Specialised tourism – a new model Over the last decade, the traditional Greek ‘beach and sun’ tourism model has slowed due to alternative low-cost destinations such as Turkey, Egypt and Croatia becoming popular options. To continue delivering economic growth through tourism and retain Greece’s status as a popular holiday destination, the forward-thinking Greek National Tourism Organisation decided on a step change away from a mass tourism model to focus on specialised tourism. Golf tourism was especially attractive.

With an estimated 7.4 million1 registered golfers and another three million non-club members in Europe, golf is the ideal form of specialised tourism required to alleviate the country’s dependency on the three summer months. The peak golf season for countries with Mediterranean climates are the months of November to April, which are the months when Greek tourism is typically stagnant. Golf tourism therefore extends the tourist period and attracts high-income tourists, who typically spend between 20 and 40 per cent more than leisure tourists. In countries such as Portugal, Spain and the USA, golf resorts are extremely powerful economic drivers because golfers purchase not only the round of golf but also additional goods and services from a host of supporting industries.

Objective Sought an advanced wired and wireless networking infrastructure across two new resorts to deliver quality services to guests and staff

ApproachIssued a request for proposal and assessed the proposed solutions against numerous technical and business criteria

IT improvements• Offers reliable and scalable wired and wireless

networks, delivering high-availability guest services

• Converges data, voice and video, unifying communications and collaboration

• Supports various bandwidth-intensive services IP-TV and high-speed Internet, fulfilling the hotel operator’s needs

• Provides centralised network management, accelerating problem resolution times and releasing staff for more important project work

Business benefits • Provides a fully-integrated, end-to-end solution,

safeguarding mission-critical services and ensuring business continuity

• Delivers cost-effective daily operations across two resorts, lowering Total Cost of Ownership

• Creates a fully-immersed, more accessible IT environment, enhancing the customer experience

• Boosts collaboration and communication between staff and customers, increasing productivity and customer service

• Helps to reposition the region as a high-class tourist destination, driving economic prosperity

HP customer case study TEMES SA deploys HP Networking technology across two luxury Greek resorts to deliver high-quality hospitality services

Industry Tourism

TEMES employs advanced networking to enhance the customer experience at Navarino Dunes, Costa Navarino

“This business is all about providing high-quality hospitality services to discerning guests seeking a unique customer experience. The wired and wireless HP Networking solutions deployed across Navarino Dunes certainly allow us to do that. They are reliable, secure and easily managed.” —Sarantos Haritos, MEP engineering management, TEMES SA

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Messinia, a region in south-west Peloponnese, is at the forefront of this strategy. Until recently, it was practically untouched by tourism despite boasting some of Greece’s most magnificent natural and archaeological sights. It is not difficult to fall in love with the natural beauty, mild climate and rich culture of the region especially if you live in northern Europe.

Costa Navarino Tourism Enterprises of Messinia SA (TEMES) is a premier developer of luxury mixed-use resorts. Through Costa Navarino, its flagship development in the Greek region of Messinia, TEMES contributes to the establishment of Messinia as a world-class, high-end destination. This is the largest tourism development in the Mediterranean for the last 20 years. It will comprise a number of distinct sites featuring 5 star deluxe hotels, luxury residences, conference facilities, spa and thalassotherapy centres, signature golf courses, as well as a wide range of unique year-round activities for adults and children.

Navarino Dunes entails two luxury five-star hotels including the 445 room The Westin Resort, Costa Navarino and the 321 room The Romanos, a Luxury Collection Resort, operated by Starwood Hotels and Resorts. Navarino Dunes is also home to Anazoe Spa, a 4,000sq.m. spa and thalassotherapy centre; the state-of-the-art conference centre House of Events; specially designed facilities for children; as well as a variety of gastronomy venues, sports, outdoor and cultural activities. It also boasts Greece’s first signature 18-hole golf course, The Dunes Course.

“We’re establishing a world-class, high-end destination while simultaneously upholding a strong commitment to environmental responsibility and a genuine respect for local traditions and communities,” says Sarantos Haritos, MEP engineering management, TEMES SA. “While constructing the Westin and Romanos Resorts, we sought a turn key solution to satisfy the networking needs of these luxury hotels.

“Reliable, high-availability wired and wireless networking infrastructures are paramount for delivering most guest-related services. Employees also need a quality network to access applications rapidly and drive cost-effective, business-related services during daily operations,” continues Haritos. “In addition, this type of site requires a network that supports unified communications and collaboration at both host and guest level, and interoperability between various sub-systems such as the Building Management System.”

TEMES issued a request for proposal and Cisco, HP, IBM and Siemens offered solutions. The networking solution would comprise three sub-networks; an administration, guest and maintenance network. Each had to support a variety of services including billing and general administrative functions, intranet and internet access, on-demand IP-TV, IP telephony, wireless connectivity and various site maintenance applications. HP had already chosen Aastra as its IP telephony partner.

