FRONT OF HOUSE MEETING THE CHALLENGE
Portico specialises in providing front of house services to a variety of clients and markets including the corporate, prime-residential, multi-tenanted property,
news and media, and legal sectors. Simon Pratt, Managing Director explains how to make the most of room management in facilities.
A key focus area for us is the management of client spaces and smart space utilisation. With a responsibility for managing anywhere between eight and 200 meeting rooms, and with space at an absolute premium in London, our clients trust us to maximise what they have available and ensure a seamless service.
Our dedicated meeting room management teams are responsible for reporting on peak periods, popular rooms and gathering data to ensure space and assets are optimised. This reduces the need for our clients to use external meeting room providers or go elsewhere, such as hotels. It also ensures that priority meetings, for instance external client meetings or fee- generating meetings, are always accommodated.
When reviewing a client’s space utilisation, reports to demonstrate how meeting space is being used are crucial. One of the most common challenges FMs face is ineffective use of space. For example, a board room with capacity for 25 people being used by only eight. Detailed reporting will identify this and enable the meeting room management team to recommend ways in which rooms can be used more effectively, through splitting larger rooms into two, for example.
With ineffective use of space a common problem, communication and a strong working relationship with our clients’ customers is extremely important. We attend regular meetings with FMs to discuss creating new space and provide advice and recommendations based on current usage. We also liaise closely with the administration teams who are likely to be regularly booking
44 | TOMORROW’S FM “ONE OF THE
MOST COMMON CHALLENGES FMS
FACE IS INEFFECTIVE USE OF SPACE.”
meeting space to ensure they are aware of pressures and how these can be avoided.
Intranets and weekly newsletters ensure a method of communication direct to employees, providing them with information on best use of meeting room space and encouraging use of break-out or desk space where possible.
Effective meeting room management is reliant on the perfect balance between expert staff and efficient management software. Having the right technology in place enables
our front of house teams to co- ordinate service providers, including catering and hospitality, porterage, housekeeping and audio visual teams, to prepare the rooms in advance and ensure all requirements are tested, set up and ready at the specific time required. Typically 15 minutes is needed both before and after a meeting to turn around a room and ensure it is set up to the requirements for the next booking. Although this time accounts for ‘non- meeting’ time, it is essential to the smooth management of a site. An efficient booking system will take into consideration any additional furniture requirements or specific audio visual equipment requests, which may take some time to prepare.
It is also important to remember that the relevant support teams or technicians need to be accounted for when booking, to ensure availability to not only turn a room around but often dismantle and store any additional furniture.
Catering is an essential component of the meeting room management mix. Demand can range from simple tea and biscuits to working lunches and fine dining. To meet this expanse of needs we work in partnership with our sister company, BaxterStorey, at many of our client sites. This ‘one team’ approach ensures our clients and their guests enjoy faultless planning and seamless service, not to mention an exceptional catering experience akin to that of a world class five-star hotel.
Having a dedicated team to manage space utilisation, equipped with the latest in meeting room booking technology ensures an efficient, effective and impeccable experience often with limited available space.
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