Epping Forest District Council serves over 130,000 local people – and when it decided to streamline room and desk booking in its buildings, it turned to Rendezvous Workspace technology from NFS.
The leading workspace management system has now made both room and hot desk booking effortless, and has helped the Essex council to provide extra support for its hybrid workforce.
Council staff are now able to book the internal or external-facing meeting space they need in a few clicks of the Rendezvous app on their mobile, and they can pre-select their hot desk for visits into the offices.
As a result, workspace utilisation has been improved, and council staff have been relieved of unnecessary organisational admin in their working day.
What the council says
David Balding, the Head of Facilities for Epping Forest District Council, says: “Rendezvous has enabled us to bring the booking and management of space into one single platform. We previously used Outlook and other tools to do this with mixed results and no real management information.
“We now have important information like space utilisation data and our staff have the tools to book space. This was particularly important in the return to the office strategy, as it supports our safe and structured return to the office plan.”
Check in and out
As a part of the project, the council selected sophisticated ONELAN meeting room panels to integrate with the Rendezvous meeting room booking software.
The integration means they can manage the check in and out of meetings quickly using the digital panels, which also display useful information such as upcoming meetings.
David Balding said: “User acceptance of our new booking platform has been very positive and we can see great value in the integration between the booking system and the digital signage platform deployed, Reserva from ONELAN.
“This integrated approach to workplace management supports an important aspect of our digital transformation plans for the council.”
Diary perfect
Rendezvous does more than manage meeting rooms and desks – it also helps staff make every meeting perfect by organising aspects such as car parking and meeting catering.
The council uses the QuickBook plug in, so when someone makes a booking it automatically generates an appointment in their Outlook calendar. They can then manage their bookings directly through Outlook if they want to.
Council chamber bookings
Even use of the impressive council chamber has been streamlined. Users who are familiar with Exchange can book it directly through Outlook, but they can also use a plug in where they can also order services such as hospitality.
Election test
The new system was put to a big test during this year’s local elections – at this busiest of times, Rendezvous proved invaluable in helping staff book space in a jiffy.
Discover more about Rendezvous: