Swisscom and NEC Join Forces to Provide Cloud Based Communications at citizenM Hotel Group

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Feb 22, 2011, 01:28 ET

BERN, Switzerland and TOKYO, February 22, 2011 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --

- Swisscom and NEC Deliver Fully Hosted Virtualized Communications Infrastructure at New citizenM Hotel in Glasgow

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.

http://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 http://www.nec.com.

For futher information on NEC's Cloud business, visit at http://www.nec.com/global/solutions/cloud/

    Contact:

    Arndt Mielisch
    Swisscom Hospitality
    Services
    [email protected]
    +41-22-740 7545

    Chris Shimizu
    NEC Corporation
    [email protected]
    +81-3-3798-6511

    Takehiko Kato
    NEC Europe Ltd.
    [email protected]
    +44-20-8752-2794

SOURCE NEC Corporation