Matrix Booking Knowledge Base
Matrix Booking Knowledge Base

Product update – May 2023

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Hello everyone,

Welcome to the (almost) monthly product update from the Matrix Booking team.  This months update sees another mix of changes being released, from new functionality, trials of new services and also some early visibility of changes coming next time.

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 (or your CSM), and if you are not sure who your account manager is then just contact the  general account management  mailbox.


WHAT'S IN THIS UPDATE

  1. Grouping shared receptions

  2. Support Chat option – trial

  3. Upcoming Changes to Security Groups

  4. Fixes in this release

  5. Meet the Matrix Booking team

  6. Supporting information (including why you are getting this email)

Grouping 'shared' receptions 

When multiple organisations are sharing resources between each other, they are also able to create and share associated receptions to handle visitors from each organisation.  In this release we are now creating a way to group or map these individual receptions to each other to simplify the view for the reception teams.  So, if organisation 1,2 and 3 all send visitors to organisation 4 then organisation 4 can now map these other receptions in to a single view to make reception teams' and front of house teams' life much easier. 
Below are a couple of screenshots showing the before and after. On the left is the view now where different receptions are shown in the visitor list for the same building.   Now on the right - after the receptions have been mapped there is now a single building displayed and all visitors grouped under that making the view much easier to read and manage for the front of house teams:

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This change will only affect you if you share resources with other organisations and specifically also share receptions and visitors.  We have a list of the organisations that will benefit from this and if this change does affect you, then your account manager will be in contact with you over the next week to arrange for us to do this mapping for you. After this, the mapping is available for customers to manage themselves going forward as part of the self service solution.  If you have any questions about this please then of course please do contact your account manager or email the team mailbox here .

Support Chat – Trial

We are currently trialling the use of web chat to provide our Matrix Booking Administrators with even more real time support.  This will not replace raising support tickets and is designed to help triage if a support ticket is needed or if a question is straight forward and so can be answered in real time.  We are trialling this service with a few customers from Monday 15th May 2023 for 4-6 weeks with a view to then extending this out to all of our customers.  There is an FAQ in the customer support portal that talks about the service in more detail and as always you can discuss this with your account manager should you wish to find out more.

For those Matrix Booking Administrators in the trial, from Monday you will see the two options below where previously there was only one:

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Changes to security groups

This change is quite large and so is not in this latest release but will be in a release that we expect to deliver in about in 4 - 6 weeks time (so towards the end of June 2023 depending on testing).

This change will only be visible to your Admins as it changes and simplifies the way security groups work - standard users will see no difference.

In our continuous effort to improve Matrix Booking, we're simplifying how you manage access to locations and resources in your organisation. In order to do this we will be implementing:

Direct assignment of user groups and domain groups

You will no longer need to create a separate security group for restricting access to locations and resources. Instead, you can directly assign user groups and domain groups, making the set up easier and more intuitive. If you need complex groups they are still supported (using Advanced groups - see below) but for most organisations this will remove a layer of complexity should they wish.  (Existing set up's will continue to work but new setups can be simpler and you can edit existing set ups to make them simpler too).

Revised group terminology

To reflect these changes, we're updating the naming of these groups and section on the website where you managing these groups:

  • The "Security Groups" admin menu will be renamed to just "Groups".

  • "Security groups" will now be called "Advanced groups" to highlight their use for more complex access requirements, such as excluding members of specific user groups.

  • The "Groups" admin screen will display user groups first, followed by domain groups and then advanced groups.

Adding more flexibility to 'user groups' 

In addition to all of the above we're also adding the ability to also use your user groups to track organisational units (perhaps directorates or departments etc). This will enable even more detailed reports, allowing for better insights into group-based access and usage patterns.

Below are a couple of screenshots showing how the changes will look in the administrators screens:

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As a reminder, this is not due until later next month but as this change will deliver quite a few changes in the security section of the Admin's website we wanted to ensure that you had plenty of warning about the new added features.  These will be added to administrator guides in time for the next release and should you wish to find out more about these features then please do reach out to your account manager .

Fixes in this release

  • Not always able to edit hierarchy with cross org settings turned on

  • Improve layout of content in tables on the sharing network screen

  • Approval/Auto-confirm Confliction Bug has now been fixed so that if a resource is booked within its check in window AND it requires approval - once the booking has been approved, he booking should then auto check in/start

  • Teams link sometimes does not display correctly when sent from Matrix Booking

Meet the team

Local Authority Property and Estates 2023

We had the pleasure of running another Hybrid and hubs panel discussion at the Local Authority Property and Estates event run by Public Sector Connect on Wednesday 19th April 2023.

Our panel was hosted by Joe Harris, Enterprise Sales Director and consisted of members from Essex County Council, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, Government Property Agency, Department for Work and Pensions and West Yorkshire Police.

The panel covered the following themes:

  • Lessons learnt from using Government Hubs and shared spaces.

  • The challenges around training when working from home.

  • How those that struggle with hybrid working can work more effectively.

To find out more please read our blog summarising the event:  Local Authority Property and Estates 2023 - Matrix Booking

Upcoming Events:

If you are able to 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.  

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Upcoming Events:

If you are able to attend any of the above then please do reach out to your account manager  (CSM). 

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