Virtual Office Resource

The traditional way of calling the hotel front desk to make reservations or other arrangements is the least preferred option for customers today. Third-party service providers and even the hotel's website are better options because of the efficiency they provide. And when it comes to direct communications, the hotel has to have multiple touch points so its customers can communicate on their mobile device, tablets and computers through voice, email, SMS or even video. To make all this possible, industries across different segments are deploying cloud communications.

The new Pullman Sydney Airport hotel in Australia has obtained the services of Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert) Enterprise (ALE) and McLaren Technologies to deploy a cloud-based communication solution so the five star hotel can improve its services and get rid of the capital and operational expenditure of an on premises system.

As part of AccorHotels, the Pullman will be able to get the resources it needs to better communicate with its customers in Australia, as well as globally by letting them access hotel services on their own devices.

"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.

According to ALE, the entire Australia-Pacific Region is experiencing an upsurge of migration to cloud-based communications and represents a great opportunity for the organization.

The Alcatel-Lucent OpenTouch Enterprise Cloud (OTEC) will be deployed to enable multi-device, multi-user, and multimedia collaboration. The hotel will have the capability to reach everywhere with voice, video and document sharing, as well as virtual meetings and application and services.

The OTEC platform has a consumption-based cost model that simplifies the experience of deploying a cloud-based communication system with management tools to boost productivity and maximize business responsiveness.

"AccorHotels’ sustained investment in cloud-based telephony is clearly paying dividends. In an increasingly competitive hospitality industry, it’s this shared risk and reward model which will help hotels continue to grow into the future," said Steve Saunders, Cloud Director for the APAC region, ALE.

The deployment is a collaboration between Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise cloud solution and Jazz, McLaren Technologies’ cloud-based management service for voice, which will integrate the hardware into the hotel property management system (PMS).