If you’re searching for an efficient and cost-effective way to manage your physical workspace and coordinate hybrid teams, the Kadence desk booking platform could be ideal. Despite specifically for the age of flexible work, this flexible hot-desking software is user-friendly and intuitive.
Even better – it comes with integrated AI capabilities on all plans, so you don’t have to worry about spending extra on a dedicated team management copilot.
I’ve reviewed several desk booking and workspace management tools in the past (particularly in the last couple of years). Kadence stands out in a few areas, such as its AI capabilities and intuitive user experience. Still, it won’t be the right option for everyone.
This review should help you decide of Kadence is the best workplace management tool for you.
Quick Verdict, Pros and Cons
Kadence is a highly user-friendly workplace management app packed with convenient tools to help you make the most of your resources. It combines desk and room booking capabilities with intuitive team coordination, visitor management tools, and AI. Plus, the advanced analytics capabilities are great for gaining deeper insights into your business operations.
However, there are some downsides. For instance, Kadence isn’t quite as customizable as some of the other tools I’ve tried in this space. Plus, the response times for technical support can be slow at times.
Pros:
- User-friendly and intuitive design
- In-depth analytics and reporting tools
- Easy integration with various applications
- Integrated AI capabilities on every plan
- Powerful Event management tools
- Affordable pricing
Cons:
- Limited customization options
- Some issues with customer support
- Slight learning curve
Kadence Desk Booking: Overview and Key Features
Kadence is a desk booking and workspace management platform, built to unify, align, and coordinate hybrid teams. Like many leading office management tools, this platform has come a long way in recent years, introducing new features for “workplace events”, and AI insights.
Based on my experience, the app excels in terms of ease of use, intuitive reporting, and overall employee experience. Let’s take a closer look at the core features of the platform.
Desk and Room Booking
As a leading hot desking platform, many of Kadence’s core features revolve around helping employees to find and book the right spaces for their needs, from desks, to meeting rooms.
Both the desk and meeting room booking applications come with their own intelligent and interactive floor plans. I love that you can actively see who’s going to be close to you in the office, and which resources are nearby. Plus, business leaders have the freedom to organize their spaces however they choose, with dynamic “office neighborhoods” they can update for every day of the week.
Team members can book desks and rooms in advance for their entire work week with just a couple of clicks. Plus, the built-in AI features also surface relevant suggestions to staff on where they should be working, based on available tech and teammates.
When booking rooms, teams can also instantly invite other employees to a meeting from the Kadence app and track their schedule with Google and Outlook calendars. The system will automatically remind each employee of upcoming bookings and even encourage them to “check in” so staff members get an up-to-date view of which spaces are available.
You can even embed Kadence into displays offered by companies like Neat, so that teams can start a meeting before they walk into a room by tapping on a display.
Kadence also supports coworking spaces with the “Flex” app, which instantly allows employees to see available rooms and desks in a range of different locations close to them. So, if you’re a freelancer working remotely, you can easily track down office spaces wherever you are.
Team Coordination and Visitor Management
The Kadence desk booking platform is incredibly effective at helping businesses to coordinate their employees. First, as mentioned above, every user gains access to dynamic and interactive floor plans, as well as real-time suggestions on when to visit the office based on teammate availability.
Staff members can also connect Kadence to their calendar apps and intelligently track their colleagues’ schedules so they can make better decisions about where to work. You can even use dashboards to see how busy the office is on different days of the week.
Business leaders can send instant notifications to staff across multiple platforms, such as Slack and Microsoft Teams, at once. That means you’ll have no problem keeping employees informed if you need to close a specific space in your office or remove access to a desk.
Plus, team managers can set “suggested” in-office days for employees based on upcoming meetings and events or encourage staff to book underutilized spaces with alerts.
Kadence doesn’t just make managing employees easier either. It features integrated visitor management tools, such as recording solutions to track each guest entering your office. Plus, it can monitor which guests are in your space, and where they are in real-time, sending alerts when people check in and out of certain spaces.
This is an ideal feature, in my opinion for any company that regularly needs to manage a large number of visitors in their office space, while keeping their environment secure.
Kadence AI and Workplace Events
As mentioned above, Kadence competes with some of the industry’s top AI-powered workplace management tools, like Microsoft Places, with an intuitive copilot system. Every employee and leader gains access to a personal assistant they can ask about future bookings, meetings, and events, to help them plan their schedule.
