The Royal Resorts Company

Success Story

Novell solution streamlines management and improves remote access for top-ranked resort company

Overview

The Royal Resorts Company is a five-star vacation resort company with timeshare properties in Mexico and the Cayman Islands. Ranked among the top-rated resorts in the world, Royal Resorts has more than 63,000 members and 2,700 employees.

Challenge

With a chain of hotels in Cancun and the Caribbean, administrative control of resources at each hotel, including operations, services and personnel, is critical for Royal Resorts. The company needed a stable and extremely reliable operating platform to streamline IT management across its entire operation. Rapid growth also created an urgent need to effectively manage a growing number of employees.

In addition, hotel executives travel frequently and need remote access to e-mail, schedules and documents from any location or device. The resort began searching for a solution to centralize its IT operations and provide better remote support to its members and users in each location.

Novell solution

"We use Novell Cluster Services to assure continuity of our business operations. In the event of a system failure, it would be impossible to take orders in the restaurants, sell anything in the stores and boutiques, charge for long-distance calls or check guests in or out – all of this would be disastrous for our business."

Jerónimo Elizondo
IT director,
The Royal Resorts Company

To securely manage a broad network, Royal Resorts upgraded to Novell NetWare 6 and eDirectory. The resort also selected Novell GroupWise for employee collaboration, and ZENworks for Desktops to manage its workstations across multiple properties.

"One of the potential problems when upgrading network software is that loading configurations and policies can be tedious and time-consuming, and there is a risk of incurring serious errors with multiple installations," said Jerónimo Elizondo, IT director for Royal Resorts. "Novell makes for an easy and seamless migration. With data stored in eDirectory, we just install a new NetWare server, create a replica of the directory, and it's ready to go."

eDirectory stores user profiles, including which applications each user is authorized to use, and securely grants access to users from any location. The simplified administration of user information gives Royal Resorts the flexibility to move employees from one place to another without creating an associated IT cost.

An important function of the resort's network is the management of thousands of electronic card keys to open each hotel room. "With card keys, we can oversee the cleaning and maintenance staff working in the resorts," said Elizondo. "The maids enter a code when they go in and out of a room, and with a central router connected to the network, we know when the rooms are being cleaned."

Royal Resorts also uses the card keys for all guest purchases. With electronic control of food, beverages and other purchases, the resort ensures that guests are never overcharged, and that the hotel never overlooks a client's consumption.

Royal Resorts relies on Novell Cluster Services to eliminate the risk of a single point of failure bringing the entire network down. "We use Novell Cluster Services to assure continuity of our business operations," said Elizondo. "In the event of a system failure, it would be impossible to take orders in the restaurants, sell anything in the stores and boutiques, charge for long-distance calls or check guests in or out – all of this would be disastrous for our business."

One of the compelling reasons for Royal Resorts to upgrade to NetWare 6 is Novell iFolder, which gives employees virtual work folders that they can access with a Web browser from any location, using any device. Hotel executives travel frequently and use iFolder to access documents while on the road, and then synchronize files when back online.

Royal Resorts migrated from a Microsoft mail program to Novell GroupWise for greater employee collaboration with e-mail, calendaring and scheduling. With GroupWise, PDA users can synchronize their calendars and get e-mail while on the go. Hotel executives can also use PDAs and other mobile devices to track scheduling information for all hotel facilities, eliminating the need for manual schedule logs.

Finally, ZENworks for Desktops gives administrators control of hotel equipment in all locations from a central point of administration. Using pre-established user groups and access policies, administrators can standardize desktops and prevent employees from making desktop modifications, or from installing programs not authorized by the company. Royal Resorts also uses ZENworks to automatically distribute applications across resort properties, resulting in a significant cost savings, particularly when setting up a new resort location.

Results

By centralizing its operations with a comprehensive Novell solution, Royal Resorts has streamlined its IT management, with a minimal increase in IT staff. Increased efficiencies in each location have significantly reduced the company's administrative costs. The resort can adapt quickly to rapid employee growth, and provide each employee with reliable remote access, regardless of location.

"Our long-term relationship with Novell has allowed us to grow exponentially, but keep our maintenance costs at a low level," said Elizondo.