During the pandemics, the modernization of company technologies and the usefulness of cloud services came to the forefront. Many companies upgraded their environment in order to try to satisfy both employees and customer. The restrictions imposed not only curfew for the employees but also limited number of customers allowed in stores. All of that required to be well organised, which was very difficult to be solved in a paper form. The larger the company was, the more often it was necessary to manage processes comprehensively and efficiently, thus, digitally.
Companies often switched to cloud services and purchased licences. They usually targeted on shared storage, reservation systems and process automation. Nowadays, we have realized that customers have often no idea what possibilities they have got thanks to the licenses. And there´s quite a lot of it.
A customer has approached us recently with a requirement to help him use Office 365 license to the maximum extent and automate reservation of time slots of individual sales representative working at the stores. Even the basic Office 365 license contains an application called Microsoft Bookings, and as the title predicts, it´s a reservation tool.
The application needs to be set up from two points of view:
Users see the application as a well-known calendar which can be switched between monthly, weekly or daily view.
On the left side, there is a menu for adjusting and setup of services, a list of services and a list of employees highlighted with a colour for higher transparency. A newly launched service, i.e., meeting with an individual employee, will have assigned “their” colour.
The major advantage is synchronization of the calendar with Outlook. If an employee has a planned activity in their calendar, they will not be free for another reservation at the same time slot. At the same time, all meetings are shared with Outlook calendar, so the employees see all their meetings at one place.
The calendar can provide more services and there is a possibility to create online services as well, for instance, for online consultations. Duration and price of the services can be set, too.
The reservation site is a client´s point of entry and a place where a service can be ordered. The online form which needs to be filled by the client on the web site can be adjusted based on the colours of the company providing services, with a possibility of adding a logo and allowing the client to choose a specific employee for the meeting or provision of services.
The Bookings app sends automatic e-mails with the appointment details and information on potential cancelation. The e-mail notifications can be adjusted by adding company colours, a logo and a notification text. Confirmation email contains a meeting invitation which can be added to the calendar. Notifications on new meetings or performed changes are sent to the client as well as the company directly from the system.
By a click in the notification e-mail, the client can reschedule or cancel the already confirmed meeting. It´s a very useful feature making the meeting slot available to other clients.
The Bookings tool has streamlined the work in Millennium as well. Recently, we have carried out a survey mapping the status of digital transformation in Slovak and Czech companies. The survey has been conducted together with a research agency which called individual companies and asked them questions. One of the outcomes of the survey was an interest in our services. Since the call centre´s employees had direct access to our sales managers´ calendars via the Bookings app, they could schedule a meeting directly during the phone call.
Bookings is a useful application from the Office 365 family which provides companies with helpful features for much less than a fully customized reservation process. At the end of the day, it saves time and resources to companies which otherwise would have had an employee dedicated to dealing with the reservation process. It´s one of the ways how to effectively digitize company processes.
The article has been written by our colleague Karla Root, working on the position of a consultant in our Czech office.
Are you looking for a reliable IT partner to help you meet your business goals? Do not hesitate to contact us. Our team will work with you to discuss your requirements and propose the most appropriate solution.
