Appurity Revamps Mobile Strategy for Hotels and Leisure Giant De Vere
Appurity, a company providing cyber security solutions and services for mobile infrastructure and applications, has announced the successful implementation of a refreshed mobile security solution with De Vere, the hotels and leisure company.
De Vere partnered with Appurity to revamp its current mobile strategy, including updating its current fleet of mobile handsets, streamlining provisioning time for allocating devices to new users, and adhering to security practices.
De Vere is a collection of historic mansion house estates and distinctive contemporary hotels and event destinations well located around London, the southeast and the Cotswolds. De Vere operates over 260 meeting rooms and over 1,800 bedrooms, with a workforce of over 1,000.
De Vere’s existing UEM solution required a refresh, and the company required a solution that could streamline operational processes at a competitive price and meet the needs of the business as its operational practices evolve. Additionally, the handsets used across the organisation were reaching end-of-life and needed replacing. One of the key challenges facing De Vere was the speed at which they could deliver new devices to staff members. In the hospitality industry, the damage rate to handheld devices is high. Additionally, the industry has a high staff turnover. The ability to get handsets reprovisioned and directly into the end user’s hands was a lengthy process, with the devices physically sent to the main office for changeover before being sent back out to new users.
After consulting closely with Appurity about the organisation’s needs and wants in order to develop a secure, bespoke solution that would enhance the team’s existing capabilities, De Vere decided on an Ivanti Neurons for UEM (formerly MobileIron) solution delivered on Samsung devices. Appurity recommended Samsung A32 devices for the refresh and, once agreed by the customer, these were procured. The devices were fully prepared by the Appurity team, with step-by-step build documentation and complete policy configuration – this is all part of Appurity’s Gold Build Standard.
The build included: Ivanti Neurons for UEM, providing employees’ secure and remote access to email and other applications; Android Enterprise Zero-touch enrolment, allowing the De Vere team to simply open the boxes and start using the devices straight away, and Appurity’s Gold Build standard, one-stop shop for complete device build and delivery. After the devices had been deployed, Appurity worked closely with the De Vere team to make tweaks to their solution, roll out necessary applications, and offer additional security defences for the devices.
Thanks to Appurity’s redesign for the reprovisioning of devices, De Vere has further streamlined its device handover processes. The handsets can be remotely wiped and reallocated to a new user, with all the applications and security policies pre-set. New users can even be added to existing handsets. Using Android Enterprise Zero-touch, the device deployment time has decreased from four days to just 20 minutes – devices are no longer sent to a physical office before being sent on to new users, and instead devices can be handed over quickly and efficiently.
One of De Vere’s key uses for handheld devices is room management at its sites. The UEM solution now enables room management teams to update repairs directly on their devices, as well as log when a room has been cleaned, cleared and ready for the next check-in. All room servicing is done via handsets – no physical paper trails required. This has vastly reduced downtime, and streamlines existing processes by ensuring repair notes and room checks do not get lost or miscommunicated.
Jonathan Green, Head of IT at The Principal Hotel Company said: “Appurity as a team does everything we need and their expertise is second-to-none. Working on this updated UEM solution, the team surpassed our expectations. The idea of configuring hundreds of phones in one go can be daunting but with Appurity, all we had to do was open the box and turn the devices on.”
“Appurity’s knowledge of devices, apps and delivery methods made the migration easy. We were consulted every step of the way and their team worked collaboratively with us to design a solution that fitted our bespoke needs. The solution has helped enhance several of our business processes so that they are more streamlined, secure and productive,” commented Steve Whiter, Director, Appurity. “At Appurity, we take great care to ensure our customers receive a truly personalised service. As a long-time customer, we were delighted to work with De Vere on their updated solution and device migration. Our Gold Build Standard ensured that all devices were delivered to De Vere ready-to-go, complete with bespoke policy and configuration settings.”
A full case study of the project is available here.
For more information about Appurity, visit www.appurity.co.uk.