.
At a recent product workshop whilst I was going on and on about AT-Venues a delegate asked of the group; what is the point of having a web based room or resource management system?
It is a simple but seldom addressed question!
The point is to minimise and eradicate any loss in revenues, resulting from missed, ill planned meetings and appointments. From an asset perspective it is an attempt to better utilise and account for the use of assets ranging from meeting rooms to projectors.
Many organizations large and small utilize web based room scheduling software, or appointment scheduling software; to better organize meetings and better utilize their assets.
Web based systems provide a cost effective means of acquiring and maintaining such systems. Systems that support email and SMS reminders will reduce no-shows and self-scheduling clients/users can book their own meeting rooms and/or resources online.
A web based centralized system provides you with a complete view of your assets / resources, their utilization and occupancy rates their profitability or lack of as and more through powerful reporting features. This is assuming the tool has a reporting feature, which of course AT-Venues does.
Last but not least it frees up time for you to concentrate on other areas of your workload with the peace of mind that you have the right room with the right equipment and supplies all booked up for the meeting and your invited delegates will be sent timely reminders to ensure they don’t forget.
And if you have more to add please feel free to do so, likewise if you disagree with this post let it be known!
Monday, November 9, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Technology Refresh need not be a pain!
.
Is it Murphy’s law that every time we seek to refresh our technology we find our selves in a recession!?
There are a number of things to bear in mind when looking at a technology refresh: always carryout an options appraisal; what are your needs and where does the existing product fall short?
Once the gaps are identified go to the supplier and ask for upgrades that bring the installed product at par on servicing your needs/requirements. Should this route not bear fruit or the fruit has a price tag... look at alternatives.
When looking for alternatives do your research.. avail the power of Google, Bing and/or Yahoo. Visit software market places where you can see the supplier name and google them instead, an alternative to filling out any forms.... use the force.
When short listing options look for the essentials: is it provided on a true software as a service model? (is it web based with a subscription model that you can get out of at a months notice?) does the provider offer free trials? Is there a free option that you could use to trial the software for longer in a limited capacity? What about upgrades? is the tool a features over kill? could you implement it and start making savings within a short period of time? (the above is not a comprehensive list... do add a dash of common sense to it all)
Once you have a list, select a max of three providers that have a tool that addresses all or most of your needs.
Trial them, you may choose to pilot them all in one department or get buy in from different departments to run a wider trial. Put an end date to the trial, rule of thumb is two weeks as a minimum and four at max (in context - we are talking scheduling systems here people). Discuss the merits and demerits of each platform consider price versus functionality, support mechanisms, support response quality and time, get everyone’s opinion, keep it open, try to keep bias out of the room as much as possible. If you want to know more about evaluating software ... google it or if you have a specific need get in touch via www.ikonami.com
The cost of a technology refresh will be high if you do not shop around and go with the usual suspects or a complacent supplier. With more and more business applications being offered on a software as a service (SAAS) model technology refresh ought to be a cost saving and it is when you select the right service provider.
Here at ikonami we believe in the practice of software as a utility that ought to be accessible to and affordable for all. Imagine where the web would be without the likes of hotmail.com back in the days!
It is our aim to change the online room scheduling software marketplace, forever. AT-Venues™ is a software service accessible and affordable for all.... go and have a look for yourself... www.at-venues.com
Is it Murphy’s law that every time we seek to refresh our technology we find our selves in a recession!?
There are a number of things to bear in mind when looking at a technology refresh: always carryout an options appraisal; what are your needs and where does the existing product fall short?
Once the gaps are identified go to the supplier and ask for upgrades that bring the installed product at par on servicing your needs/requirements. Should this route not bear fruit or the fruit has a price tag... look at alternatives.
When looking for alternatives do your research.. avail the power of Google, Bing and/or Yahoo. Visit software market places where you can see the supplier name and google them instead, an alternative to filling out any forms.... use the force.
