Orchard Grand Court is a complex of hotel-style

serviced apartments close to Singapores 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 Singapores hospitality market
puts Orchard Grand Court in an intensely competitive
arena. To attract visitors it must provide all the
services that todays 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
Approach
Considered diferent vendor solutions to install
wireless broadband with particular emphasis on
efcient network control
IT improvements
Provides total network control from one central
console, reducing staf 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 benefts
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 efcient
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
2
Vital connectivity
Since 80 per cent of Orchard Grand Courts 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
Courts 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 staf had to go and check what was
happening in the rooms, says Mr. Chng. We had no
central control.
Wireless option
Orchard 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-ofce 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 foors 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
trafc 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 frewalls 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
weve 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 ofce 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, its 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 benefts are very clear. No more
complaints. No more unhappy guests.
For more information
To 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