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The Use of Voice & Data Protocols Opens Whole New World of Communications within the Hospitality Industry
This article is from the Fall  2008 issue of Hospitality Upgrade magazine.To view more articles covering technology for the hospitality industry please visit the Hospitality Upgrade Web site or to request a free publication please call (678) 802-5307 or e-mail.
The Business Environment is Ripe to Invest in Technology

by Bill Peters, October 2008

Companies that are looking to make their contact centers more efficient and cost effective, or companies that are looking to consolidate multiple property reservation offices into one efficient and cost effective operation need to upgrade now.

With the market slowly dissolving due to the everyday economic challenges (doom and gloom) being broadcast by the media, the timing could not be any better than now to upgrade operations to handle all multi-media customer interactions in a very cost effective way.

The multi-media customer interactions are 800 number voice calls, local voice calls, inter-property calls, Internet text chat, Internet voice call back, email, electronic fax and booking pages for the mobile world.

Taking the chance of a customer staying at a competitor because that customer could not communicate with or access your company in a timely manner using the media of their choice is unacceptable in today�s business world.  There is definitely no excuse for it.

The use of proper technology has opened up a whole new world of communications within the Hospitality Industry but the way we acquire and keep loyal customers remains the same.

1. All doors into the business should always remain open for customer contact.
         a.  There are more doors available to today�s customers as there was in the past.  It is important to keep all of them open and staffed with competent employees and high touch systems.

2. All customers want to be treated as loyal customers.
         a.  A customer is a sale and a sale is made directly by a person or through a sophisticated high touch system that works.  In other words it is people selling to people either directly or indirectly through a system.

Using the following protocols will enhance the performance for hotel sales, contact centers, customer service centers, help desks and even Internet booking engines.
1. �V�irtualization refers to a working environment which retains the characteristics of a physical resource without being directly tied to it.  Technological changes are occurring in networks, routers and switches that control data movement, but others have to do with the way servers are managed and how their processing power can be acquired.  With the convergence of voice and data and the increasing intelligence of the network, the next generation network is becoming a distributed computing architecture that is enabling new kinds of collaborations, applications and businesses to flourish.  New technology can securely partition machines so that multiple applications can share a single server.  These partitioning tools allow servers to be allocated in creative ways.  This minimizes expenses while providing flexibility in implementation and scalability of resources.
   
2. �V�irtual Private Network (VPN) is a network that uses a public telecommunication infrastructure such as the Internet to provide remote offices or users with secure access to their organizations network.  The VPN first came about in contrast to leased and owned lines.  VPNs have been able to provide organizations with the same capabilities at a much lower cost.  A VPN maintains an organization�s privacy by using security procedures and tunneling protocols.  By encrypting data at the sending end and decrypting it at the receiving end so that the tunnel that the encrypted data enters cannot be entered by data that is not properly encrypted.  There are also additional security measures that can be used for network addresses.
   
3. �V�oice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is the routing of voice conversations over the Internet or any other IP-based network.  VoIP carries telephony signals as digital audio encapsulated in a data packet stream.  It has the ability to transmit more than one telephone call down the same broadband-connected telephone line.  It is not location dependent.  Hotels, Call Centers and Help Desks using VoIP phones can work from anywhere with a sufficiently fast and stable Internet connection.  VoIP phones can integrate with other services such as video conversations, message handling, or data file exchange in parallel with the audio conversations.  In guest room marketing via VoIP guest phones opens a whole new way of marketing personally to the guest staying at the hotel or resort.
   
4. �M�ulti-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) VPN adds speed and features to standard VPNs that an organization might otherwise not have.  Data packets enter the MPLS network through an ingress router, also know as a tag router and pass through an egress router to leave.  The data packets traverse the network routed by tag switches or label switch routers.  This is all similar to VPN tunneling except instead of encrypting the data packets the MPLS adds a 32 bit tag to the data packets headers.  The ingress router examines the desired destination address of the data packet and creates a tag that chooses the virtual label switch path for that data packet.  The ingress router will also assign quality of service requirements to the tag.  From that point on the tag switches look only at the tags and not the data to determine how to forward the packet.  This all makes the processing of the relatively small tags much faster than having to deal with larger headers at each router.  The MPLS network is also designed to provide more bandwidth and or shorter latency paths for voice packets in a �V�oice over Internet protocol (VoIP).
   
5. �H�osted Service Provider (HSP) is a business that delivers a combination of infrastructure, applications (software as a service) security, monitoring, storage etc over the Internet.  This approach enables organizations to consolidate and outsource some of their IT needs for a predictable recurring fee.  Hosted Service Providers benefit from economies of scale and operate on a one to many business model, delivering the same software and services to many organizations at once.
The time is now especially for those companies that are not using these protocols.  Once in place the complete world of sales will be open to the company.  Mega companies have some of these protocols in place but it takes them a long time to make a change.  If your company is medium to small size, with multiple properties, with multiple flags, the time is now to invest in the technology that will professionally open up all your business doors to all customer interactions.  There are too many benefits to mention.  As they would say many years ago back in the world of �Trusthouse Forte Hotels and Resorts�, �It�s a bloody good show�.


William D. Peters is the Vice President Reservation Services and Market Development for Outrigger Enterprises Group in Denver, Colorado [email protected]

� Hospitality Upgrade, 2008. No reproduction or transmission without written permission.


