HSC Connect Telephony Interface

When a guest checks in or out, the front office system sends the guest data to HSC Connect, which stores it and passes it on to the PBX.

The guest telephone is enabled automatically, and the date, time, destination number and cost of every call are logged for invoicing.

If the front office system is temporarily unable to receive data, HSC Connect buffers it and transfers it as soon as the system is ready again.

The guest’s name is stored in the system at check-in and shown on digital telephones, for example when the guest calls reception. It is deleted at check-out.

Using meter pulses. The charge units transmitted by the carrier are passed from the PBX to HSC Connect, which calculates the call cost from a pre-configured unit price and transfers it to the front office system.

Using a surcharge table. Surcharges from a table can be added to the calculated call cost before it is transferred to the front office system.

Using destination number tables. If the carrier does not provide meter pulses, HSC Connect calculates call costs from configurable rate tables, time tariffs and tariff assignments, based on the destination number, call duration and time of day.

HSC Connect manages the wake-up service independently and supports three types of wake-up order:

• From the guest telephone without voice prompting. The guest enters the wake-up time on the telephone keypad.
• From the guest telephone with voice prompting. If the optional wake-up system is installed, voice prompts guide the guest through the request. Prompts in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish are included as standard.
• From the front office system. When a guest asks reception for a wake-up call, the room number and time are transferred to HSC Connect automatically.

HSC Connect continuously checks its wake-up orders and calls the guest at the requested time. If the guest does not answer after a set number of calls, the call is repeated after a configurable interval. All wake-up attempts, successful or not, are reported to the front office system and logged. Open wake-up orders are cancelled at check-out.

Room staff can enter the room status on the guest telephone. Once a checked-out room has been cleaned, staff set the status and the front office system offers the room as available again. Room statuses can also be managed in the front office system.

• Without voice prompting. HSC Connect manages and forwards the room status entries.
• With voice prompting. If the optional voicemail system is installed, voice prompts guide the entry and the voicemail system forwards it to the front office system.

Without voice prompting. Room staff enter minibar consumption directly on the guest telephone. Each entry is acknowledged to prevent mistakes. Entries can be item numbers (up to 6 digits) or amounts, optionally with a personnel code. With the advanced minibar function, entries can also be cancelled from the telephone.

Entry types:

• Standard minibar entry
• Advanced minibar entry (consumption registered or cancelled)
• Advanced minibar entry with personnel number (consumption registered or cancelled)

All entries are transferred transparently to the front office system.

With voice prompting. If the optional voicemail system is installed, it checks each entry and reads it back, so incorrect entries are noticed and corrected immediately. The entries are then forwarded to the front office system.

HSC Connect has an optional voicemail module tailored to hotels. It supports several languages in parallel (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish), so it can be adapted to each hotel.

At check-in, the front office system registers the guest’s language and forwards it to HSC Connect, which opens a voicebox for the guest and switches the voice prompts to that language. Guests who change rooms keep their voice messages. At check-out, the system checks for messages that have not been listened to before the voicebox is cleared.

The voicemail system also provides voice prompts for the wake-up, minibar and room status services. It consists of two components:

• Wake-up module, including minibar and room status
• Voicemail module

Messages that arrive while a guest is away can be signalled from the front office system by switching on the message waiting lamp on the guest telephone.

Under certain technical conditions, analogue guest telephones can also be equipped with message waiting lamps.

This class of service for the room telephone is pre-configured in the PBX and set by front office staff when required.

So that VIP guests can keep the same telephone number on every visit, whichever room they stay in, or to give a room an additional fax line, front office staff can assign an additional virtual number.

HSC Connect maps the virtual number to the real number of the room or of the fax line. The assignment is cancelled at check-out, so no faxes reach the wrong person after the guest has left.

HSC Connect accepts the charge data records from the PBX, calculates the call costs and forwards them to the front office system. An external charge solution can be connected instead, provided it supports the relevant data records (open interface).

Up to 4 PBXs in mixed mode – any combination of HiPath 3000, HiPath 4000, OpenScape Office, OpenScape Business, OpenScape 4000, OpenScape Voice and Asterisk.

Depending on the front office system, the guest’s nationality is recorded at check-in and forwarded to HSC Connect. If the room has an OpenStage telephone with a display, its user interface switches to the guest’s language automatically, where available.

Guests in large hotels often call the operator to arrange a wake-up call or change their telephone class of service. With the HSC Connect client component on the operator’s PC, the operator can:

• enter wake-up orders
• change the class of service of a telephone
• set or clear the message waiting lamp
• set the do-not-disturb function

The component runs on any PC with Java that is connected to HSC Connect over the LAN.