Condeco Helps Create Collaborative Environment

In June 2013 Autotrader went from a publishing company to a fully online digital business. The online migration resulted in significant growth for Autotrader and a new work environment was needed that reflected their flexible working style. The company was operating through several regional offices all over the country, which it wanted to consolidate to make a more unified, collaborative business model.

The company found itself in a culture where meetings were necessary in order to collaborate. This was making available meeting rooms hard to find and causing a high proportion of no-shows, where people were forgetting to cancel unwanted meeting rooms. Autotrader wanted to introduce more breakout spaces for collaboration, which would free up the meeting rooms for more formal, private events.

Meetings were being booked in a Microsoft Exchange calendar by local PAs or IT; this was a very time-consuming process and additional catering options had to be managed completely separately.

Autotrader was keen to increase its efficiency with back-end reports about utilization, catering and services. The business also wanted to be able to book meetings through Microsoft Outlook and add any additional requirements within the same booking form.

Autotrader set out to create a bigger, better workplace for staff that reflected its new agile, digital environment. The online motoring leader needed technology that supported this change, which would be seamless, intuitive and efficient.

Russell Warman, Autotrader’s Head of Infrastructure, looked at various room booking solutions available in the market, including lower cost options such as Android or iPad panels. But he found the solutions were very limited in what information they could show.

Autotrader was aware that Condeco was the best solution on the market to help it achieve its goals, so the company chose to implement Condeco Room Booking Software in 2013. Condeco provided room booking screens for thirty-eight meeting rooms in Autotrader’s new Manchester, UK office.

Following this successful deployment, Autotrader implemented Condeco in its new London office in 2014, with an additional thirteen meeting rooms available for booking.

Condeco’s Outlook Add-in allows staff to book meetings at both locations directly from their MS Outlook calendar and request additional services like catering within the same form. This improves efficiencies across the business and saves individuals’ valuable time every day.

Condeco Meeting Room Touch Screens not only look fantastic in the new office environment, but also streamline the resource scheduling process, including letting people make instant bookings from the room screen. People can immediately see if the room is in-use from the red, amber and green occupancy lights, which means meetings aren’t disturbed when in progress. To help Autotrader reduce its no-show problem, Condeco’s auto-bump feature means if a meeting fails to start within 15 minutes, it is automatically freed up for others to use.

The implementation process was very quick and easy; the IT team built and configured the rooms themselves with guidance from Condeco’s service team. Autotrader’s PAs and receptionists required very little additional training, as the system is user friendly and straightforward to navigate.

Each room is named after an unusual car name to tie in with the company’s fun, unique theme and contributes to the cool, modern environment.

Autotrader was able to create a more professional, tech savvy environment with Condeco’s solutions. The meeting rooms are now better managed, and the company has seen a gradual decrease in meeting room no-shows since implementing the solutions.

IT, reception and PAs now have more time for doing their tasks since individuals can now book their own meetings, services and catering.

Condeco’s technology has helped create a more collaborative and agile working environment and lets the business gain valuable intelligence about how its resources and assets are being used.