Swisscom and NEC Join Forces to Provide Cloud based Communications at citizenM Hotel Group

-Swisscom and NEC deliver fully hosted virtualized communications infrastructure at new citizenM hotel in Glasgow-

NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) and Swisscom AG. (Swisscom) have announced today the successful implementation of a cloud-based communications service for citizenM – the award winning Hotel Group (Headquarters: Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Chairman: Rattan Chadha). Swisscom Hospitality Services, a group company of Swisscom, has deployed NEC’s hosted solution based on its software-based IP communications platform, Sphericall delivered in a virtualized environment, as part of its Cloud-based service offering for citizenM‟s new hotel in Glasgow.

NEC IT Solutions, a subsidary of NEC Europe, has hosted the Sphericall-based platform within its local data centre and is providing it as a SaaS (Software as a Service) solution. Swisscom has used the open, web services architecture of Sphericall to integrate with its Property Management service, providing the hotel with a fully hosted, integrated business management solution. In addition, Swisscom is also undertaking all the call rating as part of the solution, eliminating the need for citizenM to engage with other third parties and ensuring that all calls follow the optimum and most cost effective route.

Since launching its first hotel at Amsterdam‟s Schiphol airport in summer 2008, citizenM has established a unique brand of affordable luxury that gives global mobile travelers – the „M‟ in citizenM stands for ‟mobile‟ – what they most want and need. Now, with its newest, 198-room hotel in Glasgow, citizenM is moving into the UK market, and it has plans to open a further two new hotels in London.

Commenting on the benefits of NEC’s Sphericall solution, Leo Brand, CEO of Swisscom Hospitality Services, says, “We selected NEC as our prime eco-system partner for voice largely based on the strengths of their Sphericall platform in the Cloud environment, which is a service-oriented communications platform that delivers scalability, low-cost of ownership and openness, enabling us to embed communications into business-critical applications and processes across the hotel. In addition, the Sphericall platform is being deployed in a virtualized Cloud environment which means that as citizenM continues to expand it can utilize the same technology at new hotel sites without incurring further set-up costs.”

Michael Levie, COO at citizenM says, “We are embarking on a major campaign to expand the citizenM brand to new urban destinations, with roll-outs planned in London, New York, Paris, Milan, Zurich and Hong Kong. We need a cost-effective solution which is reliable and secure, as well as something which can be deployed quickly and easily. By using a Cloud-based service model, we achieve just that and avoid all the cost and disruption of deploying our own infrastructure. With Swisscom and NEC, we have two well known and proven brands offering a best-of-breed solution which is very reliable and cost-effective, and because we are utilizing a virtualized environment we are able to significantly reduce our IT capital expenditure, while also eliminating on-site IT maintenance costs.”

Chris de Silva, Vice President of NEC IT Solutions, says, “NEC is delighted to be partnering with Swisscom to develop Cloud-based services for the hospitality sector in the UK and beyond. As Cloud-based services proliferate, the management and location of core applications and user-facing computing environments becomes irrelevant. The enterprise and the worker are now less interested in where their platforms and applications are being hosted and more interested in cost-effective, rapidly-deployable innovative services.”

City of Sunderland College turns to NEC Philips for identity management project.

College rolls out Identity Management technology to 3,000 desktops and 15,000 students and staff on mixed network of Microsoft and Novell technology -

City of Sunderland College, one of the largest further education and sixth form colleges in the country, has partnered with NEC Unified Solutions to implement a new Identity Management solution, utilising Novell Identity Management technology. The solution, which synchronises data from a mixed Microsoft and Novell infrastructure, will authenticate and manage staff and student access across the College’s five campuses spread throughout Sunderland.

With over 3,000 desktops and 15,000 full and part-time students at City of Sunderland College, all accessing the network on a daily basis, it was clear that if the college was to continue to provide the speed and level of service required for staff and students, it needed to streamline its provisioning of user identities and accounts.

As Dave Ritchie, IT services manager explains, “The College has traditionally worked on a combination of different technology platforms for staff and students, which has added an element of complexity to the identity and access management process. As we continue to grow we realised that we needed to streamline our Identity Management activities in order to improve communications and accessibility without compromising security.

