Carlson Hospitality Worldwide

, a $31 billion travel and hospitality company, has chosen Ubiquio Corp.,

a 15-employee mobile computing services provider, to outsource the ongoing management of a fleet of Compaq PocketPC devices. 

Ubiquio`s hosted Device Management Service will be used by Carlson to reduce the cost and labor associated with operating a fleet of PocketPC devices that is expected to number in the thousands, the two companies announced. Of particular importance to Carlson is Ubiquio`s ability to automatically distribute new software and data to handhelds wherever they are in the field. Ubiquio`s service also provides on-demand, detailed information about the configuration and health of each device.

Carlson has developed a patent-pending mobile information system called MACH-1 (Mobile Access to Carlson Hospitality, version 1.0) that is designed to operate on Microsoft PocketPC devices. This industry-leading system increases the productivity of hotel property management staff by enabling real-time access to key information and alerts anytime, anyplace. 

“MACH-1 on PocketPC continues Carlson`s tradition of leveraging technology to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty,” said Scott Heintzeman, Chief Information Officer of Carlson Hospitality Worldwide. “For MACH-1 to achieve its potential, we knew that the PocketPC devices have to be completely reliable and easy to manage. Like Carlson, Ubiquio`s vision is to harness automation to minimize operating costs and maximize uptime for mobile devices. They are a good fit for our needs in this area.”

Both Ubiquio and Carlson are based in Minneapolis.

“Ubiquio is responsible for supporting thousands of mission-critical mobile devices nationwide,” said Charles Lukaszewski, Chief Executive Officer of Ubiquio. “The Carlson MACH-1 solution showcases the kind of financial win that mobile technology can provide.”

The handheld device chosen by Carlson for this project is the iPAQ Pocket PC, manufactured by Compaq Computers, with an operating system by Microsoft. “We chose the iPAQ Pocket PC platform because it offered us much more flexibility for building our own service,” said Scott Heintzeman, CIO at Carlson Hospitality Worldwide. “It`s easier to develop to than other platforms, offers a multitasking operating system, an Internet browser and a bright, color screen makes it easy to view information in graphical format, letting users spot trends more quickly.”

In a Microsoft case study of Carlson`s mobile development, it was noted that a three-year, $20 million rebuilding project encompassing the company`s core strategic systems provided Carlson executives with faster and more detailed access to critical business information. Carlson wanted to extend this investment with hand-held, wireless technologies that could deliver valuable and timely business information to “mobile managers.” 

Related stories on ITN:

(07/02/2002) Carlson Names Guest-Tek Approved High-speed Internet Access Provider

(28/01/2002) Carlson Hospitality Extends TravelCLICK Portfoilio Throughout Properties

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