Room Booking Implementation Project

Ariel view

Implementation of College-wide processes and systems to ensure visibility of bookable spaces and mechanisms to request bookings as per the College's Room Booking policy.

Please note, this project is now closed.

Project objectives

  • Implement a new system for booking meetings.
  • Phased implementation with long term goal of including all campuses and all rooms suitable for meetings.
  • Providing a single source of room availability and a single method for booking meetings across College.

Why did we need the Room Booking Implementation Project?

When developing the business case for the project in 2017, the 'as is' landscape for booking rooms at College was assessed, which found:

  • There were at least 13 different room booking ‘systems’ being used across the College, meaning:
    • There were multiple room booking processes in place
    • There was very limited visibility of bookable rooms across the College
    • Access was restricted by the system.
  • The ‘Web Room Booking’ (WRB) system, which was open to staff to book a selection of rooms in SALC and Sherfield, was end-of-life and no longer supported by the supplier.
  • The average member of the PA network spent around 17 hours per week making indirect room bookings.
  • Implementation of the agreed Space Sharing and Room Booking Policies was needed to bring transparency to the use and management of College space.

Implementation approach and progress

The project was broken down into three distinct phases, outlined below. 

Room booking phases

Phase 1 - Book meetings in meeting rooms

  • Staff will be able to book rooms that are exclusively used for meetings using either Outlook or Planon. 
  • Departments can share their rooms and thereby gain access to the pool of shared rooms from other departments, or restrict their rooms to  staff in the department. 
  • Standard etiquette for booking and use of shared meeting rooms will be implemented.

Phase 2 - Replace Location Inventory System (ICLIS)

  • The list of all College shared spaces, including those used for teaching and events, is held in Planon and can be searched.
  • Room inventory information for all shared spaces is maintained in Planon. 

Phase 3 - Search for available teaching and events rooms

  • Staff will be able to  search for and request a  booking in available teaching or events rooms that are suitable for meetings and view information about the room.
  • A standard process to request teaching or events rooms for a meeting will be implemented.
  • Standard etiquette for the booking and use of teaching/events rooms for meetings will be implemented.

Phase 1 - complete

Phase 2 - complete

  • The list of all shared spaces has been created in Planon.
  • Initial room inventory data was extracted from Celcat and the existing ICLIS system and uploaded into Planon.
  • Staff in each department who maintain the room inventory data have been trained and requested to keep the data updated.
  • Open the College Room Information gadget in Planon

Phase 3 - complete

  • Celcat Room Booker deployed for ad hoc booking of requestable teaching space.
  • SALC rooms 1, 2 and 5 to 10 bookable in Celcat Room Booker.
  • SALC rooms 3 and 4 bookable in Planon/Outlook.  Visit the meeting room bookings page for more information.
  • Additional teaching spaces will be added to Celcat Room Booker over time.
  • Additional meeting rooms will be added to Planon/Outlook over time.