NH Hoteles continues its successful partnership with Swisscom Hospitality. A new framework agreement signed by both parties makes Swisscom Hospitality the partner of choice for a suite of guest-facing technologies as well as its advanced network management services.
Swisscom Hospitality will advise and support NH Hoteles to achieve further network and IP service convergence.
The partnership between Swisscom Hospitality and NH Hoteles dates back to 2003, when Wi-Fi broadband access was rolled out chain-wide and Swisscom’s advanced conference and event management tools contributed to NH’s competitive differentiation. In 2009, NH was first to market Swisscom Hospitality’s dedicated Smartphone portal. Today, more than 280 European NH hotels are serviced by Swisscom as their guest technology and network service provider and Swisscom advises them on all technology decisions.
With the new partnership agreement, Swisscom and NH further strengthen their long-standing partnership. NH will gradually introduce integrated solutions to both save costs and enhance the brand experience through the use of IP technology. Swisscom will closely work with NH’s headquarters towards a centralised convergence roadmap in order to further improve service innovation and cost control in areas such as TV, voice, IT networks support and IT outsourcing.
"Technological leadership is part of the NH brand promise," says Francisco Zinser Cieslik, chief strategy and development officer for NH Hoteles. "As Internet usage is increasing across the board, and literally exploding in some of our hotels, we have decided to take a planned approach to the management and maintenance of our guest-facing data networks. Swisscom Hospitality is our most trusted partner in this area, as we are very satisfied with the quality of their services. We will introduce a free high-speed internet access offering in all our hotels while maintaining a premium service that will exceed guest expectations and provide funding for the continuous network upgrades that Swisscom is mandated with."
In its technology advisor role, Swisscom will assist NH with the replacement of existing guest room technology reaching the end of its life-cycle and the integration and cost optimisation of its existing data lines. The two partners will also work together to create synergies for the implementation of the NH System Plan 2012/14.
"We are delighted to be part of NH Hotel’s ambitious global IT agenda", says Leo Brand, CEO of Swisscom Hospitality Services. "We are keen to leverage our intimate knowledge of NH Hoteles’s operations that we have naturally acquired through our close local working relationships with individual hotels, and we look forward to helping NH adopt best practice in network and application convergence.
"NH Hoteles can count on our expertise in the areas of both innovative guest technologies and alternative IT delivery models such as shared IT infrastructures, application virtualisation and on-demand computing, all of which can significantly reduce the operational and financial burden of a large, international chain like NH Hoteles."