The Tide has turned

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A partnership between hotel owner Seven Tides and IT consulting company Entiretec has set a global benchmark for hospitality technology architecture. Hotel guru Mike Scully and tech expert Julian Kraft step into the future as they explain the fundamentals of the system.

UAE-based holding company Seven Tides, owner of four Mövenpick hotels, all set to open in Dubai in 2010, is currently installing an AED 50 million (US $13.6 million) centralised fully-converged IT platform across these four properties in partnership with IT consultant Entiretec.

Provided by Cisco and other technology partners, the next generation, flexible IT platform, which covers the Royal Amwaj and Oceana on Palm Jumeirah, Ibn Battuta Gate and Mövenpick Deira, will integrate the properties’ applications, data, voice communications, IT security, services and building systems over one IP-based network.

With operational efficiencies and guest experience set to be enhanced dramatically by this system, plus video-conferencing capabilities and other IP-based hospitality services that will set Seven Tides apart commercially, the technology promises to be a world-first, according to Seven Tides Hospitality managing director Mike Scully and Entiretec Middle East managing director Julian Kraft.

Here, they explain more about the rationale behind the approach, the process of choosing the system and the range of benefits it will offer the owner, operator and hotel guest.

Why was investing in technology such a priority?

Mike Scully: When you look at the way technology has gone onto HD now and at the way that Microsoft is advancing, you have to accept that if you are opening a new hotel in a modern age, you have to open with what is the latest technology at the moment and certainly what is going to be the latest in a year’s time when you actually open.

In essence, the way that we see it today, bandwidth is what enables the latest technology.

Whatever occurs in the future is going to require immense bandwidth. And that is essentially what we have invested in — being able to connect the properties on a very high-end and redundant bandwidth.

What opportunities does high-end bandwidth offer to hoteliers?

MS: There are two aspects to investing in IT and bandwidth. One is the ability to operate the system as economically as possible and the associated savings.

The second side, which is the side that really interests us, is the commercial aspect of being able to sell our venues as venues with the highest performance when it comes to transferring information for clients, whether it be conferences, exhibitions or entertainment.

So, for example, an IT company such as Cisco could have its CEO giving a presentation in America with all kinds of odd gadgets and aspects of two-way or multiple communication video conferencing and that can be streamed in real time to his clients here in Dubai or elsewhere in the world at the same time.

The concept of video conferencing and streaming is already in the market, however, the problem with all these things is that there’s no reliability. And at the end of the day if you’re going to do a conference for 1000 delegates and you’re going to stream something live, you have to ensure reliability.

And this is what we have bought into. Whether we use it in the first year of operation or within five years of operation is going to depend on how far we take the whole concept of the system, but that is essentially what we believe is the future.

How does this also offer an increased guest focus?

MS: There are two aspects to that. One is the day-to-day uses of our systems internally which is great, the other is that we are able to gain information on guests instantaneously through our systems and transfer this data through to rooms, from their music preference to their lighting preference to their room temperature preference.

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