Leading Worldwide Corporate Organisation

A major global corporation with over 500 locations around the world and more than 100 000 employees needed a multi-country, multi-location, multi-time zone web based meeting room and hot desk booking solution.

Problem:

The original requirement was an advanced meeting room booking system for offices in North America. MS Outlook was previously used to book meetings and invite attendees using mailboxes through MS Exchange accounts. MS Outlook allows users to quickly find a suitable date, time and room to hold a meeting based on the availability of the attendees.

The company wanted RNM Systems to construct an interface between MS Outlook and Condeco. The new system needed to maintain the current functionality, but add features that would:

  • manage the cost of all their meeting rooms and associated resources
  • increase productivity
  • require minimum user training and input
  • be a tool with the potential to grow with the needs of the business

After nine months of successful work on this project, we were asked to provide a hot desk booking system for newly refurbished offices based in the UK. The former situation was desk management on a first come, first served basis. The client wanted:

  • a solution capable of centralising and simplifying the desk booking by means of a single computerised system
  • access for everyone in the company
  • management reporting on occupancy and costs

Solution:

We created a system where Outlook is the main application for users to book meeting attendees while Condeco manages the booking of meeting rooms and other related resources. It is a flexible system that allows MS Outlook’s advanced calendar synchronisation capabilities to function at the same time as utilising Condeco’s advanced room specification and booking features.

The system improves functionality and provides better management as well as allowing control of costs. This brings effective cost reduction and resource saving. It can track every associated cost, and can cross-refer to the relevant client or department, as well as producing detailed reports.

For the hot desking requirement, we produced a complete desk booking solution. It has an interactive layered map view of floors with desk locations and a simple calendar grid that shows exactly what desks are available at any time and allows the user to book a free desk. The system will then send an email of confirmation to the user and booking can be amended or cancelled at any time. The desk plan can be divided into sections-for example-floor, business unit, project group. Condeco has easily accessible inbuilt configurable reports that provide desk data such as summary of users, occupancy rate, booking history, cancelled bookings and day/week activity.

We trained administrators and trainers who then taught the employees how to use the system. One advantage of the system is that employees can only access parts of the system that is relevant to them. The Condeco system is a single web based tool using the latest technology so additions and changes can be made whenever necessary. The client has an increasing number of people who need to use the same tool, but in different buildings, in different countries, so we created a standard system with a global licence. This means that wherever you are in the world, it can show exactly what resources are available in any location. The system is currently live on campuses in London and in California and is going live shortly in a number of other campuses worldwide.

Evalution:

As is typical with a large company, the transition from old system to new took a significant amount of time. In this case it was over a year, and the process is ongoing as we continue to support and adapt to the company’s needs. Overall it has gone well and there has been positive feedback throughout.

The Outlook system has been the most beneficial as there is no need for any new client installations.

Condeco has proved itself to be flexible with the way the company and the team choose to work. The unique Condeco system means that stress of transition is minimal. Rather than the company adapting to the system, it adapts to you.

 

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