EMS

Pros: I like EMS for its Robust scheduling and space management capabilities. The platform makes it easy to manage room bookings, resources, and services in a centralized system. The reporting features are also very helpful for tracking utilization and optimizing workspace efficiency. Additionally, the system is highly configurable, which allows organizations to tailor workflows based on their operational needs.

Cons: The user interface can feel somewhat dated and may require training for new users to navigate efficiently. Certain advanced configurations and integrations can also be complex to set up without technical support. In some cases, performance may slow down when handling large datasets or during peak usage times.

Pros: South Dakota State University has been utilizing EMS since 2000, first in a limited capacity for our facility to now, where it's evolved into the central clearing house for all things events! Our office is the administrator for the program and we provide training on standards and practices, so we have consistent event data across the university. We have automated reports, area service orders, reminders, approvals and confirmations that go to our clients and service providers. My Event Services area uses EMS for all invoicing, and our campus is slowly working towards migrating all departmental invoicing to a centralized bill driven by EMS. Recreating annual events is a breeze as legacy events are easily duplicated and modified. Overall, it's an excellent product with amazing customer service.

Cons: I do wish that there was a mobile desktop app. That would be helpful for some of our campus facility managers. BUT we've expanded access to the web app and are convinced that using the app as a self-service portal will allow the facility managers to simply approve/deny any requests that come into their facility. Web request notifications could be addressed once the facility managers get back to their desktops.

Pros: I love how you can so easily organize event details. I use it literally every single day in my line of work.

Cons: The fact that there is not an "undo" button or a "back" button. It would be so helpful especially if there was an undo button.

Pros: Great tool for event management on university campuses. Like that it can allow for multiple users on front and backend.

Cons: Customer support is very frustrating. Too many confusing charges for any small requests and for additional features. Dislike the limited ability to manage security parameters.

Pros: Everything is scheduled in one place -- it has become the university's standard for scheduling all events.

Cons: The desktop version is weird with all the windows. The web app version is weird sometimes when using "too many" search criteria.

Pros: Ease of use and looking forward to the mobile and AI integrations! I've utilized EMS with Banner and still found the usage easy.

Cons: Screen size. My eye site is not 20/20, so I've encountered issue of being able to see the screen easily. I've been to navigate around this issue for the present.

Pros: The Accruent academy and support from staff. We have created our own training videos using some of the academy's ideas to help our staff excel in capturing the proper information.

Cons: Need to capture more logistical information (volunteers, staff assignments, etc) and general budget.

Pros: The grid style "Book" makes it easy to see all rooms/buildings at once on any given day. Easy to cancel one booking within a reservation without having to cancel the whole recurrence. Easy to navigate.

Cons: Takes a while to refresh after "reviewing" or using other buttons. . Also, I have experienced a glitch when users go online to make changes to a recurrence. it doesn't always change back to "Web Request" in my dashboard. I have been working with Accruent for almost a year about this glitch.

Pros: Systematically I like the many options we have for event types, reports, emailing, not being able to double book, but ability to change the status to have multiple types of reservations in place at once. As an event team we appreciate the ability to have furniture, linens, houskeeping notes....notes in general for the events are heavily used and appreciated. A web base log in for campus wide students and faculty/staff to view is great....I could go on and on.

Cons: I would like to see an UNDO feature added, in case an error or mistake is made and it can take us back as many actions as needed. This may be possible, and I just haven't learned it yet, but it would help to have a save my place feature for if I could be in the middle of setting up a reservation, but I get interrupted with a random walk in request, and need to save it where I was, so I can return to it after I help the walk in. Again, this may be something I am just not aware of, but it would be great if we could pull data, like percentages of types of events reserved or how often a venue is used and divided out by type of event....Or how many events have been scheduled in a certain time frame. Basically if it could graph charts of data.

Pros: It's so easy to use when setting up events and for my external users to request usage of a location on our campus. Plus pulling reports is so easy and I can adjust to pull the exact data I need.

Cons: I wish I could get email notifications when I get a new request and sometimes a new request does not show up in my current notification report.

Pros: Very simple interface, with basic naviagations and intuititive process for data entry.

Cons: The platform lacked in ongoing development and updates, which translated to outdated options and buggy usage by our team. Customer service with this platform was extremely limited, and costly; with very little positive impact when contacting their support team.

Pros: Reliable, consistent integration with MS Outlook. Web client is good. Not a lot of jargony vocabulary to learn, intuitive for event planners. Integration of resources is easy, creating event templates is easy.

Cons: Does not work well with MAC, requires a secondary PC Desktop to work native on computer. Web client not as functional as native.

Pros: I have been using scheduling systems for over 25 years and EMS is the gold standard. It is intuitive, powerful, and does everything you need for scheduling meetings, events, classes, and much more. I have been lucky to have been able to implement several upgrades over years from EMS Lite to EMS Pro, and eventually to EMS Campus.

Cons: Compared to other scheduling solutions there is not much I don't like about EMS. The online interface can be a little slow at times.

Pros: EMS is a great tool. The more one understands the product the more it can do. The training has made our area even better.

Cons: not sure at this time. We will continue to work with the staff to find what works best for us.

Pros: Easy way to schedule appointments and verify insurance eligibility.

Cons: There are sometimes glitches in the system but they are usually fixed same day.

Pros: EMS is a powerful database that is able to retain a lot of complex data.

Cons: The search features are a bit old school -- they require people to know more about data entry than is currently taught in schools. Most people these days don't seem familiar with the concept of entering names last-name-first for example, but EMS still requires that 1st contact names be set up and searched for this way. I would advise either a more intelligent search feature that can search for a string ("george") as both a first and a last name or a new format that breaks the name down into two fields.

Pros: I love how easy it is to use and how we have integrated it throughout our campus.

Cons: Sometimes there are things that we need that it can not do, and we provide feedback, but do not feel like we are heard, except at the Insights conference. I feel like there our ideas are really heard.

Pros: It makes creating reservations, billing and creating invoices easier. I like that I can send the confirmation from the tool as well.

Cons: I currently do not have any cons as I am still learning the product

Pros: The ease of use and many different ways to use it on our campus

Cons: Some areas can be a bit cumbersome. Our billing process is very cumbersome. I will be meeting with someone from the genius bar today to see if it can be streamlined.

Pros: I like that people across campus can create reservations and include their Dining Services, Transportation Services, AV Services, etc. I like that Public Safety can see the number of people in a space at any given time.

Cons: The way it looks. It looks like it is from 1995. When I go to send a confirmation email, EMS outlines and puts into red words it does not know, or it glitches when I write anything in the email.

Pros: The granularity of being able to allow many schedulers throughout campus to schedule their own spaces.

Cons: Customer support when they moved from phone calls to online tickets.

Pros: Ability to add services and spaces in one place.

Cons: The EMS fat client is old and outdated. Makes it really hard for someone who manages one space.