The Top Meeting Room and Scheduling Problems in Outlook®

Microsoft Outlook^® is an excellent email client and calendaring solution that many organizations use, but its meeting and resource booking capabilities leave a lot to be desired. From lack of visibility to missing description, using Microsoft Outlook^® for meeting and resource booking can present many issues. The following are some of the most common problems that users experience when booking meetings and resources through Outlook^®.

The need to use multiple, disparate systems to book resources and order services 

When you book a meeting room, you often need to order additional services like catering or audiovisual equipment. If you’re using Microsoft Outlook^® to book meetings, this means you’ll have to log in to different systems to order catering, create invoices to send to service providers, etc.

Read more about the meeting room booking system for Microsoft Outlook^® that seamlessly includes the option to order catering and book services, meeting rooms, and hot desks in one system.

Not being able to quickly determine which meeting rooms are available 

One of the biggest pet peeves that users face when looking for a meeting room in Outlook^® is quickly determining which meeting rooms are available. The larger your facility, the more challenging this becomes. While the scheduling assistant in Outlook^® provides visual indicators signifying which meeting rooms are available and at what time, it is not a user-friendly, at-a-glance view. You have to select multiple rooms and scroll through to see which rooms are available.

Get an overview of available desks and meeting rooms using the Workspace app or Resource Central, the meeting room, and resource booking system add-on for Microsoft Outlook^®. Both of them allow you to search and find available desks and meeting rooms that fit your needs using an interactive floor map.

Not being able to find an available meeting room when you need one

There’s nothing more frustrating than not being able to find a meeting room when you need one. Perhaps there are no meeting rooms available in your office because they are all legitimately in use, but more likely than not, many of those meeting rooms are just sitting empty because someone forgot to cancel their booking.

Avoid this issue using our check-in function to free up booked desks or meeting rooms for others to use if the organizer does not check-in either directly in the Workspace app or using the conference room sign outside a meeting room or on a desk.

Lack of information about meeting room capacity and amenities  

Unless you know the meeting rooms at a facility like the back of your hand, you might have questions as to whether a particular meeting room is large enough to accommodate the number of attendees. Or perhaps you need to find a meeting room that has a projector. Having this information at your fingertips would be helpful when you’re booking a meeting. Unfortunately, Microsoft Outlook^® alone doesn’t provide this info.

Find your ideal meeting room based on filters such as video conferencing rooms or room capacity in a user-friendly and intuitive interface in our meeting room booking system.

Lack of data about resource utilization 

Meeting room and resource usage have a direct impact on operational costs due to the high price tag of commercial real estate and energy usage. Meeting rooms and resource utilization should be a hot topic among businesses that care about their bottom line, but sadly, it’s often an afterthought.

Imagine if you were able to pull a report that could show you meeting room usage and capacity. This data could help to guide important decisions on office design, real estate, and meeting room sizes.

Get reports of your office space, desk, and resource usage with our meeting room management solution, Resource Central. You can get access to both standardized and advanced reporting in various formats.

Extend the Functionality of Outlook^® for Meeting and Resource Booking with Resource Central 

All of the above problems could be solved by using an add-on to Microsoft Outlook^®. Add-On Products’ meeting room booking system, Resource Central, is an add-on solution for Outlook^® that integrates seamlessly with the Outlook^® interface. Resource Central expands the capabilities of Outlook^®, allowing you to get a quick overview of available meeting rooms complete with images, floor plans, and information about capacity and amenities.

Resource Central centralizes all aspects of meeting and resource booking in one system. You can find and book meeting rooms, order services, bill outside vendors, and attach files to your reservation. This streamlines the meeting booking process, lowering costs, and enhancing your productivity.

With Resource Central, you can generate reports to track when and how people use office space, identify overused and underused space, and capture trends. Resource Central also integrates with Digital Sign Service, so meeting schedules automatically are displayed on digital conference room signs outside meeting rooms. This allows you to determine if a meeting room is empty when you walk by, so you can book the meeting room on the spot.

Microsoft Outlook^® alone falls short as a meeting and resource booking tool, but it offers powerful functionality when coupled with an add-on like Resource Central and an app like Workspace. Contact us today to sign up for a free trial or free online demo!