Challenge.

As employees split their time between the office, home and hybrid teams, workplace practices continue to evolve. To support these changing ways of working, TOYOTA Deutschland wanted to establish more efficient resource planning at its headquarters in Cologne, making better use of meeting rooms and managing available resources more effectively. The company was therefore looking for a solution that employees could use immediately, without training, directly from within Outlook. At the same time, the system needed the flexibility to suggest appropriately sized rooms, make better use of available capacity and support ad hoc bookings. Integration with room displays was another requirement and all of this had to be achieved while maintaining a highly intuitive user experience. What’s more, the solution also needed to provide the option of introducing workspace booking in the future.

We wanted a solution that was genuinely easy to use, and Bechtle understood that from the outset. With BELOS©, our employees can now book meeting rooms directly while scheduling appointments, with room allocation handled intelligently in the background. Even during the consulting phase, the focus was always on our actual requirements rather than adding functionality for the sake of it.

Tom Lanzrath, Project Manager / IT System Engineering, TOYOTA Deutschland GmbH

Solution.

Bechtle found the right solution in BELOS©, a flexible platform for managing appointments, events, rooms and resources that also works as a standalone room-booking solution. Integrated directly into Outlook via an add-in, the platform allows employees to see available rooms at a glance and select a space that matches the number of participants. Best of all, regardless of the number of users, only a single licence is required. The system also helps make the best use of available space by automatically directing bookings to suitable rooms with spare capacity, improving overall room utilisation. To complement the solution, Bechtle installed BELOS©-compatible smart displays, enabling rooms to be booked directly on site whenever needed. Software, displays and user interface work together as an integrated system, providing a stable and seamless user experience, while management is handled through a web interface that allows additional rooms to be added easily, provides reports on room utilisation and identifies opportunities for further optimisation. Additional capabilities such as workspace booking can also be enabled whenever required.

Business benefits.

  • Intuitive room booking: Employees can book meeting rooms directly from their Outlook calendar without any training.
  • Better use of available space: Helps reduce unused capacity and provides clear visibility into room availability.
  • Future-ready platform: Can be expanded at any time with additional features such as workspace booking.
  • Intelligent resource management: Automatically suggests suitable rooms and helps optimise utilisation.
  • Simple management: Allows TOYOTA Deutschland to add or remove rooms independently whenever required.
  • Flexible licensing model: Thanks to BELOS©’s modular design, a single licence enables any number of employees to book any number of rooms.
  • On-site booking: Meeting rooms can be booked directly via the display, making ad hoc reservations quick and straightforward.
  • Clear utilisation insights: Detailed reporting provides visibility into room usage and supports informed decision-making.