If you’re looking for a convenient way to coordinate teams and make the most of your hybrid office, the Appspace room booking, and workplace management platform could be the perfect solution.
Similar to many modern solutions for “space management” like Deskbird and UnSpot, Appspace’s platform offers more than just tools for booking desks and meeting rooms. It’s an all-in-one ecosystem that aims to help companies make their offices more accessible, welcoming, safe and productive. It even includes some handy AI features.
I put this comprehensive platform to the test, to uncover the pros and cons you’ll need to consider if you’re thinking of using Appspace for workplace management.
Quick Verdict: Pros and Cons
The AppSpace workplace management platform is a feature-rich solution for managing everything from space reservation, to wayfinding in modern office environments. It includes all of the core features you might expect from a platform like this, such as digital signage software, desk and meeting room booking tools, and wayfinding solutions.
However, there are also some extra built-in tools designed to boost collaboration and engagement, like content and publishing apps, and a Microsoft-based intranet. The biggest downsides to this platform are its slightly high learning curve and expensive pricing.
Pros:
- Powerful space management tools
- Integrated content creation tools and intranet
- Visitor management and wayfinding built-in
- Included digital signage software
- Valuable artificial intelligence features
Cons:
- Slight initial learning curve
- Expensive pricing
Appspace Review: Overview and Key Features
As mentioned above, Appspace is a lot more than just a room booking app. It’s an all-in-one tool for enhancing space management, and workplace communication. The comprehensive platform includes everything companies need to improve collaboration, create content, and make the most of physical spaces, like hot-desking environments and meeting rooms.
Primarily, this solution seems to be aimed at larger organizations, like enterprises that need to bring cross-functional teams together, streamline wayfinding and enhance visitor management. Here’s a quick rundown of the key features you’ll get on the platform.
Workspace Communication and Collaboration
Let’s start with one of the most interesting components of Appspace: the workplace communication features. With Appspace, companies can bring teams together in a unified environment, with an all-in-one intranet system. The intranet gives you an all-in-one space where you can share content, files, and documents, post updates, and give each employee their own news feed.
There are built-in automation tools for speeding up approvals and processes like holiday requests. Plus, everyone gets access to built-in tools for direct messaging and communication within the intranet.
You can even integrate your intranet and employee app in Appspace with Microsoft Teams, Webex, Slack and more. That means whenever you publish something on the Intranet, you’ll be able to automatically share it across every other channel too.
From the employee app, users can not only book spaces and desks, but also send “Kudos” messages to team members, submit notifications to digital signage systems, and create content. There are even tools for translating content, like business news stories, into different languages automatically.
I particularly love the little “extras” in Appspace that help to boost engagement. For instance, you can instantly invite colleagues to meetings and rooms from within the app, and track attendance responses. Plus, everyone can share quick status updates on a social media-style board, and employees can react to them with emojis.
Users also get to customize their own “app” experience with tailored newsfeeds and layouts. They can even follow specific team members in a connected directory. There’s also a handy “broadcasting” feature for admins to use to send instant alerts to staff members, wherever they are.
Appspace Review: Space Reservation
For flexible workspaces, Appspace delivers some of the most advanced “space reservation” features I’ve seen. Where other platforms give you separate (but similar) apps for desk and meeting room booking, Appspace gives you a holistic environment for managing every type of space.
Within the app, administrators can list everything from rooms and desks, to parking spots, and office neighborhoods for users to reserve. The great thing about Appspace is that it gives you a comprehensive view of your entire office environment as soon as you log into the app.
You can see which desks and other spaces are available at any time, and book the environments you need with a single tap. You can even book spaces directly from platforms like Microsoft Teams, with streamlined integrations. You’ll also be able to see exactly which people and amenities are available nearby, with Appspace’s interactive maps.
The maps show the layout of every room, highlight available technologies, like meeting room kits, and show small icons to help you identify relevant team members. If you need to dive a little deeper, the wayfinding tools give both employees and visitors extensive information. They even track where you are with your device’s GPS, to help guide you to the right location.
Plus, Appspace ensures that business leaders can track their space usage in real-time, with convenient check-in tools. Anyone can instantly check into a space by scanning a QR code or tapping on a space within the workplace map.
Appspace even has built-in digital signage software, with templates you can use for everything from welcoming visitors into a building, to sharing information about a meeting room’s technology.
Content Creation and Visitor Management
Two of the other features that help to separate Appspace from its competitors, are its tools for visitor management and content creation. Many other workspace management tools charge extra for visitor management applications, but Appspace offers this feature as standard.
You get a comprehensive system where you can speed-up check-ins for clients by automatically sending them pre-registration forms, privacy agreements, and more. There’s a badge printing system, with the option to create unique QR codes for each visitor. Plus, the app will automatically notify a host when their visitor arrives, so they can meet them at the door.
You can even give visitors access to your wayfinding tools in Appspace, to help them find locations easier, and create “checkpoints” for visitors to scan.
The content creation tools in Appspace are particularly interesting – and not something I’ve seen on most of the other systems I’ve reviewed. Basically, these features allow users to create virtually any kind of content they can share on employee apps, intranets, or office screens.