When short listing options look for the essentials: is it provided on a true software as a service model? (is it web based with a subscription model that you can get out of at a months notice?) does the provider offer free trials? Is there a free option that you could use to trial the software for longer in a limited capacity? What about upgrades? is the tool a features over kill? could you implement it and start making savings within a short period of time? (the above is not a comprehensive list... do add a dash of common sense to it all)
Once you have a list, select a max of three providers that have a tool that addresses all or most of your needs.
Trial them, you may choose to pilot them all in one department or get buy in from different departments to run a wider trial. Put an end date to the trial, rule of thumb is two weeks as a minimum and four at max (in context - we are talking scheduling systems here people). Discuss the merits and demerits of each platform consider price versus functionality, support mechanisms, support response quality and time, get everyone’s opinion, keep it open, try to keep bias out of the room as much as possible. If you want to know more about evaluating software ... google it or if you have a specific need get in touch via www.ikonami.com
The cost of a technology refresh will be high if you do not shop around and go with the usual suspects or a complacent supplier. With more and more business applications being offered on a software as a service (SAAS) model technology refresh ought to be a cost saving and it is when you select the right service provider.
Here at ikonami we believe in the practice of software as a utility that ought to be accessible to and affordable for all. Imagine where the web would be without the likes of hotmail.com back in the days!
It is our aim to change the online room scheduling software marketplace, forever. AT-Venues™ is a software service accessible and affordable for all.... go and have a look for yourself... www.at-venues.com
Monday, November 2, 2009
What are we doing blogging!?
Fair point….
most of you are accustomed to not seeing us! but seeing our releases, you are used to our community platform as our primary channel of communication between us for all our products, so to ask whats up with the blog is a fair question. And here is our answer…
We decided to use this blog to introduce and offer our posts as a resource to organisations of all sizes that are looking for ways to increase productivity through web based software that manages rooms, equipment, people and resources.
We chose blogs to try and reach beyond our immediate user community, so its about exposure. And we have been informed by our search engine optimisation expert that they are a great tool for climbing up the page ranks! So its not all selfless! And yes we are on Twitter and Facebook too!
But we promise you that we wont just sell sell sell on our blog post, Twitter tweets and our Facebook fan page. We will use these platforms as an addition to our AT-Communities platform (which is our closed user support community) to present, receive and debate ideas about efficiency in the organisation, we will use them to discuss and debate everything under the sun that relates to scheduling and monitoring your room/resource assets and more.
Yes there is more to AT-Venues than just room scheduling and management as our growing user community continues to demonstrate to us. So we will use this blog to feature companies from our user community that have pushed the boundaries and are doing more with our Solo subscription of AT-Venues room scheduling software than we thought possible!
But more on that later…..
most of you are accustomed to not seeing us! but seeing our releases, you are used to our community platform as our primary channel of communication between us for all our products, so to ask whats up with the blog is a fair question. And here is our answer…
We decided to use this blog to introduce and offer our posts as a resource to organisations of all sizes that are looking for ways to increase productivity through web based software that manages rooms, equipment, people and resources.
We chose blogs to try and reach beyond our immediate user community, so its about exposure. And we have been informed by our search engine optimisation expert that they are a great tool for climbing up the page ranks! So its not all selfless! And yes we are on Twitter and Facebook too!
But we promise you that we wont just sell sell sell on our blog post, Twitter tweets and our Facebook fan page. We will use these platforms as an addition to our AT-Communities platform (which is our closed user support community) to present, receive and debate ideas about efficiency in the organisation, we will use them to discuss and debate everything under the sun that relates to scheduling and monitoring your room/resource assets and more.
Yes there is more to AT-Venues than just room scheduling and management as our growing user community continues to demonstrate to us. So we will use this blog to feature companies from our user community that have pushed the boundaries and are doing more with our Solo subscription of AT-Venues room scheduling software than we thought possible!
But more on that later…..
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
