Mitel Books Hotel Mobility SuiteMitel Books Hotel Mobility Suite

Mitel buys TigerTMS, moving its hospitality business up the stack from communications infrastructure to applications.

In talking to No Jitter editor in chief Eric Krapf a couple weeks ago, Mitel CEO Rich McBee foretold of future acquisitions in what he sees as three technology pillars: mobility, contact center, and cloud. Today, with the acquisition of global hospitality applications specialist TigerTMS, the conversation turned from the abstract to the actual.

TigerTMS, popular channel partner among UC vendors targeting the hospitality vertical, offers value-added hosted and cloud applications aimed at improving the customer experience. Its portfolio includes hospitality interface aggregation, call accounting, voicemail and wake-up solutions, as well as mobile alerts. Its customer base includes more than 20 of the largest hotel brands in the world, including Hyatt, InterContinental Hotels Group, and Marriott.

TigerTMS sat clearly in Mitel's acquisition sweet spot -- a software-oriented business that operates in the cloud, enhances mobility, and increases collaboration, McBee told me in a post-acquisition call this afternoon.

"We've always had a strong footprint in hotel communications infrastructure. Where Tiger plays is one layer up, toward the property management system. It ties all the aspects of the loyalty programs and activities together for a hotel," McBee said. "So we're seeing this as in our core, but moving up in the vertical, bringing mobility capabilities to the hotel."

And, because this is all in software, Mitel could quickly apply the Tiger application solution set to other verticals, added Wes Durow, who joined Mitel as CMO in April. "This isn't just about the hospitality vertical, but about the piece parts, too."

McBee did not disclose the terms of the agreement, but noted that TigerTMS CEO Simon Udell is now GM of Mitel's hospitality business unit.

In a prepared statement, UC analyst Phil Edholm, president of PKE Consulting, gave Mitel's strategy the thumbs up: "For hospitality brands, customer experience and loyalty are key differentiators. Creating a home-away-from home and repeatable in-room and mobile experience at any property anywhere in the world is core to delivering real-time and memorable guest services. With TigerTMS, Mitel has made a smart technology buy, bringing in-house a specialized suite of solutions to deliver the connected guest experience on a cloud platform that perfectly complements their own industry leading voice offering."

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