After thoroughly evaluating numerous technical and business criteria, TEMES opted for the HP Networking solution. This decision aligned well with the organisation’s earlier plan to follow an HP Converged Infrastructure strategy. TEMES was planning to deploy 11 HP ProLiant DL360 and HP ProLiant DL380 rack-mounted servers and several HP P2000 G3 MSA Array Systems across the two resorts.

Customer solution at a glance

Applications

Mobility

Network Systems and Management

Security

Unified Communications and Collaboration

Hardware

• 6 x HP Networking 8200zl switches

• 4 x HP Networking 5412zl switches

• 1 x HP Networking 4200vl switch

• 2 x HP Networking 3500yl switches

• 1 x HP Networking 2910al switch

• 2 x HP Networking 2810 switches

• 300 x HP Networking 2610 POE switches

• 53 x HP Networking 2610 switches

• 750 x HP Networking MSM422 Access Points

• 4 x HP Networking MSM765zl Mobility Controller

• 11 x HP ProLiant DL360 and 380 servers

• 2 x HP P2000 G3 MSA Array System

Software

• HP PCM Plus Network Management v3

• HP Mobility Manager v3

HP Services

• HP Technology Services

• HP Care Packs

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“We liked the consulting style and end-to-end project approach adopted by HP during the entire sales cycle,” explains Haritos. “There was clarity of vision, an experienced team and a proven track record of deploying similar scale projects. The HP solution offered lower Total Cost of Ownership, greater scalability and a technical edge over the alternative propositions.”

Three networking solutionsBoth resorts now operate three distinct HP Networking solutions, which feature over 10,000 Local Area Network (LAN) ports. The guest and administration sub-networks each employ HP Networking 8200zl modular core and modular distribution switches incorporating integrated Wireless Local Area Network access. The access layers comprise of HP Networking 5412zl modular switches and over 300 HP Networking 2610 switches with Power over Ethernet. Two HP Networking 2810 fixed-port switches handle the resorts IP-TV needs while HP Networking 3500yl stackable switches protect the hotels’ operations by creating a safe buffer zone between the internet and the private LANs.

A highly available array of HP Networking MSM765zl Integrated Wireless Mobility Controllers in each hotel provides centralised Wireless Mobility Services, while a total of 750 HP Networking MSM422 dual-radio 11b/g/n Wireless Access Points offer reliable wireless data access transmission to all resort areas. The wireless infrastructure, one of the largest wireless deployments in Greece, supports several hundred Aastra IP handsets which deliver clear, cost-effective communications between guests and staff, regardless of location.

The HP Networking solution for the resorts’ maintenance sub-network comprises HP Networking 8206zl modular core and HP Networking 4200vl modular distribution switches. HP Networking 2910al and 53 HP Networking 2610 series switches operate at the edge.

“The ability of HP to execute this project on time under very tight deadlines without creating a cost overhead or delaying the planned opening of the hotels was very impressive,” adds Haritos. “We simply couldn’t afford to inconvenience the first customers by offering sub-standard services. This business is all about providing high-quality hospitality services to discerning guests seeking a unique customer experience. The wired and wireless HP Networking solutions deployed across Navarino Dunes certainly allow us to do that. They are reliable, secure and easily managed.”

To manage the wired and wireless networks the resorts’ IT teams employ HP PCM Plus Network Management and HP Mobility Manager software. These applications provide a holistic view of the wired and wireless infrastructures from a central location. Staff use a dashboard to assess the networks’ condition and rapidly identify and resolve issues. Reviewing a network therefore takes seconds while analysing the situation only takes minutes, accelerating problem resolution times. Throughout the project, HP offered a range of consulting services including design, installation, configuration, testing, training and project management.

© Copyright 2013 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.

4AA4-4812EEW, Created January 2013

Get connectedhp.com/go/getconnected

Increasing guest satisfactionSuccessful project delivery provided instant benefits to the TEMES client, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, and the hotels’ guests and staff. Major advantages of this fully-integrated end-to-end solution include high-availability critical services, comprehensive service area coverage, continuous IT operations across the resorts and simplified IT administration. The HP solution consolidates numerous services including data, voice, video, CCTV, building management and high-speed internet access into an efficient single IP infrastructure.

“Unified communication is a prerequisite to providing luxury hospitality services and running a business with an optimised and cost-effective operating model,” declares Haritos. “It accelerates decision making, makes employees more productive and most importantly increases guest satisfaction through improved service delivery.”

Undoubtedly, the development of Costa Navarino is already working its way throughout the local economy, both through direct employment and also through the flourishing of businesses in the region. Messinia gains recognition as a new quality tourism destination to explore, which has led to an increase in the amount of tourists visiting the region.

1 British Golf Industry Association 2012

For more informationTo read more about HP Networking, go to hp.com/go/networking

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