Comcare help Statham Lodge with IT overhaul

A relatively simple email problem led Statham Lodge Country House Hotel to hire Comcare for a complete IT overhaul, fixing issues throughout their communications, online booking process and point-of-sale till systems.

The hotel’s existing IT provider had become unreliable, and were unable to help with an email issue, so Statham Lodge called Comcare – we were able to visit on the same day and the problem was resolved in less than an hour of arrival.
But this was not the end of the establishment’s pre-existing IT headaches, as they were running many of their electronic services, including till systems and online booking, via a server that was struggling under the strain.
It is essential that these services provide round-the-clock availability, with electronic tills used to charge drinks and meals to guests’ room numbers from 11am until well after midnight, and online bookings and enquiries open 24/7.
With all of this in mind, IT stability is of paramount importance to the hotel’s core revenue streams, and Comcare appreciated the crucial nature of the venue’s infrastructure when we were hired to provide ongoing support.
In our initial review of the pre-existing IT systems on-site, we identified the server as a significant issue, as well as problems with email configuration, storage space, data backups and broadband bandwidth.
All of this could sound daunting to a business of any size, but Comcare were able to help Statham Lodge tackle each problem on its own merits.
We recommended a replacement server from HP, installed with Windows Small Business Server, and supported by comprehensive data backup processes and sufficient disk space.
We reconfigured the hotel’s email system and negotiated with their internet service provider to ensure email inboxes would offer maximum availability and rapid retrieval of messages in the future.
And we were able to liaise with the suppliers of the hotel’s booking database and electronic till systems to migrate them to the new server infrastructure with minimal downtime.
The complete upgrade was done with just 45 minutes of downtime, which occurred at an agreed convenient time, so that core systems stayed available for use as much as possible.
Overall, the work was delivered on time and on budget, across the entire back-office, public-facing and online arms of the business.
Since the initial upgrades were carried out, we have also provided an ongoing Comcare Plus support agreement, which means we are able to respond to any future issues before they reach critical status.