The AI solution integrates seamlessly into tools like Microsoft Teams and Slack, so users don’t have to jump between apps to ask questions about spaces. Plus, it can automatically suggest meeting rooms and desks to users based on their needs. The AI app can even automatically book and reserve spaces for each user, responding to simple text-based prompts.
Users can also customize their experience with Kadence AI, asking the bot to keep them up-to-date about things like when certain staff members are visiting the office.
Another stand-out feature Kadence introduced recently is “Events”. This solution leverages the coordination and AI-powered features of the platform to help companies plan events and share insights with staff. You can design an event in the platform, then share insights into dates, required attendance, locations, and more with staff across multiple platforms.
Any notifications you send to colleagues will come with links they can use to learn more about the amenities at the event location and the purpose of the event itself. Plus, Kadence will track attendee numbers and responses for you, so you can monitor each event’s success.
Reporting Features and Integrations
I mentioned above that the analytical and reporting features of Kadence AI are some of my favorite things about the platform. This platform tracks almost all of the data you’ll need to optimize resource allocation and improve employee experiences.
You’ll be able to monitor everything from how and when spaces are being used with visual pie charts, graphs, and custom dashboards to which devices teams use in meeting rooms. You can track how well employees are adhering to return to office mandates, with charts comparing suggested attendance to real attendance.
You can also create custom reports that highlight things like no-shows for bookings, or how popular specific desks and rooms are throughout certain days of the week. Kadence AI can also use your reports to surface suggestions on reallocating and organizing resources.
Although the suggestions aren’t as advanced as those offered by Microsoft Places, I think these tools are still excellent for any business struggling to redesign the workplace.
One slight downside is that Kadence doesn’t include any survey capabilities so you can collect in-depth insights from employees about their experiences in the office, or their unique needs. However, it does integrate with a range of tools like Slack and Teams to help with this.
Kadence integrates seamlessly with dozens of apps for calendar synchronization, single sign-on, workplace communication, and employee engagement.
Kadence Desk Booking: Pricing Plans
Although it might not be the cheapest desk booking and workplace management tool, Kadence is still pretty affordable. The Standard plan costs $4 per user per month and gives you access to unlimited active users, desks, and rooms.
You also get built-in utilization analytics, SSO and director integrations, and Kadence AI. If you need a more advanced plan, Kadence offers only one more option: “Enterprise,” the custom-priced plan. This package includes everything in the Standard plan, with a few extras.
It’s designed for companies with larger teams, so the custom pricing could be a little cheaper if you’re trying to manage huge, global offices. You get a dedicated customer experience manager, customized onboarding and training, and a guaranteed 99.9% uptime SLA.
Kadence Ease of Use and Customer Support
For me, the Kadence desk booking platform is one of the most user-friendly options on the market. It has an extremely intuitive interface, which is available on both desktop and mobile devices, and tons of tools that make it easy to organize your schedule.
The AI-powered tools streamline the process of choosing and booking spaces, and constantly deliver real-time insights into what’s happening in the office. Plus, the interactive floor plans are very easy to navigate – they even come with little profile pictures to show you where specific employees are.
There’s also a fantastic onboarding experience – even if you don’t upgrade to the enterprise plan. Once you sign up, the platform will show you how to track down desks, book rooms, connect your calendar, and access integrations with additional tools.
In my experience, you shouldn’t have any trouble getting started with Kadence. However, if you do, it’s worth noting that customer support can be a little lacking in some areas. You do get live chat and email support on all plans, but you won’t have a customer success manager unless you upgrade to an enterprise plan, and responses – even on chat, can be slow.
Still, there are plenty of documents and resources on the Kadence website (and available through the app) that you can use to troubleshoot common problems.
Kadence Desk Booking: The Verdict
Ultimately, I think the Kadence desk booking platform is an incredible tool for hybrid work. It’s great for large companies and mid-sized businesses that need to coordinate and manage complex office spaces. The integrated AI tools are fantastic at helping to ensure that staff make the most of the available “real estate” in your office.
Plus, team coordination, visitor and event management, and the analytical tools are excellent for business leaders. Only a few things are missing that I think would make this platform even better, such as an integrated survey tool and options for granular customization around desk policies.
Overall, if you’re looking for a user-friendly and intuitive solution for hybrid workplace management, Kadence is hard to go wrong with.
