Inti Heksa International

Solution:

Benefits: 

• Improved customer retention and recruitment
• Raised productivity
• Reduced costs
• Enhanced efficiency

 

 

With 98 percent brand awareness worldwide, Hilton must surely be the best-known name in the hospitality business. It has become synonymous with the highest standards in luxury and service, delivered consistently across its global network of 499 hotels. To maintain that reputation, Hilton pays minute attention to perfecting every detail of the guest experience – including telephony services. That is why Alcatel is its preferred voice solutions partner around the world, and why Hilton in Africa has decided to implement the Alcatel OmniPCX Enterprise communications platform in most its hotels.

As more and more guests bring cell phones with them when they visit, hotels find it increasing difficult to tempt them to use the telephones in their rooms. Yet overseas visitors will often find it cheaper to use the hotel’s telephony service for inbound international and local calls and for outbound local calls than to route them through the service provider back in their home country. Guests continue to use their own cell phones because they provide greater functionality – especially voice mail – than most hotels’ systems. Hilton finds that Alcatel technology allows it to offer telephony services that compete with cell phones.  Of course, anyone can opt to have their calls answered by the hotel’s switchboard, but most prefer to take their calls themselves and to use the associated voice mail service – just as they would back in their offices and homes. After their stay ends, their voice mail facility is maintained for a period. They can dial into the hotel from wherever they are in the world to pick up new messages or review old ones.

Conference organizers and guests who use public and meeting rooms can carry DECT (digital wireless) handsets wherever they go in the hotel. These act as a portable extension to the room telephone and deliver the same powerful functio-nality. 

By providing better telephony services, Hilton in Africa benefits immediately in two ways. First, it enhances the total guest experience, thus building loyalty, creating repeat business and improving occupancy rates. And secondly, it encourages guests to use its telephony services, so generating additional revenue.

But the advantages to Hilton go much further. Employees as well as guests use the Alcatel infrastructure. Better communications result in higher productivity and improved efficiency. For example, departmental managers can carry DECT handsets so that they remain accessible wherever they are. And sophisticated functions such as flexible voice mail and ring-back promote responsiveness across the organisation. 

At the business process level, the Alcatel OmniPCX Enterprise platform integrates seamlessly with hotel front office systems such as Fidelio and Midas. And because it is new generation technology, it provides unbeatable future proofing.  At the time of writing, Hilton has already implemented Alcatel OmniPCX Enterprise solutions, providing a total of 3,600 lines, in its hotels in Abuja, Nigeria, and in Durban and Sandton, South Africa. It is now working with Alcatel on its next project, an 1,800-line system in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Orthodox Tefera, Hilton Hotels’ Regional IT Manager for Africa reveals his future plans: “Most of the Hilton on this continent will move to the Alcatel OmniPCX Enterprise platform. We made that decision because we are convinced that it is the best product available. 

“But now that we have completed the first few implementations, I have other reasons to be pleased with our choice. Alcatel’s support has been excellent, and I especially value having a single point of contact that is ready to take positive ownership of even the smallest issue. And every Alcatel Premium business partner we’ve worked with has shown impressive professionalism and genuine commitment to meeting our needs. I am most grateful to Bytes Technologies in South Africa, MFI Office Solutions in Ethiopia, and PPC in Nigeria.”