Desk Booking Software: An IT Manager’s Guide to Desk Scheduling App Options

Developing a return-to-work plan as your company shifts to a hybrid workplace can be a tall order for IT managers. It involves optimizing company real estate, coordinating schedules for in-office workers, and overseeing digital infrastructure changes—all while handling day-to-day IT responsibilities. This is why it pays to have desk booking software at your disposal.

Leveraging technology for a hybrid workplace can help IT professionals adjust to the demands of this new work setup. Desk booking software gives your team access to features like floor planning and reservation management. This makes it easier to implement desk hoteling, a space-sharing system in which workers reserve desks in advance. With this software, you can control desk availability while accommodating the needs of your hybrid employees.

If you have not already invested in a desk scheduling app, this guide will walk you through the different functionalities one can offer. This way, you’ll have a more concrete idea of how desk booking platforms can effectively optimize your company’s use of the real estate.

AI Desk Booking Recommendations

At a minimum, a desk booking app can help you digitize the process of managing reservations and assigning spots to employees. However, a first-rate platform will leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to generate booking recommendations.

This function primarily records and analyzes information such as workspace usage data, employee shift schedules, and desk availability. It then uses this data to recommend ideal desk placements and booking times to employees. For instance, Smarten Spaces can give users workspace recommendations based on their day’s schedule or the amenities and location they prefer.

Desk booking software with AI-driven recommendations enables IT managers to:

• Eliminate the need to constantly monitor bookings as they come in so they can focus on higher-value tasks such as employee engagement or workplace experience improvement.
• Accelerate the processing of reservations.
• Ensure all reservations are synced across systems and devices to avoid scheduling conflicts.
• Streamline coordination of schedules between departments.

As a result, employees can reserve their ideal workspaces faster and find desks near their teammates for easier collaboration. They can also schedule their booking at the same time as their coworkers without asking about their shifts.

Social Distancing in Mind

The latest Axios/Ipsos Coronavirus Index shows four in five employees believe they’ll never be completely rid of the threat of coronavirus infection during their life. So, it’s only natural that, as companies shift to hybrid workplaces or return to office-based operations, workers are concerned about how their employers will keep them safe as they carry out their job responsibilities.

With this in mind, it’s important to ensure your desk booking app offers features that can facilitate social distancing. These include:

• Workplace sensors that help you see occupied desks without physically checking the workspace.
• Real-time check-ins that make it easy to determine the number of workers in the workspace at a given time.
• Virtual floor plans that can be adjusted so that adjacent desks are made unavailable as needed.
• Booking approval management that can be used to control the number of people who can work on-site before they visit.

Integration With Top Productivity Apps

When choosing a workplace desk booking application, you should also consider the platform’s ability to integrate with other software. After all, what’s the point of implementing desk booking software if it’s unable to connect with your existing applications?

With the continued acceleration of digital transformation across the globe, there’s a higher demand for software solutions that can handle data and app integration. As a result, more developers are offering tools that play well with other business systems.

It’s now common to find software with single sign-on technology, so keeping track of passwords is no longer necessary. Some platforms also integrate with multiple calendars, which can prevent double bookings. All in all, integration options will enable users to crosscheck reservation information without jumping from software to software.

Smarten Spaces, for instance, integrates with a long list of business applications and IoT-powered tools, including GSuite, Cisco, Okta, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Workday, and HungerBox. It also connects with integrated workplace management systems, so synchronizing reservations and analyzing booking data is a more cohesive and convenient experience.

In-App Desk Booking Options

Desk booking can be done on-site through manual processes or online using web forms. However, systems like these can be error-prone, time-consuming, and inefficient overall.

A workplace desk booking app with a built-in reservation system is a good alternative to these processes as it’s intuitive, configurable, and easy to use. It also yields the following benefits for IT managers:

1. Better control of desk use. Whether it’s through integrations with physical sensors or a digitized logging system, desk booking apps offer real-time visibility on available desks. This allows you to monitor no-shows and reduce ghost reservations.
2. Simplified compliance with government regulations. While pandemic-related restrictions have eased in the past few months, ensuring proper physical distancing in workplaces will remain an important aspect of day-to-day operations. As such, this function will allow you to keep walk-ins to a minimum and limit the occupancy in your workspace.
3. Ensured cleanliness of workplaces. With the risk of coronavirus infection still high, companies must ensure workplaces are sanitized thoroughly between occupancies. In-app desk booking features can easily block time for your cleaning staff to do their job before an employee arrives to use the desk.
4. Improved forecasting of desk availability. Because desk booking systems are completely digital, they can accurately document reservations, cancellations, and the duration of an employee’s stay. This helps you anticipate which days you’ll accommodate the most employees.
5. Reduced real estate costs. Once you have insights into your company’s workspace use trends, you can optimize the allocation of desks. In turn, you’ll be able to accommodate more workers without paying for dedicated desks.

Find Your Desk Booking System With Smarten Spaces

Building a healthy hybrid workplace requires significant changes. As an IT manager, this will entail creating new systems and investing in digital tools like a desk booking system. Incorporating these into your company’s tech stack can maximize employee engagement, optimize resource use, and bring your workplace into the future.

Smarten Spaces provides hybrid workplace solutions. Its intuitive tech can facilitate floor planning, generate recommendations for desk booking, provide real-time visibility on available workspaces, and manage reservations to prevent schedule conflicts. Contact us to learn more about how Smarten Spaces can reinforce your hybrid work setup.