Executive summary
- Wellington’s premier independent conference venue, the Terrace Conference Centre (TCC), has 14 rooms to support a wide variety of functions. Each room has high quality sound insulation, natural light, client-controlled air con and ultra-fast broadband.
- TCC is privately owned and operated – so compared to larger conference venues, it can provide more individualised services to clients.
“We use the Terrace Conference Centre three times a year. It’s a fantastic venue and we have nothing but praise for the staff.”
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Rachel Moss, APLS co-ordinator, Wellington
At a glance
Who? The Terrace Conference Centre.
Where? Wellington, New Zealand.
What? Rendezvous venue and Event management software from NFS.
Why? TCC need to schedule and coordinate the rental of 14 conference rooms to clients for varying functions, and also needs to make sure services including catering are correctly booked, delivered and billed.
When? Rendezvous was first deployed in 2006 and the centre has used it ever since across multiple system upgrades. The most recent upgrade was from an earlier on-premise version to the latest cloud offering – Rendezvous V5.0 SaaS.
Terrace Conference Centre
Terrace Conference Centre (TTC) is a top-quality venue offering 14 room rentals for meetings and events. Unlike some less specialised venue providers, this is TCC’s core business activity, so its top priority is to provide clients with excellent professional service. This has helped build TCC’s reputation for successful events and exceptional levels of customer satisfaction.
Based in central Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand, TTC offers various room sizes to private sector and government clients.
The challenge
Tripling rooms and streamlining operations, plus online client booking
TCC began operating in 2005 and quickly became successful. It grew so rapidly that owner and CEO David Marment planned to expand from 5 rooms to 14. He needed an advanced venue management system to achieve this effectively and efficiently.
David required a streamlined booking process – he felt the company would not achieve its full potential bookings volume using manual processes (pens, paper and worksheets).
Moving to a more agile and cost-effective mode of working for staff was important. The centre required an efficient method to help clients find and book meeting rooms.
TTC needed a system that was easy to use and also offered integrated resource management and reporting.
For growth, David knew that his centre needed a system where details of client requests are logged and stored, including room size, special catering requirements, set up of the room and so on. Rendezvous venue management software was the ideal solution.
Why NFS?
After a stringent evaluation process, David selected Rendezvous venue management software from NFS because it combines the functionality TCC needs with an intuitive user interface. TTC first implemented the venue management software in 2006 to meet its changing needs.
David Marment, Owner and CEO says:
“We changed the business completely, and that allowed us to safely expand from five to 14 rooms – we leased two new levels on the building.
“I was only going to do this when we had control – when we could manage that by online bookings. So the system (Rendezvous) allowed us to do that.”
The benefits
- Rendezvous venue management software brought the operational aspects of the business into a single, fully-integrated solution.
- The system enabled TCC to expand and manage growth, because all areas accessible through a single entry-point and one version of the truth.
- All activity is recorded and day-to-day operations run from one source.
David says the system is particularly good for the catering side where things are changing daily and by the hour.
“Menus and dietary requirements are a real issue in our industry,” explains David. “Once it’s changed in the phone call from the client, it’s on the system, it’s changed, and it’s live.”
As soon as a booking is confirmed, everything ready to go.
“The run sheets are printed out daily so the TTC staff will know exactly what they need to do for the next day’s meetings,” said David.
“Eight different types of lunches in one day – no problem. Rendezvous makes our daily bookings seamless.
“The system runs my business very efficiently. It allows me to see all the figures I need about history, where we are going, trends – and I can do my own charts.
“The information is all there, whenever I need it. It’s a brilliant thing for looking at my business wherever it goes.”
So what happens next?
TCC says implementing Rendezvous venue management software was extremely easy. TCC’s new hires became 100% efficient within a week.
NFS’ robust disaster recovery practices were tested when the centre temporarily mislaid some data – a unique occurrence. The NFS support team worked quickly with David and his staff to recover the data and restore it into the system before an impact was felt.
“I don’t know how many hours NFS worked on that weekend – it was a lot,” said David. “I was ringing in the middle of the night. But, boy, what NFS support did over that period was absolutely amazing.”
As a result, TCC has upgraded its venue management software, and moved to the Rendezvous cloud-based platform even quicker than it planned migrating to the cloud with all of the controls and accessibility options needed to eliminate its dependence on an in-house server.
“The backup is automatic and the NFS application management team keeps the system up-to-date with latest versions,” said David.
“I can be away from the office, anywhere, and all I need to do is look at my laptop to keep an eye on what’s happening at the office. This is the way the world’s running, and it’s great. It’s a very cost-effective system.”
Customised for users
The conference centre’s website allows clients to search and select the number of people to accommodate and the type of meeting. Because the rooms vary in size, TCC can provide the most cost-efficient room for every meeting.
TCC also caters food from its premises. So at morning tea, the muffins brought to the room are hot from the oven.
“We have good food, dietary advanced food, and people remember a venue with their stomach, not their eyes,” said David.
“Having a system that helps us to run well-organised meetings, across multiple different bookings in 14 rooms, together with great resources including freshly cooked food, things couldn’t get any better for TCC customers.”
6 ways the TTC benefits
- Customised use – the venue management software provides resources as required.
- Speedy self-service – simple access via TCC’s own website.
- Timesaving: Rendezvous venue management software works with the TCC website so staff can see what rooms and resources are required immediately.
- Value for money – no expensive hardware needed – NFS hosts Rendezvous securely in the cloud.
- Efficiency savings – Single, integrated venue management software covering all aspects from managing sales leads to room booking, catering and services to billing.
- Business continuity – The NFS helpdesk supports Rendezvous venue management software 24/7, and the cloud deployment delivers 99.8% system availability using the Microsoft Azure cloud-hosted service.
Looking to the future
“Live in the power of now and just let the day happen. Trust, have trust in the procedures you’ve set up,” said David. “Rendezvous is a procedure we’ve got set up – and Rendezvous is seamless, really.”