The Customer
GCH Hotel Group is a leading hotel management company in Europe with over 120 hotels in Germany, Belgium, and Austria. The company is headquartered in Berlin, Germany and has a portfolio of hotels marketed under the brands of well-known franchise companies such as AccorHotels, IHG, Radisson Hotel Group, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Hilton, and Best Western. The company’s success is built on strong strategic partnerships, highly qualified personnel, and long-term experience, and they have a goal of continuing to expand their portfolio.
The Challenge
GCH needed a service to implement a hybrid identity solution for its 300 users by integrating their on-premises Active Directory (AD) with the cloud-based identity and access management service, Microsoft Azure AD. This type of solution was a popular solution for GCH as it allowed them to manage user identities and access to resources from a single platform, regardless of location. Additionally, it offered self-service password management and multi-factor authentication (MFA) to ensure secure access to resources.
What Transputec Did
Our team worked closely with the client to design and implement the active hybrid directory solution so that this new infrastructure provided centralised authentication and authorisation, improved security and allowed the hotel to have better access over their systems.
Transputec’ s expert engineers configured and set up the necessary servers and services, provided hands-on training to the IT staff, and offered a smooth transition to the new system.
Transputec provided two Active Directory servers running Windows Server 2016 and upgraded the Active Directory Forest and Domain functional levels from 2003 to 2012 R2 as well as setting up Windows Server 2016 VM.. We changed the UPN from. local to .com domain in the on-prem AD servers and configured the Azure AD Connect tool to synchronise the on-prem AD with Azure AD.
In addition, Transputec set up Password Hash Synchronization (PHS), Self-Service Password Reset (SSPR) and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), Azure AD password protection, Azure AD Single Sign-On (SSO), and Azure AD Conditional Access policies.
The Outcome
The implementation of a hybrid identity solution for GCH Hotel Group enabled the company to provide a unified management of workforce identities, allowing users to securely access all company apps and data across multiple sites. This integration provided several benefits to the organisation, including the ability to manage user identities and access to resources from a single platform, regardless of location. The solution also included features such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) and self-service password reset (SSPR) to improve security and user convenience.
Relationship with Transputec
Through close collaboration and clear communication, Transputec were able to successfully implement the active hybrid directory solution on time and within budget enabling GCH Hotel Group to take their IT management to the next level and respond to future needs.
“The hybrid identity solution enabled us to manage our workforce from a single platform, regardless of location. The team at Transputec were incredibly professional and efficient in delivering the solution, which has exceeded our expectations. The integration of our on-premises Active Directory with Microsoft Azure AD has provided us with a range of benefits. We highly recommend Transputec for their expertise and excellent service.”
Mr Bernd Mauritz – Director of IT & Systems
GCH Hotel Group
March 2023
