Alcatel Unleashed

Hello

I have this problem that has been bugging me for more than one month and no one seems to be able to find a solution.

The customer: A brend new 4 star hotel in Romania
The PBX: Alcatel OmniPCX Office running R820 software
The PMS: Micros Fidelio Suite 8 version 8.9.2.2

We have been trying to integrate the PMS with the PBX for more than one month without succes.
The requirements are simple, guest check-in and check-out, wake-up call and call accounting.

We have installed the OHL driver (OLD) on a computer to act as interface between the PMS and PBX and we have this problem:

When the PMS sends the check-in sequence for a guest room this is what happens (log extract from PMS interface):
[09.07/12:58:53]#0/0 <- A 514 Alcatel 1 06 0 034
[09.07/12:58:53]#0/0 ->
[09.07/12:59:05]#0/0 -> R 514 JK43
[09.07/12:59:05]#0/1 <-
[09.07/12:59:05] <MessLvl3> Reply-Message for Room:514 Pwd: Status:JK

The PBX responds with status JK (J=Check-in not completed, K=Wrong message).
The same error appears in the OHL log file.

When we try to check-in fromm the reception terminal, using the Hotel key the following message appears in the logs of the interfaces (both PMS and OHL):

[09.07/13:03:21]#0/0 <- A 514 Alcatel 1 133303 0 045
[09.07/13:03:21]#0/0 ->

And the check-in works like a charm.
We suspect that the interface used by the PMS is for an earlier version of OXO but nobody could confirm this.
So we are stuck and we do not know how to tackle this problem anymore.

We have tried:
- installing different versions of OHL driver (2.3.3, 2.3.5, 2.3.6, 2.3. on different operating systems (Windows 2008, Wondpws 2012, Windows 7, Windows XP, both 32 bit and 64 bit);
- chaging the configuration of the hotel parameters in the PBX (the check-in sequence windows: OMC -> System Miscellaneous -> Hotel Parameters);
- testing with different parameters both on the PBX and the Fidelio Suite8 IFC interface;

In every situation we get the same error messages.
The PBX and OHL are configured as described in the internetworking report (the latest version) and communication between the PBX and the PMS is ok (CRC is active, messages are exchanged ok, call accounting is working).

If anyone has any idea we are all ears!

Thans
Alex

Hi all
I have attached two printscreens regarding the issue I described.
They are both from the logs of the Fidelio IFC interface and show the communication exchanged by the PBX and the PMS.
Alex

You are referring to OLD driver (OHL no longer used).

Latest release is 2.3.8
Some correction that may interest you:

Corrections in Office Link Driver v2.3.5 Identifier Siebel Sv. Headline --> correction available from V2.3.5
crms00203999
1-102307551
4_minor
Missing problem code and CRC on room status change

Also are you sure that the room is not checked-in prior to check-in request from Fidelio? Maybe the status is different than the one in Fidelio as:
- The Fidelio application does not react to reply message event information from the O.L.D. No PMS support for handling the O.L.D event reply messages.
- The Fidelio application does not read the check-in and check-out messages sent by the O.L.D to the application. This means that the operator set must never be used to perform such operations.
- The application is not able to issue re- initialization frames in order to synchronise withthe OmniPCX office in case of data de-synchronisation between the PBX and the PMS. PMS does not support the re-initialization functionality
(Warning : It is forbidden to use the PBX Operator set Hotel key to perform any Hotel management functions. (i.e Check in, Check out, etc. from Hotel key is not allowed, otherwise de-synchronisation of Hotel data between the PBX and Fidelio Opera will occur )

Are you doing also DDI allocation via PMS? Looks not to be supported:
- DDI number allocation and Password, Room status problem code management are not supported.

Also is CRC_PRESENCE set to 1 in OHLDRIVER.CONF?

Anyway for a big hotel OXE is still the best solution from my view. OXO is still limited. (presales perspective)

Hello

Thanks for the reply.

We also offered OXE in the pre-sales phase but the fact that the hotel has only 81 rooms and the request was only for changing the name of the room phone at check-in and call accounting didn-t justify the 6000 euro difference between OXE and OXO.

About the configuration:
1. CRC_PRESENCE set to 1 in the driver configuration file
2. We do not want to process the messages returned by the PBX, we only use them as debugging info
3. The Hotel key was only used to test the fact that the sets in the room are working as expected and that the PBX is ideed setup in Hotel mode (the PMS integrator accused us of misconfiguring the PBX). When the integration problem will be solved we will remove the hotel menu from the reception phones.
4. All the rooms are in check-out state. We verified and double verified that.
5. We are not doing DDI alocation via PMS. If such request is made we do it via OMC manually for each guest (it is included in the maintenance contract).
6. The error message is the same with all the OLD versions we tested. Right now we changed back to the first version we tested (at the time of the installation).
The system is using OLD v. 2.3.3 with all the logging options set to 4. We changed it back because we got the same error messages regardless of the OLD version tested.

Alex

IWR available is for OLD 2.3.6 and Fidelio 8.7.6.4
You obviously made lots of efforts on your side. Maybe it is not a bad idea to request a test with a lower PMS version or ask PMS engineer to check release changes between 8.7.6.4 and 8.9.2.2 from integration perspective. Usually the problem lies in the middle.

Also in the IWR you have the escalation rules available for this integration.

This is the exact thing that they are doing right now:
- checking for the differences between Fidelio versions;
- checking if Micros has released a new version of interface for integration with Alcatel

One thing puzzles me: Not the Fidelio engineers nor the Alcatel engineers were able to supply us with an example of working communication between the two systems (and I mean logs similar to the ones I attached that contain low-level messages exchanges between working systems).
We wanted this type of information in order to see if the messages that are exchanges are in the correct format.

The PMS version cannot be changed (I asked about this earlier) as the customer has been using it prior to opening the hotel, it is functional and integrated with all the other systems and to do so would cost a fortune in implementation hours and loss of revenue for the customer.

Alex

alex_grigorescu wrote: One thing puzzles me: Not the Fidelio engineers nor the Alcatel engineers were able to supply us with an example of working communication between the two systems (and I mean logs similar to the ones I attached that contain low-level messages exchanges between working systems).

It is quite simple: a system engineer does not have time to go into this level of detail and most of the times he/she does not need to--> it requires PMS protocol knowledge, which by the way in most cases will not be provided by the vendor.

Further tests can be done using AHL simulator. If using AHL simulator you have no issues then I would say that this is a Fidelio issue. You can download it here:
viewtopic.php?f=288&t=15057&p=79112&hil ... tor#p79112
You will say that this is an older version. I would say that not much should have changed.

In your case: you are provided an IWR report containing configuration of both systems and escalation process in case you have problems --> this is where your job as system engineer ends (provided that there is no configuration issue).

OK.
I downloaded the simulator and will give it a try.
Thanks

Hi Alex,

Did you ever had it up and running, looking at your post on the subject I would say no
Who did you speak to in Alcatel Support ?
Having the same situation (OXO R9.2-fidelio suite I just wondered if I should try to fix this or not

thanks for any reply

Philip

Hi Alex,

Did you managed to find a solution ?
We have the same problem with a different hotel and I was wondering if you managed to solve this.
Maybe we can use your services for this issue.

Te salut,
Bogdan - 0745049201