Dave continues, “The solution which was proposed and deployed by NEC, is a single identity management vault which synchronises information from the Microsoft Active Directory and the Novell eDirectory. The system is capable of storing the details of over 30,000 individual identity accounts and because it is all in a single environment, we will be able to provision students and staff accounts quicker, providing them with faster access to the relevant core systems and applications, as well as being able to roll out new services quickly and easily in the future.”

Continuing Dave explains, “In addition to the provisioning of accounts, the new solution simplifies the process of disabling accounts when people leave, reducing the threat of security breaches of our infrastructure. The College also has to retain information on students’ accounts for up to two years after they have finished their courses, so information cannot be deleted. However, it is important that students that leave us have their accounts disabled.”

Speaking about the project, Dave states, “We knew that the implementation process was going to be technically complicated which is why we looked for a technology supplier that had both Microsoft and Novell capabilities and credentials. NEC met these criteria and could also demonstrate a strong track record in Identity Management systems. At every stage of the implementation process NEC gave us confidence that they were in complete control of the project and were on schedule to meet our implementation timeframes. Critically, the system was rolled out with minimal disruption to our day-to-day operations.”

Dave concludes, “This project has been a complete success and as a result NEC will be our first choice when we start our next stage of IT development, which will focus on extending the functionality of our Identity Management system further across the organisation.”

Kensington Crowne Plaza invests in new triple play solution from NEC Philips.

NEC implements wireless communications, high speed internet and 120 LCD TVs to enhance staff mobility and guest service-

The Crowne Plaza Kensington, part of the Intercontinental Hotels Group, is implementing a ‘Triple Play’ solution from NEC Unified Solutions, valued in the region of £250,000, which provides high speed internet access, television and telephony services over a single broadband connection. The order also includes fully integrated IP DECT handsets which enable staff to keep in touch with each other wherever they are in the building. The new system, which is part of the hotel’s upgrade from a Holiday Inn, will facilitate better service to guests which will match the luxury associated with the Crowne Plaza brand.

The Crowne Plaza Kensington selected the NEC system on the premise that the NEC technology is proven, reliable and secure, combined with the fact that NEC has a long-standing relationship with the Intercontinental Hotels Group. A primary requirement for the new Triple Play system was the ability to integrate with the hotel’s other IT systems including the Property Management System (PMS) and the fire alarm system.

The IP DECT handsets from NEC are fully integrated with the switchboard operator as well as the ADT fire alarm panel, providing constant communication between the fire investigation team and the front office. In the event of a fire alarm, members of the fire investigation team are alerted by text message which will specify the location of activation and an investigation can then be carried out into the source of the alarm enabling the hotel to act appropriately, calling for further help or resetting the alarm.

Isabelle Ramillon, Front of House Manager, explains, “We work hard to ensure that every aspect of the hotel is perceived to match the luxury and style of the Crowne Plaza brand, from sumptuous furnishings, fragrant hand soaps and the communications solutions we use for both our customer-facing and internal processes. We honestly aim to make every gorgeous guest as comfortable as possible, and with the introduction of the Triple Play solution from NEC we believe we can offer the ultimate technology experience – this is for both our guests and the fabulous staff that look after them. The new system has allowed for improved communication using wireless IP DECT telephones; this allows staff to stay in contact with each other throughout the building. This speeds up our service and responses to guest requests – a great example would be a guest calling reception to ask for extra pillows. It is now a simple task for reception to call the housekeeper on an IP DECT telephone and relay the request – this certainly speeds up our response time, and in turn improves the guest experience. It also helps greatly with productivity, saving time and money – imagine the housekeeper having to report to reception every time a guest made a request? The IP DECT system deals with all these situations effectively.”

Isabelle concludes, “NEC have offered a great solution to us, it enhances the guest experience and quality feel of our hotel, and is a practical part of our operation. The day to day tasks of looking after a luxury hotel will be simpler, more efficient and quicker thanks to the wireless communication system. Safety is also improved as the system is integrated into our fire and door alarms. The Triple Play solution gives us an excellent platform that supports our business operations.”

