Hello everyone,
Here at Matrix Booking, the teams have been working away to continue our product development and make sure our system is robust and scalable as it continues to grow. Below are a number of changes and improvements that are either live now or will be within the next few months.
Should you wish to find out more about any of these areas, contact your Account Manager .
What's in this update?
Workplace analytics launch
Work continues on our new business intelligence application that will allow customers access to dashboards, giving unparalleled insight to actionable data regarding how their resources are being used. Our pilot of the Resource Usage dashboard is nearing completion, having received excellent feedback from a number of pilot customers. We’re developing additional dashboards that enhance the core Matrix Booking reports and more which go further that allow visibility into adherence to hybrid working policies, planned versus actual attendance at a building level, and even predictive levels of use.
We’ll be announcing the release date for our dashboards in one of our upcoming product updates. If you’re interested in finding out more about which dashboards will be available at launch or getting access to these a little earlier, contact your Account Manager .
New mobile app
In the last product update, we showed you a few screenshots of our new mobile app. This is a complete rebuild of the app as we migrate it to a new platform that will allow us to deploy changes in a much more responsive manner. We’re expecting to fully launch it by the end of September 2024.
This new mobile app also allows us to include full support for using Intune to manage your mobile devices when Matrix Booking is installed on them. As a result of this, we’ll be supporting only the latest versions of iOS, from iOS 15 to iOS 17. This brings us in line with most other providers and the recommended approach for maintaining a secure application environment.
System performance and improvements
Over the last few months, we’ve had a series of very short, localised performance issues. Whilst these have been very short, we understand the inconvenience they cause you. We’ve been working tirelessly in this area to create a whole series of improvements to address the issue. Amongst some of the changes, we’ve made in the background are:
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improvements to the general availability search
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identifying and fixing a small memory leak
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additional internal housekeeping (for example, clearing down database tables)
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changes to the login process
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enhancements to logging to help with overall investigation
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ongoing performance monitoring and improvement activities
These changes are just a snapshot of the changes made. We have already hugely improved the performance and efficiency of Matrix Booking. Since we have implemented these, we haven’t had a repeat of the same performance issues previously experienced.
Sensors and people counters
We recently completed the release of our new Matrix Booking Sense product. Matrix Booking Sense 2.0 is the next generation of our sensor solution that takes a “sensor-agnostic” approach, allowing us to use a wide range of existing sensor solutions and take advantage of new sensor technologies as soon as they become available. In addition to the normal desk based sensors, this new release adds a people counting solution, allowing us to verify the occupancy of resources and allowing us to track the actual occupancy of resources (for example, rooms).
We’ve taken advantage of the new sensor technologies and have developed some enhanced reporting dashboards using both the occupancy data from the sensors and the booking data from the Matrix Booking platform. This gives us a new and powerful “occupancy vs booked report”. By combining this information, we can now provide you with the ability to compare planned and actual attendance in meeting rooms. The report has a built-in key performance indicator (KPI) value field to allow customers to define the benchmark of their occupancy and booking data. This provides our customers with insights that can be used to better understand how resources can be allocated, allowing for better utilisation of your estate.
To find out more about Sense 2.0 and how this might work for you, contact your Account Manager .
Accessible booking journey
As part of our commitment to providing software for all, we’re undertaking a large project to bring a new and more accessible booking experience to our web app. This includes a “responsive” design that adapts to various screen sizes and meets the level AA standards of Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG) 2.2.
We've been carrying out a number of research pieces both internally (we use our software just as much as our customers do) and externally. We’ve also working with teams that specialise in accessibility and assistive technologies to ensure our new booking experience is something that everyone can use and enjoy.
We're aiming to launch this new experience later this year. In the run up to it, we’ll be sharing further screenshots and examples of how it will look. Below are some images of the high level designs for the new booking journey.
If you have any questions regarding this or accessibility in general, contact your Account Manager .
New EU-based sub-processor
As our product continues to grow, we also need to scale some of our supporting tools to help manage this. We’re currently implementing a new subscription management solution called Chargebee that will help us and customers understand exactly what subscriptions or licences are held. We’ll use this to generate invoices in a faster and more efficient manner. This new solution requires us to store the name and email of the billing contact for your organisation within the application. This data will be held within the EU and only used for sending invoices, any billing, and renewals. This organisation has been added to our list of sub-processors .
As a reminder and a confirmation, this isn’t linked to your Matrix Booking apps, any Matrix Booking app data, or Matrix Booking user data. The only data held will be your organisation’s billing contact.
Fixes in this update
Since the last release we have implemented the following fixes and improvements:
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Amend the way large scale availability searches run to be more efficient
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Improve the way the initial log in screen functions to be more efficient
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Increase background logging to assist with performance analysis
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Rationalise and streamline the number of calls for data at various points
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Fixed a bug with certain new floorplans being uploaded
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Enhance the way the floor plan editor displays work areas and zones
Meet the team
Matrix Booking recently attended The Workplace Event 2024, which was a resounding success, marked by a 50% increase in attendance. This year, the show welcomed 6,411 workplace and facilities management professionals and over 100 exhibitors who showcased innovative solutions and transformative ideas. One of our highlights was our very own Matt Baileys’ compelling presentation on the power of analytics in forecasting building usage for hybrid.
Additionally, the Matrix Booking team enjoyed their second year attending the Health Estates and Facilities Management Association (HEFMA) Leadership Conference. We were honoured to join the 300 guests at the event and the HEFMA 2024 National Awards. HEFMA has been representing estates and facilities management within the NHS across England for 25 years.
Our team had productive discussions with many of our NHS customers and gained valuable feedback on how we can continue to support operational needs. The knowledge and connections will undoubtedly enhance our efforts to deliver cutting-edge solutions that improve space utilisation and streamline management processes within the NHS. It was great to see so many people we know. We’ve already booked to attend again next year.
See the full roundup . Below are some photos from the events.
Upcoming events:
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Government Property 2024 : 11 September 2024 (Manchester)
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Healthcare Estates : 8 to 9 October 2024 (Manchester Central)
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NHS Property 2024 : 6 November 2024 (London)
For more information about these and other events, visit the events area on our website .
Additional support and Training Hub
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 into hybrid working is different.
It might be helpful to make sure you and your fellow Matrix Booking Administrators arrange some refresher training. This can be in dedicated sessions or it could be just using the e-learning modules we have available in our free Training Hub . Some of the e-learning modules may be useful for your wider teams, feel free to link to these from your internal knowledge bases, Sharepoint, or intranet.
If you would like to arrange any refresher training for your teams, contact your Account Manager who will arrange this for you.
Supporting information
Make sure all of your Administrators have access to our Support Portal to allow them to raise issues and access to our Administrator’s Guide .
Why am I getting this email?
You're receiving this operational email because you're either a Matrix Booking Administrator or you’re registered with us as a key contact involved with Matrix Booking. If this isn't the case or you no longer wish to receive these updates, select the update your preferences link at the bottom of this email.
This is also the same contact list we use to advise of any system issues or service updates. If you fully unsubscribe from this, you'll unsubscribe from both types of email.
If you’re updating your workplace processes and rules or if you would like more information about anything in this email or our other products, 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