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While the travel industry has been hit hard by the economic downturn, it does not mean that companies within this sector cannot still enjoy market dominance. Those who have been able to drive prosperity even with the latest challenges have done so by leveraging specific strategic partnerships to standout from the competition.

One such company is the Trump International Beach Resort in Miami. This hotelier has focused on ways to distinguish its properties and services, including providing guests with the ultimate experience. To do just that, Trump International Beach Resort has equipped hotel staff with 150 Polycom SpectraLink 8000 Series wireless telephones.

With these handsets, staff can communicate in real-time from anywhere on the property. The handsets are designed to be durable, feature-rich and cost effective. The Resort anticipates the phones will help employees to streamline communications across the property. To deploy their property-wide wireless communication network, Trump International Beach Resort teamed with Hotel Internet Services (HIS).

Gary Patrick, president of HIS, commented on why they chose Polycom's (News - Alert) SpectraLink system in a company statement, "Resort management looked at other wireless communication systems and realized that, without a doubt, the SpectraLink solution offered the greatest up-front savings and added return on investment with regard to the property's existing telephone infrastructure. Plus, Polycom and SpectraLink are brand names they knew they could trust."

The SpectraLink 8000 Series handsets are designed to operate on the Ruckus Wireless (News - Alert) Wi-Fi infrastructure, which covers more than 500,000 square feet of space. This includes 390 guest rooms, 22,000 square feet of conference space. Coverage is also provided on the resort's beachfront, in administrative offices, restaurants, retail shops, bar/lounge areas, lobby, pools and parking structures.

The property also enjoys the ability to communicate via voice over wireless LAN (VoWLAN) calls and the handsets provide push-to-talk (PTT) voice communications. This function provides the ability to assign 24 separate workgroups for targeted multicast communications.

"Before we had ubiquitous Wi-Fi coverage coupled with the SpectraLink phones, we had to use walkie-talkies and cellular phones to try to communicate with each other throughout the property," said Colin B. Gold, General Manager of the property. "Now we have seamless, reliable, real-time communications across throughout the property and across our organization, allowing us to be more responsive and provide our guests with the ultimate luxury experience.”

To allow guest requests, service orders, and incident notifications to flow quickly through the hotel system, the wireless phones integrate with M-Tech’s HotSOS Application. As a result, the right person receives the right information quickly. As HotSOS supports two-way communication, resort staff can instantly update room, work, and incident status in real-time without calling a dispatcher.

"Guest satisfaction was already high, but we expect to see it increase even more with our improved communications system,” added Gold. “Additionally, we're seeing immediate ROI because we were able to cut back significantly on our cellular costs. All in all, we're very pleased with the SpectraLink devices. They've enabled us to provide faster, improved services to our guests -- and ultimately, guest satisfaction is what Trump International is all about."

Beyond the travel industry, Polycom is also delivering value in education. The National Defense University (NDU) is building the classroom with help from Polycom and its RealPresence Experience (RPX) and telepresence solution.

Polycom is able to deliver SpectraLink wireless phones as a result of the acquisition of the company in 2007. Add this value to the company’s ability to deliver high definition in enterprise conferencing and Polycom is able to derive strong adoption even in a recession.