University of Southern Denmark Cuts Down on Meeting Planning Time with Resource Central

One of Denmark’s largest universities, the University of Southern Denmark has more than 19,000 students and nearly 4,000 staff members. The university holds many internal meetings that take place across 55 meeting facilities, so they needed a way to streamline the meeting planning process. It took university staff a considerable amount of time to schedule a single meeting because they had to locate a suitable room and arrange for the proper equipment, tables, and services to be delivered in time for the meeting.

In order to significantly cut down on the time spent planning meetings, the University of Southern Denmark decided to implement a resource booking solution. They decided on Resource Central by Add-On Products, a resource booking system that integrates with Microsoft Outlook®. Resource Central was a top choice for the University of Southern Denmark because it integrates seamlessly with Outlook®, which most staff members are already familiar with and use regularly.

Prior to implementing Resource Central, the Odense campus had a full-time staff member dedicated solely to planning meetings. The telephone was this staff member’s primary means of communication, so meeting planning was a complex and drawn out process. Now that Resource Central is in place, this staff member has been freed up to work on other important tasks.

Including All Staff Members in the Meeting Scheduling Process

The implementation of Resource Central at the University of Southern Denmark has made it possible for all staff members to participate in the meeting planning process whereas before, only two staff members could schedule meetings. Anyone at the university who needs to organize a meeting can use Resource Central to find a suitable meeting room, book extra services, and send out invitations via Outlook®. Even cleaning staff can take a peek at Resource Central to determine whether a meeting room is available to clean.

Users have been pleased with Resource Central, and the software has been expanded to multiple sites. The university started out managing the 10 conference rooms on the Odense campus with Resource Central and now the tool has been expanded to the university’s four largest campuses. University of Southern Denmark IT Coordinator Inge Hansen said, “In the past it took at least half an hour to organize a meeting; now it takes a few minutes.”

There has always been an excellent dialogue between Add-On Products and the University of Southern Denmark. University staff has suggested new features for the software and Add-On Products’ development team has incorporated their suggestions into future versions of the software. The enhancements have become part of the standard version of Resource Central, so the university has not had to pay an additional fee to have the requested features included.

Making Meeting Planning Quicker and Easier

Resource Central resource booking software can be used to book all kinds of resources, from meeting facilities to catering services to audiovisual equipment. Universities can also use it to book classrooms for exams and order paper and other important supplies for students. After setting up an event with the software, staff members can have the event’s schedule displayed on the university’s electronic sign system, so large digital signs located around campus and small meeting room signs right outside of meeting rooms display the most up-to-date schedules.

Setting up meetings doesn’t have to be tedious or bureaucratic, even in a large facility with multiple meeting rooms and an array of resources. To learn more about Resource Central resource booking software and how it can help your organization simplify meeting planning and scheduling, please sign up for a free trial or free online demo.