Hello everyone,
We have started 2023 with a number of updates that we think will make the life of our Matrix Booking Administrators just that little bit easier. In addition to strategic improvements and functional changes we are also committed to reviewing all the existing functionality (and there is a lot!) to see how we can continually improve. There is an ongoing stream of work within Matrix Booking to engage even more closely with our customers and some of you may have been involved in these recent conversations as we try to ensure we understand the challenges you face both with the existing tools you have and also the way you see your own needs and requirements evolving. There will be more about this in future updates.
As always, below is just a quick summary of the update(s), so if you do have any questions about any of these items then please feel free to reach out to your account manager, and if you are not sure who your account manager is then just contact the general account management mailbox.
WHAT'S IN THIS UPDATE
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Android 4.1 release and changes for all Android users from 15th March 2023
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Supporting information (including why you are getting this email)
Directory integration changes
The Directory Integration screen has now been updated to show much more information about the different login methods that are in use in your system. These changes are:
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Page name change from Directory Integration to Login Methods
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New column to show domains that are associated to your SSO.
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New Column to show the name of the group being synchronised from Azure AD (if applicable)
The new screen layout is show below but this change is effective immediately so you should see this in your own Admin area:
If your organisation has self-registration turned on (meaning anyone with your email domain can simply click REGISTER and begin using the system) then a new section on this page will list all of the domains that are able to self-register for your organisation. The section of the page that now shows this is also shown below:
So on the Login Methods page, if there is no section showing self-registration this means staff and customers with your domain name cannot just self register to use the system, they will need to be manually invited, manually added or be part of your SSO or Directory synchronisation. If you wish to turn on self-registration for one or more of your domains then please raise a support ticket and we will action this for you.
Android app changes from 15th March
From 15th March 2023, Matrix Booking will be removing a background technical feature that we use that is often referred to as 'sticky sessions'. These are being removed so that we can handle changes in 'scaling' in a much better way. Part of our challenge is always 'how can we deliver a great service and product AND do better for our environment and community' and having the ability to scale up and more importantly scale down our resources is key to us ensuring that we use only what we need and no more.
Removing these 'sticky sessions' is completely transparent to all users on web, Apple/iOS, Signage, kiosks etc. However, old versions of our Android Mobile App will no longer be able to log in and staff will need to download the latest version from the Google Play Store.
This is a simple process for most customers and the vast majority of Android users have already downloaded the latest version and so will not be impacted. If your organisation has its own version of Google Play Store or 'restricted access' apps, then you may need to make sure you update your own company / enterprise area with the latest version of our app (4.1) so that your staff can continue to use the Android app.
This change will be happening on 15th March 2023 so please do speak to your IT teams if you have your own locked down apps on company phones. For anyone else that experiences issues, simply point your staff to the Google Play store to download the latest version and this should work perfectly well (in fact a little bit better!). If you have any issues then of course as always, please just raise a support ticket .
Changes to Office Hours calculations
If a company only allows its staff to book resources xx amount of days in advance, then any times outside of set office hours will now be discounted from this. So for example, if a staff member can only book 2 days in advance, on a Friday they will now have the ability to book for the following Monday and Tuesday. Previously on Friday, they could not book for Saturday and Sunday as the office was closed and Monday was three days away.
Therefore, the change has been added to ignore weekends (Saturdays and Sundays) automatically - but only when Monday to Friday office hours are set.
Deactivating 'system' accounts
To assist with reducing any scenarios why you may accidentally deactivate one of the system accounts that is used for Room Signage or Kiosks etc, we have now implemented a new error message. If you select a user that is a System/API user or you select a list of users and one of them is a System/API account and then try to deactivate them, then you will now be advised of this and asked to double check that you want to delete that account (as shown below):
Final rebranding complete
The Matrix Booking logo has now been refreshed across the whole suite of applications - the final application to receive the treatment was the Matrix Booking - Arrivals application (screen shot shown below). For those that have not used the Arrivals application before, it is used in areas where higher visibility of bookings or way finding is needed and is highly configurable. It is a rotating display and can show one or more rooms or resources along with information about the bookings or meetings there and even show 'arrows' if you wish to indicate direction of the rooms. Our Account Management team can give you a very quick demonstration of this app should you wish and they can show you how it would look with your own bookings and resources displayed.
Fixes in this release
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Booking summary report performance has been improved.
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Prevent bookable locations having multiple booking settings records
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Recovery email was failing if the subject was longer than 100 characters
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Capacity not displaying on occasions when using cross org resources
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Passcode notifications being sent multiple times if one in a batch fails
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Unknown error message displayed when booking category was set to align to end time
Meet the team
Representatives from Matrix Booking were delighted to hold another of our successful Hybrid and hubs panel discussions at Government Property 2023 hosted in London recently.
During the event, panel members from Cabinet Office, AI Connect Technology, UKHSA, Surrey County Council and Department for Business and Trade discussed the following:
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What influences staff to come into the office
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How to measure utilisation
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The use of Government Hubs and shared office spaces
To find out more, please visit our blog page on the event: Government Property 2023 - Matrix Booking
Upcoming Events:
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NHS Estates and Facilities Conference (London ) – 1st March 2023
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Facilities Show (London) – 16th – 18th May 2023
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HEFMA Leadership Forum (Milton Keynes ) – 24th – 25th May 2023
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Healthcare Estates (Manchester Central) – 10th – 11th October 2023
If you are able to attend any of the above then please do reach out to your account manager .
Supporting Information
Please do ensure all of your administrators have access to our support portal to allow them to raise issues and in addition the following links may also be helpful:
View our eLearning guide for general users
View our eLearning guide for Location Managers
Link to our support portal to raise issues
Why am I getting this email?
Finally, you are receiving this operational email because you are listed as an Administrator of Matrix Booking – if this is not the case or you no longer wish to receive these updates, then please click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this email. Please remember that this is also the same contact list we use to advise of any system issues or service updates, so unsubscribing from this will unsubscribe you from both types of email.
As always though, if you are updating your workplace processes and rules or if you would like more information about anything in this email or our other products, then do contact us to see how we can provide help or support with those plans and using Matrix Booking in general!
Regards from everyone here at Matrix Booking,
Ian Jones
Director of Operations