EMS Software is an enterprise space management, event, class and resource scheduling application acquired and now supported by Accruent in June 2018.
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AgilQuest
Score 9.0 out of 10
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AgilQuest headquartered in Richmond offers their workspace solutions, including meeting room and desk booking systems, seat management, and workspace analytics.
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Pricing
Accruent EMS
AgilQuest
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Accruent EMS
AgilQuest
Free Trial
No
No
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
Required
No setup fee
Additional Details
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More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Accruent EMS
AgilQuest
Considered Both Products
Accruent EMS
Verified User
Employee
Chose Accruent EMS
Agilquest was our old system. EMS provided a better solution and easier connectivity with our mobile application.
Accruent EMS is well-suited when it comes to room utilization and transparency but with regards to onboarding other departments such as A/V and Catering, it becomes a challenge because there are other software that meets the needs of these departments that EMS does not have. The use of multiple systems for other departments is a nuisance especially with inventory mangement.
It's user friendly. By doing a little self-exploration one can find out the many features that EMS offers.
It is simple to add or remove conference rooms and provide details of the conference rooms.
I appreciate that there are different ways of reserving conference rooms. This allows each user to feel comfortable in their use of EMS by finding what works best for them.
Incredible complexity on the back end. While its highly configurable nature lends to flexibility, it also makes it a challenge to manage.
Support has not been as quick as we'd like when we've needed to reach out.
Most likely due to the company recently changing hands, we had real trouble with their billing department attempting to double charge us for our services, and sorting it out took 6 months of back and forth.
The mobile app does not yet have a map feature that mimics the one in the desktop version
At the time we launched, it didn't interface well with Outlook. So we couldn't reserve the room and send an invitation to attendees in the same step. As such, we elected to use AgilQuest for workstation reservations only and use Outlook to reserve meeting rooms and people. We understand this has been corrected but have been too busy to go back to test and relaunch that feature.
The basic reporting package is a bit weak but it works OK for us. They want to upsell you on their more robust reporting platform.
Accruent EMS has always been a one-stop-shop for our organization when it comes to scheduling conference rooms, offices, apartments, services, etc. It has a wide array of reporting, and what isn't set up as a standard report, can usually be created as a query to report on the information you are looking for. Accruent EMS has pushed out new releases with updates to bugs and other add-ins and stays current and up-to-date with market trends.
Most new users would greatly benefit from (or possibly require) at least some training on how to use EMS, but the training doesn't need to be extensive for the users to get comfortable with it. Most functions are easy and straightforward, so users tend to not have many issues with it.
Currently I can only access EMS from my work computer, from in my office, on campus. While I'm sure this isn't an Accruent issue, and mostly our IT issue, Accruent hasn't exactly stepped up and tried to help when these issues have been addressed.
The only other software we use in conjunction with EMS is Epaper Signs by Visix. Once we worked out the initial bugs, the integration has been seamless. It does not slow down our software or cause any errors. Our signs are updated every 15 minutes with any problems.
Since the merger, our team has found that there are a select few of the tech team that can actually support our questions. More often than not, we have already tried the suggestions that they give us and they are either unable to answer our questions and submit them as update suggestions or they have to be sent to supervisor for an answer. Once or twice in the last year we have received bad advice that resulted in system issues. Prior to last year, the customer support system was at the top of the list of tech support departments that I have ever had to deal with, especially during our upgrade to 4.0.
It was great but could have been a little better. I feel like there are different ways to use some of the software and some of that was not explained. I think at the time the training was great but now that we are more experienced with the product I can see we missed training based on what part of EMS the instructor thought we were going to use.
I think one of the biggest things is to step back and see how you want your organization to function and use the product prior to quickly diving in and configuring. I think some (based on some EMS Live conference sessions I attended) built their systems on how they used their old systems or old processes, but thinking about how you want your organization to function moving forward will help you configure it the best way and make the necessary changes from the start rather than having to go back and adjust.
[Accruent] EMS is very robust, and a great all in one solution for hospitality and Event management needs. I have dealt with a few other software solutions in the past that try to handle event planning and management, but have run into the need to have multiple solutions to handle all those needs.
As mentioned above, we haven't evaluated any other products since the implementation. At the time, it was the best fit for us. There may be other products on the market now that would be even better. However, AgilQuest serves us well and we are happy with it's performance. It would be a very big, expensive undertaking to transition to a different product and at this time there is no motivation to go down that road.
We purchased the client, web version, and Outlook plug-in. I'll be honest, we haven't pushed the email part, but I did test it and liked it. After the old program we placed, I have simply been gun-shy about implementing another email plug-in. However, the client for the super users to get department alerts, etc. and the web version for all users to create reservations has been fabulous and easy to use and understand.
The most noticeable improvements in our usage of EMS is our ability to process requests more efficiently using a standardized form that has a professional presentation. Before we began using EMS, we processed our parking requests by simply typing an email with a few details. Pricing was jumbled in with the wording and clients often did not read the fine print. EMS has definitely made an impact with projecting a professional image to our clients when they receive confirmations and invoices.
It is a key component in the firm being able to completely transform our working environment. We needed a hoteling software that would allow us to move from one-to-one assigned seating to seat sharing. This, in turn, has allowed us to shrink our footprints as leases expire and create a whole new working environment. Some key metrics thus far are: (1) our portfolio has dropped by 77,000 RSF despite significant headcount growth, (2) RSF per person has decreased from 260 in 2014 to 185, on our way to 150, as future renovations are completed, and (3) we have reduced future occupancy costs by $52 million.
