ALE helps nurture future hoteliers – In partnership with EAHM, ALE creates IT-focused education module
[ITP.net, By David Ndichu] : Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management (EAHM) and Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALE) recently announced a partnership to build a new technology education module for the college.
The two organisations signed a memorandum of understanding to develop the module for educating students at EAHM on technology and the increasingly important role IT plays in the hospitality industry.
The module will be a pre-requisite for undergraduate students at EAHM, as part of the programme curriculum. Experts from ALE will teach the students by demonstrating the latest technology innovations in the hospitality sector, discussing trends like the transition to cloud and its relation to business operations, and introduce the latest mobile apps which are changing the experience for both hotel guests and employees.
Students will be exposed to different aspects of hospitality management and have the opportunity to delve into the ever-changing IT environment in a hotel and learn how technology is revolutionising the guest and employee experience in hotels.
ALE has been catering to the hospitality sector for over 20 years. In 2014, ALE decided to launch a dedicated solution unit for hospitality and focus on this vertical sector, explains Xavier Mongin, director, Middle East for travel, hospitality & leisure at ALE.
To date, ALE has provided various solutions that are in use by hotel guests in more than four million rooms worldwide, he adds.
The new technology education module at Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management started with approximately 60 BBA students, but ALE wants to include MBA students as well over the upcoming semesters. “Our partnership with Emirates Academy is not limited to class courses but will also include business cases such as surveys, benchmarking, brainstorming and elevator pitches for ALE products such as the ALE Rainbow solution,” Xavier Mongin says.
Xavier Mongin says the goal of the programme, offered free of charge, is to expose students to different aspects of hospitality management. “This will also provide them with the opportunity to delve into the ever-changing IT environment in a hotel and learn how technology is revolutionising the guest and employee experience.
Overall, it is important for graduating students to gain the knowledge and expertise required in the market in order to maintain the UAE’s position as a global leader in hospitality in the future, asserts Xavier Mongin. Rapid evolutions in technology mean greater guest expectations, and hoteliers in the UAE are increasingly embracing new technologies to adapt to changing customer demands.”
Through this partnership, students will learn from experts who have experience implementing ALE technology in local and global markets. The hands-on module will equip students with practical skills that can be applied as they start their careers in hospitality, Xavier Mongin says.
“Overall, the partnership offers us the ideal platform to raise awareness of our innovative portfolio to the next-generation of hoteliers, setting the industry standard for digital solutions across the hospitality sector,” he adds.
EAHM is operated by Jumeirah group, and there are currently over 300 students learning through internships and building relationships with people in the industry.
As part of the module, students and course professors will use newly-announced Alcatel-Lucent Rainbow, a cloud-based relationship management platform. Rainbow is designed to empower students and faculty to be more collaborative and productive.
A digital innovation hub being set up at EAHM will be equipped with ALE products and solutions where students will experience the latest tech and gain first-hand knowledge.
ALE is helping hotels and properties across the UAE and Middle East to make the shift to digital services that enrich the guest experience, reduce infrastructure costs and improve hotel operations through its wired and wireless voice, data and video services, says Xavier Mongin.
ALE Hospitality solutions address key areas including, eliminating dead spots, running critical applications and allowing new technology trends such as BYOD, LBS (Location Based Services), IoT and digital apps.
Specifically, ALE networking solutions cater to the hospitality industry through IoT, security, mobility and Wi-Fi. For cloud and consumption based models, the company offers UCaas (Rainbow), OpenTouch Cloud and NOD (Network on Demand).
The company’s applications & integration solutions on the other hand include Mobile Guest Softphone, Smart Guest application, emergency notification, eConcierge integration, among others.
As part of the training’s future roadmap, ALE looks to further incorporate the Rainbow solution as a platform for students and teachers to have a working collaborative environment, says Xavier Mongin.
“We are creating more open APIs so that developers can create custom applications and capabilities that can add value to both parties’ adoption of UC technology. We will also be proposing new technologies for mock up rooms and continue to look for new ways to enrich the curriculum with new innovations,” Xavier Mongin concludes.
