It’s only natural that different users will have different preferences on how they would like to book a meeting room or reserve a desk. So, the booking system must offer flexibility. This is exactly what a simplified booking system like ecobook does — It provides different methods of booking a meeting room or a desk.
With ecobook, you or your staff can book meeting rooms or desks in six ways. Let’s explore them from the perspective of team members in a company called ACME Corp.
Six Ways To Book Rooms & Desks
Web
Ecobook’s web portal offers a comprehensive way of booking meeting rooms or desks. The layout view provides a graphical presentation of the whole office and allows the user to see availability in one glance. This is very similar to how you would book cinema hall tickets.
The web portal also has a scheduler to provide a timeline view of the bookings. There is also an advanced booking feature that allows users to create ad-hoc booking patterns such as daily, weekly, monthly, custom, or block booking.
The web-based portal is very useful for John, an employee of ACME Corp. He is a graphic designer and is desk–bound most of the time, working in front of a large monitor. So, for John, it is easy to look at the layout view of the office space and book a desk in a secluded spot where he would be able to work in peace without any distractions.
Mobile
The mobile app provides users with a simplified booking view that allows for the fast booking of meeting rooms or desk spaces. The app also provides a layout view and a scheduler view similar to that of the web portal.
The layout view provides a bird’s eye view of the entire office space. And you can choose the meeting room or desk that you want to book. Compared to the web portal the ecobook mobile app offers a simpler and faster method of booking your space.
Sarah works at ACME Corp. as a field representative. The mobile app is useful for Sarah, who is on the go most of the time. As Sarah doesn’t have the time to sit in front of a laptop, she uses the mobile app to book a desk for herself near her team members with whom she needs to collaborate for one hour every morning. She gets notified through the same app that her booking is confirmed.
Outlook Plugin
You or your staff can use Outlook to book a meeting room or a desk. You need the Outlook plug-in through which a window is provided into the ecobook reservation software. Users feel familiar with the traditional method of booking meeting rooms with the added advantage of booking desks as well.
While you need to navigate to the plug-in to book meeting rooms or desks, the process is user-friendly and convenient.
Candice also works at ACME Corp in the Finance department. Candice doesn’t have an Office 365 account but she likes working in the Outlook environment. Now, Outlook is a standard application that is always on and has a calendar. The plug-in allows Candice to directly book the office space that she wants to book without the need to leave Outlook and go to another application.
Office/Google Calendar
For those organizations that have their meeting rooms in Office 365 or Google Workspace, booking of the meeting room and desk can be done directly via the calendar without the need to go to ecobook web, mobile, or use the Outlook plug-in.
Ecobook’s Office 365 integration automatically synchronizes the booking between Office and ecobook to ensure that the meeting rooms and desks are blocked in both systems. This prevents conflicts, double bookings, and overall confusion.
Dave is the CEO of ACME Corp. Now, Dave has called Candice for an urgent meeting regarding next quarter’s growth forecast. Dave is very comfortable using his mobile’s Outlook application and he prefers to send invites for meetings through the Office calendar. And ecobook helps Dave to synchronize his appointments with Office 365.
Tablet
The tablets, which are mounted outside meeting rooms or on top of desks, provide a simple yet aesthetically appealing way of booking meeting rooms and desks. They come with LED lighting that indicates whether a room or desk is occupied or available.
For example, spaces that have been booked can appear in red. Spaces that are available for booking can appear in green and spaces that have not been booked and are also not available for booking can appear in grey. This offers a clear view and removes any ambiguity as to whether the meeting room or desk is already booked or not.
Sarah meets John in the office lobby and wants to have a quick word with him to brief him about some designs for their new brochure. They scan through the office to locate a meeting room that is available and instantly book the meeting room to have a quick chat.
Kiosk
Kiosks are generally located outside the office in the lobby or at the entrance to provide staff with a view of the availability of the space before entering the office.
The kiosk is a wall-mounted or stand-mounted touchscreen device that allows users to view the layout of the office for a specific location. Your staff can book the space from the Kiosk if they have not done so earlier. Again, since the purpose of the kiosk is to make quick bookings, the interface is designed to make it easy for the user to book.
Steven is a software developer at ACME Corp. He works two days from the office and three days from home. Steven is a last-minute guy and prefers to book his desk when he arrives at the office. Steven uses the touch screen kiosk device mounted at the reception to have a bird’s eye view of the entire office layout. He is a foodie and likes to have quick snacks in between work. So, Steven books a desk near the office pantry.
Conclusion
These are the 6 ways in which a user can book a meeting room or desk using the online booking system ecobook. The various ways cater to the different needs of different users. Does not the hybrid working space require such flexibility?
What do you say?
