Five steps, one Outlook invite: how an investment manager runs 98 rooms

For one leading investment management firm, booking a meeting once took five steps: the room, then separate emails about AV and room setup, catering and security. With AskCody, meeting services for its 98 meeting rooms sit in one Outlook invite, and every team gets its task from the same meeting. The catering team estimates it saves 1 to 2 hours a day.

With a global portfolio of managed assets valued at over $100 billion, the firm is one of the largest institutional investors in the capital markets. For the sake of their privacy we keep this case study anonymous, but by interviewing the Manager of Workplace Services and the Audio-Visual Technician from Corporate Operations, you can learn how they got a better overview of meetings and simplified booking for meeting organizers, the kitchen, facility management and Finance. The firm has been an AskCody customer since August 2018.

What meeting services looked like before AskCody

When we first spoke with the firm, they highlighted these challenges:

• Booking one meeting meant visiting several tools
• Strict internal security rules made it difficult to approve a vendor
• The number of meeting rooms grew sharply, with no overview of their availability
• Managing meetings was time-consuming and troublesome for users
• The catering team had no system for requests, only manual processes and checking
• There was no buffer time between meetings to get rooms ready for the next one
• They missed the feeling of a local, present vendor

The previous office had room booking devices outside its 25 always-booked meeting rooms. In the new 12-story headquarters, with 98 bookable rooms, devices alone were no longer enough, because employees could not see availability from their desks. AV equipment, catering and visitor management were reviewed at the same time, and several vendors were considered.

Why the firm chose AskCody

"We were quite far down the road with another solution, and in fact ready to pull the trigger when we stumbled upon AskCody. I don't believe the other vendors can do the catering, the room setup, and AV requests as well as the visitor management piece altogether as seamlessly. Also, what we found was the AskCody user experience was just slicker."

Manager of Workplace Services

It mattered that AskCody integrates with the Microsoft systems the firm already had in place and fulfilled its security requirements. The decision criteria were clear:

"It must be a Microsoft approved solution that integrates with our Exchange, Office 365 and Outlook, and Active Directory. It must be secure and comply with the highest InfoSec standards, easy to use for end users, and be easy to implement for IT."

Manager of Workplace Services

How the firm runs meeting services in one Outlook invite

At the time of this case study, the firm ran AskCody with:

• 951 active users
• 150 bookable resources
• 144 room displays
• About 50,000 bookings a year

In a headquarters with four times the meeting spaces of the old one, the AskCody Platform replaced several tools and many manual processes. Employees now order catering, AV and room setup in one place, in the same Outlook invite as the room. Booking a meeting looks no different from what users already know in Outlook, which made the transition much easier.

From five steps to one Outlook invite. Illustrative example with fictional details.

"In a lot of the other platforms on the market we have to leave Microsoft Office and go to another interface to do this booking, and that would not have been an easy sell internally. AskCody was a much easier transition because it looks the same as the native Outlook experience, but it's easier for the end user as you can do all the requirements of your meeting in this one spot. So, we've added a few buttons to Outlook for the end user to enhance what they're doing with a meeting. And then the beauty of AskCody was that visitor management we were also able to tie back into Outlook, with the one-stop-shop experience from AskCody."

Manager of Workplace Services

Before AskCody, AV requests, catering and visitors were each handled by separate emails: the organizer booked a meeting, emailed two people about AV and room setup, emailed the kitchen about catering and emailed security about the guests. Five steps are now one.

What changed for catering, security and the admins

"We definitely know for catering that their job has been extremely streamlined with AskCody. They were originally apprehensive because they couldn't believe all the things they didn't have to do anymore: all the emails back and forth for catering, and catering not being canceled when a meeting was canceled. They had to do a lot of manual processes and manual checking and ask lots of questions to end users about catering, so they estimate that they save on average 1 to 2 hours per day with AskCody.

Also, before AskCody, security would have to answer an email, take the information and enter it into [our previous visitor system], so we've eliminated a lot of wasted time regarding visitor management. You don't have to tell everybody about canceled or rescheduled appointments either, as it's automatically updated. We also see great time savings regarding buffer time, as the admins would have to go into Outlook and add buffer time to meetings manually to make sure they had the time to set up and break down catering, AV and room setup, which is now automated.

Through the visitor management AskCody provides, it's a nice way to welcome people who are external, as they receive an email and/or text message before their meeting, which also includes a map to where the meeting room is. This adds to the things we do to be professional."

Manager of Workplace Services

The implementation and the Premium Services that followed solved one more challenge for them:

"We think you've done a tremendous job with the implementation. You've been patient with us and our IT department, and you're always readily available or make yourself available. You've made it feel like AskCody is not too big of a company and that we're not just a number. You've made it feel like you're a local company, and that's important to us."

Manager of Workplace Services

The result

For the firm and its employees, the basics have not changed: they still work in Outlook and Microsoft 365. They downsized their tech stack and solved their challenges by extending what they already had, with room bookings, room setup, AV and catering all completed through add-ins inside Outlook, and visitor management tied to the same meeting. And what did employees say after they started using AskCody?

"I know it's been successful because if it's not successful we'll hear it loud and clear from our end users, and we haven't heard that. It's been very quiet, so for that matter we know it's been very successful, and everybody seems to be happy and content with it, and it adds a lot of value. Staff have commented that it's a very slick product that looks great and it's easy to use, so really good positive feedback."

Manager of Workplace Services

Key takeaways

• Five separate steps per meeting (room, AV, setup, catering, security) became one Outlook invite
• The catering team estimates it saves 1 to 2 hours a day, with orders that follow meeting changes automatically
• Buffer time for setup and clearing away is now added automatically instead of by hand
• Visitors are welcomed by email or text message before they arrive, with a map to the meeting room

Want to see how this works in your own Outlook? Talk to an AskCody consultant