Company Profile

Exertis is part of DCC plc – an international sales, marketing, distribution and business support services group, operating across 17 countries.

Turnover: £14.3 billion

Employees: 11,500

Summary

Exertis chose HubStar Connect to manage meeting room booking at their new UK Headquarters. The solution soon spread throughout the organization, with successful installations at their flagship National Distribution Centre in Burnley and regional offices in Harlow, Stoke and Slough. Exertis now uses the system not just for booking meeting rooms, but also for booking, approving and managing their fleet of pool cars. Here’s what Tristan Drinkwater, Facilities & IT Services Manager at Exertis, has to say about HubStar…

“Before we came across HubStar, we used manual diaries on reception to coordinate who was using what meeting room. This was problematic for several reasons. To combat these issues, we went down the path of using Exchange. However we didn’t have any meeting room display panels to show what was happening in each room. This meant our staff had to check Outlook to find out whether or not a room was in use.

We were moving into a new building and wanted to ensure it was equipped with the latest technology. Our goal was to create a more professional corporate culture across the business.

We had a range of requirements:

• Integration with Exchange
• Professional-looking meeting room display panels that enable our staff to see who is using what, when
• The ability to book rooms on-the-fly with the same access cards we use for door access, carparks and our follow me printing solution
• A seamless experience no matter which office you’re in

The HubStar team were extremely approachable, competent and willing to go the extra mile to deliver exactly what we needed.

They provided a slick meeting room management solution that aligned with our reputation as a cutting edge technology company.

At first we used consumer-level tablets and  HubStar did a fantastic job, working with partners to create acrylic mounts that allowed us to use NFC by slotting the access card into the back of each tablet.

However these tablets aren’t made for being left on all day, every day, we needed to try and find a replacement.

Having multiple HubStar meeting room display panels down the corridors, with colored LEDs on the side showing availability of rooms, was much more in tune with our corporate branding.

Their meeting room display panel and backend functionality really made HubStar stand out from their competitors.

The experience that users now have using HubStar is absolutely fantastic.

A key benefit is the ability to use access cards. Our staff can reserve meeting rooms on-the-fly at a display panel, simply by presenting their card and it automatically books them in for 15 minutes.

Without this capability, people could just walk into a room.

When HubStar was up and running in one building, it was a huge success.

I was then tasked with bringing the system to other Exertis sites. Our aim was to consolidate and standardise technology across multiple offices.

By providing a single system that works across multiple offices for multiple rooms, we can now give our staff a consistent experience, even when they travel between offices.

We’re not just using HubStar for booking meeting rooms. We also use it for pool car bookings, to achieve three things:

• Streamlining the way pool cars are booked and used
• Proactively managing who has access to pool cars and ensuring legal compliance
• Creating better accountability by informing managers of their staff’s car usage.

By using HubStar, we shifted responsibility back to individuals’ line managers. They have a much clearer idea of whether a car pool booking should be approved. This has cut down unnecessary bookings, saving us considerable budget in terms of car leases, mileage and fuel.

The implementation went smoothly and our staff find the system really easy to use.

HubStar has become a key tool for our PAs, helping them manage their day-to-day activities, juggling Directors’ diaries and scheduling meetings. Our Account Managers are avid users too.

HubStar has removed so much admin from my daily to-do list. These days I only spend about an hour a week on HubStar, covering six offices and 800 staff members. Before I was spending an hour a day messaging people back and forth.

This means the system has cut the time I have to spend on managing bookings by 80%.

I’d absolutely recommend HubStar. If someone asked me why, I’d say it simply does everything you need it to do.

The feature set is rich and covers all the requirements that most organizations are likely to have

HubStar’s aggressive application development is incredible too. Their team is really impressive and the support is just so good. Their after-sales service is second to none. Whenever I’ve got a problem or a query, I’ll ping it over and typically get a response within minutes.

Ultimately I’d recommend HubStar because of their rich feature set and outstanding support.”

What are the reasons for why you selected the HubStar solution? And what are you aiming to achieve with it?

Mike Bessell/Leann Thomas/Becky Grant – “We currently have roughly 150,000 square meters of space, with high utility costs and very low efficiencies. And implementing HubStar’s technology is helping us drive up that efficiency. Not only in terms of lowering cost, but also in terms of creating a sense of vibrancy in our estates, which then again helps us enhance our student experience.

I think one of the main drivers for us in implementing HubStar’s solutions was the fact that there isn’t a need for physical infrastructure. In fact most of the needed infrastructure we already had in place. So it is much more of a behind the scenes setup.

Additionally, the seamless integration with our timetabling software and HubStar’s API’s linking extremely well to our other systems was a key deciding factor for us, which was highly unique amongst the different suppliers we analyzed. We also believe in HubStar’s potential in further development of their product and what it could do for us in the future. In the end, the main focus will always be in using HubStar data to create high quality learning environments.”