NEC, a provider of Internet, broadband network and enterprise business offering, and Swisscom, an European telecommunication provider, have joined to implement cloud-based communications service for citizenM Hotel Group.
Swisscom has deployed NEC’s hosted offering based on its software-based IP communications platform, UNIVERGE Sphericall delivered in a virtualised environment, as part of its cloud-based service offering for citizenM’s new hotel in Glasgow.
NEC Unified Solutions has hosted the Sphericall-based platform within its local data centre and is providing it as a Software as a Service (SaaS) offering.
Swisscom has used the open, web services architecture of Sphericall to integrate with its Property Management service, providing the hotel with a hosted, integrated business management offering.
Swisscom is also undertaking all the call rating as part of the offering, eliminating the need for citizenM to engage with other third parties and ensuring that all calls follow the optimum and cost effective route.
According to the company, the Sphericall platform is being deployed in a virtualised cloud environment which means citizenM continues to expand while utilising the same technology at new hotel sites without incurring further set-up costs.
citizenM COO Michael Levie said by using a cloud-based service model, they achieve just that and avoid all the cost and disruption of deploying their own infrastructure.
"With Swisscom and NEC they have a offering which is reliable and cost-effective, and by using a virtualised environment they are able to reduce our IT capital expenditure, and also eliminating on-site IT maintenance costs," Levie said.
NEC Unified Solutions EMEA vice president Chris de Silva said the enterprise and the workers are now less interested in where their platforms and applications are being hosted and more interested in cost-effective, rapidly-deployable innovative services.
