Top 10 benefits of meeting room booking systems
There’s no denying that an organised meeting can carry big benefits for all involved.
- Teams get on the same page.
- Strategies are cemented and translated.
- New ideas and approaches are developed.
That all sounds great… but we have to face a harsh reality. Many meetings are far from well-run.
Despite issues seeming like minor inconveniences at the time, companies can quickly see efficiency plummet due to double bookings, no-shows and disorganised discussions.
You need a meeting room booking system. This can cut through the confusion that often comes with getting meetings set up, saving a lot of time and ensuring meetings are actually meaningful.
The problems of organising meetings
Inefficient meetings are a massive issue in today’s information-driven environment.
Team gatherings are critically important to performance but over £37 billion is wasted on unproductive meetings every single year.
What’s more? Professionals waste around 31 hours a month attending meetings where nothing gets done.
That’s a lot of waste – which can often be counteracted by simple meeting room booking systems.
1. Errors with administration
Numerous administrative errors make meeting room organisation a nightmare.
Disparate systems can make it unclear if a room is booked or not and poorly communicated cancellations lead to people arriving for meetings that have been rescheduled (or no longer exist).
2. Lack of available space
Meeting space is a valuable resource. It often feels like there’s never enough to go around.
Whether that’s actually accurate, or that space is not being utilised effectively across your facilities, this lack of availability makes it a struggle to get meetings sorted, building frustration throughout your workforce.
3. Setting up all the right equipment
Are you making a digital presentation? Does catering need to be arranged? Will you be sketching things out?
Even the simplest meetings often require access to certain equipment, like a screen projector. Problems arranging this ahead of time can lead to lengthy delays or ineffective discussions.
4. People not turning up
Delays are annoying.
When someone doesn’t show up to a meeting at all, however, the problem is tenfold.
Now, you likely have an entire team wasting time waiting rather than doing any work. That doesn’t sound ideal, does it?
How meeting room booking systems increase business efficiency
Through the right internal meeting room booking system, organising meetings doesn’t have to be complicated. Using software, you can make the process more efficient, allowing teams to make the most of their time together.
1. All-in-One solution
The fundamental benefit of a comprehensive meeting room booking system is that it removes the need to employ multiple systems to get a meeting arranged.
Instead of having to check separate calendars and schedules to see what rooms will be free at a certain date, and then emailing or phoning out to attendees to secure their availability, this can all be managed in one place.
This not only makes the management of meetings more straightforward, but it reduces the chances of human error.
2. Easily communicate meeting details
Another pertinent problem that leads to meetings being derailed is making sure everyone is aware that a meeting is taking place, where it is and at what time.
For both internal and external attendees, this can be hard to manage manually, as it is easy for appointments to fall through the cracks.
The use of meeting room booking systems removes this concern.
Once a room is booked out and the attendees are decided, it can immediately send notifications to the relevant individuals to confirm their availability, so everyone is on the same page and any adjustments can be made depending on people’s schedules.
3. Better space management
Another big advantage offered by meeting room booking systems is the ability for Facility Managers to see how space is being utilised across their site.
- Are certain rooms more popularly booked than others?
- Do people purposely ignore certain meeting spaces?
- Are employees often holding small meetings in a large room?
With clear oversight over your space management, you will be able to make data-driven decisions over how to best harness space across your facilities.
4. Always know which rooms are available
Following on from this, internal meeting room booking systems will make it incredibly clear to all employees what rooms are available and exactly when they’ll already be in use.
This is the primary culprit for double bookings and embarrassing situations where colleagues walk in on meetings currently in progress because they assumed a room would be free.
Rather than leaving teams scrambling to find an alternative, software will give a clear visual indication of what spaces are free.
5. Flexible working made easier
Due to the events of 2020, more companies have shown a desire to introduce techniques like hot-desking, hybrid work, and open-plan offices to limit the number of people on-site at a given time.
A meeting room booking system can help you delve further into flexible team schedules by making it clear what desks or spaces are available in real time.
