Hello everyone,
Happy New Year to you all, and welcome to the first product update for 2024. This update has a number of exciting new changes and updates, ranging from new categories to new eLearning modules. The most exciting feature though, we feel, is the new low friction check in and low friction booking. This new feature is expected to roll out fully to everyone in the next couple of months, so if you are interested in this, then we recommend you get in touch now whilst it is in pilot with a couple of customers as we expect the demand to be strong once this launches fully.
Below are a few more details about the key updates this month, and we encourage you to read the links to the updated guides - where available, and of course, as always, do reach out to your Account Manager if you have any questions at any point. If you are not sure who your account manager is then just contact the general account management mailbox.
WHAT'S IN THIS UPDATE
Coming soon – low touch check in
Introduction
Organisations sometimes struggle with adoption of resource booking solutions. Employees will forget to book, book and forget to check in, or book and then check in from home.
In order for our customers to be able to manage and understand their resource utilisation more effectively we have created a low-cost, quick and easy way for colleagues to “check-in” to their bookings when they are on site in the office.
In addition, having an easy way to make a booking on demand - without having to login to the web app or download the mobile app - will provide colleagues with a low friction solution that is easy to adopt.
Driving adoption in this way gives organisations better visibility of who is adhering to your hybrid working policy and helps you accurately understand who is using your resources and when, so you can ensure that you are optimising your available workspace.
So how does it work?
Each bookable resource in your hierarchy is automatically given a unique and dedicated URL. This URL can then be used in a QR code or NFC tag to indicate each individual resource, and these tags or QR codes can be added to stickers or labels to desks or outside rooms or to Electric Vehicle Charging points or whatever you book in fact! These QR codes or NFC stickers then allow a staff member to walk up and scan that code and instantly book if it is free, or start the booking if they have already booked it.
When can I get this?
The functionality is built and has gone through full testing and is now being piloted by a couple of clients and so will shortly be made available to everyone. If you are interested in QR code or NFC low touch check in then please contact your Account Manager and they will be able to walk you through the options including options for printing / creating the QR codes and NFC tags.
“End early” improvements
When using O365 calendar integration, prior to this change, ending a meeting early changed the end time of the M365 booking to reflect the time that the meeting was ended. The resource declined the meeting, any attendees were sent an updated calendar invite from the organiser with the updated times. Any previous attendee acceptance is lost from the booking.
There are different scenarios that may lead to “End Early” being used:
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It could be that the meeting has genuinely finished and is being ended early so the resource can be used by someone else
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The meeting room is no longer needed but the meeting is continuing somewhere else
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The meeting was checked in accidentally and is no longer required
In any case, the important step is that the resource becomes available again but there is no need to change the appointment times in the organiser's calendar or the attendees’s calendar.
We have now introduced a change in behaviour so in the event of a meeting being ‘ended early' the booking is removed from the resource calendar in M365 rather than being updated. This has the benefit of keeping the calendar event in both the organiser's and the attendee’s calendars. It also prevents an updated invitation being sent to the attendees with different meeting times.
New category – Privacy booths
We have now also added a new booking category called “Privacy booth”. With this being a more common feature in the modern workplace, having a dedicated category for this type of bookable resource gives organisations the ability to configure Matrix Booking more accurately and improves the employees experience.
The category can be enabled and configured like any other category. When adding to a hierarchy please be aware that a Booth:
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Cannot be added under a desk bank
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Can be added under an Area
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Can be added at any other point in the hierarchy
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Can be renamed to something suitable for your organisation
If you wish to use this category, simply select CATEGORIES from the left-hand ADMIN menu and click ADD next to the Privacy Booth line. As different categories of resource are currently priced differently you may wish to also discuss this with your account manager to ensure it is added to your licensing.
Update to push notifications
To improve the usability of our check-in push notifications that appear for the iOS and Android mobile apps we have made an update to the order of wording of the notification that appears.
