Scandic Hotels launches new website 
Scandic Hotels was acquired by EQT from the Hilton Group during spring 2007. As a part of the transition to again become a hotel chain of its own it was decided that the Scandic website was to be completely rebuilt. In choosing the CMS tool Scandic focused on simplicity for both editors and end users including performance and operational security.
After a first evaluation, it was decided that EPiServer CMS was the best tool for Scandic and that Sogeti Sverige AB was the most suitable supplier.
The goal of the project was primarily to increase the number of online-bookings from current 10 percent to 30 percent in 2011.
Solution:
The project was initiated with an extensive pre-study where Sogeti in collaboration with Sapient Sverige AB and Scandic Hotels analysed the business needs that was to be satisfied through the new solution.
Sogeti then developed the new website in EPiServer CMS. The solution contains vital functions for among other things reservations, loyalty programs, conference inquiries and offers. In addition, there are also well-developed possibilities both to search for a hotel as well as to get relevant information about each hotel. The website is posted on five domains and uses EPiServer’s built-in possibilities for globalisation and is currently available in five languages (English, Swedish, Finnish, Danish and Norwegian).
Within the mission Sogeti has also implemented and integrated the EPiServer-based website with third-part products such as ImageVault for image handling, Omniture for web statistics and TradeDoubler for affiliate networks. Sapient did during this part of the project work on the integration with OPERA, the business system used for reservations and customer information.
EPiServer carries almost all information on the website. This in order to secure that the information can be easily updated and that the performance is high. Information unique for each reservation is collected from OPERA, the underlying business system.
Result:
With the new solution Scandic now have a swift and easily updated website with a fresh and modern look.
”We have primarily focused on simplifying the booking process for our faithful business travellers by shortening the booking process considerably. The website is definitely our most important marketing and booking channel since we can rapidly communicate with our guests in a cost-efficient way”, said Johan Michelson, Marketing Director at Scandic.
The website, also available in Danish, Norwegian, Finnish and English, was launched in February 2008 and can be visited at www.scandichotels.se (.com .fi .dk & .no).