New way of booking a meeting room
Page updated: 25/04/2024
We are continuing to improve the facilities to support how we work now and in the future by ensuring we have workspace areas that staff can share, such as meeting rooms and touchdown spaces.
Two new touchdown zones will be created in Carmarthen, adding to those already available in Ty Elwyn, Llanelli and Ty Parc yr Hun in Ammanford. The touchdown zones in Spilman Street and County Hall will be available from the beginning of March.
To help improve the way you book meeting rooms a new booking system (The Occupeye Resource Management System) will be launched on Friday, February 2. Using the new system will give you more information about the meeting spaces available, including:
- How many people a particular room can accommodate.
- What facilities are available, such as hybrid meeting equipment, whiteboard, or screens.
- How accessible the location and rooms are.
- Precisely where a room is located within a building.
Currently, meeting rooms are booked through Microsoft Outlook, however, this does not give us information about the facilities available or feedback on how well meeting rooms are being used.
This new system will enable our Corporate Property team to gather evidence on how well each meeting space and touchdown zone is being used. This valuable information will then be used to make evidence-based decisions on meeting future needs. A room sensor will be linked to the booking system so, if for example, the room has been booked but no-one has turned up, the new system will sense that the room is unoccupied and release the room making it available again.
Initially you will be able to book meeting rooms in two ways:
- Through a 'Find a Room' button on the Outlook ribbon
- Through the existing Outlook system.
In the coming months map functionality will be added to the new system which will help you find your meeting room if you are unfamiliar with the building. Access to the system via a web portal and smartphone app will also be available from late Spring.
The system has been used for several years within Carmarthenshire to monitor the use of space in areas that have been rationalised. The existing sensors have been re-purposed and re-deployed to support the system and an add-in has been procured, at a minimal cost, to provide a booking capability to enhance the system that Corporate Property already use.
The rationalisation project has increased the number of meeting spaces available as managers have given up office spaces to increase the number of meeting and collaboration spaces available.
Other under-utilised spaces such as the Chamber in Spilman Street will also become bookable spaces available to all. Feedback from the system will also help the Corporate Property team determine how well a space is utilised.
The touchdown zone in Spilman Street will be available from the end of January and the Touchdown Zone in County Hall from the Beginning of March.
We will as it’s a free tool available to us, but Outlook:
- Can’t actively manage rooms.
- Can’t provide evidence about how well space is used.
- Can’t tell you about the facilities available in rooms and where they are located.
For example: Outlook can tell us when and how long a room is booked for, but it can't determine whether the room was used for the entire time of the booking or whether it was used at all.
The new system works with a passive room sensor that is linked to the booking system. This compares bookings against use. If for example a room is booked for 2 o’clock and no-one turns up, the new system will sense that the room has not been occupied and release the room booking making it available, thus actively managing the space. In this way the Corporate Property team can compare bookings against actual usage.
Tŷ Elwyn: This is located by going to door at the left-hand side of main reception before the double doors and swiping through the door immediately on the left.
Tŷ Parc-yr-hun: the zone is located on the ground floor of the building and is immediately on the right as you go through the doors off reception.
Yes, anyone working for Carmarthenshire County Council can use a touchdown zone. Spaces are not currently available to partners unfortunately. However, if this becomes an issue it can be reviewed.
Desks in touchdown zones are available on a first come first serve basis.
The system uses passive infrared sensors (PIR) to monitor for the presence of a human being, via a combination of motion and heat.
They cannot identify individuals; and they cannot record pictures or sound. The sensor technology is solely designed as a modern replacement for a ‘floor walking study’ or ‘a person with clipboard’ (or more recently iPad).
This is the same kind of sensor that you might find on the security lights in your garden, that sense movement and switch on a light.
If you have any further questions, please email CCCHybridWorking@carmarthenshire.gov.uk
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