SPACE UTILIZATION / SENSOR TECHNOLOGY

The benefits of our space utilization software

Real time usage data

Using our advanced sensor technology, you can pinpoint accurately how your space is being used or, indeed, not used. Inaccurate and biased manual surveys are consigned to the trash.

Easy to use

An attractive dashboard enables you to quickly analyse usage patterns and the floorplan shows graphically where the available spaces are.

Reduced no shows

Based on your business rules, space and desks can be automatically re-allocated when you have a “no-show”. For example, a desk can be reallocated if it has been unoccupied for 2 hours.

Click here to know more about Rendezvous space utilization software : https://myrendezvous.net/sensor-technology-space-utilization/

CATERING SOFTWARE

The benefits of Rendezvous catering software

Dramatically reduce wastage

Rendezvous does more than help your maximize your meeting space. Its catering software helps you reduce wastage on food and drink, while making sure attendees have their food and drink needs perfectly met.

Drives the guest experience

You can use Rendezvous food booking software to order meals to be delivered during meetings, and also make sure refreshments such as tea and coffee arrive exactly at the times you specify. The food and drink ordering software also allows you to order food and beverage that takes into account special dietary requirements.

Flexibility

Rendezvous food booking software also responds effortlessly to any amendments you need to make in your arrangements. Meetings in any organisation — particularly a large one — are subject to a lot of changes including the number of people attending, the venue and time.

Enhanced communication

This smart food software automatically responds to any changes and automatically informs your catering providers. This is particularly important in organisations that have outsourced their catering. It maintains good communications with your providers and avoids unnecessary waste that can take a bite directly out of your bottom line.

Click here to know more about Rendezvous Catering software : https://myrendezvous.net/catering-software/

MEETING ROOM DIGITAL SIGNAGE

The benefits of our digital signage integration

Time saving

Staff can quickly find an available room and book it directly on the touch panel — all fully integrated with Rendezvous.

Flexible

Our solution works with all the leading suppliers such as Evoko, Crestron, Harman AMX and Apple. We can even provide a custom solution.

Easy to use

Colour coding and clear informative text enable your staff to quickly see when a room is occupied and for how long and by whom.

Click here to know more about Meeting room digital signage : https://myrendezvous.net/software-solutions/digital-signage/

WHAT JUST HAPPENED TO OUR WORKING ENVIRONMENT — AND HOW DO WE DEAL WITH THAT?

Magic Johnson once said: “All students should have the opportunity to receive their high school diplomas and be fully prepared for college or the workplace.”

But what exactly do we mean when we talk about the workplace in 2019 — and what sort of working environment should we REALLY be getting people ready for?

The work environment is not what it was just ten or 15 years ago. In those days, we rocked up to our place of work, sat at our own desk from 9 to 5 (if we were lucky…) then went home and switched off.

We moaned a lot about it, too, as I recall…

Today, we see our workplace all around us — in the office, the coffee shop, the mall, at home. As the Business Dictionary describes it, the 2019 work environment is:

“A location where a task is completed.”

That’s simple and correct.

It sounds free, right? It sounds productive and empowering.

It sounds like success.

But as a business, how in the world do you hang onto your workforce in the face of all this freedom, control the free-range working environment and make sure your workers fulfill your requirements?

Read more on workplace transformation.

Your organization can’t control the places your employees work outside your office, although you do need to lay down ground rules about what’s safe and acceptable, such as no accessing secure or sensitive information in public spaces.

So in this article, I want to concentrate on the working environment you provide for your staff, the physical place even the most agile of them visit to sit down with colleagues, take part in meetings and collaborate.

The place that’s costing you a fortune ever month.

Money-zine.com defines the working environment as:

“The surrounding conditions in which an employee operates.”

That’s a good definition too. And as the workplace owner or manager controlling those surrounding conditions you can make it go right or wrong for your business and your employees.

Surrounding conditions can mean two different things:

• Physical conditions — e.g. how hot or cold your workplace is, what type of space is available, how noisy it is
• Equipment — e.g. are collaboration tools such as video conferencing or AV available? What other equipment do your workers need or have available?

When does it go wrong?

• When your workspace is not set up to support modern ways of working.
• When workers end up wandering around the building looking for somewhere to sit down and work, or hold a meeting
• When your workers are uncomfortable because it’s too hot, too cold or noisy
• When meetings fail because no-one shows
• When no-one wants to arrange a video conference because it’s too much admin and the equipment isn’t always available when they need it.

So how do you make it go right?

Easy. A good workspace management system lays all these issues to rest, making your operations more efficient and delivering an effortless agile working environment where people can just get on with their jobs.

Here’s how it works:

Agile workers use an app to locate and book the desk or meeting space they need easily, even when organizing a meeting across multiple locations or time zones.

If they need a quiet desk in a cool place, they can specify that.

Up-to-date inventory control means they can identify the equipment they need at each location and book that, too — and they can even add catering in the same transaction.

It’s all dragged and dropped into the familiar Outlook calendar thanks to good integration, and any changes are notified automatically to everyone who is taking part — even the caterers.

Boom — done.

On average, arranging the perfect meeting with meeting room booking software takes less than 30 seconds.

