Orchard Grand Court is a complex of hotel-style serviced apartments close to Singapore’s business, shopping and entertainment districts. Its 203 rooms and suites are larger than the average hotel accommodation which makes it ideal for both short stays and long term occupancy.

Operating in central Singapore’s hospitality market puts Orchard Grand Court in an intensely competitive arena. To attract visitors it must provide all the services that today’s hotel guests have come to expect. It is classed as ‘serviced apartments’ and therefore does not appear on the Singapore Hotel Association site which many visitors use to search for accommodation. This makes it even more important to provide good facilities and so increase word-of-mouth recommendations.

“Most competitors are selling their rooms with free internet included in the rate so we have to do the same for us to be competitive,” says Mark Chng, IT director at Orchard Grand Court. “Apart from the long term occupancy charges, our rates are reasonably high, compared to many hotels, so to maintain our business we have to provide internet facilities to attract visitors.”

Objective Improve broadband access for hotel guests

ApproachConsidered different vendor solutions to install wireless broadband with particular emphasis on efficient network control

IT improvements• Provides total network control from one central

console, reducing staff time and cost

• Enables password authentication to ensure user security

• Ensures reliable internet access from anywhere in the complex, resulting in customer satisfaction and repeat business

Business benefits • Improves guest satisfaction to help maintain

more than 90 per cent occupancy

HP customer case study Central management gives total view of wireless network

Industry Hospitality

Orchard Grand Court improves guest satisfaction with efficient wireless Internet

“Since we installed HP wireless broadband our guests are very happy. They tell their friends and colleagues to try us and they come back again and again which is really good for our business.” —Mark Chng, IT director, Orchard Grand Court

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Vital connectivitySince 80 per cent of Orchard Grand Court’s visitors are business people, swift and reliable internet is vitally important. Unfortunately in the past, there were connectivity problems and the result was unhappy guests.

“We just had cable broadband and although it worked well, it could only cope with one user per room,” says Mark Chng. “If we had two or three guests in a room, it could cause problems because they would want to access the internet with their own laptops, smartphones and other devices and the system could not cope with all these requirements.”

Guests would connect their devices to Orchard Grand Court’s broadband cable with their own routers, or change the IP address and tie up the entire internet system in the hotel. “We often had people coming to the desk to complain that they could not get onto the internet. IT staff had to go and check what was happening in the rooms,” says Mr. Chng. ”We had no central control.”

Wireless optionOrchard Grand Court needed to re-think its broadband communication. Mr. Chng approached an HP contact who assessed the problem and suggested a wireless solution and put the customer in touch with HP Premier Partner, HP AddOn Systems.

Solutions from other vendors were considered, including Linksys, but Orchard Grand Court decided to go with HP. Its existing wired network was running on switches from 3Com, which HP had taken over, so it already had connections with AddOn. Another principal reason for choosing HP was that the whole network could be easily managed from one single back-office controller.

“Because most of our rooms are always occupied, we do not have much time to deal with broadband problems, so when HP and AddOn said they could solve the problem, we were happy to go ahead with them,” adds Mr. Chng.

AddOn surveyed the premises and designed a system that includes a central controller, switches and access point that give wireless coverage through all ten floors of the complex, in all rooms as well as the lobby and shopping area. The solution includes HP 6200-24G-mGBIC yl Switches which are designed to be deployed as an aggregator of traffic from the edge to the core of the network; the HP 2520-24-PoE Switch Series for Power over Ethernet (PoE) connectivity; HP 2910-24G-PoE + al network edge switches; and 52 HP MSM310 wireless access points.

Orchard Grand Court still runs its wired network in parallel with the wireless installation because some guests have laptops with firewalls and Virtual Private Network (VPN) restrictions that prevent the use of Wi-Fi.

Customer solution at a glance

Hardware

• HP 6200-24G-mGBIC yl Switch

• HP 2520-24-PoE Switch

• HP 2910-24G-PoE + al Switch

• HP MSM310 wireless access points

Security ensured “I use an HP controller to manage the whole system. We check all the access points twice a day and so far we’ve not had any failures,” says Mr. Chng. “I also regularly change the security password that guests get from reception when they want to use the system. From one monitor in the back office I can now see the health of our whole network.

“Since the HP wireless solution was installed, we have had zero complaints from guests who were unable to access the internet. If anyone does have a problem, it’s because they are not using it properly and not the fault of the equipment. Business guests no longer come to reception to say they cannot access the internet and they provide feedback of satisfaction to their companies. We have a lot of regular guests and they are very happy that we have changed to wireless connectivity.

“Despite the economic downturn, we have maintained our business levels and I am sure that installing wireless has helped to encourage guests to return. Some stay for two weeks but others stay for a few months or even a year which enables us to maintain more than 90 per cent occupancy. In the long term, I think we did the right thing to upgrade to HP wireless. The benefits are very clear. No more complaints. No more unhappy guests.”

For more informationTo read more about HP Networking, go to hp.com/go/networking

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© Copyright 2012 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

4AA4-0476EEW, Created May 2012; Updated August 2012, Rev. 1