will use Wincor Nixdorf's mall intelligence software to help monitor the performance of its retail outlets across the resort, as well as tenants.

When open, RWS will feature South-east Asia's first Universal Studios theme park, the world's largest oceanarium, casinos, six hotels, retail stores and restaurants.

There has been much interest in the IT procurement exercises by RWS and Marina Bay Sands - Singapore's two upcoming integrated resorts - given the sheer size and value of these projects.

Dell and Lenovo clinched separate deals to supply servers and computers respectively to RWS, which also gave out contracts to Cisco to build its network infrastructure; to NEC for an admission and ticketing system; and to ST Electronics for a security, IT infrastructure, and car park guidance and payment systems.

Last week, SingTel announced a $21 million deal with RWS to equip rooms at the resort's six hotels with an in-room entertainment system and wireless Internet. Guests will be able to surf wirelessly and access computer games, music and other content from SingTel's mio TV service.

RWS rival Marina Bay Sands recently inked a multi-million dollar deal with Hewlett-Packard to outfit its data centre with servers, storage equipment and software.

This article was first published in The Business Times.