IP Presence

IP Presence Featured Article

The growing popularity of IP communications technology — and unified communications, in particular — has created a new playing field on which vendor can compete. In addition to creating general application solutions, many vendors are now expand their offerings around the needs of specific vertical markets, like education, healthcare, finance, and others.

 

Building on its existing product set, Mitel (News - Alert) is among those vendors has placed an increased focus on tailored solutions, and has now added to its existing solution designed for the hospitality space. The Mitel solution provides the hospitality industry with presence-based unified communications solutions that allow hotel staff to more effectively meet the need of guests to create a more satisfying all-around customer experience.

 

As with any business, hotel managers are tasked with driving up customer satisfaction while lowering overall operational costs. With Mitel’s solution, they are able to leverage their infrastructure investments to promote hotel and partner services using displays on guestroom phones. Presence applications also enable guest requests to be efficiently pushed to the most appropriate staff members to minimize hold times and confusion, ultimately saving time, avoiding errors, and enhancing the overall experience for hotel guests.

 

By deploying the Mitel 5550 IP Console, which is a PC-based console and administration application, with an intuitive GUI allowing attendants to quickly and effectively route calls to the appropriate channels. It includes visual status and call handlings prompts, real-time status indicators, as well as endpoint jacks to enable the most effective call handling via Mitel’s 3300 IP Communications Platform. With the 5550, hotel operators can direct guest calls too a live hotel staff member instead of having the call go voice mail, ensuring the guests needs can be more efficiently met.

 

In addition, because the Mitel solution easily integrates Microsoft (News - Alert) Office LCS, operators can use the 5550 IP Console to quickly send emails with predefined messages to specific users in the directory instead of leaving paper-based messages or even voice mails, again saving time and minimizing error. The presence capabilities of the solution make it easy for the attendant to establish the most effect method of communicating with hotel personnel (i.e., if they are on the phone, they can use email; if not, they can direct the call to them; if it’s important, the caller can be placed in the queue for the staff member while the operator sends an email; or the call can be routed to a second qualified employee).

 

In addition, Mitel’s Integrated Office Navigator includes a client application that resides in the Microsoft Windows task bar and provides access to telephony features without having to search for the appropriate action buttons.

 

In the guestrooms, the Mitel solution leverages next generation technology to deliver an enhanced guest experience. For instance, the displays on the Mitel deskphones can be used to deliver information regarding hotel services, amenities, and special offers. By touching a single button, guests can book appointments at the spa or tee times at golf courses, or they can be directly connected to room service. No longer do guests have to shuffle through hotel handbooks to locate the appropriate numbers to dial. 

 

Mitel has also introduced cordless versions of its handsets for guestrooms, allowing users to move about their rooms while on calls. Mitel’s mobility solution also provides for guest’s provided wireless phones to be twinned to their room phones, so they can receive calls even when they are away from their room phones. Finally, Mitel has developed a custom application that allows users to pay a per minute charge to achieve higher voice quality. With these telephony enhancements, Mitel has created a solution that can significantly upgrade business guests’ experiences as they tend to business while away from the office.

 

With the combination of enhanced guest room phone-based features and increased concierge and operator functionality, Mitel has ensured its hotel customer are able to provide the best possible experience for their guests. These latest features are all designed to create a more rewarding stay by leveraging Mitel’s expertise in next generation communications technology. While most guests may not recognize specifically recognize the benefits of these offerings, they do notice poor service quality, and Mitel’s hospitality solution is designed to eliminate and deficiencies in service by integrating the latest technology solutions.