TrustRadius Insights for Accruent EMS are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.
Business Problems Solved
EMS, or Event Management System, is a versatile software solution widely adopted by colleges, universities, and organizations for scheduling and managing events. The system efficiently books rooms, tracks conference room reservations, and facilitates communication between service providers. Users appreciate EMS for streamlining scheduling processes across the organization, from classes and meetings to events. It also helps with work assignment delegation and managing services for internal and external events.
Hospitals also benefit from EMS by using it to schedule conference rooms and manage room and catering requests. For example, TIAA integrates EMS with Outlook, creating a one-stop booking experience that includes features like Webex and attachments. EMS goes beyond room reservations and effectively manages non-room items like banner spaces and van usage.
EMS provides comprehensive support for academic scheduling, event management, and non-academic space management within universities. Many departments already use EMS for event scheduling, with plans to implement it in more departments in the future. In fact, the University of Kentucky relies on EMS more than any other university in the nation for scheduling across all buildings.
EMS is invaluable for risk management and logistical planning. It is utilized in conference centers and other school units with unique spaces. Real-time utilization data allows users to evaluate meeting spaces and classrooms' efficiency. By effectively managing resource allocation and service allocation, EMS enables efficient operations across different departments.
EMS plays a crucial role in enhancing safety and security efforts through essential reporting capabilities. It is used campus-wide for managing catering orders, facilities requests, IT requests, and room reservations. Various groups within an institution benefit from EMS implementation, including the Registrar's Office, Athletics Department, Performing Arts Department, Auxiliary & Event Services, among others.
Overall, EMS receives high praise from users due to its ability to streamline scheduling processes, allocate resources efficiently, and optimize space management within organizations. Its wide range of use cases makes it a valuable tool in educational institutions, conference centers, and organizations requiring efficient scheduling and event management.
We use EMS to schedule all meetings on 12 departments. It handles all of our meeting problems pretty well. At our office of the department there are only two meeting rooms for 87 workers and 9 squads. We can book a room easily.
Pros
Implementation takes little time.
Easy to interact with other reporting tools.
Enables everyone to easily access and utilize data.
Cons
Interface, I think it's a little bit hard.
Of course, price.
Likelihood to Recommend
As said the interface is a little bit difficult to use, and sometimes non-ITs get mixed up. But implementing it to other applications for reports is so easy. Our efficiency is improved by a process that involves sending email confirmations to clients with the information we need to provide.
We have engaged Accruent EMS software in my organization for managing meetings whether they are physical or online. It helps with booking meeting rooms, video conferencing, and management of workspaces. With EMS we avoid double booking rooms and ensure the meeting rooms are allocated in accordance with the number of people meeting and the available technology.
Pros
Only one meeting room can be booked at a time eliminating double booking of rooms.
Keeps tabs on relations and their bookings.
Allows for cooperation between departments in the organization.
Ensures there is correct data across systems to avoid planning mistakes.
Cons
Reporting provides limited information and there should be an option adding email messages.
How it works remotely needs a lot of improvement.
Likelihood to Recommend
EMS gives the full view of how conference rooms are being utilized when booking. We can also access details like available seats and technology in a room. It ensures there is accurate data beyond all our systems doing away with twofold information and mistakes when planning. EMS is effective in linking people and sharing affairs across the organization.
VU
Verified User
Consultant in Information Technology (5001-10,000 employees)
I book conference rooms and event spaces as well as a lending pool for meetings, training, and events such as retirement parties, Alumni teas, nursing graduations, etc. I also coordinate set-ups and take-downs for these events. Once a week, I print reports and deliver them to the appropriate depts.
Pros
I can book conference rooms without fear of double booking.
The set ups and take downs are easily arranged with the reports I print out.
I can check any booking easily, add to it or cancel.
With large bookings with multiple dates, it is easy to book or cancel all or just parts of it.
Cons
There are three of us on the server for this program, and only one of us can set the terms. I was the first user of this program, but somehow one of the other users picked how we use the time feature. I prefer the 24-hour clock as I work in a hospital, but the person who set it up wants the 12-hour clock.
Before the last change you could do a booking and add the setup at the same time but now you do the booking and then add details, not bad but easier the other way.
Likelihood to Recommend
For my use on booking conference rooms, event spaces, equipment as well as setups it works great, and adding generating reports make my job effortless. I really can't give less appropriate usage as I haven't run into any in the 22 years with this program. I really think it makes my job much more streamlined and fewer mistakes occur.
We use Accruent EMS to help build transparency for room availability for our stakeholders: students and staff. The use case for our org is having different stakeholders with different booking privileges, whether it's boardrooms, multipurpose rooms, hoteling stations, promotional tables. Through the Accruent EMS web app, we enable some stakeholders to place a tentative hold on the space and then the room owners approve the space without the need to go through multiple iterations of emails to request a space. Other stakeholders use the desktop client to see and request for space.
Pros
Easy to navigate
Quarterly updates
Showcasing use cases of other clients
Cons
Desktop client only available on windows OS, macOS users must have parallel desktop or a virtual box loaded with an image of windows
Should transition to 100% cloud-based platform without the need of desktop clients
Minimizing outages
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
In our company we utilize [Accruent] EMS for event scheduling and workflow. It is utilized by our Sales, Events, Catering, Facilities, and Operations departments. It allows us to have a single place for all our departments to interact and share the needs and scheduling for all of our event spaces and large conference rooms. It has streamlined the ability of our Events department to collaborate with our Facilities and Catering departments, giving them the ability to clearly communicate needs for each event.
