B
I T Manager
BEST WESTERN PLUS LUSAKA GRAND HOTEL
Oct'2015 - Apr'2018
(Zambia)
Best Western International, Inc., operator of the Best Western Hotel brand, operates
about 4,000 hotels. The chain, with its corporate headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona,
allows each hotel to keep its independent identity but also publishes a list of standards
that each hotel needs to maintain. Best Western provides reservation and brand identity
services for all of its worldwide hotels.
Responsibilities included but limited to the following:
- Evaluating user needs and system functionality and ensuring that ICT facilities
meet these needs.
- Planning, developing and implementing the ICT budget, obtaining competitive prices from suppliers to ensure cost effectiveness, to purchase hardware and software, ensuring that software licensing laws are adhered to.
- Designing and planning, setting up, expanding and maintaining the local network
as well as connecting it to the Internet.
- Administering network security, Setup security policies for users, scheduling
upgrades and security backups of hardware and software systems, securing data
from internal and external attack.
- Administering electronic mail.
- Fixing any issues with the design of the network, software and computers of the company's computer systems.
- Offering users appropriate support and advice.
- Maintaining these systems, answering questions, monitoring them and issuing upgrades.
- Managing crisis situations, which may involve complex technical hardware or software problems.
Accomplishments
- Installed a per user or per device bandwidth management system to encourage fair network access and to ensure that hotel guest experience expectations are
met.
- Participated in the network configuration (Microwave radio) for the use of a bandwidth aggregation/Multihoming solution for being able to use multiple
combined connections (microwave radio and optical fiber cable) to the internet.
This provides for redundancy and backup in case of an internet service disruption
- Performed general maintenance and servicing of computers (hardware),
softwares and local network partitions together with providing a 24 hours/7 days
support to sort out problems generally experienced by guests in terms of ICT
- Reconfigured the Wireless network to allow a client isolation on all wireless
access points.
- Reorganized the local network to make sure that guest and Property business networks are physically separated, or logically separated by a firewall that denies
all connections between the two networks.
- Remade the hotel's website to allow our customers to book via the same one.
- Worked on switching ISPs all in minimizing downtime and costs, and get the hotel up and running with our new provider.
- Worked on implementing the technical, functional and service standards to be met by all International Best Western Properties for delivering High Speed
Internet Access ("HSIA").
- Coordinated the Point of Sale (hardware and software) installation and configuration activities, together with the associated network infrastructure and peripheral accessories (payment card terminals, employee access devices and printers)
- Project managed the installation and configuration of a biometric fingerprint
attendance system for the sake of recording the attendance data of employees
based on registered fingerprints and add automation and efficiency to the hotel's
procedures.
- Worked on automating the process of posting incidental charges to guest reservation folios to ensure billing accuracy, reduce disputes, share data across
departments and increase guest satisfaction. (Business Softwares Integration:
Property Management System, Point Of Sale Application, Warehouse
Management System and Accounting Information System)