15 October 2008

Sheraton Belgium, part of Starwood Hotels and Resorts, has completed the roll out of its original implementation of Message Master Enterprise Alert, a mobile messaging platform and notification workflow software developed by German Microsoft partner Derdack. Message Master Enterprise Alert provides a closed loop system to complement Microsoft System Center.

Message Master was first installed at the Sheraton Towers and Sheraton Airport hotels. The software integrates with internal fire and technical systems that monitor business critical functions such as fire detectors, emergency doors and temperature sensors.

When an event is detected, it is sent via a serial link or internal SMTP server to Message Master Enterprise Alert. The software intelligently analyses the content of the message to determine if it has been triggered by a fire or technical alarm.

Depending on the notification workflows, the software transmits the alarm via SMS to a predetermined group of users using up to four GSM modems to ensure sufficient capacity. Personnel must respond and acknowledge within a certain timeframe, otherwise the alert is escalated to the next level.
Olivier Uytterhoeven, director of IT at Starwood Hotels Brussels said: “Message Master Enterprise Alert enables us to protect our customers, our people and our operations. It gives us greater flexibility over how we run our business and ensures we can respond quickly and efficiently should an emergency occur.”

The SMS messages sent by the system are not limited in length meaning it can convey more detail that is useful to the recipient. The SMS can be sent to any mobile device even those outside of the hotel, allowing staff to be contacted when they are off the premises. Staff carry a single mobile device reducing the number of pieces of equipment that need to be maintained. SMS costs have also been slashed, thus minimising ongoing system costs.

“We wanted seamless and reliable integration of our mobile communication system to our alerting and notification systems. Message Master Enterprise Alert delivers this 100 per cent. It has enabled us to respond more quickly and frees up staff time to concentrate on dealing with events as they occur thus reducing our business risks. We now have a flexible, future proof solution that can integrate with any of our monitoring systems,” concluded Uytterhoeven.