Hilton simplifies hotel IT systems

Hilton Hotels is standardising its IT environment to improve the efficiency of the business.

The company, which has some 400 hotels around the world, is deploying standardised systems and tools across its international organisation to make IT management easier for individual hotels.

'What we are trying to do is solidify our infrastructure,' said Julian Daniel, director of infrastructure and technology at Hilton Hotels. 'I want to simplify what we have because that makes our infrastructure easier to manage.'

The hotel chain started its standardisation programme two years ago, when it installed an email system based on Novell Netware, running on 180 HP servers and 19,000 desktops.

The firm used Veritas Backup Exec software to ensure the email system is operational 24 hours a day. Hotel guests are increasingly making reservations by email, making availability critical to Hilton's business.

Following the success of the email backup initiative, the company is now applying the technology to its file and print server environment, and considering extending its use to cover laptops.

'We are standardising things such as patch management and anti-virus across the board,' said Daniel.

'We really are trying to bring the key security functions under one roof so it makes it easier for hotel managers to manage their environments.'

The next phase will involve general systems. 'We are striving to improve ourselves all the time and I think we are a long way to building core business infrastructure that is pretty well standardised across the board,' said Daniel.

'We are embarking on an overall systems strategy and starting to look at what it will look like over the next three years.'

Daniel says the firm is finding it difficult to establish exact benefits and cost savings because of the size of the operation.

'IT managers are very busy people and I want to make sure we provide, from a corporate position, all the right tools to manage their environments,' he said.

'It's easier if my time is spent supporting one product rather than several products. That's a business benefit in itself.'