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HomeResourcesCase StudiesRendezvous Venue Management Software: Fueling Expansion for Top Conference Center

Rendezvous Venue Management Software: Fueling Expansion for Top Conference Center

conference centre

Terrace Conference Centre
The challenge
Why NFS?
The benefits
What happens next?
Catering to our Clients’ Needs
6 ways the TTC benefits
Looking to the future

Executive summary

  1. The Terrace Conference Centre (TCC), Wellington’s premier independent conference venue, has 14 rooms that can support a wide variety of functions. Each room has natural light, high quality sound insulation, client-controlled air conditioning and ultra-fast broadband.
  2. TCC is privately owned and operated – and this means that, compared with larger conference venues, it is able to provide more individualized services to its clients.

“We use the Terrace Conference Centre three times a year; it is a fantastic venue and we have nothing but praise for the staff: they are efficient, helpful and, above all, they go above and beyond to help us.”

– Rachel Moss, APLS co-ordinator, Wellington

At a glance

Who? The Terrace Conference Centre.

Where? Wellington, New Zealand.

What? Rendezvous Venue and Event Management software from NFS.

Why? Not only does TCC need to schedule and coordinate the rental of 14 conference rooms to its clients for various types of functions, but it also needs to ensure that all services (including catering) are correctly booked, delivered and billed.

When? Rendezvous was originally implemented in 2006 and has been consistently in use since then across multiple system upgrades. The most recent upgrade was from a prior on-premise version to the latest cloud offering – Rendezvous V5.0 SaaS

Terrace Conference Centre

Terrace Conference Centre (TCC) is a high quality venue that offers 14 room rentals for meetings and events. Unlike many other less specialized venue providers (such as hotels) this is TCC’s core business activity. This means its top priority is to provide clients with the highest level of professional service that has helped to build TCC’s track record of successful events and exceptional customer satisfaction.

Located in the heart of Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand, TCC uniquely offers various room sizes to both government and private sector clients.

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The challenge

Tripling the number of rooms and streamlining the client booking process.

TCC started operating in 2005 and quickly became successfully established; in fact, it was growing so rapidly that the owner and CEO, David Marment, was planning to expand from five hireable rooms to 14 – and he knew he needed a proper venue management system to do this effectively and efficiently.

The booking process needed to be streamlined. The current processes created uncertainty, and David felt the company would not be able to achieve its full potential bookings volume using its existing manual processes (pens, paper and worksheets).

Moving to a more agile and cost-effective mode of working for its staff was important since TCC required an efficient method of helping clients find and book the meeting rooms they needed.

TCC was looking for a system that would be both easy to use and offer integrated resource management and reporting functionality.

To grow effectively, David knew that TCC needed a system where every detail of a client’s request gets logged and stored… including the room size, special catering requirements, the room set-up etc. That’s where Rendezvous came into play.

Why NFS?

After an extensive evaluation process, David selected the Rendezvous Venue and Event Management system from NFS as it combines all of the key functionality TCC needs together with an intuitive user interface needed for successful implementation and user adoption. In July 2006, TTC implemented the venue management software to meet its changing needs.

David Marment, Owner and CEO, says:

“We changed the business completely, and that allowed us to safely expand from five to 14 rooms – we leased two new levels on the building. And I was only going to do this when we had control – when we knew we could manage our operations and booking process effectively. So the system (Rendezvous) allowed us to do that.”

The benefits
  1. Rendezvous venue management software brought all operational aspects of the business together into a single, integrated solution.
  2. It allowed TCC to expand and manage its growth by having all areas accessible through a single entry-point and a single version of the truth.
  3. Everything is recorded and all day-to-day operations run from a single source.

“It’s especially good for the catering side where things are changing daily and by the hour. Menus and dietary requirements are a real issue in our industry,” explains David. “Once it’s changed in the phone call from the client, it’s on the system, it’s changed, and it’s live.

“Once the booking is confirmed, it’s ready to go. The run sheets are printed out daily so the TTC staff will know exactly what they need to do for the next day’s meetings. Eight different types of lunches in one day – no problem. Rendezvous makes the daily bookings seamless.

“It runs my business very, very efficiently. It allows me to see all the figures I need about the history, where we are going, trends – and I can do my own little charts.

“The information is all there – it’s always there. It’s a brilliant thing for looking at my business wherever I go.”

What happens next?

TCC reports that implementing Rendezvous venue management software was very easy. With only four managers in 16 years, TCC’s new hires became 100% efficient within a week.

NFS’ stringent disaster recovery practices were put to the test when the centre mislaid a raft of data due to a critical hardware failure – the first time in over 10 years that this had occurred.

The NFS support team worked rapidly with David and his staff to recover the information and log it back into the system before any impact was felt. And best of all, TCC was able to use the recovery process as an opportunity to upgrade the system and migrate it to the cloud with all of the controls and accessibility options needed to eliminate its dependence on an in-house server.

“I don’t know how many hours NFS worked on that weekend, it was a lot,” said David. “I was ringing in the middle of the night. But, boy, what NFS support did over that period was absolutely amazing.”

As a result of this issue, TCC has both upgraded the venue management software, and moved to a Rendezvous cloud-based platform sooner than initially planned. And the additional benefits have been significant.

“Backup is automatic and the NFS application management team keeps the system up to date with the latest versions. I can be away from the office, anywhere really, and all I need to do just take a look at my laptop to keep an eye on what’s happening at the office,” said David.

“This is the way the world’s running, and it’s great. It’s a very cost-effective system.”

Catering to our Clients’ Needs

The TCC website allows clients to view, search and choose rooms based on the type of meeting they require. Since the rooms are all varying sizes, TCC can provide the most cost-efficient room for the meeting.

But that’s not all – uniquely, TCC caters food from its premises. So at morning tea, the muffins brought to the meeting room are hot out of the oven.

“The muffins are fresh, we have good food, dietary advanced food, and people remember a venue with their stomach, not their eyes,” David said.

“And at the end of the day, having a system that helps us to run well-organised meetings, across multiple different bookings in 14 rooms, together with great resources including freshly cooked food, things couldn’t get any better for TCC customers.”

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6 ways the TTC benefits

* Customized use – the system provides various resources as needed

* Speedy self-service – very easy access via TCC’s website.

* Time-saving – Rendezvous works seamlessly with the TCC website so its staff can see what rooms and resources are needed immediately.

* Value for money – no expensive hardware was required – NFS hosts Rendezvous securely in the cloud. Backup is seamless.

* Efficiency savings – Single, integrated venue management software covering all aspects of venue management: from managing sales leads to room booking, catering and services and billing.

* Business continuity – Rendezvous Workspace venue management software is supported by the NFS 24/7 helpdesk and the cloud deployment delivers 99.8% system availability using the robust Microsoft Azure cloud hosted service.

Looking to the future

“Live in the power of now and just let the day happen. Trust, have trust in the procedures you’ve set up,” says David. “Rendezvous is a procedure we’ve got set up – and Rendezvous is seamless, really.”

* For more about Rendezvous venue management software, visit Myrendezvous