RoomWizard I and RoomWizard II for Steelcase

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Message RoomWizard I and RoomWizard II Steelcase is the global leader in the office-furniture industry, with about $2.4 billion in revenue. Its comprehensive product portfolio features workplace furnishings, technologies, and services. After conducting a survey which showed that 40 percent of workers waste up to 30 minutes a day looking for an available conference room (or equivalent space), Steelcase sought to make the office scheduling process more efficient. The company asked IDEO to design an affordable, straightforward system that would appeal to everyone from executive assistants to facilities managers and IT professionals. This request led to the development of the RoomWizard I and RoomWizard II. Room Wizard I: The first product in Steelcase’s Wizard Web Signs family of information appliances, RoomWizard I is a web-accessible touch-screen display that provides real-time status of shared meeting rooms, simplifying the process of reserving and managing those spaces. The device’s physical form is designed to be universal in order to blend into corporate architecture. Each RoomWizard is physically located on a wall outside a meeting room and connected to the organization’s network. All of a company’s RoomWizards, each connected to a single room, are managed from a single source to avoid the conflicts and interruptions that commonly occur in the workplace. By visiting a single corporate website, people can reserve a space or discover the name of an existing meeting’s leader or topic. Using the touch-screen interface, people can grab an unused conference room at the last minute without being disturbed, and the new reservation is immediately visible on the website. In addition, the RoomWizard I features red and green lights that allow users to see the status of a room at a glance. RoomWizard II: The second RoomWizard takes advantage of the many digital and technical improvements that have been made since the first-generation device was released in 2000. Elimination of the external power brick means that installation costs have dropped. The system caters to the mobile workplace, allowing for IT integration with Apple’s iPhone. The 7-inch LCD touchscreen offers incredible resolution and a durable, easy-to-clean surface. The red/green indicator lights that signal room availability are large and visible from the sides, front, and even from the back of the unit, which is helpful when the unit is mounted on glass (other options include drywall and freestanding furniture). The device mounts to the wall by each conference room and features ambient illumination so colleagues can see a room’s “availability status” from afar. Reservations and meeting times may be set up and managed either on the device or remotely (via the web) from a laptop or a smartphone. The system’s database connects to a company’s computer network to send reservation information to employees’ calendars, including those in stored in Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, and other popular email applications. The database also tracks room use and reservation patterns company-wide, enabling better planning by identifying trends that might otherwise go unnoticed. Both the RoomWizard I and the RoomWizard II are easy to install, use, administer, and scale. RoomWizards are the result of collaboration between Steelcase, IDEO, and the Appliance Studio, a UK-based firm that develops technology for information appliances. http://www.ideo.com/work/roomwizard1

Steelcase is the global leader in the office-furniture industry, with about $2.4 billion in revenue. Its comprehensive product portfolio features workplace furnishings, technologies, and services. After conducting a survey which showed that 40 percent of workers waste up to 30 minutes a day looking for an available conference room (or equivalent space), Steelcase sought to make the office scheduling process more efficient. The company asked IDEO to design an affordable, straightforward system that would appeal to everyone from executive assistants to facilities managers and IT professionals. This request led to the development of the RoomWizard I and RoomWizard II.

Room Wizard I: The first product in Steelcase’s Wizard Web Signs family of information appliances, RoomWizard I is a web-accessible touch-screen display that provides real-time status of shared meeting rooms, simplifying the process of reserving and managing those spaces. The device’s physical form is designed to be universal in order to blend into corporate architecture. Each RoomWizard is physically located on a wall outside a meeting room and connected to the organization’s network. All of a company’s RoomWizards, each connected to a single room, are managed from a single source to avoid the conflicts and interruptions that commonly occur in the workplace. By visiting a single corporate website, people can reserve a space or discover the name of an existing meeting’s leader or topic. Using the touch-screen interface, people can grab an unused conference room at the last minute without being disturbed, and the new reservation is immediately visible on the website. In addition, the RoomWizard I features red and green lights that allow users to see the status of a room at a glance.

RoomWizard II: The second RoomWizard takes advantage of the many digital and technical improvements that have been made since the first-generation device was released in 2000. Elimination of the external power brick means that installation costs have dropped. The system caters to the mobile workplace, allowing for IT integration with Apple’s iPhone. The 7-inch LCD touchscreen offers incredible resolution and a durable, easy-to-clean surface. The red/green indicator lights that signal room availability are large and visible from the sides, front, and even from the back of the unit, which is helpful when the unit is mounted on glass (other options include drywall and freestanding furniture). The device mounts to the wall by each conference room and features ambient illumination so colleagues can see a room’s “availability status” from afar. Reservations and meeting times may be set up and managed either on the device or remotely (via the web) from a laptop or a smartphone. The system’s database connects to a company’s computer network to send reservation information to employees’ calendars, including those in stored in Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, and other popular email applications. The database also tracks room use and reservation patterns company-wide, enabling better planning by identifying trends that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Both the RoomWizard I and the RoomWizard II are easy to install, use, administer, and scale. RoomWizards are the result of collaboration between Steelcase, IDEO, and the Appliance Studio, a UK-based firm that develops technology for information appliances.