Dear EMS Customer,

Summer is here and the livin’ is… well… hot. And while outside, Denver bakes in triple digit temperatures, there’s quite a bit cookin’ inside the office here at DEA too. (Sorry. That one was just too hard to resist.)

Customer satisfaction survey results, a new training option for EMS users and a major company milestone are just a few of the things you’ll find in this edition of the Reservation Times. So take your laptop and a glass of lemonade out to the hammock, kick off your shoes and spend a few minutes getting caught up on the latest EMS news.

And as always, if you have an idea for a topic that you’d like to see covered in a future newsletter, we’d love to hear about it. Just shoot an email to EMSNewsletter@dea.com.

Sincerely,

The Editorial Staff at Dean Evans & Associates, Inc.

Table of Contents

3000 EMS Sites Worldwide, and Counting

They say there is strength in numbers. If so, your organization should feel downright burly. As of just recently, the number of entries in our customer database passed the 3000 mark… 3000 sites in the United States and abroad that use EMS for facility scheduling and calendaring. And given that many of those sites are large universities and corporations with thousands of Virtual EMS and Master Calendar users, our fairly conservative estimate is that there are well over 1 million individual users of our software around the world.

“There are certainly scheduling companies out there that can claim more customer sites than we can,” says Kevin Raasch, our executive vice president. “But while many of those companies have grown through a ‘mergers and acquisitions’ approach, we’re proud to say that we’ve acquired our client list the old fashioned way – through 20 years of working for and with our customers to produce powerful, reliable products.”

“One of the things that I think is very positive about the growth of our customer base is that it’s fueled not only by organizations who’ve never used scheduling software before, but also by companies that are dissatisfied with their current product and are looking for something better,” says Sean Mulvey, director of sales for DEA. “That both novice and knowledgeable software users put EMS under the microscope next to its competitors and decide to go with our product is very gratifying.”

One million individual users. We’d better order a few more boxed lunches for the Users Conference.

EMS Training Center - A New, Cost Effective Training Option

We are pleased to announce a new option for training EMS users: Traveling to the Denver Technology Center, site of our corporate headquarters. The “EMS Training Center” is ideal for those who want to get away from the distractions of their office and prefer an interactive, hands-on learning environment.

Currently six courses – covering EMS Lite, Professional and Enterprise, as well as EMS Master Calendar – are being offered on a rotating basis. Sessions address a variety of topics, from defining your data to effective daily use of the software to advanced user training, and more.

EMS Training Center courses can be very cost effective, with per-person registration fees starting at $395 for one day of training. Each participant is provided with a computer on which to follow along with the instructor and also to experiment during session breaks, giving attendees the chance to immediately apply the new skills that they have learned.

For details, please contact your EMS Account Executive at sales@dea.com or visit the Training page of our website at www.dea.com/Training.

To register for a class, go to www.regonline.com/EMSTrainingCenter.

Independent Survey Shows High EMS Satisfaction

Hardly a day passes when we don’t receive kind words from a customer about how they appreciate EMS or a thank you note for some extraordinary customer service. We also get a significant number of inquiries from prospects who say that an existing customer referred them (for which we sincerely thank you!).

Although this all sounds great, and it seems we could relax in the belief that our customers are completely happy, we’re not a company to rest on our laurels. So, this spring we engaged in a formal customer satisfaction survey involving nearly 100 EMS customers. The survey was sponsored by Microsoft (a benefit of being a Certified Partner) and conducted by an independent research company using an industry-proven methodology for measuring customer satisfaction.

The results of the survey were overwhelmingly positive with an NSAT (Net Satisfaction) score of 182 out of a possible 200 points. The survey also found that more than 80% of customers rate their overall satisfaction with us as “Very Satisfied”...

Overall Satisfaction Results

...and that over 90% are “Loyal” customers.

Customer Loyalty Index

Our professional services (training and consulting) were highlighted as a key strength, with a significant number of comments rating our customer service and technical support as exemplary.

As far as areas for improvement, we learned that we need to 1) communicate better regarding upgrades and their availability, and 2) provide more learning opportunities, including ways to learn about new versions before installing them. In response to this feedback, we began offering free webinars to preview new versions, provided better documentation for patch updates, began communicating more regularly (via email announcements, newsletter, etc.) and introduced a new, cost-effective option for training (see the article on the EMS Training Center). Even more is planned, so look for additional announcements in the coming months.

We would again like to thank those customers who participated in the survey earlier this year. As you can see, your feedback has had a direct impact on the way we do business. We believe that the continued success of our company requires making satisfaction analysis like this an integral part of our operations. We encourage you to participate in future surveys, and in doing so, in the future of EMS products and services.

Master Calendar 2.0: Calendar Subscriptions, LDAP Integration and More

Since it began shipping in May, EMS Master Calendar Version 2.0 has been getting rave reviews from customers and prospects alike. One of the powerful new features in this release is the ability to “subscribe” to a calendar to receive email alerts regarding new events or changes to existing ones. Another function, much-anticipated by IT professionals, is optional LDAP integration, which enables the system to use security group information from your network to determine appropriate permissions for Master Calendar users.

Main page of the "Sac State" Master Calendar - (Click here to read more about their implementation.)

"LDAP integration can provide major benefits to large organizations,” says Chris Meyers, lead developer on our Master Calendar team. “Having a user list that’s automatically updated with the most current information on a regular basis will help IT departments ensure that there is never any user ‘down time’ due to records that weren’t created or updated when they should have been.”

