In today’s changing work environment with hybrid workplace taking center stage, meetings are no longer the same as before the pandemic. Like employees and workplaces, meetings, too, have become more flexible and technology-driven. This is why a meeting room booking solution makes perfect sense.
However, finding a good solution in your budget? That can be tricky, especially with so many meeting room booking solutions available in the market. We have prepared a step-by-step guide for you to refer to when buying a meeting room booking solution.
Step 1 – Select Meeting Room Booking Solution Features
When you have a clear idea of your needs and expectations, you can ask the right questions when buying a meeting room scheduling software. So, identify the problems you face and then check the features that will help you solve them.
For example, the meeting room booking solution might let you book formal and informal meeting rooms separately, but you may not need those types of bookings. Thus, knowing your software needs will help you choose the right features, instead of buying all modules of the solution. This will help you minimize costs.
However, there are some meeting room booking solution features you must get:
- Ability to schedule meeting rooms and flag ghost bookings
- Access to meeting room utilization data in real-time
- Visibility into meeting room amenities availability like projectors
- Meeting attendees get notification with details like date, time, and place
- A user-friendly interface to help employees make bookings hassle-free
- A centralized dashboard view of reserved rooms, occupancy rates, and booking cancellations
Allowing room bookings is only the basic feature of a meeting room booking solution. It offers a lot more capabilities.
So, keep a look out for additional features that can add to your employee experience. For example, some solutions let you automate the sanitization process by notifying the cleaning staff once a room becomes vacant. Or a feature that recommends a room according to the number of people involved in the meeting.
Step 2 – Create a Budget for Meeting Room Booking Solution
Determine a Price Range
Whenever you are adding an expense to your books, you want to look at all the different options across price ranges. The same goes for meeting room booking system. One way of establishing a range is to ask your network who have invested in the same. It helps to know not only the cost range but also the various options and features of solutions out there.
Consider the Solution Type
Do you want a ready-to-use solution? Or something you can customize according to your needs? Look for meeting room management app that fit into your budget and needs.
You can also choose to consult market research companies who have experience in this area. It might be an expensive step but a time-saving one nonetheless.
Vet Solutions Based on Needs
Evaluate and shortlist the meeting room booking solution based on needs. Some vendors even offer free trials to help you get a better idea of the solution. So, try exploring different options before making the final call.
You can sift through different solutions based on factors like:
- Features on offer
- Ease of use
- Simple interface
- Accessible on web and mobile devices
- Robust customer support
- Integrations with other applications
- Scalability
Include All Costs
It is a misconception that buying a meeting room booking solution is the end of the story.
Unfortunately, it does not work like that. There are costs like configuration, training of employees, maintenance, updates, etc., that need to be considered. And when there is a crucial change, such as the one brought by the meeting room booking solution, time spent on understanding the software is vital. It might result in some period of low productivity until everyone is used to it.
So, make sure to factor in such costs in your total spend.
Step 3 – Evaluate Meeting Room Booking Solution
Get the Buy-In of All the Company Stakeholders
Before making the final decision about the meeting room booking solution, form a buying committee. It can include the IT team, Finance team, HRs, etc. Just one key person from each department.
You can help them execute a pilot run of the solution and take feedback to go through with the purchase.
Evaluate Through Demos
Demos help to learn and try out the solution and services as they will apply to your work setup. It will help you know how the meeting room booking solution will meet your unique workplace needs. So, when getting the demo, do present a real-time workplace problem and ask how the solution will help to solve it.
After the demo, do a one-to-one session with the solution experts. You can get quick answers to all your solutions and industry-specific challenges as well.
Conclusion
To sum up, when buying a software solution on budget, due diligence is a must.
Determining your needs and expectations from the meeting room booking solution should be the starting step. After that, you must plan out your budget, pick the desired features, evaluate different options and get a demo. Doing so will help you find a meeting room booking solution aligned to your company-specific needs.
WorkInSync meeting room booking solution helps you book conference rooms and other meeting space on the go using an all-in-one app. Users can find, view, reserve, and cancel a room as and when needed. Meanwhile, managers can use its single dashboard to view meeting room usage. They can free up unused space as well.
Need more information? Book a demo today.
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