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By Ann Hamann
The hallmark of outstanding
facility managers is their commitment to excellence in providing the
resources, tools and services that employees need. It’s not always an
easy task. Facility managers need to understand, anticipate and respond
to user needs for resources while simultaneously managing all facility
operations and juggling the demands that come their way.
By leveraging best practices in resource scheduling, facility managers
can provide a high level of service and help ensure that events and
meetings run smoothly and efficiently. Following are strategies for
achieving this.
Assess your resource scheduling needs. What
resources and assets does your facility schedule? For a university, that
might include classrooms, lab equipment, athletic fields, rooms in the
student union, etc., while an arena or convention center might need to
book sound and lighting systems, seating, food service, etc.
Evaluate the processes. Take a look at the
current processes in place to schedule these resources, and determine
whether they’re meeting user needs. Consider how these processes might
be improved. For example, assess how often rooms and resources are being
used and how they’re scheduled. Who handles it? How are they doing it?
How long does it take? What problems occur — e.g., missing or not enough
resources, double-booked rooms? How often do these occur? What is the
impact, e.g., lost productivity, missed opportunities? What are the
costs?
Put the technology in place to let employees do
their jobs effectively. Without the proper tools and technology,
users are often frustrated in their attempts to get their jobs done.
Scheduling a cross-departmental meeting in a university, for example,
can be a huge time drain, requiring a lot of back and forth discussions
and e-mails to get the right people in the room — only to start all over
again when the meeting gets postponed. In addition, the organizer of the
meeting often needs to waste time tracking down equipment and other
resources for the meeting.
According to the Microsoft Personal Productivity Challenge survey
conducted in March 2005, more than 50% of the 38,000 respondents said
they related their productivity directly to their software, yet only 34%
said they were using proven scheduling tools and techniques to help them
gain more free time and balance in their lives. This highlights the
importance of identifying tools and technology that your facility can
leverage to avoid these issues and get work done efficiently.
Scheduling technology can help you
provide a higher level of service and ensure that events and meetings
run smoothly and efficiently. Without the proper tools and technology,
tasks such as scheduling a cross-departmental meeting can be needlessly
time-consuming.
For example, a resource scheduling solution that integrates with
Microsoft Outlook will enable you to check your e-mails, book your
meetings and schedule resources all from the same interface. It may also
incorporate service requests, enabling users to schedule food and
beverage, audio/visual equipment and maintenance services as part of the
meeting scheduling process. This not only saves time, but also makes it
easier for employees and management alike to collaborate.
Look for ways to optimize people, processes and schedules. With the
pressure for facility managers to improve the bottom line, technology
becomes even more critical as a tool to help people work efficiently to
achieve their business objectives. Consider ways to streamline your
scheduling processes, giving users the ability to schedule meetings or
events and resources directly.
For example, a self-service scheduling tool will enable users to
schedule — and reschedule, if any changes occur — meetings and resources
quickly and easily based on their need and timetable. This will free up
management time so you don’t need to deal with all of these requests.
More complicated requests such as attempting to schedule resources that
are high in demand or a request to override a conflict for the same
resource can automatically be forwarded by the system to management for
approval.
“Use technology to establish
a centralized repository of
information on rooms and
other resources in the building
that can be accessed by all
departments at any time.”
Another issue to consider is
usability; if the technology isn’t easy to use, it simply won’t be used
at all. It needs to be intuitive and easy to access. One area of
technology deployment that is growing in popularity because of the
benefits it provides to users and management alike is on-demand
technology, or Software as a Service (SaaS). In the SaaS delivery model,
technology vendors host applications on their own servers. These
technology solutions are available and accessible to customers at any
time.
The benefits to users are many: i.e., lower costs; fast and easy
implementations; quick ROI; reduced reliance on the IT staff for
upgrades or maintenance; flexibility to scale the number of users; and
seamless product upgrades. On-demand resource scheduling technology
enables facility managers to cost-effectively deliver up-to-date
resource scheduling services and information to all users at any time,
from any location. This is particularly useful when working with outside
vendors.
Make sure all departments and vendors are
communicating with each other. Multiple departments need to have
information on and access to the resources within your facility. In a
university for example, different departments often use disparate and
separate computer systems, and because of this, conflicting resource
needs may not be identified until it’s too late. IT needs to keep track
of technology and equipment. Maintenance needs to know how (and at what
time) a particular room should be configured for a meeting, as well as
when they can access rooms to maintain certain equipment.
Each of these departments might keep its own inventory on the same rooms
and resources — and they might be located in disparate systems
throughout the organization. Not only does it waste time to maintain
separate information on the same resources, but it also impedes
organizations from operating cross-functionally. Everyone needs to have
the same access to this information in real time.
Use technology to establish a centralized repository of information on
rooms and other resources in the building that can be accessed by all
departments at any time. Often the booking of a room triggers several
actions. For example, when a department books a room for a meeting, it
needs to alert IT to make sure that there is Internet access and other
technology requirements. Maintenance needs to be contacted with
information on room configuration and set-up and teardown times, for
example, and administration needs to make sure that catering and
janitorial services are ordered as needed.
Additionally, there has to be a way to reserve this room so it isn’t
double-booked, as well as a way to notify all of the desired attendees
of the upcoming meeting and send out meeting reminders. The most
effective way to accomplish this is through a single source of access —
an automated resource scheduling system.
When rooms and resources are booked the resource scheduling technology
would automatically notify key departments. The system would also
automatically send out invitations and reminders to meeting
participants. Calendaring and resource scheduling software is also
extremely beneficial when there are changes in rooms, resources, meeting
times, etc., because all of these notifications are handled
automatically by the system.
Similarly, when hosting a concert, sporting event or other program,
there are many activities that need to be scheduled. For example, event
organizers need to schedule times when loading docks are available to
receive equipment for sound systems and event stages, and reserve a
block of folding chairs for the floor level of an arena, as well as
arrange for a crew to set them up. By using resource scheduling
technology, you’ll not only save time and increase efficiency but also
ensure that the needed resources are in place for a smooth-running
event.
Regardless of the type of facility you’re running, it’s essential to
work collaboratively with internal and external groups to achieve your
goals. Scheduling technology enables you to bring all these groups
together and communicate your resource requirements effectively. By
embracing technology, facility managers can optimize people, processes
and resources to create successful meetings and events. The end result
is the providing exceptional services that address the needs of users
and customers alike.
Ann Hamann is vice
president, marketing, at PeopleCube, the Waltham-based leader in
on-demand calendaring, event and resource scheduling solutions. She can
be reached at (781) 530-2600 or
ahamann@peoplecube.com. More information is available at
www.peoplecube.com.. |
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