On Tuesday 23^rd April, we hosted our iPECS Insights 2024 forum. Our iPECS Insights webinars are designed to inform and inspire, and they allow us to share the most up to date news and solutions with our partners so we can continue to collaborate and achieve success.

This month’s session, titled, ‘Hybrid Hospitality as a Service’ was led by Philip Jung, Leading at Ericsson-LG Enterprise, and Michael Strzelecki, Pre-Sales Solutions Group Manager from Aria Technologies.

Hybrid Hospitality as a Service

Our hybrid Hospitality as a Service (HaaS) webinar began with Philip Jung leading the first half of the session, focusing on introducing the solution hybrid HaaS. This was then followed by Michael Strzelecki discussing the target market and business model of HaaS, and how Aria Technologies are making their way in the market.

Introduction of hybrid HaaS

The first half of the webinar provided an overview of the hybrid Hospitality as a Service solution covering the following areas:

• Solution overview
• Basic configuration on proposal
• A reference network diagram and key configurations
• Call routing scenarios, including:
  • PSTN IC call through AA
  • PSTN IC call through to a room directly
  • PSTN OC call from a room
  • Internal calls
• Limitations for a hotel room user
• Monthly license for iPECS Cloud
• HW & SW license for iPECS UCP
• HW & SW license for iPECS vUCP
• Feature specifications

Hybrid HaaS overview

Philip started today’s webinar explaining what our hybrid HaaS is and why we need it. Ericsson-LG Enterprise are proposing a hybrid HaaS solution to address the demand for UCaaS solutions in the hospitality sector.

Most companies want a UCaaS fitting for hybrid and remote work environments because of the OPEX cost model, easy deployment and management, flexible service selection, varied feature set, regular updates and lower TCO. However, for the hospitality industry, requirements are quite different. When talking about hospitality, we are including hotels, hospitals, and schools because these particular industries have many users that require very simple call features and can experience very low call traffic. To meet these requirements we have combined iPECS Cloud with iPECS UCP and iPECS vUCP.

iPECS UCP creates a flexible integration for hospitality organizations, connecting to iPECS Cloud via SIP trunk. As an example, the combination of iPECS Cloud and iPECS UCP in a hotel means they will get all the UCaaS benefits and it will enable all hotel service users such as operators, room maids, reception and so on to access iPECS Cloud, whilst room users will only have access to iPECS UCP.

Philip explained that it is important to note there may be various implementation options when it comes to hybrid HaaS. The Ericsson-LG Enterprise community needs to work together and share experiences and solution knowledge as we move forward in this area.

Basic configuration of HaaS

Philip outlined what the basic configuration of hybrid HaaS might look like stating that all communication service components including PSTN are part of the iPECS Cloud platform except PMS integration, which is achieved through iPECS UCP.

iPECS UCP can be used for two purposes, room user configuration and when a customer does not have a PMS integration. If a customer wants to use iPECS for a hotel attendant, for example, wake up calls or voice mail, these options can be included. The recommended service scenarios that Philip shared later in the webinar are to be used as examples that can be adjusted depending on requirements of the user.

Network setup and scenarios

Philip outlined details of network setup, with diagrams demonstrating how iPECS Cloud and iPECS UCP combine to provide UC features and benefits. Using 6.0 of iPECS Cloud and 6.1 of iPECS UCP, the set up diagrams clearly showed the hotel service users access to the cloud compared to the room users only having access to iPECS UCP.

Additionally, Philip explained the numbers assigned to users, handset set up and the ability to create different options for different users. The setup for key scenarios included:

• PSTN IC call through AA
• PSTN IC call through to a room directly
• PSTN OC call from a room
• Internal calls

Limitations for room users

Current limitations for hotel room users include CID presentation when a hotel service user calls a room, this could present issues and is something we are working on to resolve in Cloud P7. Other limitations include call statistics and call fraud control; however, we have no current plans to address this as the possibility of these limitations is very low.

Hybrid HaaS Licenses

Licenses required for systems include:

• A SIP trunk service license for the concurrent channel of SIP trunk to UCP
• An auto attendant service license for AA DDI numbers

For user licenses, there are a mixture of options. Mandatory licenses would be required for Seat licenses for users including operations, reception, office, room maids, concierge, restaurant, and shops. For UC, CRM, CR, VM, ACD and Analytics we have recommended where licenses would be preferred, optional or not required.

Also covered was the various license requirements and options for HW & SW (iPECS UCP).

Q&A

To round off the first half of the session, Phillip encouraged partners to connect and get in contact if they have other scenarios they need to configure. He also addressed questions from partners, directing them to the appendix for the configuration guide and reiterating that you need iPECS Cloud to have HaaS and you need iPECS UCP to support the hotel features.

Handing over to Michael Strzelecki, from Aria Technologies, Michael then led the final part of the session, focusing on the target market and business model.

About Aria Technologies

Michael began by introducing Aria and sharing their journey. Aria are a privately owned Australian company and have been the number one provider of on-premise solutions in Australia for 14+ years. Aria are early on in their cloud journey but stand out from other competitors as a one solution ecosystem with no need to go outside of the Ericsson-LG Enterprise ecosystem.

Aria are looking to transition hospitality, aged care and beyond over to cloud technology and have been working closely with Ericsson-LG Enterprise to develop this. They are proud to be associated as a branch of the Ericsson-LG Enterprise brand as an exclusive manufacturer, recently winning Asia Pacific Partner of the Year at our 2024 Global Partner Conference.

The challenge of HaaS

Michael identified the challenges the community are presented with, which is the need for a solution for Cloud in hotels, schools, aged care facilities and hospital sites. He shared why we have grouped these verticals together under hospitality, which included common features they all share such as emergency calls/wake up calls, broadcast messaging and multi-language support.

Micheal detailed the features needed in these areas such as PMS integrations and support of high-density extension environments as well as owners wanting low recurring costs of subscription models that support a mixture of handsets.

Aria have chosen to move to the HaaS model to leverage the best of both worlds; the feature set in unified and the latest technology in cloud.

Market research for hospitality

Critical feedback we have received about communications in this sector is the importance to always maintain internal communications no matter what. As an example, if a hotel experiences an outage it is vital for guests to still access the same hotel services with no exceptions.

Michael shared details on the Harmony Hub that enhances functionality in UCaaS, connecting iPECS Cloud to features like emergency calls, PMS integrations and more. The Hub streamlines operations and elevates user experience. Aria is leveraging the best of iPECS Cloud and positioning themselves as a seamless single-vendor solution.

Michael also shared pricing examples for partners that covered pricing per room and per office user, comparing both shorter- and long-term commitments.

Marketing tools

Michael brought our attention to the trends taking place in hospitality including AI technology, data driven decision making, utilizing the power of social media, smart room technology and flexible spaces. He touched upon other revenue avenues targeting these trends and complimentary solutions that can support this sector, including listings, room video conferencing and AI technologies.

Aria Technologies have developed their own AI engine, Pollie, which is designed to answer calls, take bookings, record, and transfer calls. Attendees listened to Pollie in action during the webinar and witnessed the seamless experience it offers.

Concluding comments

We hope that attendees have enjoyed and found today’s session informative and useful, if there are any further questions in regards to our hybrid HaaS, please speak to us. Thank you to all for joining this month’s Insights webinar. We look forward to our next session.