Item: Accruent EMS
Rating: 9
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Accruent EMS is used by our organization to schedule meetings and events (on and offsite), visitor offices, and apartments. It is also used to manage technology, catering, and facility needs. It is used across the entire company by coordinators to schedule requests, service teams, and employees to submit requests. It allows us to use one platform for all events throughout our firm, as well as to report on meetings and events and billing.

Pros and Cons

Multifunctional. Offers a variety of functions for different purposes.
Wide array of reporting, from basic simple reports to complex reports including all details and billing. Reports can also be customizable and are very easy to follow.
Easy to learn and train on--it's very easy to understand and follow.

Notifications could be more customizable.
When adding a new room or resource, there are multiple places to go to be sure it has been added to all the appropriate areas, templates, etc. Would be great if that could all be addressed in one place when initially adding the item.
Accruent EMS is very robust, which is great. But it would have been great to know the different ways it can be used prior to the configuration process to help better determine the best configuration and setup for our company.

Return on Investment

Accruent EMS is very efficient. Allows users to complete a task in as a little a few seconds speeding up the workflow process.
Ease of use cuts down on training times drastically.

Alternatives Considered

Rendezvous Event Management

I was unable to select our last software used (Meeting Room Manager - MRM), but Accruent EMS is a whole other ballgame. We had so many issues with our previous scheduling software that we welcomed EMS tremendously. EMS is much more efficient and effective. It's easy to use and train on and allows to you reach an outcome through different steps based on your preference or the type of reservation you are making. It is customizable and can be configured to suit your organization.

Scalability

Accruent EMS is very robust. We use EMS across 12 offices (approximately 245 rooms/offices/spaces) and amongst several different service providers. The different user templates allow you to customize what certain groups can see. The web app also allows users to see what meetings are taking place across the firm without having to call conference scheduling to find out when and where they are. We also have the EMS Room Sign app setup installed outside all of our conference rooms for better ease of last minute scheduling/drop-in meetings.

Product Configurability

Accruent EMS is very configurable and allows you to customize just about anything you need to suit your organization. You can add categories available to specific offices or all offices and make them as complex as you want them. You can also make certain resources within the categories available to only certain rooms which helps eliminate items being added to rooms that are not compatible. You can configure different views for different types of schedulers based on the types of rooms they schedule. You also have the ability to customize different messages for confirmation and notifications. Accruent EMS also allows for customization within the web app for different templates, links, etc.

Likelihood to Recommend

Accruent EMS Software is very well suited for conference room scheduling and adding services. Reporting can be customized to show different information based on what you want to report on. This is very beneficial when giving different service teams reports for only their items or being able to include additional information for their reference if needed.

Users and Roles

200 - Conference Room Planners, Receptionists, AV technicians, Caterers, Facilities, some supervisors and managers

Support Headcount Required

10 - Technology and EMS savvy. Often a technical person or EMS administrator/trainer.

Business Processes Supported

The ease for a scheduler to schedule a meeting/conference rooms and send a confirmation in a short amount of time
Building and running reports, then sending them to multiple service groups

Innovative Uses

We use digital signage with Accruent EMS to allow employees to reserve their own space (without services) directly from the conference room.

Future Planned Uses

We just upgraded so we are looking to implement the automated reporting as we have several users who manually send multiple reports a day/week.

Likelihood to Renew

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.

Other Software Used

Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex Meetings, Cisco Webex Events

Products Replaced

Yes - Meeting Room Manager (MRM). The software was getting worse over time with several bugs and the support was horrible. They were no longer fixing some bugs. Work was having to be redone due to the random loss of data from the system. Ultimately, we decided the time had come for a new product.

Key Differentiators

Price
Product Features
Product Usability
Product Reputation

We needed a product that could manage all of our spaces as well as the services we needed to track. We needed a product that was easy to learn as well as train on but also budget-friendly.

Evaluation Lessons Learned

I don't know that I would change anything. We evaluated three software products and Accruent EMS was ultimately the best software for us, checked the most boxes, and was by far the most user-friendly.

Implementation Rating

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.

Implementation Details / Implementation Partner

Implemented in-house

Implementation Phases

Yes - We began with all the conference rooms. Then moved to visitor offices, then to added apartments. Different users schedule these so we brought different groups on board through each phase.

Change Management Lessons

Change management was a big part of the implementation and was well-handled

Implementation Issues

Different trainings for different types of users
Getting users to shift their mindset from what we used to have and called items to what we now have and the new terminology used

Usability

It is very user-friendly and easy to learn. Multiple options for how to complete a task based on user preference as well as the type of meetings you are scheduling. It's hands-down the best scheduling software I have used. (I have used one other tool long-term and tested two additional software tools prior to this one.)

Usability Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar	None

Easy Tasks

Scheduling a room
Running reports
Adding services to single or multi-resource reservations

Difficult Tasks

Adding a new room, it seems like I have to go to multiple areas to be sure I have added it to all views, templates, etc.

Mobile Interface Availability and Impressions

Yes, but I don't use it

Accruent EMS Software: Highly Recommended; Customizable & Very User-Friendly

Overall Satisfaction with Accruent EMS Software