Siemens Enterprise Communication as a service provider

I received a PR from Siemens Enterprise Communications (SEN) which I think is interesting. It says that SEN will operate as a service provider to run internet services for Accor Hotel group in Germany.


In this 5 year pilot project, SEN will act as a project developer, investor and operator. This project envisages a change in the way guests are billed for the services they use. Instead of buying quotas of time, guests will be able to pay for the time they use. SEN will bear the project costs, maintenance charges, operation and customer service. All usage fees collected by the hotel will go to SEN.

This is an interesting proposition. I am surprised that Accor hotel group didn't include telephony in this business model. we all know how much of phone calls we make from our hotel rooms.

Beside that this is an interesting development from a few angles. First, it helps Accor group to focus on its core competence. Second, it allows SEN to develop propositions that lead to increase in the usage of its services. These two together offer better services in both hospitality and communication.

There are certain issues that need consideration. On one side, Guests might take notice of the difference in customer service wrt communications. Furthermore, there is the larger question of the trade-off between profitability and customer experience for SEN.