news The newly opened Pullman Sydney Airport hotel, part of the AccorHotel Group, has deployed a cloud-based communications solution using technology by Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALE) and McLaren Technologies.
In a statement, ALE said harnessing the cloud will enable the five-star hotel to “leverage advanced communication”, improving guest services and reducing upfront costs by spreading the investment over a number of years.
The solution combines Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise’s cloud technology and Jazz, McLaren Technologies’ cloud-based management service for voice.
The roll-out at Pullman Sydney Airport is the seventh deployment so far of the cloud-based solution in Australia and New Zealand, ALE said. Projects are already up and running in Adelaide, Mackay, Newcastle and Brisbane, and the soon-to-open Sofitel Wellington, New Zealand, will also feature the twin system.
The Alcatel-Lucent OpenTouch™ Enterprise Cloud (OTEC) portion of the solution is managed by UXC Connect, said ALE, whereas McLaren’s Jazz hardware is integrated into the hotel property management system (PMS).
“By integrating the PABX component of OTEC into the PMS, the hotel properties can separate the communication spending to bill for telephone calls, provide voicemail, as well as set auto wake-up calls and any other features that might be necessary in a hotel context,” ALE explained.
Matthew White, CEO, McLaren Technologies, said: “[W]hat is truly groundbreaking is the commercial model upon which the solution is built. It’s a progressive business model that charges on a consumption basis per occupied room per night.”
“By aligning the billing to the seasonal nature of the hospitality industry we are providing AccorHotels with a competitive advantage,” White said.
The new system allows AccorHotels to employ network convergence and improve guest services by enabling other applications on top of this, allowing guests to use their own devices to access hotel services.
“Our movement towards a cloud-based telecommunications system is quite innovative for the hotel industry here in Australia and it’s something we see as a true competitive advantage,” said Daniel Marden, Director IT Business Systems, AccorHotels Group, Australia.
The structure of the deployment, allows Accor’s chains to be more profitable in busy periods, while shielding them from the risk in downturns,” Marden said.
“It encourages our individual sites, which now includes the Pullman at Sydney Airport, to innovate and drive reservations, as rewards are increasingly linked to performance. It will also help us continue and sustain growth, enabling rapid implementation for planned new sites with central and remote management,” he said.
According to ALE, the deployments of the combined cloud system represent a “wider push” towards the cloud across the entire Australia-Pacific Region.
“AccorHotels’ sustained investment in cloud-based telephony is clearly paying dividends,” said Steve Saunders, Cloud Director for the APAC region, ALE. “In an increasingly competitive hospitality industry, it’s this shared risk and reward model which will help hotels continue to grow into the future,” he said.