Le Royal Meridien Mumbai Wi-Fi's Rooms
By Julia Fernandes
Mumbai, Jul 28, 2004

In order to provide its guests with "anywhere-connectivity’, Le Royal Méridien, nestled in the heart of the bustling airport precinct in Mumbai, has provided wireless connectivity throughout its premises, becoming the first hotel in Mumbai offering such service.

In a tête-à-tête with CXOtoday, Harish Chandra, area-information systems manager, Le Royal Meridien, stated, “All 171 rooms in our Mumbai location have been successfully Wi-Fi enabled, including public areas within the hotel, providing streaming Internet access at 512 Kbps on a pure 1:1 basis."

Elaborating further he said, "The standard adopted in connecting the wireless access points is 802.11b." Regarding the investment costs in the Wi-Fi project, Chandra maintained that Convergent Technologies (the system integrator) and the hotel has a joint revenue sharing model.

Describing some of the other IT initiatives, Chandra continued, "At Le Meridien, Ahmedabad, the hotel recently deployed Fidelio PMS 6.20.24, a property management system, which interfaces with Shawman POS (Point of Sale) terminals that sit on a Microsoft SQL server 2000."

Divulging the TCO Chandra revealed, "The cost for the system worked out to approximately $4,725 (75$ per room for 63 rooms), plus Rs 4 lakh that was incurred in implementation and training costs."

Explaining the data flow, for the Mumbai location he narrated, "Fidelio, interfaces with Wi-Fi systems, the hotel’s Alcatel-based EPABX system and a Micros POS network."

Elaborating further he said, "When a guest makes telephone calls, the data flows to the PMS for telephone billing. Similarly, for Internet billing, information regarding Internet usage flows to the PMS. Also, when the hotel receives bookings for reservations, confirmation for the same is automated via Tobit Faxware, i.e. prospective guests receive a computerized fax confirmation."

“Additionally, data from Fidelio is exported to Lattice -- a back office accounting software that performs the task of generation of bills -- for generation of the credit amounts to be recovered from companies. It also interfaces with Alif- a Foxpro-based payroll and accounting software,” explained Chandra.

Speaking on the issue of Wi-Fi, Chandra stated that the concept is relatively new in India and is not catching up as much as internationally. He feels that Indian hospitality solution vendors like (Prologic, Shawman, IDS, ISG) should make their applications Wi-Fi enabled, which is the trend abroad.

Briefly mapping the hotel’s IT environment, Chandra said, "In Mumbai, at the desktop level, Windows 98 and 2000 is being used, while a Dell machine runs on Novell 4.x at the server end and a SCO Unix server integrates Micros POS terminals. Novell Client 32 is used for connecting the Windows clients to the Novell server. The Mumbai location is equipped with three servers and more than 75 desktops. However, in Ahmedabad, the nodes run on Windows 2000, and the OS at the server level too is Windows 2000."

Speaking about the Internet tariff charges of Rs 500 for 24 hours, Chandra justified that maybe in a cyber café the charges would be comparatively cheaper, but if one takes into account the level of service provided, it would be seem fair. According to Chandra, a common complaint among foreign guests is that abroad, internet connectivity is free, while in India the charges are extremely high. Says Chandra, "Globally, bandwidth is cheaper and the cost of wireless equipment too is not as high as in India, and that's one of the reasons why we charge our clients so much."

Sharing some of the future plans, Chandra went on, "We are planning to shortly upgrade from the current DOS-based Fidelio to Oracle-based Fidelio Opera, which is GUI enabled."

”The primary reason for migration is that support for the current version will be withdrawn in 2007. Moreover, the opera version is more robust and efficient, and the chances of corruption are minimal as compared to the current version,” reasoned Chandra.

Expressing his view on technical support, Chandra firmly stated that since Alif and Showman have a local presence, they are able to provide effective and prompt technical support, whereas on the other hand, since Fidelio is a global company with the Indian presence in New Delhi and Bangalore, support is severely wanting. For e.g. for to rectify a problem an email has to be sent and then the matter is resolved. Lack of a local presence makes a lot of difference.

During the course of conversation, Chandra candidly admitted to being a Linux fan. But as far as deploying Linux in the hotel goes, he maintained, "Right now Fidelio does not support Linux, however, if and when Fidelio is tried and tested in a Linux environment, we shall surely switch over."

Le Royal Meredien has forged an alliance with Nikko Hotels, together handling a network portfolio of over 165 upscale properties with more than 45,000 rooms in over 60 countries worldwide.