Pros
Collaboration between departments
Streamline communication
Central point for keeping track of event details
Cons
Not always easy to contact support when needed
Lots of pieces to upgrade when applying updates
Likelihood to Recommend
[Accruent] EMS has proven to be a very useful tool for us when scheduling and managing our private events. Once users are trained on how to utilize the tool, rarely do they require follow up training. Personally we love the automation of emailing reports to our users and management. We also find the web based schedule very helpful to staff when they are doing setups.
VU
Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology (201-500 employees)
We have onboarded EMS software this year to our global enterprise and it is being used as the primary meeting and space management software solution for our global users across 17 regional offices.
Pros
The product has great scalability and covers many use cases for meeting & space management solutions.
The product has API integration ability so the Engineering team can customize for the business needs.
Matured technical support system.
Cons
The onboarding procedure can be better. There were technical issues during our onboarding process but the engineer did not have sufficient knowledge or documentation to resolve it, and it took quite long to get it remediated eventually.
The response time from the technical support team can be improved.
Likelihood to Recommend
The product has great scalability and covers many use cases for meeting & space management solutions for our firm. The EMS Outlook plug-in is very convenient for our end users to book rooms and send out calendar details in an integrated place. The Zoom integration ability is a plus especially in this pandemic environment where most of our users are working from home and utilize Zoom for daily conferencing.
VU
Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees)
Accruent EMS is used by the Hospitality/Facilities Department of my organization. Currently we use it for conference room use as well as Zoom account use. In the future we may use it for office space reservations. We were at a very high volume of meetings and events and Accruent EMS helps to ensure we don't double book rooms, that meetings are using the correct size room, etc.
Pros
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.
Cons
Reporting is the main issue I have with EMS. It would be helpful to be able to input exactly what one wants to be reported. I find that I have to do a lot of playing around to figure out how to run reports. Not all details can be reported on, either, which can be frustrating.
Removing contacts can be difficult. Getting an error message that contact has set up reservations when trying to remove said contact can be quite frustrating.
Since I've been working from home remotely, it was a bit of a tough go getting EMS set up on my work laptop. Even though I should have the same features as our system admin, I am unable to do things from my work laptop in EMS. Instead, I have to log in as the admin in order to cancel meetings or add details. This may not be an EMS issue only.
Likelihood to Recommend
I use Accruent EMS to reserve rooms for meetings using 30+ conference rooms and 16 Zoom accounts. EMS is incredibly helpful to not allow double booking in conference rooms. I use the book for particularly busy days to get the full picture of what our conference room usage looks like. It helps to make decisions on where certainly meetings should be booked. Having the room count feature on the book is very helpful to my EMS users who aren't as familiar with the conference rooms as I am, so that they know how many people can fit in each conference room to help make the best decision on where to put a meeting. Sometimes Accruent EMS can be less appropriate to run reports. It can be difficult to get a report on exactly what I'm looking for w/o being able to specify exactly what I'm looking for. The browser feature is helpful, but still does not allow to get more specific.
We use it throughout our Events and Conference Services Department. It ensures that we are utilizing our space to the optimal level and staying organized. It also streamlines communication from bookings to setups.
Pros
Organization
Communication
Easy to Use
Cons
Ability to highlight certain points
Be able to "un-cancel" events and keep details
Likelihood to Recommend
I book a lot of recurring meetings with similar booking details. It is extremely helpful to use the Tools function to apply those details across every booking while only actually putting in the information once.
It is being used for the entire organization. We primarily use it for keeping track of all conference room reservations.
Pros
I love the simple layout.
I enjoy that I have options to change color schemes and customize it to fit me and the needs of my job.
It is a quality product, with minimal issues.
Cons
Video conference reservations. They need to upgrade that area to be a little more user friendly for booking purposes. This is the greatest problem that needs attention. I still love what it does, but I see work here.
I do not like the email formats at times and they seem a little constrained.
Likelihood to Recommend
Truthfully, I think any business that needs to create simple or complex reservations would consider this software an asset. I feel this is what this software should be mostly used for. It upgraded our whole firm greatly when we added this software.
The entire firm uses this software to reserve conference rooms and business services in our main office location and two small satellite locations. It is accessible both via a web portal and as an Outlook integration. Services such as catering and technology equipment needs can be indicated as part of the reservation.
Pros
Good flexibility, in that it doesn't force you to fit into one method of arranging your available spaces.
Decent reporting, which allows for flexible and reliable reports on usage and reservations.
Fairly intuitive interface for users, especially with the Outlook integration.
Cons
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.
Likelihood to Recommend
For a large organization managing multiple offices, with a wide variety of needs in terms of services offered, Accruent EMS offers the 'sandbox' flexibility you will need to create a reservation and room tracking solution. For smaller companies, it is important to note that this software is basically a blank page with a set of tools meant to design the tool you need. It is not an 'out of the box' solution and will take a good deal of time working with their team to develop it to your needs. And, someone will need to be very well versed in the software to maintain it moving forward. Not recommended for small organizations.
VU
Verified User
Director in Information Technology (201-500 employees)