Chrome notebooks check-in to the world’s largest hotel chain
December 8th, 2010 | Published in Google Apps, Google Enterprise
Editor’s note: Bryson Koehler is Senior Vice President for Global Revenue & Guest Technology at InterContinental Hotels, the world’s largest hotel group. IHG owns a portfolio of well recognized and respected hotel brands including InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo, Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites and also manages the world’s largest hotel loyalty program, Priority Club Rewards with 52 million members worldwide.
At InterContinental Hotels, we’re always looking for the latest and greatest technologies to better serve our customers. For instance, our IT staff develops most of our new internal applications as web apps using Google Web Tooolkit, a set of development tools that make it easier to build complex browser-based applications. So when we heard about Chrome notebooks, we jumped at the opportunity to try them out in several different parts of our business. The speed, simplicity and security benefits of this pure cloud computing model were too compelling to resist, particularly in contrast to the costs and hassles of desktop computing.
Some compelling use cases for Chrome notebooks include:
Call centers: We have 13 call centers around the world with thousands of agents whose goal is to get our customers the information they need as fast as possible. We believe the Chrome notebooks will provide our agents with the fastest experience for the web apps and sites that they use to support our customers. By reducing the average time per call, we’ll both increase customer satisfaction and significantly reduce our costs. And from an IT perspective, we won’t have to spend countless hours manually installing security patches and upgrades to operating systems and client software. Instead, we’ll be able to focus our time on creating more innovative apps to the benefit of our customers and our agents.
Business service centers: We have thousands of business service centers around the world that provide Internet access to our guests. The guest login feature of the Chrome notebook is great for this situation since it gives our hotel guests an extremely secure, state-of-the-art browsing experience while preventing them from leaving behind any sensitive information. With the Guest Mode feature, a user doesn’t even need to login to the notebook and all of their information including browsing history, cookies, etc. is deleted when they log out of Guest Mode.
Hotel guests: We’re even looking into providing Chrome notebooks to some of our hotel guests during their stay. Imagine leaving your laptop at home on your next trip, and just picking up a Chrome notebook from the front desk at check-in. You log-in and it’s just like your notebook at home: all your apps, bookmarks and preferences are available at your fingertips!
This is just the beginning. We are excited to pilot Chrome notebooks in all these areas of our business and begin exploring using them for every employee at the company. For us, the web is the platform and we’re excited at the potential of Chrome notebooks to delight our users, save us money, make us even more secure, and allow IT to focus on what makes our business unique. I look forward to making Chrome Notebooks our default computer!
Editor’s note: If you’re interested in getting Chrome notebooks for your team or entire organization, apply for the Chrome notebook Pilot program.
At InterContinental Hotels, we’re always looking for the latest and greatest technologies to better serve our customers. For instance, our IT staff develops most of our new internal applications as web apps using Google Web Tooolkit, a set of development tools that make it easier to build complex browser-based applications. So when we heard about Chrome notebooks, we jumped at the opportunity to try them out in several different parts of our business. The speed, simplicity and security benefits of this pure cloud computing model were too compelling to resist, particularly in contrast to the costs and hassles of desktop computing.
Some compelling use cases for Chrome notebooks include:
Call centers: We have 13 call centers around the world with thousands of agents whose goal is to get our customers the information they need as fast as possible. We believe the Chrome notebooks will provide our agents with the fastest experience for the web apps and sites that they use to support our customers. By reducing the average time per call, we’ll both increase customer satisfaction and significantly reduce our costs. And from an IT perspective, we won’t have to spend countless hours manually installing security patches and upgrades to operating systems and client software. Instead, we’ll be able to focus our time on creating more innovative apps to the benefit of our customers and our agents.
Business service centers: We have thousands of business service centers around the world that provide Internet access to our guests. The guest login feature of the Chrome notebook is great for this situation since it gives our hotel guests an extremely secure, state-of-the-art browsing experience while preventing them from leaving behind any sensitive information. With the Guest Mode feature, a user doesn’t even need to login to the notebook and all of their information including browsing history, cookies, etc. is deleted when they log out of Guest Mode.
Hotel guests: We’re even looking into providing Chrome notebooks to some of our hotel guests during their stay. Imagine leaving your laptop at home on your next trip, and just picking up a Chrome notebook from the front desk at check-in. You log-in and it’s just like your notebook at home: all your apps, bookmarks and preferences are available at your fingertips!
This is just the beginning. We are excited to pilot Chrome notebooks in all these areas of our business and begin exploring using them for every employee at the company. For us, the web is the platform and we’re excited at the potential of Chrome notebooks to delight our users, save us money, make us even more secure, and allow IT to focus on what makes our business unique. I look forward to making Chrome Notebooks our default computer!
Editor’s note: If you’re interested in getting Chrome notebooks for your team or entire organization, apply for the Chrome notebook Pilot program.