Hybrid working creates a basic planning problem: workplace teams rarely know how many people will arrive, where they will want to sit or how much of the office will be occupied.
Desk booking software lets employees check availability and reserve a workspace before travelling to the office. Some platforms also handle meeting rooms, parking and other shared resources, and report on occupancy and utilisation.
The useful differences between platforms come down to usability, resource coverage, integrations, administration and pricing.
What makes good desk booking software?
Booking a desk is only one part of managing a hybrid workplace. The system needs to be easy for employees to use, while giving workplace teams the flexibility and visibility they need. IT teams will also want to know that it is secure, scalable and straightforward to manage.
- Interactive office floor plans
- Desk and meeting room booking
- Parking space booking
- Visibility of who is coming into the office
- Microsoft Teams and calendar integration
- Check-in and automatic release of unused bookings
- Workplace utilisation analytics
- Assigned desks and flexible seating
- Team zones and neighbourhoods
- Multiple office locations
- Single Sign-On and automated user provisioning
- Flexible booking rules and permissions
Not every organisation will need all of these features. Your priorities will depend on how your offices operate today and how you expect them to change.
Viewteam: Flexible desk booking for hybrid workplaces
Viewteam has been designed specifically to make managing a hybrid workplace simple.
Employees can book desks, meeting rooms, parking spaces and other workplace resources using interactive floor plans, while seeing who else is planning to be in the office. Viewteam also includes a built-in floor plan creator, allowing organisations to design and customise their own office floor plans directly within the platform, without needing external design tools.
In a hybrid workplace, people often choose to come into the office because they want to work alongside particular colleagues or teams. Viewteam gives employees visibility of who else is coming in makes it easier to coordinate office days and get more value from time spent together.
Alongside bookable desks, organisations can create permanently assigned spaces, team zones and areas for individuals or groups. Check-in and automatic release also help with no-shows. If someone books a desk but doesn’t use it, the space can automatically be released for somebody else to book.
For workplace teams, utilisation analytics provide insight into how desks, rooms and locations are actually being used, helping organisations make better decisions about capacity and office space.
For organisations already using Microsoft 365, Viewteam can be accessed directly through Microsoft Teams, with Microsoft SSO included and SCIM provisioning and Outlook integration available for organisations requiring more advanced IT administration.
How does Viewteam compare with other desk booking software?
Viewteam is designed around ease of use, straightforward pricing and seamless integration with Microsoft Teams, but there are plenty of desk booking platforms available, and each takes a slightly different approach.
- deskbird and Kadence provide broad workplace management platforms with functionality aimed at organisations wanting to manage more than desk reservations.
- Skedda offers detailed space-booking functionality and uses a pricing model based around the number of spaces being managed.
- Officely takes a collaboration-led approach, putting much of the booking experience inside Microsoft Teams and Slack.
- PULT, Flexwhere and Deskfound offer alternative pricing models or specific collaboration integrations.
The right choice ultimately depends on the size of your organisation, the complexity of your workplace and the systems your employees already use.
Pay attention to price
It’s tempting to compare desk booking platforms purely on price, but different suppliers structure their subscriptions in different ways. Some charge per registered employee, while others charge according to active users, physical spaces or locations. Certain functionality may also only be available on higher-priced plans.
That can make two apparently similar prices difficult to compare. Look at what you will actually need to deploy the system across your organisation. Consider setup charges, minimum contracts, feature restrictions and additional modules, as well as the monthly subscription.
Viewteam uses a simpler per-user pricing model. No hidden costs, no set-up fees. Just two price points depending on your organisation’s needs:
- Essentials is £1.50 per user per month and includes desk, room and parking booking, Microsoft Teams integration, check-in and auto-release, workplace analytics and Microsoft SSO.
- Enterprise is £2.50 per user per month includes everything in Essentials and adds functionality including SCIM provisioning and Outlook integration.
Viewteam also offers a 30-day free trial with no credit card required.
Which desk booking software should you choose?
Start with your workplace rather than the software. Think about what an employee needs when they decide to come into the office. They should be able to see whether a suitable desk is available, find somewhere near their team and, where necessary, reserve a meeting room or parking space too. Ideally, they can do all of that through tools they already use.
Then look at what your workplace and IT teams need behind the scenes: simple floor plan management, flexible booking rules, efficient user administration, no-show management and enough utilisation data to understand how your office is really being used.
The best system is one employees will use without prompting and workplace teams can administer without workarounds. Test several shortlisted platforms with real users and typical booking scenarios before signing a contract. A trial will expose friction that a feature comparison won’t.
When comparing them, look beyond the Teams logo on the integrations page. Ask the supplier to demonstrate exactly what an employee can do from inside Teams, which actions open another application, how Microsoft authentication works and how users are provisioned. Those differences become much more important when you are deploying the system across an entire organisation.
See how Viewteam compares
Viewteam brings desk, room and parking booking together with interactive floor plans, Microsoft Teams integration, workplace analytics and flexible workplace controls – all in one straightforward platform.
Want to see how it works? Try Viewteam free for 30 days. No credit card required.