Historically reservations for the shared meeting rooms were managed manually using a hardcopy diary via reception service. This manual system worked well in the main, however as the centre got busier, reception’s time was becoming more valuable and administering meeting room reservations was taking more time.
The functional requirements were simple:
Publish the meeting room diary online to facilitate availability checking by the centre’s clients using a web browser, thereby freeing reception time taking enquiries, manually checking the hard-copy diary and confirming back.
Allow booking records to be kept electronically
Allow client bookings to be reassigned by reception if required, to cancel or modify a booking on behalf of a client.
Provide automatic booking confirmation and change notices to avoid confusion.
Prevent missing and double bookings.
Track room usage to monitor utilisation.
Finding the right solution
When NHS Technology staff began researching software solutions it became apparent that the majority of off-the-shelf room management software required IT skills for installation and in some cases additional hardware to operate, adding to the cost. Moreover, the complexity of some solutions posed a significant learning curve with functionality far exceeding requirements. A Google search for Room Management Software and Resource Management Solution solutions led the NHS centre to www.roomnanager.com
As a hosted SaaS solution www.roommanager.com was immediately accessible over the Internet using a standard web browser. (No downloads required, no software to install, no hardware to purchase, no IT skills required and no upfront cost).
The ease of use and simplicity of function that RoomManager provides is exactly what we need. This meeting room booking software is simply perfect for us and greatly appreciated by our clients. Our Governing board and Financial controller were even happier given that we could pay a low monthly usage fee, freeing the originally allocated capital for another project.”
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