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If you’re considering meeting scheduling software, you’ve probably encountered several systems that seem almost identical on the surface. All serve the same essential purpose — to make meeting scheduling more efficient — and they check similar boxes in terms of features and functions.
As an IT leader, it’s your responsibility to choose technology that not only gets the job done right now, but lays the groundwork for exceptional workplace experiences and future growth.
To get the best return on your investment in meeting scheduling software, make sure the solution you choose has these nine features.
You already know traditional hosted software solutions are expensive to maintain and update. So why would you want to create more work for your team?
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions are updated frequently, and all maintenance and upgrades are covered in the cost of your monthly subscription fees.
With cloud-based meeting scheduling software, you only pay for what you need now, whether it’s scheduling for 10 meeting rooms or 100. And upgrading your subscription package is as easy as picking up the phone. That’s why so many growing enterprises rely on cloud-based software to offer them the flexibility they need to expand.
Your employees are already accustomed to using their calendar app to book meetings. And there’s nothing wrong with that — except for the fact that calendar apps don’t always reflect true availability. This leads to double-booking, confusion, and conflicts no one wants in their workplace.
The best meeting scheduling software solutions don’t replace your calendar apps — they integrate with them.
Teem’s meeting scheduling software integrates with Microsoft Outlook, Office 365, and Google Calendar, as well as notification platforms like Slack. That way, your employees can continue to use familiar technology to schedule meetings and invite people, with the added benefit of more reliable room booking.
The best way to increase user adoption of any new technology in the workplace is to start with an intuitive solution. Our meeting room scheduling software makes it easy to reserve rooms in just a few taps. Employees can easily see the status of each room and when it will be available again. They can then use room scheduling panels to reserve rooms as they’re walking by or use their mobile phone to make a reservation even if they’re away from the office.
Part of what makes a great user experience for meeting room scheduling software is the ability to quickly find any room. That’s especially true on a sprawling corporate campus.
A study by indoor positioning systems company Senion found that the average employee at a large company spends 1 hour each week just searching for rooms, desks or colleagues. That adds up to more than a full workweek of wasted time!
But even in smaller offices, it’s not always easy to tell one room apart from another, especially if you’re new to the company or you’re not in the office very often.
Which room is West 1, and which is East 1? If your meeting scheduling software integrates with maps and room displays, your employees can go to their next meeting confident that they’re in the right place at the right time.
The coronavirus pandemic has proven that many employees can successfully work remotely, and they’re likely to continue doing so in the future. As a result, many workplace leaders are rethinking the idea of assigning seats in favor of flexible strategies like desk hoteling. Many employees come to the office because they want to collaborate with their colleagues in person. Others, however, might be looking for a quiet place to escape the chaos of their home office, especially if they have small children.
That’s why the ability to book desks as quickly and easily as they reserve rooms is becoming an increasingly important feature of meeting scheduling software.
Another impact of the pandemic is a growing awareness of using shared surfaces, including touchscreen technology. While regularly sanitizing these surfaces can certainly help people feel more comfortable using them, it’s even better if employees can use a mobile app for room reservation or desk booking.
From their own mobile device, they can find available rooms or workspaces, view them on maps, and reserve them from anywhere. Best of all, they can avoid touching a contaminated surface and reduce their risk of infection.
Teem’s own data found as many as 34% of room reservations are for meetings no one attends.
This often happens because someone moves or cancels the meeting at the last minute. But in other cases, someone creates a recurring reservation and forgets about it entirely. The meeting is no longer needed or the host leaves the company, but the room still appears to be reserved week after week. These recurring “zombie” meetings are a huge drain on your workplace’s resources. Not only is the space going to waste, but it also makes it harder for other employees to find a room when they need it.
Fortunately, Teem’s meeting scheduling software was designed to eliminate these unattended meetings.
By enabling the check-in feature and requiring employees to use it when they arrive, you can be sure that every reserved meeting room is actually being used. If no one checks in after a certain period of time (say, 15 minutes), the room will become available again.
If employees don’t arrive on time, they’ll lose their room. So you’re improving your space utilization while also encouraging better meeting habits in your workplace.
Conference room technology that doesn’t work properly is frustrating for everyone. But you know all too well employees often complain about something without ever alerting you that it needs to be fixed.
Teem’s meeting scheduling software makes it easy for employees to submit work orders simply by using a room panel or their mobile app.
This way, your team can stay on top of tech requests as you create a frictionless employee experience.
Did you know the average conference room is empty almost three-fourths of the day?
That has huge implications for your real estate costs. And at a time when many business leaders are considering reducing their office footprint, the ability to track conference room utilization has never been more essential.
Without insight into which conference rooms are actually being used and how often, it’s tough to justify an office expansion or redesign, even if it’s necessary. Teem’s meeting scheduling software gives you visibility into valuable analytics about space utilization and meeting habits, including:
Teem also integrates with sensors for real-time space utilization analytics.
Your team can use this data to make the workplace better for everyone. For instance, if you notice most meetings have an average of four people but your conference rooms were designed to accommodate 12 or more, you could reconfigure one of your larger rooms so small groups of people have more places to meet.
Teem’s meeting scheduling software has been the preferred choice of IT professionals and workplace leaders for years. And now that Teem is an iOFFICE company, we have even more to offer. We recently took the first step in integrating our technologies by connecting Teem’s room scheduling, wayfinding, and visitor management solutions (EventBoard, Finder, and LobbyConnect) to the iOFFICE Hummingbird mobile app.
Your employees don’t stay in one place all day. Using the app, employees can easily find their way around and locate their colleagues with more accessible maps. Plus, with the app they’ll have everything they need for reserving rooms or workspaces.
In the near future, we’ll also be introducing self-service technology, including the ability for executive administrators to manage multiple bookings at once and a personal digital assistant to make room booking even easier.
Teem’s room scheduling software is easy to implement. Just choose your pricing plan based on the number of conference rooms and desks in your office. Then, choose from a variety of room display options. For your convenience, our software integrates easily with the most common ones, including Apple devices and Alexa for Business.
Then follow these guidelines for a successful implementation.
Ready to see how our software improves collaboration in the workplace while helping you plan for the future? Request a free demo today.
News, tips, and product updates.
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