Using Meeting Room Booking Software to Schedule Remote Meetings

Although many businesses are reopening throughout Australia post-COVID, and employees are gradually returning to the workplace in some cases, safety remains a major concern for most organisations. Understandably, one of the main precautions many are taking to reduce the potential spread of COVID is limiting the number of face-to-face meetings they’re having.

A recent survey from Garter found, “respondents were nearly unanimous in planning to limit face-to-face meetings (94%) as they return from remote work. Meeting room booking software can help organisations schedule remote meetings and collaborate digitally, but only if you choose the right solution. Here are a few factors to consider when evaluating different tools:

What features do I need?

Scheduling meetings can be hectic enough when everyone is gathered together in one physical space. But such organisation becomes even more challenging when employees are scattered remotely – keeping everyone on the same page can be a tall order.

Meeting room booking software, however, makes it simple to send electronic invites to team members and to manage meeting details from a single, centralised dashboard. A few features to look for include the ability to easily adjust user permissions, send meeting login information, and share notes, agendas, and other details. Features that allow for convenient rescheduling and canceling of meetings also helps minimise time-wasting back-and-forth emails.

Platforms like Zoom offer features such as ‘one-touch to join’, which allows team members to instantly participate in meetings. ‘One-click wireless share’, through which content can be shared with a touch of a button, also comes in handy when allowing remote workers to view content such as spreadsheets and presentations in real-time with no delay.

With the right meeting tech stack, organisers always have a bird’s eye view on what’s happening, ensuring that meetings can run without a hitch.

Does the software support remote workers in multiple locations?

Another challenge businesses face when it comes to facilitating digital meetings is ensuring that everyone shows up on time. This can be especially difficult when you’re dealing with remote workers who are spread out through different cities and time zones.

Meeting room booking software can solve this issue by allowing businesses to send automated meeting requests and reminders at key times, such as the day before and an hour before the meeting. In addition, many tools can be used to send automated briefings that enable remote workers to get up-to-speed on what you’ll be discussing.

When it’s time to begin, you can jump straight into the heart of the topic without wasting conversation on a long-winded intro.

Does it sync with my calendar and scheduling tools?

One particular feature that can save organisers and team members time is automated calendar syncing. In most cases, it’s dead simple. Most popular meeting room booking software programs can integrate with calendar solutions like Microsoft Outlook Calendar or Google Calendar. Whenever an employee accepts a meeting invite, it’s instantly added to their calendar, saving time and manual effort.

If a meeting is canceled or rescheduled, your meeting room booking software should ensure changes are made automatically across participants’ calendars.

How does it support meeting quality?

Delivering a superb audio and video experience throughout remote meetings is critical for maximising collaboration and productivity. As such, it’s no surprise that cutting-edge platforms like Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex, and Zoom offer HD that’s virtually flawless.

But you can improve collaboration even more by combining your booking software with Engagis’s meeting room solutions, which include enterprise-grade hardware, optimal AV components, and commercial grade screens.

Though these offerings are focused primarily on improving the meeting room experience of the actual workplace itself, remote meeting attendees still benefit from the quality of the audio and visuals they’ll receive from the meeting room. AV solutions can also be recommended and provided for workers and executives at home for those businesses looking to make the quality between in-office and at-home more uniform.

What analytics does it offer?

Another huge benefit of using meeting room booking software to schedule meetings remotely is that you can often take advantage of built-in analytics to measure such factors as team collaboration and productivity KPIs. This allows you to better understand how efficient your meetings are, as well as to pinpoint potential areas of improvement.

Looking for assistance finding the perfect meeting room booking software setup? Let the experts at Engagis help. Our managed services solutions monitor and maintain your platform for optimal performance – all for a cost-effective monthly fee without any upfront charges.