You are your team’s Meeting Room Manager. Take a look at your calendar. Do you have any meetings scheduled for today? If you answered “yes,” take a moment to reflect and think about the numbers. How much is it costing your business to get everyone together and collaborate?
You can start with the cost of workspace. For example, in the fourth quarter of 2017, the average rent for office space in NYC was running at around $65 per square foot. Now, think about each employee’s salary. It is estimated that 220 million meetings are held in the US every month, at an average salary cost of $338 per meeting. That’s only more reason to make sure your meetings are going to be worthwhile, right?
To achieve success, you must first decipher the problems. Most likely, you will need to focus on meeting room booking solutions. The issues that make meetings go wrong are common. They include the following:
All of these problems add up to an excessive amount of unnecessary costs, including wasted time and employee frustration. Is there an answer? Yes, and it’s called meeting management software.
Meeting room manager software is a technology has developed rapidly to meet the changing demands of our workplace. This type of meeting room booking system is geared towards the trend of desk booking and the requirement for more flexible meeting space where employees can collaborate freely.
Mobile access: Workspace has to be flexible so that it provides facilities for both informal and formal meetings for remote employees on the move. If employees have to roam the building looking for somewhere to work or meet, it negatively impacts their productivity and reduces their job satisfaction. Conference room scheduling software remedies this. The modern workforce expects to be able to access facilities and services via mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. The best meeting management software offers effortless online capability anywhere, anytime. The most advanced systems, such as Rendezvous Workspace, come with mobile apps for the greatest ease of use and convenience and integrate closely with Outlook. Technology allows you to use your phone or even an iPad to access the meeting scheduling software. It’s always with you.
Having to call an administrative employee to book a room adds a level of complexity to a meeting and deters busy workers. Meeting room scheduling and hoteling technology provide a self-service function that saves time and removes obstacles to flexible working. Complementary technology such as desk occupancy sensors and beacons work with this room and resource scheduling software to create a real-time view of available space. The result is that employees can quickly locate the space they need – even across different time zones if it is for a video conference – and book it online without a third-party. Beacon technology offers additional benefits as well. For example, it can detect who is near it and start your video conference as soon as your attendees enter the meeting room so there is no dial-in delay. Meeting room booking systems assist you in creating a more easily accessible business environment.
Meeting resourcing: Meeting room manager software allows employees to book the technology they need for their meeting. These meeting room managers cater to each employee’s needs through their software technology. Your resource scheduling system will keep an up-to-date inventory of important equipment such as AV, video conferencing, projectors, etc. It means nobody shows up for a meeting only to find that a vital piece of equipment is missing. Delays like this are a large part of the reason why meetings can be unnecessarily costly.
Automated updating: Has the time of your meeting changed suddenly? Meeting scheduling software lets everyone involved know about the change immediately and automatically. This cuts administrative time and reduces no-shows (one of the biggest complaints people have about meetings). Meeting scheduling technology also integrates with the latest in digital signage to help guide attendees to the right place. This issue often arises if you have attendees coming in from other locations or from an external organization. The meeting room manager system’s use of room signage guides visitors to their destination quickly and effectively.
Easy finance: Meeting room manager software at the enterprise level is now available as a cloud-based option, reducing up-front costs and allowing a rapid ROI. Thanks to streamlined operations, increased worker productivity and better workplace wellbeing is now a result of meeting scheduling software. Because of these features and others, meeting and resource scheduling technology provide facility managers and office owners the opportunity to have an end-to-end view of their workspace with comprehensive reporting. Supported by real-time data, office managers can see exactly how their workplace is meeting the demands of employees, and make informed decisions going forward.
Meetings will most likely always be a part of office life. They provide the opportunity for collaboration that sparks innovation, ideas and team spirit. These elements are essential for organizations to grow and move forward. Meeting booking software is already helping many digital-savvy corporate organizations and law firms keep their operations streamlined and their employees productive and happy. If your organization is not among them, it’s time to start thinking about technology.
