The Angsana Case

Angsana Hotel & Suites Dubai is the group’s first property in the United Arab Emirates and will be a testament to the services offered by Banyan Tree and Angsana around the world. Launched in 2000, Angsana is the sister brand of Banyan Tree, inspired by the exotic Angsana Tree noted for its crown of golden flowers. Angsana resorts are designed as contemporary, chic and vibrant retreats to live life spontaneously and sense the moment.

The core requirement of Angsana Hotel & Suites Dubai team was a fully personalized guest service system. According to Anil KJ, Hospitality Consultant at Alpha Data, “The people at Angsana Hotel & Suites Dubai were seeking a unified system that would provide superior personalised and customised guest services, creating a more comfortable and enjoyable hotel experience.” In each guestroom, each bedside IP Phone features a high-resolution, colour touch screen from which guests could request different services, in addition to making phone calls. High-speed Internet access is also provided through the phone switch port. A video-on-demand set-top box is connected to the network, delivering television and audio & video on demand. The entire hotel including its guest rooms enjoys uninterrupted wireless Internet access. Wireless technology has been on the rise in the UAE hospitality sector. Therefore, the migration from desktop to wireless platforms is bound to have a significant impact on future hospitality delivery systems. To that effect, Mr. Anil KJ announced that the Angsana Hotel & Suites Dubai senior staff members “have recently been provided with new Wireless-IP handsets that will help make them reachable at their extensions anywhere on the Hotel premises.”

© Photo: Angsana Hotel & Suites

The Bavaria Executive Suites Case

Set to open early 2009, Bavaria Executive Suites Dubai will be the largest all-suite hotel in the MENA region with 2,100 luxury designer suites in the heart of ‘new Dubai’. A fully converged network is being installed across the two 40-storey towers by Alpha Data. The project will include the implementation of a state-of-the-art data centre, and a converged network from Nortel to serve both towers. “With over 60% of Bavaria’s business anticipated to come from the corporate segment, it was vital that the network installed would provide consistent access to guests with no down-time,” said Jacob Chacko, Head of Alpha Data’s Network and Telecom Division in Dubai. “We’ve provided for 99.9% redundancy and bandwidth management to ensure a consistent and uninterrupted speed of access to the Internet – a vital facility for corporate guests,” he added.

Located on Sheikh Zayed Road within the Dubai Technology and Media Free Zone in the heart of the city's vibrant business district, Bavaria Executive Suites Dubai opens up opportunities for medium to large size groups wishing to visit Dubai and requiring both meetings facilities and accommodation under one roof.

The Bonnington Case

The Bonnington will be a landmark of heritage and style, towering gracefully in the midst of the Jumeirah Lakes Towers, providing a chic five-star residential address to all who walk through her doors. A fully integrated technology system has been designed for the hotel from the ground up including Structured Cabling, Data Networks, Telephony, Security & Access Control, Interactive Television system including IPTV and Audio Visual solutions.

One of the key requirements was for a fully integrated Room Management and Guest Door Access system, in which guests could control many room functions from a single panel beside their bed. The system is able to distinguish between guest and housekeeping cards, which means that during housekeeping functions only limited lights are lit and the other functions disabled, resulting in considerable power savings.

In addition, Bonnington staff members have been provided with Wireless-IP handsets that will make them reachable on their extensions anywhere on the hotel premises to ensure optimum speed of service to guests not to mention cost savings to the hotel.

© Photo: Raffles Hotels and Resorts

The Raffles Case Well known for their pursuit for excellence, Raffles Hotels & Resorts have made every possible effort to ensure that their Raffles Dubai is set to be a market leader and a new landmark. “The growth in Dubai, not only in terms of numbers of hotels, but in levels of service excellence is phenomenal,” said Ravi Veerasawmy, IT Manager at Raffles Dubai. Raffles worked with Alpha Data, one of the only ICT companies in the country who were able to work as a systems integration manager to seamlessly link Raffles telephony networks, networking systems, interactive television, building management systems and room managements systems.

“There’s no shortage of exciting, innovative technologies available to help hoteliers create unique, positive guest experiences. Such solutions can establish and reinforce guest loyalty while maximising the profit potential of each guest,” said Anil KJ, a Hospitality Consultant at Alpha Data.

“Integrating numerous systems and devices to work together and exchange information is the number one challenge for many hoteliers and that’s where we come in.”

“One of the key requirements was for fully integrated room management and guest access systems. As this had not been done before in the UAE, we worked closely with our manufacturing partner Minxon to develop the panels, integrate them and install the systems throughout the hotel. While for the telephony, we worked with our long-time partner Nortel,” Anil KJ added.