As a business we understand the complexity and challenge of facility management. We started out in the MRI sector but have branched out to include Flow Cytometry, Microscopy, Cryo-Em and many more types of facilities across the world. In this blog post I am going to outline why projects are important for use in Calpendo for any type of facility. I will also touch on their flexibility but for a more detailed overview of this I encourage you to register for our upcoming webinar on projects in Calpendo by clicking here.
Regardless of the size of a facility and how many resources are present in it we know that a lot of bookings are made on a regular basis. These bookings can be made by many different users, using different costing models or for different customers but sometimes working for the same principal investigator whilst that PI is also making bookings themselves.
There’s a lot going on, and when the end of the month usage report is needed, it is useful to have a structure in place to collate and understand these bookings.
A project provides this structure. Bookings are attached to a Project which can hold top level information such as the principal investigator or funding details and this reduces the amount of information a user would need to input when making a booking..
Our highly customisable reports can then break down these bookings by projects for a macro view, or provide focussed reports – for example a monthly report sent out to each principal investigator detailing their own projects’ usage.
The ability to capture the information you want at the project level leads to increased flexibility in the types of reports you can produce. With even the possibility to redefine what a project is called and how it is used in Calpendo you have many ways in which bookings in your facility can be managed.
Calpendo can also limit users to only be able to book resources which are listed against an authorised project of which they must be a member. Together with the status options on a project, and the default behaviour to only make bookings against approved projects, you would have the confidence to know that a user would not be able to submit a project and book against it without your knowledge and approval.
Of course, resources do not always need a project to be booked against but as a means of structuring how your facility is used they are extremely powerful. If you are already a Calpendo customer and would like to know more about how you can use projects we hope to see you at the webinar or send us an email. If you are not using Calpendo already why not come and chat to us about a free trial of Calpendo.