Formerly the notification read as follows:
Check in booking - Desk 123
09:00 – 17:00 Check-in required before 09:30
This will now read as follows:
Check in to your desk by 09:30
Desk 123, 09:00 – 17:00
So on an iPhone this message will now look like this:
We are currently improving the amount of features and functions on our mobile app so if you would like to promote the use of the Mobile app within your teams then please feel free to re-use this QR code that will point staff straight to the mobile app store - regardless of whether they use Android or Apple.
You could add this to your Matrix Booking Help page or even to your banner or to your email logo to help ensure your teams are aware of it.
B-Corp certification
Matrix Booking is now proud to announce we have been awarded the B Corp certification.
B Corps are organisations that have legally committed to making business decisions that create a positive impact for the environment, customers, suppliers, employees, and the community. Being a B Corp means living our values and investing in the well-being of the planet and people. You can learn more about B Corp Movement here .
For us, becoming a B Corp was a natural next step in demonstrating our commitment to using business as a force for good and we are looking forward to working with other organisations within the B Corp community on our joint mission.
Applicants for this certification must score a minimum of 80 points overall to certify. The median score for businesses completing the B Impact Assessment is 50.9 and we scored 106.1 overall, putting us in the top 20% of B Corporations, better still we are the first resource booking software to become B Corp certified.
More information on Matrix Booking and our journey to becoming B Corp can be found on our brand-new website which has also been released this month.
Find out more about B Corp and our journey
Fixes and new releases
Since the last product update, there have been the following fixes applied to the system:
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Update wording of auto cancel email notification
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Facilities layout was broken if "Meeting table" is included
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Issue with availability showing in list view for combi rooms
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Improve the performance of the auto cancel notification job
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Issue checking in tenant visitor with badge number
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Improved display for listing deactivated users
In addition we have also released a new version of the Outlook add in so we are now on version 3.2.2 – for details of the latest releases of all of our products please check this Frequently Asked Question that lists these for you.
Finally, we are also just about to release a new version of our Floor Plan Kiosks that will see two main improvements:
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Find Someone will now find all bookings regardless of state (previously only bookings that matched certain criteria were shown and we had customer feedback on widening this, so that has been improved.
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Support for Cost Codes - if making bookings in resources that had mandatory cost codes then this prevented you making the booking. We have now extended cost codes to work fully on the Floor Plan Kiosk.
This new version is imminent, so please do reach out to your account manager to ask about using this or upgrading from your existing version to the new one.
Meet the team
NHS Property and NHS Facilities Management Conference
In November the team attended back-to-back NHS events in London. It was a busy few days, with lots of networking and work sessions, overall both events were very well attended. We would like to send a special thank you to Solent NHS Trust for presenting with us on stage showcasing how the team are driving forward one public estate through the sharing of office space.
More upcoming events:
Legal future workplace forum – 8th February 2024 (London)
The Workplace event – 30th April to 2nd May 2004 (Birmingham)
If you can attend any of the above events, please do reach out to your account manager to arrange a meeting while you are there so we can talk to you about some of the new and exciting features we have coming soon.
Also, if you would like us to present or facilitate at any of your events, please do let us know and we would be happy to send a representative along to support you.
Additional support
As we continually rollout new functions and features, you may find it useful to refresh your knowledge of our product and how it can help your business - especially as everyone's journey in to hybrid working is different.
For this reason it might be helpful to ensure you and your fellow Matrix Booking Administrators arrange some refresher training. This can be in dedicated sessions or it could be just using the eLearning modules we have available in our free to use 'Training Hub'. Some of the eLearning modules below may be useful for your wider teams so please feel free to link to these from your internal knoweledge bases / sharepoint / intranet etc. The training hub can be found using this link:
https://training.matrixbooking.com
If you would like to arrange any refresher training for your teams then please just reach out to your Account Manager who will arrange this for you.
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:
Link to our support portal to raise issues .
Why am I getting this email?
Finally, you are receiving this operational email because you are an Administrator of Matrix Booking or you are registered with us a key contact involved with Matrix Booking – if this is not the case or you no longer wish to receive these updates, then please click the 'update your preferences' 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 fully 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