Introduction
In any organization, effective collaboration (booking meeting rooms, collaborative spaces or just booking a desk with colleagues) among people holds paramount importance and must never be underestimated. This is precisely why organizations prioritize investing in infrastructure with mandatory meeting rooms or conference spaces.
Today, corporate office setups are witnessing a swift increase in booking meeting rooms. In a recent report titled “Meeting Room Booking Systems Statistics 2023,” LLC Buddy projects the global meeting room booking system software market to grow from $65.5 million in 2020 to $135.4 million by 2026, with a 12.9% CAGR during the forecast period.
Why do you think this meeting room booking system is gaining such significant importance nowadays? Are there any challenges faced while booking meeting rooms? How do you think one can overcome those challenges?
Before we answer all these questions, let’s understand what booking meeting room refers to.
What Booking Meeting Room means?
Booking a meeting room is the process of reserving a meeting or conference room in the office itself, for a specific date and time to hold meetings, discussions, presentations, or other business-related activities.
Typically, this room reservation process can be executed manually, facilitated through internal organizational technologies or adoption of external software solutions.
Why is it important today ?
The rise of hybrid work models has made in-person meetings during office visits highly essential for productive discussions and faster decision-making.
According to a recent article on office meeting statistics by Mark Wolmark, around 83% employees spend up to 33% of the workweek in meetings. If multiple work teams in an office want to meet in the same room simultaneously without a structured booking system, it can result in ineffective collaboration, wasted time, ghost meetings, and overall business inefficiency..
In large organizations with numerous cross-functional teams, monitoring their activities simultaneously is a daunting task. Hence, a Meeting Room Booking system offers real-time room availability and simplifies scheduling, boosting overall efficiency.
This sums up to the two major reasons why booking meeting room is important:
- Streamlined Workflow Protocols: Structured workflow procedures eliminate chaos from conflicting team commitments, bringing order and organization to the company’s internal processes.
- Increased Efficiency: Booking meeting or conference rooms not only saves employees time but also gives them peace of mind with reserved spaces, facilitating better task management and organization.
What are the challenges in Booking meeting rooms?
- Double Bookings: This occurs when multiple groups reserve the same room at once, causing conflicts, disruptions, and frustration.
- Confusing Interfaces: Complex interfaces lead to user difficulties, resulting in errors, delays, and a poor user experience.
- Resource Allocation: Insufficient data on room usage can lead to inefficient resource allocation, causing wasted space or inadequate availability during peak times.
- Limited Flexibility: Older systems may not accommodate unique booking requirements, hampering policy enforcement and hindering workplace efficiency goals.
Technology as the Solution
Utilizing modern technology effectively overcomes challenges from outdated meeting room reservation systems and is a wise investment, ensuring streamlined booking processes and promising future dividends.
How to choose a meeting room booking system for your office?
Out of the available technology solutions in the market, what type of solution should you go for, and how to opt for an apt room booking system for your organization?
- Define Your Business Needs: Before selecting a meeting room system, identify your requirements by asking:
- Do you face last-minute room shortages due to inadequate booking?
- Do you need better insights into space utilization?
- Is preventing double bookings or no-shows a priority?
- Conduct Comprehensive Market Research: Explore available systems after defining your needs. Evaluate them against your essential criteria to improve your meeting processes.
- Utilize Trials and Demos : Testing a new tool is crucial. Use demos and trial periods to assess how a meeting room booking system aligns with your organization. Share your requirements with the demonstrator for a better evaluation.
About DB Spazio
Within the technology market, there exists a plethora of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions, such as DB Spazio, which is a comprehensive Hybrid Workplace Experience Platform, offering an extensive array of features and advantages for the efficient management of meeting spaces.
Here are some of the notable features that DB Spazio offers for booking meeting rooms and desks:
Reservations & Amenities
- AI-based Desk Bookings for Hot Desking, finding and choosing meeting rooms, finding colleagues, workplace resources & amenities easily with interactive 3D layout
- Organize and collaborates by configuring workspaces based on neighborhood and department
- Reclaim unused time with Ghost Meeting booking cancellation, ensuring efficient space utilization
- Confirm location-based occupancy in real-time with in-app check-in functionality. No hardware needed
Explore other industry-leading solutions from DB Spazio
Booking Meeting Rooms: Implementing Seamless Processes
Implementing a seamless meeting room booking process is a transformative journey for organizations, requiring careful planning, communication, and technology integration. This ensures that employees can effortlessly and efficiently reserve meeting spaces.
Here’s a more detailed explanation of the steps involved in this implementation:
- Employee Training: Comprehensive training is essential for employees to proficiently use the new booking system. It can include in-person workshops, online tutorials, or user guides, enabling confident utilization of system features.
- Establishing a Communication Plan: Clear communication is crucial while implementing changes to the meeting room booking process. A communication plan ensures that employees are well-informed about the transition, reducing confusion and resistance to change.
- Feedback Loops for Continuous Improvement: Implementing a feedback mechanism lets organizations gather input from users and stakeholders about their experiences with the new booking system, enabling ongoing improvements.
- Periodic Reviews and Updates: Meeting room booking processes should be regularly reviewed to ensure they align with organizational needs, with updates and enhancements made as needed.
By following these steps and a well-planned approach, organizations can effectively transition to a seamless meeting room booking process, enhancing efficiency, collaboration, and overall workplace satisfaction for employees.
Success Stories with DB Spazio
DB Spazio, a Hybrid Workplace Experience Platform with room booking capabilities, has supported enterprises like TomTom, a Dutch multinational corporation specializing in location technology.
TomTom considered opening a new office in Pune, India. During the project’s design phase, they sought precise office utilization metrics for their current workspace.
The Challenges:
- Limited access to workspace and meeting room utilization metrics
- Lack of concrete data on additional space requirements
- Requirement for department-specific space analytics for future planning
The Solution:
TomTom collaborated with DB Spazio as their workspace analytics partner to assess space utilization.
Outcome:
The space analytics and optimization project were finished in 7 days, ensuring it didn’t hinder the new facility’s design process.
Testimonial given by TomTom executive, clients of DB Spazio:
“When we decided to start work on the work desk and meeting room optimization project, we were not sure how to lead this project and its outcome. DB Spazio did an astonishingly great job (to achieve stated objectives). The best part is even though we get enormous data, the dashboard shows it in (a) simplified format so it’s easy to understand. Besides the best technology, I am very impressed with friendly, accommodating, and enthusiastic staff. You guys are brilliant!“
Manish Deshmukh,
Sr. Project Manager (APAC and Africa), Corporate Real Estate
To learn about how DB Spazio tackled TomTom’s challenges and the resulting performance metrics, please refer to the complete case study for in-depth information: How TomTom Used Space Analytics for Rightsizing their Real Estate
Conclusion
Efficient meeting room booking is crucial for modern organizations, boosting collaboration and productivity. Technology solutions like DB Spazio address challenges, with success stories like TomTom’s highlighting tangible benefits. Investing in effective booking systems is essential for streamlined operations and a positive employee experience.