Leicester Theatre Trust implements new software-based communications solution from NEC Philips.

£61 million cultural project will use latest technology to provide optimum flexibility-

Leicester Theatre Trust (LTT) has turned to NEC Unified Solutions to implement a revolutionary communications solution to match the innovative nature of Leicester’s new Curve theatre – a £61million state-of-the-art cultural project which was opened by Her Majesty The Queen on 4 December. Based around a service-orientated Unified Communications architecture – NEC Sphericall – the solution integrates the communications technologies with business applications providing a flexible and open infrastructure to support its current and future development plans.

Designed by renowned architect Rafael Vinoly, Curve is a huge curved glass building which features two auditoria, one with up to 803 fixed seats while a 400 flexible seated auditorium provides a versatile smaller space. When the 32 tonne steel walls separating the stage and the foyer are lifted, the stage is visible from street level. The stunning glass façade encloses a magnificent open plan foyer with views onto the café, bars, backstage area, and across the stage.

Rob Greig, ICT and Operations Director at the Leicester Theatre Trust explains, “Curve is a unique space, covering 139,000 square feet and combining the best of today’s technologies both front of house and behind the scenes to provide the ultimate arts experience. The space utilises technology on every level, from the opening of the front doors through to the scanning of the tickets by barcode readers at the entrance, to the stage flying control system. As such it was vital that any communications solution we decided to implement was innovative enough to meet the unusual demands of the building, and to provide a high level of flexibility and mobility for staff and theatre users.”

The solution NEC delivered utilises the NEC Spherical software-based IP communications platform to underpin the mix of SIP wireless, fixed and pc–based communication devices. It also includes a unified contact centre solution for the ticket office, with integration to the theatre’s CRM and point of sale applications. The solution has built-in redundancy to ensure the constant availability of the communications technologies, and hospitality features to enable the theatre to offer communications services to corporate and other theatre users.

Greig continues, “With such a unique space we envisaged several issues in designing a communications solution to match our needs. However, the NEC Sphericall platform delivered against all our expectations and with its open architecture offers us endless opportunities to continue to develop our technology as the theatre evolves – ultimately it puts us in control of our own destiny.” The NEC Sphericall is based on the award-winning Sphere Communications Services Engine (CSE) software and is used by a range of organisations around the globe. It runs on industry-standard servers without the need for expensive proprietary hardware, and will enable the LTT to connect up to 30,000 ports across standards-based Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and analogue phones, gateways and other communications endpoints. By combining XML and SOAP technology the solution offers the LTT the capability to access a wide range of rich communications web services which can be embedded into critical business processes.

Focusing on the wireless element, Greig continues, “Every aspect of our business relies on efficient communications, from interactions with customers to behind the scenes activities – particularly in the run-up to and during performances. The wireless element of the solution enables us to improve our front of house interactions with customers and ensure two-way communications between staff no matter where they are in the theatre. If you imagine the coordination required during a performance, you will understand the challenges facing staff and performers in ensuring everything happens on time and with minimum fuss. Unlike the traditional radio technology, the SIP based wireless provided is fully integrated with the rest of the communications solutions and provides excellent coverage, facilitating the communication process.”

Through the Contact Centre application, the theatre has streamlined its internet and telephone ticket office activities and systems to provide a more efficient process, providing a better service for customers and potentially reducing operational costs. Greig explains, “By integrating our ticketing system and CRM systems with the new communications solution, we believe we will be able to develop a more personal customer experience, which is essential in a service-focused business like ours. In turn we believe that this will boost repeat purchases and drive value throughout the organisation. For example, once the integration is complete an individual calling in can be identified as a new or returning customer prior to their call being answered, which will enable us to direct their call to the most appropriate operative more efficiently. And in a service-focused industry this is an opportunity that cannot be ignored.”

Greig concludes, “Our decision to select the NEC solution was not solely down to the technology proposed, but we felt comfortable that the company had the credentials and capabilities to deliver this demanding and complex project. I am pleased to say that our decision was the right one. We have enjoyed a good working relationship with NEC and see them as an ideal partner for our future development plans.”