Case Study

Dalata is the largest hotel group in Ireland with over 40 hotels throughout the country, including the well-known Maldron and Clayton chains. A business built through acquisition, the Dalata group bought 15 new hotels in 2015 alone and saw its footprint expand in the UK as well as across Ireland.

This fast growth strategy creates operational challenges for Group IT Manager Anthony Murray who is continually trying to consolidate ICT (Information and Communications Technology) services and find the best suppliers. He wanted full control and visibility of their data consumption across their large mobile estate. Ideally, he wanted the business to take voice and network services from one supplier, covering fixed and mobile calls and broadband connectivity. He went looking for a combination of value and service and found the perfect mix with Three.

“Value is important but there is no value without service. It’s all about account management,” says Anthony Murray. “You can forget the rest if there isn’t someone on the end of the phone when you need them.”

Solution

Of the 4,000 employees across the UK and Ireland, around 250 now use mobile phones provided by Three, and all the hotels have fixed line services, including both voice and broadband. “Three is a long-term business partner,” explains Murray. “It is business critical to our sales teams and is also a way of keeping in touch with our room service and duty managers in the hotels.”

Around 50 sales people are typically on the road where they depend on their smartphones and Three coverage to stay connected. Mobile communication is equally important inside the hotels where it can be hard to locate staff. By the very nature of their work, they are always on the move – whether it’s room service, duty managers or general managers – and it’s essential that they can all be contacted instantly. Not so long ago, communication in hotels relied on pagers, bleepers and walky-talkies. Now they all have phones and are instantly contactable at all times.

Additional value added services that Dalata avail of from Three include Three Analyst, an easy-to-navigate online portal that gives a consolidated view of all communication costs, fixed and mobile. Anthony Murray can log in at any time to view bills and identify opportunities for savings. They also enjoy using Wandera from Three, which allows them to have full visibility of their data usage. By using this service they can see what applications their employees have access to by allowing personal apps to only be used over WiFi.

Results

With hotels across Ireland, Dalata needs a consistent and reliable mobile service. “Three gives us excellent coverage and has a great online portal that gives us transparent billing,” says Murray.

The responsiveness of the communications service provider has also impressed. When a phone has been lost, a replacement is quickly made available. When a JCB accidentally took out the fixed line service to one hotel, calls were diverted near-instantly to another one in the Dalata group, avoiding any downtime or loss of business.

“You don’t have to jump through hoops or wait for the paperwork to be completed, they are very proactive,” says Murray. “We work in a 24/7 business and we expect our suppliers to operate the same way. When we contact them we expect them to respond immediately. We’ve got that with Three, a fantastic sense of customer loyalty and a superb account manager.”

To find out more, call our Business Team on 1800 200 017.

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