Swisscom and NEC Join Forces to Provide Cloud Based Communications at citizenM Hotel Group
By Nec Corporation, PRNEMonday, February 21, 2011
Swisscom and NEC Deliver Fully Hosted Virtualized Communications Infrastructure at New citizenM Hotel in Glasgow
BERN, Switzerland and TOKYO, February 22, 2011 - NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) and Swisscom AG. (Swisscom)
have announced the successful implementation of a cloud-based communications
service for citizenM - the award winning Hotel Group (Headquarters:
Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Chairman: Rattan Chadha). Swisscom Hospitality
Services, a group company of Swisscom, has deployed NEC's hosted solution
based on its software-based IP communications platform, UNIVERGE Sphericall
delivered in a virtualized environment, as part of its Cloud-based service
offering for citizenM's new hotel in Glasgow.
NEC Unified Solutions, a subsidiary of NEC Europe Ltd., has
hosted the Sphericall-based platform within its local data centre and is
providing it as a SaaS (Software as a Service) solution. Swisscom has used
the open, web services architecture of Sphericall to integrate with its
Property Management service, providing the hotel with a fully hosted,
integrated business management solution. In addition, Swisscom is also
undertaking all the call rating as part of the solution, eliminating the need
for citizenM to engage with other third parties and ensuring that all calls
follow the optimum and most cost effective route.
Since launching its first hotel at Amsterdam's Schiphol
airport in summer 2008, citizenM has established a unique brand of affordable
luxury that gives global mobile travelers - the 'M' in citizenM stands for
'mobile' - what they most want and need. Now, with its newest, 198-room hotel
in Glasgow, citizenM is moving into the UK market, and it has plans to open a
further two new hotels in London.
Commenting on the benefits of NEC's UNIVERGE Sphericall
solution, Leo Brand, CEO of Swisscom Hospitality Services, says, "We selected
NEC as our prime eco-system partner for voice largely based on the strengths
of their UNIVERGE Sphericall platform in the Cloud environment, which is a
service-oriented communications platform that delivers scalability, low-cost
of ownership and openness, enabling us to embed communications into
business-critical applications and processes across the hotel. In addition,
the Sphericall platform is being deployed in a virtualized Cloud environment
which means that as citizenM continues to expand it can utilize the same
technology at new hotel sites without incurring further set-up costs."
Michael Levie, COO at citizenM says, "We are embarking on a
major campaign to expand the citizenM brand to new urban destinations, with
roll-outs planned in London, New York, Paris, Milan, Zurich and Hong Kong. We
need a cost-effective solution which is reliable and secure, as well as
something which can be deployed quickly and easily. By using a Cloud-based
service model, we achieve just that and avoid all the cost and disruption of
deploying our own infrastructure. With Swisscom and NEC, we have two well
known and proven brands offering a best-of-breed solution which is very
reliable and cost-effective, and because we are utilizing a virtualized
environment we are able to significantly reduce our IT capital expenditure,
while also eliminating on-site IT maintenance costs."
Chris de Silva, EMEA Vice President of NEC Unified Solutions,
says, "NEC is delighted to be partnering with Swisscom to develop Cloud-based
services for the hospitality sector in the UK and beyond. As Cloud-based
services proliferate, the management and location of core applications and
user-facing computing environments becomes irrelevant. The enterprise and the
worker are now less interested in where their platforms and applications are
being hosted and more interested in cost-effective, rapidly-deployable
innovative services."
About Swisscom Hospitality Services
Swisscom Hospitality Services (SHS) is a division of Swisscom,
a leading European telecommunications operator providing a full range of
products and services for mobile, fixed and IP-based voice and data
communication. Leveraging the Group's technology experience, SHS provides
IP-based communication and entertainment solutions designed to meet the
unique requirements of the world's finest hotels. The company has more than
2,000 partner hotels across the United States, Europe and the Middle East.
Moreover, it provides customized network solutions at more than 10,000
conferences and events every year and supports over 50,000 self-service
meetings.
www.swisscom.com/hospitality
About NEC Corporation
NEC Corporation is a leader in the integration of IT and
network technologies that benefit businesses and people around the world. By
providing a combination of products and solutions that cross utilize the
company's experience and global resources, NEC's advanced technologies meet
the complex and ever-changing needs of its customers. NEC brings more than
100 years of expertise in technological innovation to empower people,
businesses and society. For more information, visit NEC at
www.nec.com.
For futher information on NEC's Cloud business, visit at
www.nec.com/global/solutions/cloud/
NEC is a registered trademark of NEC Corporation. All Rights
Reserved. Other product or service marks mentioned herein are the trademarks
of their respective owners. (c)2011 NEC Corporation.
Contact: Arndt Mielisch Swisscom Hospitality Services Arndt.mielisch@swisscom.com +41-22-740 7545 Chris Shimizu NEC Corporation yc-shimizu@cb.jp.nec.com +81-3-3798-6511 Takehiko Kato NEC Europe Ltd. takehiko.kato@eu.nec.com +44-20-8752-2794
Contact: Arndt Mielisch, Swisscom Hospitality Services, Arndt.mielisch at swisscom.com , +41-22-740-7545; Chris Shimizu, NEC Corporation, yc-shimizu at cb.jp.nec.com , +81-3-3798-6511. Takehiko Kato, NEC Europe Ltd., takehiko.kato at eu.nec.com , +44-20-8752-2794.
Tags: Bern, February 22, Japan, NEC Corporation, Switzerland, Switzerland And Tokyo