RNM Systems

Overview
Labeled as the heart of the East End of London, the London Borough of Tower Hamlets was formed in 1965 when the metropolitan boroughs of Bethnal Green, Poplar and Stepney were merged into one borough as a result of the London Government Act 1963. Today, Tower Hamlets is a borough of great contrasts, containing some of the country’s most expensive real estate as well as areas of deprivation. Made up of 51 elected local councillors from 17 wards, the council employs approximately 11,000 people who work to provide the public with services such as housing, education, transport & parking, libraries & leisure, planning and building.

Challenge

The London Borough of Tower Hamlets Council is constantly working to meet government cost savings and new legislation. In order to meet requirements, the council has had to review its costings taking a more strategic approach to its utilisation of office space and resources.

To reduce office space and resources, the London Borough of Tower Hamlets council was confronted with the challenge of consolidating its 35 office locations into just five, whilst at the same time accommodating all employees and visitors. The high demand for meeting space and the council’s needed to support government initiatives such as remote working and hot-desking were the two key factors driving the search for a real-time room booking service.

Solution
In search of a solution to help better manage the high demand in meeting rooms, the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Council began searching for room booking technologies and following an in-depth evaluation of three suppliers, the council selected Condeco Room Booking.

Jacquie Kerr, ICT Project Manager, the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Council commented: “We selected Condeco Room Booking as it is simple, straight forward and easy to use. We initially trialed Condeco Room Booking in one location, taking a phased approach. Within a month it was evident that the system more than met our user requirements so we decided to roll it out across both of the council’s new sites.”

Jacquie explained: “We needed a solution that would enable employees to independently access room booking information in real-time and book and manage their own meeting room requirements. At the time, the council had moved 3000 employees into just two locations, which had increased the demand for room bookings on each site. It had become complex and manually impossible for the facilities management department to continue managing the bookings.”

Jacquie added: “It became clear that Condeco Room Booking would help unify the council’s meeting room bookings across a number of sites, helping to maximise the utilisation of office space and adapt to a new working culture.”

Results
As soon as Condeco was implemented, the council was able to maximise the utilisation of its office space. With less meeting rooms available, yet more employees located on the one site, the council still managed to improve the management of room bookings.

Jacquie commented: “Staff can now access real-time information on meeting room bookings, eliminating time consuming barriers, which potentially acted as a hindrance to our operations and external relationships when trying to manage room bookings manually. Now with Condeco Room Booking, all internal and external attendees are notified of any room changes.”

Following the success of its implementation in one location, the London Borough of Tower Hamlets council has now rolled out Condeco Room Booking across all of its administrative locations.

Jacquie added: “As a council, we have benefited from increased productivity as staff no longer waste valuable time dealing with the burdens caused by managing room bookings manually. Most importantly, Condeco has enabled us to strive towards our goals by reducing meeting conflicts and maximising utilisation of our office space.”