{"id":3323,"date":"2015-10-29T20:52:13","date_gmt":"2015-10-29T19:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gpsj.co.uk\/?p=3323"},"modified":"2015-10-29T20:52:13","modified_gmt":"2015-10-29T19:52:13","slug":"london-borough-of-ealing-relies-on-cloud-technology-to-increase-efficiencies-within-hospitality-and-events-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gpsj.co.uk\/?p=3323","title":{"rendered":"London Borough of Ealing relies on Cloud technology to increase efficiencies within hospitality and events team"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Jane<\/a>

Jane Coughlan from Ealing Council<\/p><\/div>\n

With a potential capacity of over 100 events per week and operating 362 days per year, the Hospitality & Events team for the London Borough of Ealing manages almost 4,000 events a year on average and is growing.\u00a0 All are hosted by the Council in a total of 16 halls and meeting rooms across two locations in the Borough including the historic Town Hall, a spectacular grade II listed Victorian building from 1887 and still serving the local community over 125 years later.<\/p>\n

By moving to a cloud-based venue and event management solution, the busy hospitality and events team at the London Borough of Ealing now has greater flexibility and adaptability.\u00a0 Bookings by phone or email are now managed by the team of 6 event managers and coordinators all using a solution from Priava (www.priava.com<\/a>). In addition, access is provided to the Town Hall\u2019s receptionist and porters as required.\u00a0 The entire team take their duties providing important services to the community extremely seriously and customer service is at the top of their list of priorities.<\/p>\n

Operational benefits and future-proofing<\/strong><\/p>\n

New features and functionality are now introduced as they become available.\u00a0 This is in distinct contrast to the team relying on its contracted out ICT service provider to schedule updates into its own busy programme, which previously constrained the team\u2019s ability to take advantage of new releases quickly.\u00a0 In addition, of course, upgrades to the team\u2019s original server hardware and operating system software, typically requiring capital expenditure approvals, have become a thing of the past.<\/p>\n

The Results – Significant benefits, some anticipated and some unexpected<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cGreater flexibility was anticipated and has proved a real benefit in that members of the team can now provide significantly higher levels of cover for each other as staff may work on the system from any location including from home in exactly the same way as they do in the office.<\/p>\n

These benefits for the team have translated directly into improved levels of service for our clients.\u201d says Jane Coughlan, Hospitality & Events Manager at Ealing Council.<\/p>\n

Jane acknowledges the investment of both the Council and Priava working together to tailor a sophisticated, flexible and adaptable tool fit for purpose for the long term.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn unforeseen benefit of switching is that there is now a very clear line of demarcation between the Council\u2019s standard desktop PC and associated communication services and the provision of Priava\u2019s application as a service, making problem resolution far more straightforward and effective\u201d.<\/p>\n

New time-saving features: doing more with less and providing even better customer service<\/strong><\/p>\n

A new feature that is proving particularly beneficial to the team is the ability to quickly and easily block book venues for regular hirers.\u00a0 Ealing has over 40 regular clients amongst its local communities, including church groups and dance groups for example.\u00a0 Many book weekly, fortnightly or monthly throughout the year. \u201cPriava\u2019s block booking feature was a long time coming but is now proving extremely popular with team members, saving hours of work when compared with booking each event individually as we previously had to do. A further positive outcome of block booking is a notable reduction in input errors, resulting in less rework and further improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the team\u201d says Jane.<\/p>\n

Multi-tasking \u2013 a big improvement<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cA standard feature of the cloud-based system is multi-tasking.\u00a0 The team can now immediately jump into the process of taking a booking or make changes to existing bookings when taking a call from a client, and then returning straight away to whatever they were doing previously on the system.\u00a0 As well as increased efficiency we can at the same time substantially reduce call transaction times and further improve levels of service to the clients.\u201d<\/p>\n

Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n

The benefits that Ealing has achieved through the use of Priava so far include:<\/p>\n