ProCurve Networking by HP

Scandic Hilton offers free wireless

Internet with ProCurve Networking

“We wanted a wireless network that would Morten Hansen

Nordic IT director
deliver speed and reliability at a competitive
Scandic Hilton Hotels, Sweden
price and that is just what ProCurve Networking
has given us.”
Owned by Hilton International, Scandic is Scandic’s demands included requirements Objective
the leading hotel chain in the Nordic such as coverage, ease of login, reliable up- • To gain a competitive
countries with more than 120 hotels and time and speed of response times. edge by improving the
23,000 rooms. Reliability, speed and value were the customer experience for
watchwords and the solution that best met hotel guests, offering a
Responding to customer demand is a these demands was ProCurve Networking. free Internet service
particularly important business powered by ProCurve
requirement in the hospitality trade. When “ProCurve won the deal because it had the Networking.
Scandic found that an increasing number of strongest belief in its equipment. This
A p p r oach
guests were arriving with laptop computers, meant it delivered a very strong service level
PDAs and other similar devices, it realised agreement and did this at a very • Provision of free wireless
that offering free Internet connections competitive price,” adds Hansen. “To Internet connection in
guest rooms, conference
would give it a competitive edge. It also support the agreement, we knew that we
facilities and ‘EASY
realised that Internet access was no longer a needed to select the right equipment from
ACCESS POINT’
service required purely by business guests, the beginning instead of a solution that
connection areas
with an increasing number of tourists might break and have to be fixed later.
situated in public areas
wanting Internet connection to send home
in Scandic hotels.
pictures or plan outings.
Trouble free • ProCurve wireless
Scandic decided on a wireless solution The Scandic networks feature two flagship networking providing 80
rather than a wired solution because they ProCurve products. At the front end are per cent coverage of 100
realised that a single access point could Wireless Access Points 420 which are hotels in Norway, Sweden
cover a minimum of six rooms, both to left designed to provide secure, trouble-free and Demark.
and right, above and below. Wireless deployment for medium to larger WLANs
I T i m p r ovements
furthermore provides guests with a desired (Wireless Local Area Networks), and are
free choice of working location anywhere in easily integrated into existing networks. • Swift connection rates.
the hotel and rooms. They link to powerful 24-port ProCurve 2626 • Effective security.
switches that are designed to provide the
best combination of value and performance. • Reliable and easy to use.
Service levels
Business benefits
Typical of an industry where the needs and
comfort of people come first, Scandic did not • Enhances the guest
stipulate any technical specifications when
experience.
it went to the market to find a solution. • Helps Scandic attract
more custom and remain
“We started looking at a number of different competitive in a highly
networking suppliers. We didn’t focus on competitive market.
any particular hardware but more on the
service delivery, which can be frustrating for • Good overall cost of
a lot of vendors because they are not used to ownership.
that kind of approach,” says Morten Hansen,
Nordic IT director for Scandic. “Instead of
the bits and bytes, we concentrated on the
service experience that different solutions
could provide for our guests and left it up to
the vendors to translate this into how many
access points and switches there should be
and where they should be located.”

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Scandic and ProCurve bit the bullet and
launched straight into concurrent rollouts in
Norway, Sweden and Denmark – an
ambitious move that required a lengthy
implementation period because of the
difficulty of installing cabling in some
hotels that were not originally designed to
facilitate it.
Now, Scandic has 80 per cent of its rooms
covered and there are more access points in
conference rooms and at ‘EASY ACCESS
POINT’ connection areas situated in public
areas at Scandic hotels, where desktop
computers and printers are also available.
The Internet connection rate at each hotel
has recently been increased from 1Mb per
second to 4Mb per second. This is constantly
monitored but is expected to meet demands
for the next two years.
Growing popularity
If usage figures are a gauge, the ProCurve
wireless Internet solution has been a
resounding success with Scandic guests.
When the systems were first installed they
were used by between 100 and 200 guests a
week. Latest figures show that 14,000 guests
a week are now connecting wirelessly. At
the start there were some 1,000 sessions a
week. This has now reached 38,000 a week
and is steadily increasing. Free Internet
connection is also high on the list of services
praised in Scandic’s guest satisfaction
tracking.
With no capital costs to meet, the hotel Customer at a Glance
chain has worked out that selling just two or Industry sector: Hospitality
more rooms in each hotel, each day covers Name: Scandic Hilton Hotels
all costs of the system – and with an average Headquarters: Stockholm,
of 170 rooms per hotel, that is easily Sweden
achievable. The service level agreement URL: www.scandic-hotels.com
states that if one access point fails it is
repaired or replaced in a maximum of 48 What Makes it Work?
hours; if two or more access points or a
switch fail then the deadline reduces to 24 Primary applications
hours. • Wireless Internet
connectivity.
“The ProCurve solution offers a competitive
advantage for our hotel chain, and has Primary hardware
brought a lot of praise for Scandic’s IT • ProCurve Networking
department both internally and externally,” Wireless Access Point 420.
says Hansen. “It’s a great solution, it’s
simple, it’s reliable and it works. The best • ProCurve Networking Switch
proof of concept is that our competitors have 2626.
started to copy it.”
To find out more about
ProCurve Networking
please visit:
www.hp.com/eur/procurve
For information about the
ProCurve Network Design
Centre, visit:
www.hp.com/go/requestyo
urnetworkdesign
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© 2006 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.

Publication Number: 4AA0-9289EEW Written: December 2006