Optus wins Accor hotel chain network deal
Optus’s business unit has notched up another win, sealing a three-year deal with Accor Hotels to provide fixed voice and mobile services across the hotel group’s 200 properties.
The agreement will see Optus become the sole network provider for Accor’s hotel chain and leverage Optus’s 4G network.
The telco will also deploy a dedicated customer service team to support a number of properties across the country. Accor’s portfolio of hotel brands includes Sofitel, Pullman, MGallery, The Sebel, Mercure, Novotel and Ibis.
Optus Business managing director John Paitaridis said the latest deal was another example of the inroads the telco was making in the ICT services space.
“The business has real momentum and Accor is an important client with its 200 assets across the country; it’s high profile and it’s a multi-million-dollar deal,” Mr Paitaridis told The Australian.
“We think this is a strategic win in the sector and follows strong wins that we have had in financial services, banking, travel and retail, and it gives you a sense of where the business is going.”
The Accor deal comes as Optus expands its presence in the retail space.
In February, Optus signed an initial five-year deal with Scentre Group to roll out WiFi systems across 21 Westfield malls, with systems upgraded at three more shopping centres.
According to Mr Paitaridis, organisations are increasingly looking to partner with a single trusted provider that can provide an end-to-end proposition of telecommunications, hardware, software, management and project services, all wrapped within a service management framework.
“That’s what we are competing for now and apart from other telcos we are also competing against system integrators and IT services providers, so there’s a natural convergence there,” Mr Paitaridis said.
“The key decision-makers are looking to remove the complexity of the multi-vendor model.”
The robustness of the network is crucial to Optus’s desire to make continued inroads in a market that’s clamouring for a single point of control and Mr Paitaridis said that beefing up capacity was a key priority for the telco.
“The Accor deal is a great example of how much the network means for us. We have 200-plus sites on the network and that requires significant capacity to be provisioned,” he said.
“The network is fundamental to our ICT strategy and our view is that our network is our key differentiator against the IT service providers and the system integrators.
“We are investing in our mobile, our fixed network and staying lock-step with the NBN as it reaches critical mass,” Mr Paitaridis added.
Source: The Australian - 27th October 2015
