More time and better meeting culture
Reserve meeting rooms manually? That was once upon a time. Today, there are digital solutions to manage meeting room availability. A case study from the financial industry.
Holger Schultes is COO/CIO of the Bellevue financial services group. This group of companies includes Bank am Bellevue AG and Bellevue Asset Management AG with various locations worldwide. Information technology is operated centrally from the headquarters in Küsnacht. Holger Schultes is responsible for the smooth functioning of the IT of the Bellevue Group as well as the back office of Bank am Bellevue. It was also he who came across the right solution to eliminate a persistent grievance in the management of meeting rooms.
Manual management no longer up to date
Always looking to increase efficiency, the somewhat hand-tied meeting room management in the Zurich property caught Holger Schultes' attention: "In January 2018, we moved into a new building on Rennweg. On one floor, there are exclusively meeting rooms. At that time, the administration of the rooms ran completely manually. Daily printouts were created from the Exchange calendars and pinned to the meeting rooms. On the one hand, this was no longer up to date, and on the other hand, the meeting culture suffered as a result. It was not uncommon for reservations to be forgotten or not to work properly. For me, there's nothing worse than having to barge into an occupied meeting room with a visitor." So an automated solution was needed.
Convincing solution found
The CIO was looking for wireless displays that are linked to Exchange calendars and automatically show their availability for each meeting room. An acquaintance drew his attention to the solution of a young Freiburg-based company: ROOMZ. Its solution seemed to meet his needs perfectly. Schultes recalls, "The slim and elegant displays and the range of functions convinced me right away." The day after next, he contacted the manufacturer. The conversation confirmed to the CIO that this solution met all his requirements: "For me, the direct connection to the Exchange calendars and the ease of use were primarily important. Since we have many glass walls, the solution also had to work wirelessly. I also place a lot of value on the aesthetics."
Security is also an important topic in the banking environment. Holger Schultes explains: "The classic bank robbery is shifting more and more into the digital realm. That's why we also checked the display solution to see if it met our security standards and decided on an on-premise installation."
Flawless operation
Holger Schultes ordered the necessary displays. Via remote service, ROOMZ co-founder Patrick Terreaux installed the server at the headquarters in Küsnacht and configured the solution together with Holger Schultes. The CIO and his team commissioned the individual displays themselves. Since then, the solution has been running absolutely flawlessly and the users are also very happy with it, as Holger Schultes confirms: "The front office staff are happy. They save themselves the trouble of printing out calendars and manually attaching them to the meeting rooms. In addition, we have the possibility to book free meeting rooms directly on the sign itself for ad hoc meetings or to release the rooms again in case of meetings that ended early. With the ROOMZ displays, you thus save time, optimize processes and you can improve the meeting culture."
ROOMZ solution with integrated sensors
Holger Schultes is also very interested in the developments at ROOMZ. For example, the intelligent ROOMZ sensor, which has just been introduced and enables a number of new functions: automatic meeting room release for meetings that are reserved but not taking place, analysis of data, and a useful overview of where a meeting room would be free at a given time. "The integration of sensor technology into the solution allows us to expand the ROOMZ portfolio into an ecosystem ", Holger Schultes is pleased to say.
More information: www.roomz.io
