In the landscape of post-pandemic work models, no one is surprised by office booking systems anymore. However, any new tool comes at some cost. Because of this, companies often wonder whether they should create their own solutions, taking on the development of projects that are far larger than initial plans anticipated.
This article shows, using Tidaro as an example, what challenges you will face when creating your own booking tool and why it may be more cost-effective to use our help.
How do the planning and developing of a booking tool look like in practice?
Over the years, several clients looking to save money have informed us of their desire to create their own booking tool. In similar situations, we always try to engage in a conversation about the cost-effectiveness of such actions, but sometimes the decision-making process is already complete and the company proceeds. Although such companies end their Tidaro subscription, we stay in touch and are happy to share our experience. So, what does it look like in practice?
The decision-making process on such a challenge often drag on for months. Deciding to develop one’s own tool does not mean that the company has already taken steps toward implementing the plan. During this time, the company is left without a functioning booking tool, significantly reducing the convenience of its employees, who have become accustomed to a functioning tool.
As companies deciding on such a step are looking for savings, they cannot allocate funds for a new development team. Therefore, they usually decide to assign the project to current employees. This means more delays, as all the team members needed must finish their projects. It’s difficult to time this well, because to create an efficient booking tool, you need specialists from many fields who are performing different tasks in parallel.
During a project’s implementation, teams meet difficulties that challenge the profitability of the entire project. Sometimes already at the stage of developing a new application, the project consumes so many resources that further work turns out to be impossible. It happens that a tool’s creation occurs, but it does not respond to the company’s needs or ready-made solutions. However, the biggest obstacle to the proper functioning of a proprietary booking system is usually the maintenance stage. It turns out that there is as much work after the release of the tool as with the creation process itself, and there is a need to set up a new maintenance team, for which more resources need to be allocated.
We know from experience that most companies that want to create their own booking tool go back to using ready solutions over the next two years after such a decision is made.
Are there any chances of success?
I used a generalization to show you the difficulties behind the process of creating a custom booking tool. However, there are companies that succeed in this task and now are using their own tool.
Unfortunately, success heavily depends on resources that a company can allocate to the project. It’s easier in bigger companies and by bigger I mean international corporations. It all comes down to how many people a company can delegate to develop a new tool and how much money they want to invest. Nevertheless, the question remains: is it really worth starting such a project?
Why is it worth using a SaaS tool like Tidaro?
1. Resource savings
Tidaro’s subscription cost is lower than creating, maintaining and developing an in-house system. The SaaS system reduces the costs associated with purchasing hardware and developing infrastructure in the company.
2. Time savings
By using an external tool like Tidaro, companies save the time needed for:
- Identifying needs and problems for creating a solution
- Creating a team responsible for the project (IT, Design, Office, Operations)
- Creating applications for different operating systems
- Testing the application in the company’s own structures
- Designing a user-friendly interface
- Cyclic updates of the software
- Handling technical problems of users
- Onboarding and handling inquiries about the operation of the tool
- Creation of materials such as user manuals and video tutorials
- Handling system crashes
- Transferring users to a new tool
3. Technical support
Tidaro offers dedicated technical support to users and administrators regarding:
- Onboarding users
- Granting access to users
- Sending and locating activation links
- Problems with application login and operation
- Updating applications for different operating systems
- User inquiries about specific features
Using a proprietary booking tool, the need arises to create a separate unit to handle similar inquiries in multiple locations.
4. Flexibility and scalability
We adapt Tidaro to the needs of the company at various stages of cooperation, considering:
- Changing needs in the market
- Updated privacy policies
- New legal regulations
- Employee turnover within the company
- Enlargement or downsizing of the company
- Events beyond the company’s control affecting its operations, such as a pandemic
When scaling the tool to other company branches, Tidaro needs only 3 to 10 days (depending on the size of the new locations) to:
- Implement the tool
- Create accounts
- Onboarding of employees
- Send training materials (manuals and videos)
- Provide interactive office maps
5. High quality and performance
Tidaro is used by more than 40,000 users in various countries, and our SLA is at 99% (product status). Tidaro was developed in collaboration with UI, UX, and design experts and is constantly being improved according to customer feedback. We know from experience that such a process is time-consuming and expensive.
6. More than a booking app
In addition to booking desks, parking spots, and rooms, Tidaro offers a wide range of functionalities to support hybrid workflows:
- Personalized interactive office maps
- Dividing offices and parking lots into smaller zones for more efficient management
- Filtering of office resources by set parameters
- Overview of people present in the office
- Locating co-workers
- Adding license plate numbers
- Solving parking problems
- Assigning zone administrators to help organize the office and parking lot
- Reports and analytics on office attendance, reservations and usage, and resources
- Booking desks and parking spots for guests
- SSO logging
7. Cancellation at any time and at no cost
If a company decides to cancel Tidaro’s services, it can do so at any time without additional costs. If the proprietary booking tool proves to be redundant or insufficient, the company must reckon with the financial, personnel, and time consequences already incurred.
Conclusions
There is a reason why there are so many companies on the market dedicated solely to creating, developing, and maintaining office booking tools. Such projects consume a lot of time and resources, making them often impossible to finish for companies that provide services in other industries. When planning such a project, there are many issues to consider that decision-makers are unaware of before starting work. Compared to the monstrous undertaking of creating a proprietary booking system, the cost of subscribing to a ready solution seems cost-effective and takes a lot of responsibilities off the shoulders of companies.