This process cannot take away the stress that’s inherent in doing a tough job well, but it can remove a whole world of pain:

• frustration with badly-organized meetings
• boredom with menial tasks
• confusion with colleagues
• embarrassment in front of clients.

So workers feel a little better about their jobs, which impacts positively on their wellbeing and job satisfaction and makes it more likely you will retain their talent.

Making operations more efficient in this way also means everyone gets more done, which works for the whole organization.

Utilization reports linked with occupancy sensors give you a full view of how your space is being used in real time, which informs good planning decisions that drive efficiency and economy.

This level of insight provides a better picture of what — as Magic Johnson advises — people can be prepared to expect when they come to work.

Our ways of working have changed dramatically, and will continue to change, maybe in ways we haven’t yet imagined. We’ll have to go on re-defining exactly what we mean by the workplace environment, again and again.

But one thing is sure.

Workplace technology will keep on adapting to respond to those changes — and will always provide a valuable resource when it comes to keeping your workforce happy, healthy and productive.

IS YOUR OUTLOOK OBSESSION HOLDING YOUR COMPANY BACK? HERE’S HOW TO GO FOR GROWTH WITH PERFECT MEETINGS

In just five to ten years, we’re going to be attending video conferences as holograms, according to one recent report by video collaboration expert Scott Wharton.

In Yale Insights, he says: “Video conferencing won’t be nearly as good as being there – it’ll be better.”

So is your organization already in danger of being left behind because you’re hung up on using just Outlook?

That’s no way to be. Video conferencing brings together teams from anywhere in the world with their clients in other countries and time zones – at low cost.

Distributed teams can work around the clock effortlessly to move your company forward.

But to make it happen, you need to be able to book meetings with multiple-locations and in different time zones.

You can do that in Outlook. But the process is complicated, and the time it costs and errors it creates can slow you and your organization down.

In fact, it could be doing this every day of the working year.

So what’s the best way to manage multi-location, multi time-zone meetings?

Let’s compare using just Outlook with state-of-the-art meeting room booking software.

Your ‘just Outlook’ experience

In Outlook, making multi-location, multi time-zone bookings is a complicated and time-consuming task.

You have to:

1. Open your calendar
2. Go to options then scroll down until you find the time-zone section
3. Tick the boxes for a second or third time-zone and select the relevant locations
4. Go back to the calendar
5. Right-click and select new appointment at the time relating to the main host’s location
6. Click on scheduling assistant and search for a room with availability in the main location. You have to keep on opening room calendars until you spot a free room at the desired time
7. Select first room
8. Repeat the search stage for the second and third rooms, remembering to apply the right time-zone each time
9. If the second or third locations have no availability that coincides with the first room, you have to repeat the process with a new time that works
10. Now you check attendee availability to make sure that everyone can make the time of the meeting
11. If any of them is unavailable, you have to try to find a slot that works for all – and then repeat the room search again
12. Invite all three meeting rooms to the meeting, plus all attendees
13. Click send
14. Take a deep breath – and hope none of the attendees suggests an alternative meeting time

This booking process takes a massive 30 minutes on average.

That’s 30 minutes for EACH meeting.

As your company grows, the number of meetings increases, and now you have to dedicate employees completely to managing meetings.

Even then, you can still only manage a maximum of three time-zones this way.

Your meeting room booking software experience

If you have access to an enterprise-level meeting room booking software you just:

1. Open your calendar
2. Right-click and select new appointment at the time relating to the main host’s location
3. Select room booking solution
4. Select multi-room booking
5. Add as many locations as required – this is unlimited
6. Select locations from the drop down – the correct time-zone for each is shown
7. Click Find
8. Click free/busy
9. See quickly whether attendee availability and room availability for each location match
10. Select the multiple rooms required and hit the book button
11. Relax

This booking process takes 2 minutes on average

For a busy person organizing 10 multi-location video conference meetings a month, the time saved with meeting room booking software is over 4.5 hours.

That’s not to mention the human cost of frustration and the burden of carrying out repetitive, boring and unnecessary admin tasks.

Why video conferencing = wellbeing + talent retention

Today, organizations need to work hard to retain talented employees, and most wish to create working environments where wellbeing is a priority and people can enjoy getting on with their jobs, without tedium or delay.

Collaboration tools like video conferencing and AV are a modern miracle when it comes to enabling innovation and productivity, and in bonding teams together across distances. They reduce frustration and promote happy working.

In addition, they reduce an organization’s carbon footprint and cut travel costs, as well as saving workers time sitting in traffic.

Sounds good, right? And it is when it works right – but it’s also been shown that employees shun these modern meeting methods if they find them hard to organize.

So what it adds up to is this:

You could actually be slowing the geographical growth of your company by failing to create perfect meetings the easy way – and putting a crimp in the collaborative power and productivity of your workforce.

You could even be making people unhappy at work by putting ‘just Outlook’ admin in their way.

And in five or 10 years, when holograms are sitting down to talk serious business, your company most certainly won’t be joining the party.

So the question is if you really want to grow can you afford to let using ‘just Outlook’ slow you down?

Or do you want to book a demo of Rendezvous meeting room booking software right now – before it’s too late?