Contact:

Geneva Rinehart 
Managing Editor 
Hospitality Upgrade magazine 
and the Hospitality Upgrade.com website
http://www.hospitalityupgrade.com/
[email protected]

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Also See: Rethinking the Cost of an Occupied Hotel Room / Bill Geoghegan / October 2008

Dealerless Poker - Casinos reduce risks by automating /  Bill Geoghegan/ June 2008

Balance of Power / Tina McCrossan/ June 2008

Hospitality Technology Contracts and Pitfalls / Raymond M. Asad / June 2007

The Online Metrics Handbook for Travel Marketers / by Cindy Estis Green for TIA and HSMAI / March 2007

Future Proofing Your Property / by John Burns / March 2007

Ask Not For Whom the Wedding Bell Tolls / Mergers and Acquisitions - Good for the Hospitality Industry? / Michael Schubach / March 2007

Hello, Front Desk? I Think I've Been Robbed!/ Nick Price / February 2007

The Personal Data Privacy & Security Act� Is Your Hotel Ready? / Rick Warner / October 2006

Hospitality Loyalty Programs; Strategies for Points-based, Recognition-based Programs / Mark Haley / October 2006

How Fast Do You Want to Go? Understanding the risks and costs with technology implementation and getting there too fast/ Ed Klein / October 2006

What's New in the Hotel Guestroom? Digital, HD or IP Televisions / Ashok Kumar / June 2006

A Future Vision for Hotel Revenue Management / Caryl Helsel and Kathleen Cullen / June 2006

Marketing to the Next Generation of Buyers; Scoring Your Hotel Reservations System / Debra Kristopson / June 2006

Consortia-Corporate-Group Best Available Rate (BAR): Good or Bad for Hotels? / Caryl Helsel / October 2005

Check In Kiosks: Coming to a Hotel Lobby Near You? / Jerry W. Sheldon / October 2005

Moving into Compliance Mode; Realizing the Benefits, Cutting the Costs / Dorian Cougias / March 2005

What Hoteliers Need to Know About Flat Panel and HDTVs / Jake Buckstead / March 2005

10 Trends Affecting Hospitality IT in 2005 / Bradford Iverson / March 2005

Searching for Bookings? Optimize / Dr. Matthew Dunn / August 2004

Instant Messaging: Age Is Everything - Expectations of Immediacy, Productivy and the Rise of IM / Elizabeth L. Ivey / August 2004

Baby It's Cold Outside the Firewall / Michael Schubach / April 2004

High Wired: The Hotel Room of the Future / Kelly Stanford / April 2004

We're Not In Kansas Anymore; Differentiating your hotel through technology / Mark Haley / January 2004

Understanding the Power of Customer Relationship Management / Neil Holm / Hospitality Upgrade Magazine / November 2003

The Case for Self Service in Hospitality / Marvin Erdly and Amitava Chatterjee / Hospitality Upgrade Magazine / October 2003

Five Questions to Ask Online Distributors / Michelle Peluso / Hospitality Upgrade Magazine / October 2003

Surf's Up - Internet Marketing for Destination Properties / Marvin Erdly and Amitava Chatterjee / Debra Kristopson / Hospitality Upgrade Magazine / October 2003

Wireless Changes Everything; So, do ya want a latte with that or what? / Jocelyn Valley / Hospitality Upgrade Magazine / June 2003

Customer Awareness or Customer Beware? Data Security in a CRM-Obsessed Industry / Elizabeth Ivey / Hospitality Upgrade Magazine / June 2003

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Tradeshows & Economic Soldiers / Dan Phillips / Hospitality Upgrade Magazine / April 2003

Hotel Telecommunications in the 21st Century / Geoff Griswold / Hospitality Upgrade Magazine / March 2003

The ABCs of CRM  / Mark Haley & Bill Watson / Hospitality Upgrade Magazine / March 2003

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Technology and the Human Touch / Dan Phillips / Hospitality Upgrade Magazine / Spring 2002

Wireless Technology:  Where We Have Been, Where Are we Going? / Geneva Rinehart / Hospitality Upgrade Magazine / Spring 2002

Effective Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Implementations / John Schweisberger and Amitava Chatterjee, CHTP / Hospitality Upgrade Magazine / Fall 2001 

What's Up With Call Accounting Systems (CAS) / Dan Phillips / Hospitality Upgrade Magazine / Fall 2001

Technology Dilemmas: What have IT investments done for you lately? / Elizabeth Lauer / Hospitality Upgrade Magazine / Summer 2001

Full Circle from Centralized to ASP - The Resurrection of Old Themes and a Payment Solution / Gary Eng / Hospitality Upgrade Magazine / Summer 2001 

A High Roller in the Game of System Integration / Elizabeth Lauer / Hospitality Upgrade Magazine / Spring 2001 

CAVEAT EMPTOR! Simple Steps to Selecting an E-procurement Solution / Mark Haley / Hospitality Upgrade Magazine / Spring 2001 

Your Bartender is Jessie James and He Needs to Pay for College / Beverly McCay / Hospitality Upgrade Magazine / Fall 2000 

Choosing a Reservation Representation Company / John Burns / Hospitality Upgrade Magazine / Spring 2001 

Understanding and Maximizing a Hotel�s Electronic Distribution Options / by John Burns / Hospitality Upgrade Magazine / Fall 2000 

The Future of Electronic Payments - From Paper to Plastic and Beyond / J. David Oder /  Hospitality Upgrade Magazine / Summer 2000

Timeshare Technology Steps Up / by Elizabeth Lauer / Hospitality Upgrade Magazine / July 2000 

Biometric Payment: The New Age of Currency / by Geneva Rinehart / Hospitality Upgrade Magazine / Mar 2000 


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