Wicoms

National Leisure Parks Wireless Network 

The Challenge
Wicoms provides wireless internet access for leisure venues, integrating customer and operational applications, services and devices.

To help them achieve their goal to be the leading global entertainment service provider to the leisure sector, Wicoms turned to Agilisys to design, build, and operate a wireless platform for their clients across the UK, which reach a community of over 50 million consumers annually.

Agilisys faced two key challenges in the national wireless platform roll out, namely the dispersed geographic locations of sites, including caravan sites with minimal infrastructure and the short window of opportunity to install over 125 sites and take on the management of 20 sites before the holiday season started in May.

Whilst the locations are picturesque and represent ideal holiday venues, many of them are in geographically remote parts of the UK with very little connectivity to broadband or mobile phone networks – this meant Agilisys had to deliver entertainment for holiday makers and operational support to parts of the UK that were previously unable to receive them.

The Solution
Over a period of four months Agilisys installed in excess of 400 wireless access points in over 125 sites covering the length and breadth of the mainland UK and Northern Ireland. The wireless platform installed by Agilisys aggregates ADSL services to deliver full capacity networks to these remote locations. In addition, Agilisys operates a service desk to provide technical support for the sites.

Calls from the venues are directed to Agilisys’ state of the art customer services centre in Rochdale where agents resolve calls within three days and more than a third of calls are resolved at first point of contact. If required, Agilisys can dispatch engineers on site within six hours regardless of the geographical location in the UK.

The Benefits
Agilisys was responsible for installing and operating the wireless network on a site-by-site basis to suit the specific needs of each individual site. The platform delivers branded Pay-Go Wi-Fi, operational services such as CCTV, Electronic Point of Sale (EPoS), facilities management, cleaning services and entertainment services with a gaming channel via devices such as laptops and gaming consoles. Holidaymakers can access services securely for a small fee, generating revenue for the site owner and service provider. Additionally, the venue owners are able to deploy their own CCTV, EPoS and facilities management on the Wicoms network.