Wizard: A series of logically organized functions to simplify the individual steps of a more complex task, such as creating rooms for example.
Service type: The service type defines the services a user can choose from on the tab "Services". If no service types were created, no tab "Services" will be shown. The service type requires the following information: Name, Description, optionally a Display Order and the selection of an Activity Type (does not apply to the online edition). An activity must have been created before. The service item then logically relates to the activity type.
User is always the one logged on when booking. In contrast to the organizer the user cannot be changed.
Direct booking: If the favored room can be booked directly (which usually is the case), it can be booked by the user instantly. Hence, no third person (e.g. a room administrator or secretary) needs to confirm the booking. Rooms that can be booked directly are immediately confirmed by the system, others require confirmation by the admin or soe. responsible. The column "Direct B." will only be displayed if there is at least one room in the system that cannot be booked directly.
For further information see confirmation by system/admin.
Drop-down-menu: is a field, where you cannot enter any characters, but select one of the given values only. All possible values will be displayed, when you scroll down in the menu.
Electronic device: a TFT-Diplay, for example build into a wall next to a door of the respective room, which can be controlled by DISPOROOM� and displays for example all bookings of that room that take place that day.
Receiving cost center: is the cost center that receives certain services and hence gets charged. The sending cost center will be discharged.
Floors: A floor requires a name and the selection of a building, in which the floor is located. The building must have been created before. The floor is then logically related to this building. For more information see logical dependencies.
Areas: The smallest unity in the "room hierarchy" of DISPOROOM� is not the room, but the area. A room can consits of one or several areas. (Usually it consists of one area.) For further information see the comments on compound rooms and logical dependencies.
To create an area the following information is required: area name, its size in m² and the selection of the floor the area is located on. Hence, the floor must have been created before. Optionally, a panel IP can be entered by which an external display (elektronic device) can be controlled. (This function is not part of the actual scope of DISPOROOM�).
Location: To create a building the following information is required: a name and the selection of an address where the building is situated. For further information see the comments on logical dependencies.
Kontierungsobjekt: Term taken from the operational cost allocation. Examples for Kontierungsobjekte are cost centers or internal orders.
Activity type: Term taken from Kosten- und Leistungsrechnung (accounting?) to classify activities, which are carried out by the individual cost centers. In DISPOROOM� an activity type is assigned to each room, equipment and service type. Each acitivity type is defined by an unit (hour or unit) and a price per unit. Through this the costs for using a specific activity can be calculated (room, equipment or services). The following activity types can be found in DISPOROOM�:
- Services: for service etc.
- Rent: for hiring rooms
- Equipment without availability check: equipment that can be ordered by the user on the tab "Equipment" when creating a booking and that does not require an availability check
- Equipment with availability check equipment that can be ordered by the user on the tab "Equipment" when creating a booking and that does require an availability check
- Permanent room equipment: equipment that is permanently located in a room (e.g. beamer, air-conditioning or blinds)
Room: A room is no item of the room hierarchy because a room does not necessarily belong to a floor or to a building (see compound rooms).
In order to create a room the following pieces of information are required: a room name, a short name, its capacity (minimal, optimal and maximum number of people), the selection of a room type and a related area. Room type, areas and activity types must have been created first. The room will then be logically linked to those elements. See logical dependencies.
Room type: A room type is an element that classifies different kinds of rooms. Room types carry certain characteristics which will be passed on to the rooms themselves. The room type herewith defines for example, whether a room can be booked directly or needs to be confirmed by the admin (administrator assignment).
A room type needs a name and a short name.
Room equipment: Equipment, that is permanently located in a room, such as permanently installed beamers, air-conditioning or blinds.
Supplying cost center: is the cost center that supplies an activity and hence will be credited for its service, i.e. it receives the amount due.
Serial booking: is a series of bookings that is created at the same time and recurs at a defined interval. The function "Create serial bookings" is very helpful when it comes to booking periodically recurring dates such as quarterly meetings or weekkly team meetings.To create a serial booking click in the submenu of "Booking" on "Create Serial Booking". For more information see Serial Bookings.
Master data, logical dependencies: All master data elements interdepend. Hence, there are elements that cannot be part of the system without the existence of other elements. For example, a floor is always part of a building and cannot exist on its own. Furthermore, a single element cannot be deleted from the system as long as another one logially reelates to it.
System-/administrator assignment: DISPOROOM� offers two different ways of assigning rooms to booking requests: the system and the administrator assignment. Which method DISPOROOM� will use, depends on the definition of each room type (e.g. "conference room", "representative meeting room" or "multimedia room"). When you setup DISPOROOM� and create different room types, you need to define whether the room types are subject to either system- or admin assignment.
System assignment: A room belonging to a room type, whose attribut is "system assignment", can directly be booked by the user. As soon as the user saved his/her booking he/she can be sure of having the room definately booked.
Administrator assignment: Rooms that depend on administrator assignment cannot be booked immediately, but only be requested. As soon as the user requests the room, it will appear on the admin's section "Booking Requests" in a list of bookings indicated as being not assigned yet. The admin can confirm it or assign the booking to any other room. It will be the responsibility of the admin to find a suitable room if he/she decides for an alternative.
System assignment is handy for "common" meeting rooms, the kind that is generally used for daily purposes.
Administrator assignment is ideal for representative rooms, training rooms etc., which should not be available for every member of staff. This can be ensured by admins who are in charge of confirming requests.
Of course, it is also possible to only use the system assignment in DISPOROOM�. Any comments regarding the administrator assignment will be removed automatically.
Note: Even if a requested room has not been confirmed by the admin, it will still be reserved. That means, that nobody else can request the selected room at the same time.
Equipment: Each equipment item must have an inventory number and needs to be assigned to an equipment type. The equipment type must have been created before. The piece of equipment then is connected to the equipment type. Optionally, the equipment item can be permanently installed on an area (only in Enterprise tariff). Here, the item is connected to the area. See logical dependencies.
Organizer is the person responsible who is entered in the field "Organizer". In contrast to the user the organizer can be changed. The entry fields concerning the organizer might have been blanked by your system administrator (parameter Selection of organizer required).
This enables DISPOROOM� to work with compound rooms. These can be booked by the user in various area combinations. For example, consists a room of 3 areas (A, B, C) it might be sensible to create 7 different rooms in the system:
If now room 1 is booked, all other rooms will be occupied too.
If room 2 is booked, room 7 will still be available.
Another advantage of the concept of compound rooms is the possibility to create virtual rooms and to highlight room dependencies.
The possibility of creating compound rooms is restricted to one building because such rooms can only consist of areas that are located in the same buildung.