Announcing the arrival of AT-Venues...

Ok there are a few good online room scheduling tools out there and there is always Outlook, so why enter this kind of crowded space with yet an other tool?

This was the question put to us by our feasibility panel when we first told them about AT-Venues.

There are a number of reasons, there is the next tool aren’t half as good as ours, the competition is pricey, not provided as true SAAS, the usability of the market leading tools is questionable and restrictions on features and functions by license type is just not fair in our opinion. So we built AT-Venues! Which is usable, has more but simple to use features that are not restricted by license models, we just restrict the number of rooms or resources by license type, AT-Venues is true SAAS… BUT the main reason why AT-Venues is different is because it is free.

AT-Venues under its solo subscription model is free to use for up to 25 rooms or resources and that magic number in our opinion services the needs of the majority of businesses in the world. Yes there are paid for subscription models as well and there are numerous differentiators over our competition that will make you choose AT-Venues once you have trialed it free for 30 days.

Before you roll your eyes on the ‘free’ statement above, go and check out the competition and if you feel that they provide an equivalent online service for room/venue or resource management feel free to come back and slate this blog post.
So carrying on… the old cliché time is money and neither is to be wasted, how often do you see it being wasted on a daily basis!? Every time there is a double booking or the wrong room is booked for a meeting; money is wasted, both in tangible terms and in intangible terms. Have you ever experienced a meeting where you get to the venue and find out there are no conference call facilities or video conferencing facilities and half the delegates are expecting to join virtually? Or have you ever experienced turning up to a meeting room to find out it does not have the equipment you require or is too large or too small for your needs? Each one of those experiences is an example of money and time being wasted, not to mention the anxiety for the delegates, creature comforts and psychological comfort of attendees has a bearing on their performance in a meeting.

Then of course is Development by Democracy®! All ikonami products are built with the users as co-designers and it is our user community that sets priorities for features and functions in our software upgrades. And our pilot community for AT-Venues has been doing just that!

Allow me give you an example… quite a few of our pilot companies were selected on the basis of their size, turnover and age and quite a few of them informed us that they use web based services for most of their back office needs and Google® trumps all in that respect, so we released a version of AT-Venues with integration with Google® mail as well as Calendar. How many room/resource management systems are out there that put the client demands first, provide integrated interfaces with Google mail, Calendar, Yahoo Calendar as well as Outlook, iCal and provide a free ad supported version for the majority of the world’s entrepreneurs to benefit from? None to my knowledge except for AT-Venues.

And it is for all the reasons stated above and more that we announce the arrival of AT-Venues 1.0 in the room/venue/resource management space.

And we welcome you to our service platform, we are certain that you will find it an extremely effective tool in better utilising your assets, from meeting rooms, lecture, conference, banquet and marriage halls, training, education resource centres, treatment rooms, clinics, licensed venues, sports grounds, mobile equipment and numerous other assets spread over multiple locations and sites.

Save time, money, enjoy and tell us how to improve it further.