This helps your employees organise where they can set up once they arrive for the day ahead, and give you an indication of whether you need to prepare more desks in order to meet demand.
6. Reduce double bookings
With everyone accessing a simple meeting room booking system, everyone knows what is in the pipeline across the site.
As such, there’s a greatly reduced risk of double bookings or meetings being ignored.
No paperwork. No problems.
Plus, room booking software will enable you to filter your meeting rooms by:
- date
- time
- size
- availability
- features
Soon, you’ll be able to quickly find the most fitting location for your next meeting in seconds, instead of wasting time asking around the office.
7. Empower staff to manage their own bookings
Placing all the burden of arranging and tracking all meetings on your administrative team is a sure-fire way to reduce the efficiency of your organisation.
It opens up the opportunity for crossed wires and miscommunications, leading to inadvertent double bookings and missed attendance.
Automated meeting room booking systems will enable your workforce, visitors and customers to confidently make their own bookings, rather than need to run it through your admin department.
It will also encourage more productive, engaging meetings, due to your team actively pushing for gatherings themselves (rather than passively going with the motions).
8. Automatically trigger room setup tasks
As noted earlier, meeting rooms aren’t always ready-made for when your meeting is arranged for.
Well, with an effective internal meeting room booking system that connects to a wider facilities management system, this won’t be an issue.
Instead of wasting precious minutes rushing to find a projector or more chairs to fulfil your requirements, these systems can automatically trigger all the necessary preparations.
- Cleaning the space.
- Arranging catering.
- Ensuring all AV equipment is in place.
- Supplying the right number of chairs.
Everything can be immediately assigned in a solid booking solution and passed directly onto your FM team to manage.
9. Increase energy efficiency by utilising smarter buildings
Another efficiency-focused benefit of a meeting room booking system tied to a broader CAFM platform is its ability to connect with your smart building solutions.
For instance, when meeting rooms or workspaces aren’t booked within the system, there is no need to give them the same heating or lighting as when they are occupied.
Having your system recognise this and automatically trigger room settings based on occupancy can lead to significant cost savings and enhanced energy efficiency throughout your site.
10. Reduce administrative workloads
Emails. Phone calls. Paper trails.
These outdated approaches for organising meetings extend and confuse the whole process, be it through crossed wires or simply the heavy workload of your administrative staff.
Why not use smart meeting room booking systems instead?
The Benefits of Meeting Room Booking Systems – FAQs
Are you starting to piece together why so many successful organisations have an internal meeting room booking system in place?
If you still have more questions, perhaps these insightful FAQs can help.
Meeting Room Booking System from MRI Software
Now you’re fully aware of how a meeting room booking system can make meetings far more manageable and efficient, there is just one more question to answer.
What should you be looking for when introducing one into your organisation?
- Ease of use: Whatever meeting room booking system you use should be intuitive for all users, so they are encouraged to use it on a regular basis.
- Always accessible: Staff should be able to arrange meetings from any time and place, whether at their desk or from a mobile device.
- Real-time information: To ensure room occupancy levels are always up-to-date when there’s a need for a spontaneous meeting, real-time information is key.
- Staff permissions: It may be beneficial for you to restrict certain meeting rooms for senior members of staff or give them wider options for where they hold meetings.
- Multiple booking options: You might want to offer the ability to book through a desktop or mobile device, or through a display screen outside meeting rooms, or both.
- Reporting capabilities: To keep track of room usage and other space management statistics, your meeting room booking system should produce easy-to-digest reports.
- Capacity to customise: There isn’t a one-size-fits-all booking solution, so you’ll want assurance that the software can be adapted to meet your exact needs.
- Strong supplier reputation: Avoid any problems by only purchasing SaaS from a supplier with a great track record and a dependable support network.
Our dedicated Facilities Booking Suite delivers all of this and much more. With an easy-to-use, unified view of all spaces across your properties, you can ensure all meetings run smoothly with no time going to waste.
Get in touch with our team today to enhance your company-wide bookings like never before.
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