Canalta Business Group improves business centers with Userful.

Today every hotel needs a business center. Surveys show that access to a hotel business center affects accommodation choice for nearly 60% of business travelers. Even while on vacation, 35% of professionals need hotel business services at least once during their stay.

For Canalta, it wasn’t a question as to whether to offer these services, it was a question of how.

After giving up a windows based solution, Canalta turned to Userful Desktop™. It offered everything they needed: lower costs, reduced headaches, less staff time and an increased return on investment.

Beginning in their Best Western Jurassic Inn, Userful Desktop quickly proved itself the ideal solution. The system proved easy to use, simple for guests, and simpler for staff. Canalta set the price per minute for desktop access and, by selling prepaid cards with a set dollar value, quickly began to generate revenue.

From an end-user point of view the system is locked down and tamper proof. When a user logs off, the station is cleared of browser histories and downloaded files. It also safeguards against viruses, adware, spyware, abusive users and unauthorized access.

"Userful’s centralized management tool is very easy, user-friendly and powerful. Coupled with a great end product and a very capable support staff, the Userful Desktop solution is something we’re very pleased with all around"

With Userful Desktop’s web based control panel, managing and monitoring the computers is a snap; even from a distance. Patches and updates are automatically downloaded. No IT staff intervention is required. The results have been impressive:

• Canalta saved 1/3 on hardware costs immediately, as well as 1/3 savings on maintenance time and cost
• Userful Desktop reduced excess system management costs--staff no longer needed to babysit unsecured systems and the cost of IT support, software licensing costs, and system-wide upgrades were also reduced
• Any problems that arose were quickly fixed remotely by Userful’s support; a much easier approach than trying to talk hotel staff through changing Windows settings over the phone
• Business centers operated reliably with minimal downtime
• Networked printing services were improved, allowing consistent access to all users
• With Userful Desktop’s web-based control panel, Canalta can roll out enterprise-wide configuration changes from head office, which is an advantage when there are 20+ properties to administer
• Userful’s Pay Per Use Card Program offset the cost of the hardware, connectivity and support

With Userful Desktop staff headaches have been reduced. Canalta staff can once again focus on customer service instead of servicing their computer workstations. With Userful Desktop there’s been virtually no down-time, and the systems are upgraded remotely for free. Prompt customer service and never having to worry about upgrades, license fees or other costs have made Userful Desktop Canalta’s premiere solution.