This month, we interviewed an experienced project manager (PM) from Cloudmore. While new to the company, the PM has no reservations about diving into commitment.
Moreover, he has the foresight to curb problems before they arise. Luckily, he found the best tech for the challenge.
Not only did the PM discover a solution for overbooked, unclear meeting room schedules, but he also found an unexpected fix to some trickier problems. Over the past two years, the company has been growing exponentially. Since Joan was introduced, they’ve configured bookable desks, meeting rooms, parking stations, table tennis, and foosball.
Between Joan Room, Desk, Visitor, and Asset reservation solutions, the Cloudmore office is covered from tip to tail. Or, more accurately, from desks to parking. Read on to learn more.
About Cloudmore
Cloudmore is a privately held software as a service company (SaaS) based in Stockholm, Sweden with hubs in Estonia and the UK. The company offers a top-of-the-line cloud commerce solution to help other companies simplify buying, selling, and managing products in the everything-as-a-service era. Their platform primarily targets business-to-business (B2B) customers, demanding professionalism from the company.
Cloudmore is one of those organizations that thrived over the pandemic. In Estonia alone, the company has tripled its square footage from 3,000 to over 10,000 this year.
Despite being given the short end of the stick, the PM in question volunteered to head Cloudmore's upcoming office project. During the transition to the brand-new office, he was in charge of everything from construction to workspaces. He even managed the move, overseeing the transport of resources and people from one space to another.
Keeping up with a growing company
During the planning phases of the migration, the PM estimated that, in general, Cloudmore grows two times per year. That means that, on average, the company takes on new hires and grows in numbers twice per fiscal year.
With such steady growth, the PM foresaw the need for a robust office management system. So, spearheading the office project, he started researching different solutions.
Luckily, the company has been transitioning toward hybrid work, allowing employees the flexibility to work from home as needed, freeing up office space during the week. Yet, while flexibility has the power to enhance the office experience, it also has the potential to muddle it.
In the initial phase of their transition, desks and workspaces were available on a free-for-all basis, leaving some of the employees without an ideal place to work each day. Employees would wait outside of occupied meeting rooms without knowing how long the room would be occupied for, wasting valuable time in the office.
The PM foresaw that the office was needlessly chaotic without suitable systems.
How Joan fits in
The PM spent two months carefully considering and analyzing systems to find the most effective solution. Going above and beyond, he explored 24 available booking solutions on the market.
Twenty-four of them — and Joan came out on top.
Why, you might ask? During this interview he dove into his favorite Joan features.
While Joan’s room and desk booking features were a must-have, the Cloudmore team found the user interface and mobile experience to be the best. Joan trumped the competition with its easy check-ins, thorough analytics, and excellent security. With customizable branding and a great price, Joan proved to be the best option on the market.
After purchasing and implementing four Joan 6 meeting room displays, Cloudmore is eager for more. Employees can now tell from a glance if a meeting room is booked and for how long it’s booked.
What’s more, the PM was looking for a solution that covered everything. Well, he found it. After integrating Joan with Cloudmore desks, meeting rooms, parking spaces, and recreational assets, he’s been keen on making even more resources bookable.
Unboxing the potential
Upon unboxing, Joan 6 exceeded all expectations. The display was just as described with no surprises. The box was “perfectly packed” with little to no wasted resources. With the device unboxed, the PM only needed to skim the installation instructions to get the Joan 6 displays mounted and working.
Onboarding was a snap. The PM sent out a short Teams message to the Cloudmore organization, and the experience has been great. In fact, he’s heard nothing but positive feedback regarding the new room booking system:
“This is great and will definitely help us stop hijacking everyone's meeting rooms.”
“That's fabulous. I have already been friends with Joan before, so great choice.”
When asked about his favorite part of the Joan experience, the PM said, “easy setup and basically no worries.”
Parking with Joan
While Joan’s latest Book Anything initiative is new, the idea behind it isn’t. The Joan app has been powerful enough to handle virtually any company asset since its conception. Thinking outside the box, the PM saw the app’s potential for managing parking spaces early on.
The Cloudmore office has two parking lots available to their employees. In particular, they have six parking spaces close to the office building. These spaces aren’t reserved for executives and higher-ups but are, instead, available to any employees who need them. Most Cloudmore employees don’t work from the office every day of the week. So, rather than having designated parking spaces, the company made their parking spaces bookable through the Joan app.
“Basically, the problem grew that, at some point, there weren't any parking spots left out of those six.”
Even though “parking” didn’t make the original criteria for a room booking system, Cloudmore’s parking dilemma was still on the PM’s mind. When he saw Joan, he saw the potential for more than just a room booking solution.
The options were simple: invest more in yet another booking tool specializing in parking, or use the perfectly capable tool they already had: the Joan app. He picked the Joan app. Months later, the PM reports that “people are just happy and they are using it.”
What’s next at Cloudmore?
The PM, for one, enjoys booking the foosball table, inviting a few of his colleagues, and seeing who shows up to play. What’s more, he uses Joan analytics to see what resources are the most and who uses them, helping him make the most out of company assets.
Looking to the future, Cloudmore plans on expanding its fleet of Joan 6 devices until there is one per meeting room. They’re also keen to make other equipment bookable via the app. For example, the PM mentions adding meeting room equipment to the list of bookable assets, such as high-end cameras, to enhance the Cloudmore experience.
Lastly, the company will soon implement the Joan visitor management solution in their office. The tool will be great for tracking the occasional visitor and ensuring Cloudmore meets security standards.
Want to set up an agile workplace environment just like Cloudmore?
