The place where our team meets regularly is also home to one of our biggest use cases: the coworking space. Together with the digitalHUB Aachen, we have developed a solution that not only lives up to the HUB's name, but is also user-friendly and time-saving.
You have to imagine the premises of the digitalHUB Aachen. In the center, the large hall, a ceiling height of a good 20 meters and colorfully glazed windows. In fact, we are in a profaned church, in which renowned projects and companies have already started their path to success since 2016. In addition to its use as a coworking space, the digitalHUB also offers rooms for meetings, cultural and private events.
With the booking of these rooms hid an initially inconspicuous challenge.
"Before we introduced the room booking tool from anny, we had a semi-automated process knitted together from various tools. The problem was that customers did not have an overview of free capacities and often requested room bookings by phone or mail despite the online tool. Internally, we had to process the data manually. Due to the different interfaces, which were not synchronized in real time, there was a risk of double bookings. Other solutions besides anny either didn't reflect our requirements or were very expensive." - Iris Wilhelmi, Managing Director of digitalHUB Aachen
Together with the digitalHUB, the core problems were highlighted and solutions developed. In the meantime, rooms with various equipment and soon also appointments with startup coaches can be booked online here.
For some resources, a distinction is made between external users and members of the coworking space. Phone booths, for example, can only be booked by members. Visitors and members of the HUB can also view the room occupancy directly on site at any time, as this is coupled with digital indoor navigation in the form of displays.
The digitalHUB has also managed to combine resources through clever use of the properties and add-on function. In this way, even the coffee flat rate is digitally mapped in a sophisticated way.
One of the most obvious advantages is the time saved.
"Booking processing is now automated for us and double bookings are a thing of the past. With 300 external bookings at around 5 minutes per booking, our time savings are three full working days per year. If you include the changes caused by incorrect bookings or double bookings, the time savings are even greater." - Iris Wilhelmi, Managing Director of digitalHUB Aachen
Among the employees of the digitalHUB, the system of anny has long since established itself. The Managing Director of digitalHUB, Iris Wilhelmi, notes that internal processes have also become faster and easier since the introduction. Time savings on the customer and employee side!
In the meantime, we have also integrated our shift schedule into anny, as well as the overview of the occupancy of our desks under Corona conditions. So, by the way, the tool is also a great aid for our team organization during the Corona pandemic." - Michael Rosentreter, Head of Administration at the digitalHUB Aachen
The true potential of a new system
One notices that due to external circumstances, new use cases occur that deviate from the original problem. Only through active use of a new system can one measure the actual potential. Use cases that one would never have thought of at the beginning suddenly become a central component.
From our side of the developers, a close exchange with the customers is also valuable, because a complex problem can rarely be grasped by a single glance. Rather, it is a process of mutual feedback that makes a solution unique and drives it forward. Our booking system is built in such a way that it can be constantly "upgraded" with improved and new features.
"What we are particularly excited about is the modular structure of the tool, through which we are constantly discovering new application possibilities: for example, that startups can also book consulting appointments with our coaches via the tool and we can coordinate our consultation days through it." [...] Due to the physical proximity as well as the constant communication, requests for changes or adjustments were usually implemented immediately in updates." - Michael Rosentreter, Head of Administration at digitalHUB Aachen
The impetus for ZOOM integration
The digitalHUB's far-reaching network in the startup scene finally led anny finally led to a special use case. In the context of the events "AC²-Gründerabend" and "AC²-Wachstumsabend" of the GründerRegion Aachen, the integration of the video conferencing tool ZOOM was realized and successfully used. Other integrations like the one to the CRM system Weclapp enable seamless invoicing.
Modern collaboration is agile and cross-network.
The coworking space of the digitalHUB Aachen is now not only a beloved home of the anny team, but also one of our most important partners and supporters, whose feedback and recommendations we value very much.
"In addition to the many possibilities that anny offers us as customers with its development, I am pleased that the modular structure of the tool for anny has created a great digital business model." - Iris Wilhelmi, Managing Director of digitalHUB Aachen
"Right from the start, the team took time for our problems and implemented a large number of our wishes in the first launch with a high degree of professionalism. All in all, I find the collaboration with anny very straightforward and goal-oriented." - Michael Rosentreter, Head of Administration at digitalHUB Aachen
We from anny would like to thank you for the cooperation and are pleased that the digitalHUB Aachen is setting a good example for many coworking spaces.
