IT and network solutions provider NEC Corporation has is launching a new product portfolio for the hospitality industry. Dubbed “NEC Smart Hospitality Solutions”, the platform provides advanced hospitality management solutions including facial biometrics technology for guests.
The general aim of the platform is to put high-tech hotel management tools into the hands of hotel administrators. Such tools include Property Management Systems (PMS), digital signage, Unified Communications (UC) applications, and letting hotel guests order room service via their mobile devices. Notably, NEC’s platform also includes a facial recognition system that can be used with mounted cameras to identify VIP guests as they arrive at the hotel, allowing staff to immediately approach and service those individuals.
Speaking in a press release, NEC executive Yasunori Sakamoto explained that it’s all about improving the guest experience and the bottom lines of client hotels. “By providing integrated comprehensive hotel solutions,” he said, “NEC enables hotel owners and operators to deliver value-added services that exceed guest expectations, help gain loyal customers, enhance the efficiency of staff and their systems, and contribute to improved profitability.”
The inclusion of facial recognition technology in the NEC Smart Hospitality Solutions package illuminates yet another avenue through which biometric technology is reaching into everyday life. Customer service-oriented businesses are increasingly looking to the opportunities offered by this kind of technology, as in the case of facial recognition systems that can identify key demographic information about shoppers in retail outlets (also developed by NEC), or multimodal systems that facilitate passive authentication for access control in athletic facilities. And NEC is, of course, a big name in the biometrics market, so it’s only logical that the company would include such technology in this latest product portfolio, even – and perhaps especially – if it’s aimed at a largely untapped market sector.
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June 12, 2015 – by Alex Perala
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