Workplace Booking

Before

The first version of the service was developed by the customer's internal IT department immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown started. The application was developed using Power Apps and an on-premise SharePoint portal. Its main goal was to ensure government requirements for social distancing. The application did not allow an employee to book a seat if another seat was booked within 1.5 meters radius or the maximum possible number of employees at work was exceeded.

The application worked with some limitations:

• The employee can only reserve his seat. There was no possibility to book another, more convenient place.
• No opportunity to reserve a place for third parties - contractors and guests.
• Lack of admin interface - no opportunity to manage employee bookings.
• IT department needs to monitor and maintain SharePoint on-premise connector.

Solution

The previous Workplace booking service was completely rewritten from scratch in 3 weeks. A new mobile application was created utilizing a corporate brand book and built on PowerApps and SharePoint Online:

• Ability to book any available workplace within corporate policies (for example, salespeople and legal department seat separately).
• Adding preferred workplaces to favorites.
• Workplace location map for each floor.
• Option to leave feedback for a workplace.
• Possibility to book a seat for another person (employee or guest).
• Ability to view your colleagues' bookings.
• Integration with car park booking service.
• Booking history.
• Multi-language interface.
• Administrator mode to view and edit the data of all bookings and manage changes.
  

After

New service helped customer to maintain remote work even after the removal of COVID-19 restrictions and fully switch to hybrid work:

• Any available seat can be booked in a couple of clicks from any mobile device.
• Using an office map employees can book a seat right at the window or near the printer.
• It is convenient to track when a colleague or manager will be in the office and join them on the same day.
• You can book a seat for a guest or for your manager.
• Interface language is displayed depending on user device language preferences.
• Booking statistics and analytics helped to optimize the office. spaces. The customer got rid of one of the three floors of the office.