Waldo is a desk booking and parking reservation tool built by the meeting software company, Kickle. It lets you orchestrate and manage hybrid/flexible working environments by allowing you to check on occupancy, reserve slots, and track your teammates’ status.
Kickle was founded in 2014 and is based out of France. It specialises in collaboration products, with solutions for video conferencing, digital whiteboards, room booking, etc. it also has a long-standing partnership with Microsoft, and most products are geared for implementations in a Microsoft environment. The idea is to deliver a holistic meeting room solution that combines digital collaboration, like whiteboarding, with physical meeting room capabilities.
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Waldo is a Kickle sub-brand and operates as a chatbot inside Microsoft Teams. It lets you create flexible office environments where you can balance in-office requirements with WFH so that the entire team is happy. For instance, Waldo has an intuitive waiting list, reaching out to employees who have booked in-office desks but may be open to changing their minds. If they cancel their reservation, the next person on the waiting list is immediately approved.
Waldo is a Teams-only application, which means you can enjoy an almost native experience. Let us review the app in more detail.
Inside Waldo for Microsoft Teams
To install Waldo, visit Microsoft AppSource and look for Waldo by Kickle. There’s a free version available, so you can go ahead and download the app without any licensing or subscription hassles. The free forever version of Waldo supports Teams deployment, space and parking occupancy monitoring, and AI-based teammate identification.
You can also upgrade to a premium version at €20 or €40 per user per year, which includes more advanced analytics and business rules. Finally, there is a custom-priced version of Waldo, which has polling capabilities and Connectors for Power BI.
As you get started with the Waldo app for Teams, here are the key features to expect:
- The Waldo bot – The Waldo bot is how employees will typically interact with the app. You can ask Waldo for information by typing in simple commands such as “who is at the office tomorrow?” You can also ask the bot to perform common actions such as reserving a parking spot, identifying the best desk available, and getting updates on office overcrowding.
- Interaction-based predictions – A major differentiator setting Waldo apart from other tools in its category is its ability to study interactions and understand your preferences. For example, as soon as you open the app, you will be greeted by a list of teammates with whom you interact the most. Waldo will always try to assign teammates seats in a manner that encourages collaboration.
- Occupancy calendar – The calendar view on Waldo gives you live visibility into office and parking space occupancy daily. For example, you’ll be able to see if the office is over 50% occupied and if there is very little space to park your bicycle. We like that the app also shows a weather ticker for each day so you can plan your office or WFH schedule accordingly.
- Occupancy floor charts – In addition to percentage occupancy daily, you can also view floor charts and find the perfect desk position. For instance, Waldo can tell you if your usual floor is more than 75% full, which means that you might want to WFH to prevent overcrowding and maintain social distance.
- Search for colleagues – Right underneath the calendar view; Waldo has a search capability where you can check on an employee’s work status for the day. It will list all the employees from your company directly, and you can find out if a teammate or relevant stakeholder will be coming to the office on a given day.
- Desk and parking request automation – The Waldo app automates desk and parking request submission based on your preferences, team interactions, and past records. You will be reminded about your slated desk and parking spot beforehand, so you can configure it if necessary.
Why the Waldo App Makes a Difference
A major differentiator when using Waldo is its pulse survey capability. You can check team satisfaction with flexible work at the end of each week, and the Power BI Connector will visualise this as a Happiness Gauge.
What We Think
Waldo for Teams provides an intelligent and intuitive flexible-working experience at a highly affordable rate. You can even tailor it per your organisation’s hierarchy, WFH or office day limitations, and overbooking thresholds.
Download it here.
