Microsoft Portugal director Luis Azeredo tells Tech Talk about the company’s reasons for forming a partnership with Sheraton and reveals what guests can expect from the new technology.
Tell us about the Link@Sheraton concept and how the Sheraton-Microsoft partnership started out.
The partnership was formed about a year ago. To start right from the beginning, Microsoft’s product range spans from consumer and entertainment right through to databases and big systems, so we were in an excellent position to help bridge the gap between what people do in their personal life and professional life.
We expect Sheraton customers will find this creates an extra bond with the brand.
And this concept matches very well with the hospitality market, because the idea behind hospitality technology is to make someone who is mobile feel that they have a connection to home and to work – that they can really interact with whoever they need to when they need to. We wanted to build on this idea and that lead to talks with Sheraton.
The Link@Sheraton is the result of this collaboration. The idea behind it was to create a comfortable, relaxed environment for guests travelling for either business or leisure to have an area in which they could connect, send emails, chat via web-cam, look up local events or get in touch with business associates – and this service is free for guests.
What kind of technology will Link@Sheraton areas incorporate?
There will be our usual online services such as email, messenger, video communication, search engines, map searches, links to local news and information, then of course there will be access to the internet.
Those are the basics of the services that we have.
It’s really every day technology, but we are constantly working on new elements to add and improve the experience.
For example, in America at the moment in several hotels we are introducing something called Microsoft Surface, which is a PC built into a table. So it’s a table, but the surface is a screen that you interact with through touch.
You can even put your camera on top of it and it will recognise the camera and download the images on it to the PC.
So we are working on that and experimenting with what applications to involve with this product – such as a concierge service where you can ask for advice on what kind of restaurants are nearby, what to see and do in the area and so on.
What stage is the Link@Sheraton roll-out at?
The Link is going to be in most properties by the end of this year – I think by then we should have about a 95% compliance rate in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
But it will be different for the actual service that we provide within the Links, because of course the programmes need to be piloted in different regions and cultures. Then we can adapt the programmes as required before we roll them out.
So we’re still piloting the service right now, but the Link set-up itself is already in 18 properties in the EMEA region and there will be close to 100 by the end of the year.
It’s hard to say exactly how long the piloting process will take – that depends on how well it works and how people respond to the experience. Normally we pilot a programme for about three months, but I think with this it will take longer because it’s such a different experience for people.
What kind of impact will the implementation of this service have?
We expect Sheraton customers will find this creates an extra bond with the brand, so when they travel they will actively seek to stay in a Sheraton property because they know it has Link in it.
Also the concierge system will also help the staff, by off-loading some of the work because if the guests have the option to do their own research, they can access whatever information they’re looking for as and when they want it.
They can even print off documents themselves, without having to ask permission from a member of staff – and they can print those documents from anywhere in the world, simply by someone sending it to a web address which connects to the local printer. So it’s certainly a tool to aid both guests and staff.
Are there plans to develop further elements of the Link@Sheraton initiative?
One new programme we’re working on at the moment is Photosynth, which you can access online at www.livelabs.com/photosynth – it’s still at the trial stage, so it’s free and you can play around with it.
Basically, say you’re away from home and you go visit somewhere with a great view or an interesting building design and take a load of pictures of it.
With this new software, you can upload them onto a specific site in the Link@Sheraton space and the software will decompose the images and build a 3D world around the pictures that you have taken.
So you can get a 360-degree panoramic view, or see the whole of a building. It’s very powerful software and it means the user can send even more vivid impressions of this experience to someone else who is not there. So this fits in perfectly with the Link@Sheraton ethos of keeping people connected.
Follow us on