Other system enhancements include the ability to add optional or required “user defined questions” to the event submission process, the ability to attach files to events and more look-and-feel customization options. System administrators can also define RSS feeds to provide real-time event information to other websites or RSS readers.

“I’m pleased with the way Version 2.0 not only addresses the needs of Master Calendar users with its new features and enhanced functionality, but also gives IT departments a number of tools for simplifying the maintenance of a system that was already fairly easy to maintain,” says Ed Nowak, who heads our quality assurance program. “From LDAP integration to user security templates to RSS feeds… Much of what’s new in this release comes directly from the IT wish list.”

Office Hoteling: Who, Why and How

Hoteling. Hot-desking. Dynamic Officing. Whatever you call it, it’s the practice of providing employees office space on an as-needed basis, and it’s one of the most noticeable trends in facility management these days. A recent corporate real estate study by the Boston Consulting Group found that 85% of corporate real estate executives expect the number of hot-desking employees to rise over the next five years.

Who are these companies that are implementing hoteling strategies? The organizations making the most headlines with their shift in real estate approach are large corporations that are generating huge savings through the practice – hundreds of millions of dollars in some cases. However, even small companies can benefit from leveraging employees’ travel and telecommuting time to minimize their real estate budget.

So organizations of all sizes are hot-desking, but why? As indicated above, the primary reason is cost savings, but other factors play a role in deciding to move to a hot-desking approach. For example, some rapidly growing companies begin hoteling because it allows them to remain in their current facility while searching for a larger space for their expanding workforce. Frequently they continue the practice after the move, having come to appreciate the flexibility it provides.

Another benefit of hoteling is the wealth of room utilization data that is generated. Companies that previously did not have a good understanding of how their space was being used now have detailed information available to guide their real estate decisions.

EMS Hoteling provides a wide variety of reports

A logical follow-up to “Why?” is, “Why now?” Cost savings have always been important to successful companies. Why hoteling now? One of the main reasons can be summed up in a single word: Technology. Companies are moving to a flexible office space strategy because they can. The last decade has seen major advances in electronic communication (call routing systems, cell phones, instant messaging, etc.), which have made it easier for employees to be productive away from the office. And when employees can be productive away from the office, less office space is needed.

The final piece of the puzzle is the “how”… How can an organization with 200 desks ensure that 300 employees have office space when they need it? Here again, the answer is: Technology. Specifically, organizations need a facility and resource scheduling system designed to make reserving a work space (and locating it when you arrive at the office) intuitive and efficient.

“Our customers are finding that they can implement a hot-desking strategy and lower their real estate costs while still maintaining a high level of productivity,” says Ed Nowak, EMS consultant. “One international business consulting firm in particular has seen substantial benefits from the fact that EMS Hoteling allows employees to ‘hit the ground running’ when they get to the office, rather than wasting valuable time trying to figure out where they can sit down and plug in. It’s as seamless as if they were in the office every day.”

Ultimately, a true hoteling product – rather than a hardcopy reservation book or a simple scheduling package – is a necessity for organizations that want to move to a flexible space strategy. Tools like the check-in kiosk interface, No Show Wizard, group check-in status utility and array of hoteling reports in EMS Hoteling can mean the difference between the success and failure of your hot-desking initiative.

Tips and Tricks for EMS... and an Exciting New Role for the Customer Support Team's Stacy Shea

If you’ve worked with the EMS Customer Support team, you may have experienced the friendly and personable demeanor of department manager Stacy Shea. But don’t let her quick smile and sense of humor fool you – Stacy is goal-oriented and driven, both in her work and her education. In addition to her career here at DEA, she is also a full-time student at the University of Colorado, Denver, finishing her Bachelor of Arts in English and planning to earn a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science.

Stacy started at DEA two years ago as a customer support representative and has quickly moved up to the newly-created position of Customer Support Manager. While she continues to be on the “front lines” for incoming telephone and email inquiries, she is also available when more involved technical matters need to be escalated and given special attention.

According to Stacy, the best things about her job are the satisfaction she gets from helping customers and the camaraderie of the Customer Support team. “The support department is a very tight knit group and we have to be,” she says. “The better we are able to communicate with one another and pick each others’ brains, the faster we can help the customers.” Smiling, she adds, “And the occasional practical joke helps to lighten the mood in what can be a very intense job at times.”

Speaking of picking brains, Stacy has polled the support crew and gathered a few EMS “tips and tricks” for this edition of the Reservation Times: One of the questions most frequently asked of support, a helpful reminder, and a time-saving technique for editing a booking.

Milestones - One Measure of Your Success

milestone \mil – ston\ n 1 : a stone serving as a milepost 2 : a significant point in development

You’ve just put reservation number 25,000 into the system… you’ve just created your 100,000th booking… or you recently pried the last clinging fingers from the old hard copy reservation book and threw it away! Maybe last week you hit the 1-year, 2-year, 5-year anniversary of the first event you added to EMS… you just brought Virtual EMS online on-time and under budget… or you now have 50 different campus groups using the Master Calendar. And because you’re an event management professional, you recognize the significance of that milestone. We do, too!

Don’t just celebrate with a quick pat on the back to your scheduling or IT team. Let us share your successes with our readers. If you’ve recently passed a milestone, shoot an email to EMSNewsletter@dea.com, and we’ll mention it in the next edition of the Reservation Times. You’ve worked hard to get to this point – take a bow!