EMS Reviews

Exceptional product and very user friendly

Comments: Overall EMS Event Management Software is very easy to use and tracks data very well. The reporting options that are available are very helpful to get out to our staff and tracking events and billing is very easy to do.

Pros:

I really enjoyed all the capabilites EMS has with its event booking software. It is very customizable and easy to book and track events. It made event planning very easy when we manage thousands of events per year.

Cons:

There isn't much I do not like about this software. EMS does have a bigger software that allows you to customize for different user groups who oversee different venues within the operation but I do wish they had a smaller version of this.

Bethel University Administrator

Comments: All in all, it's a good experience. Hoping that there will be more improvements and enhancements coming, but all in all, it's a good product.

Pros:

Fairly robust options when it comes to scheduling and event management. It is very hard to create double bookings, which happened weekly with our old software. It is fairly intuitive and easy for most WebApp users to "get" pretty quickly out of the gate. Reports to share information with campus partners is detailed and customizeable so they can see what they need to see or want to see, they can just get their info, or they can see info for the whole event.

Cons:

I don't know what industry standards are, but it seems pretty pricy for the annual license. Also, I wish that customer suggestions or fix ideas were taken more to heart - I have suggested several things and pointed out errors that are deemed as "Will not implement" when clearly something should be done. Also, timeliness on what they do promise has been an issue. They say this is coming, and then 2 years go by and it's still not there. -- that was more in my early days of using it - I think that has stopped because they know they do not want to promise something and then take years to deliver.

EMS, understanding

Comments: We use EMS for all our events and will soon add some digital signage that connects to EMS.

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.

User-friendly compared to other systems but missing features

Pros:

At this time, I am able to complete everything I need with EMS (specifically Web Client EMS). You can customize your reports and easily schedule events. You can also add as much or as little detail as you need.

Cons:

Customer Service has not been easy to work with (at least for us as Web based clients) and usually can not fix our issues. We have to fix them ourselves.

JMU's experience with EMS

Comments: We've been using EMS since 2012 and have been very pleased with the product. It's used throughout our campus and we have about 95% of our spaces in EMS (vehicles, outdoor spaces, promotional spaces, info tables, etc).

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.

EMS Use on a Small Campus

Comments: I have been happy with the product. As EMS has grow within Accruent it has been harder to know our reps and get basic support

Pros:

I like the layout and structure and power of event organization

Cons:

Overtime where they have developed has been more for flex space and international business I feel and less the original higher ed use and it need to coordinate with gmail

Great Database But could be more user friendly

Comments: I have worked with EMS 10 years and was part of the configuration process. I find it's a very powerful database that is vastly better than other alternatives I have seen. however, my experience has been one of seeing my coworkers abandoning the database in favor of other platforms they find more user-friendly. Our IT department abandoned it in favor of Service Now, our catering staff abandoned it in favor a catering-specific product, and my new department head prefers to use Salesforce because she likes the reporting feature better, even though EMS does a better job of resource management.

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.

love it, but customer service solutions could improve

Comments: I have been using EMS for over 10 years both in a configuration role and day to day use for event reservations, invoicing, etc. I love it, and teach others on my campus to love it also. There are a few significant changes I would love to see, but overall I love the program and how much it helps with event planning and space reservations

Pros:

functionality and ability to configure for many different use cases

Cons:

customer service support when there are issues. jump through a lot of hoops submitting tickets and have to ask 7 times or more for a video call. this makes every ticket take months to resolve.

EMS scheduler

Comments: As a "super" scheduler on our campus I use EMS heavily. I keep al of the info stored for all of our simple to complex reservations. It is helpful to have an all in one tool

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.

Easy Scheduling

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.

EMS - Great product, unlike others out there

Comments: We've been using EMS since early 2013 and have implemented several buildings, teams and other things since then. We have recently expanded to our academic classes as well

Pros:

The usability and functionality of the product The wizard The tools - especially the ability to manipulate certain pieces of the reservation The reporting and queries

Cons:

The 50 character limit on so many things The inability to copy diagrams easily The user interface (which may be fixed) The boxy-ness of the desktop client (which may be fixed soon!)

EMS - it gets the job done

Comments: My overall experience using EMS has been ok. We use it at all times at work. We currently have over 400 space managers on campus. I have trained several of them. Many of them have said they wish EMS were laid out different. Everyone thinks you have to click "confirmation" instead of "change status" to change the status.

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.

LeTourneau University and EMS

Comments: I have loved diving into the reporting and figuring out how to make it work the best for our campus.

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.

EMS Survey

Comments: Very disppointed with support a couple years ago but now it's a bit better. It still would be nice if there was an online chat option for help here and there with the sysem. I usually have to search and search the help documentation and take a few guesses if I need to implement something new.

Pros:

I like that it will not allow me to double book anything... unless I really insist. I like the calendar feature

Cons:

It's very hard to figure out and find features that help to get the job done. Support to do so was very poor but seems to have gotten better lately. There's a strange, back-door type method to fix the configuration on a combo room but I appreciate knowing the trick

Overall positive experience

Comments: Very good- once you figure out the system it’s more or less easy to use, the only issue is making it make sense to a non-tech based user

Pros:

Utilization, easy layout in the dashboard. Minimal imaging, updated training academy

Cons:

Clunky to edit post creation rooms, not entirely logical user interface

System Administrator

Comments: Great product that meets our needs. Easy to use and move around for our students.

Pros:

Functionality and ease of use. We love the interactive nature.

Cons:

Sometimes customer service has suffered but it is getting better every day.

EMS Space and Event Management

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.

Scheduling and engagement manager

Comments: Overall my experience with EmS has been positive however the interface could be better for the desktop client.

Pros:

I like the ability for desktop users to manage space requests. I also like the ability to add services to requests.

Cons:

I would like to be able to manage reservations at the booking level rather than the reservation level to allow seamless management of reservations across multiple departments.

EMS the good and the bad

Comments: I schedule, run reports, add academic classes

Pros:

Being able to create views and areas to see spaces that I use more often.

Cons:

Sometimes hard to find the help I am looking for.

Excellent Scheduling Tool

Comments: Excellent, very consistent and reliable tool

Pros:

ease of scheduling and communicating to both customers and vendors

Cons:

Limited ability to customize the webapp tool for customer use

From a newbie!

Comments: Very positive and well received by users.

Pros:

The ability to interact with the end user. The previous product we used did not allow the end user to access their reservation/request changes in real time.

Cons:

It's a pro and a con... There is just so much. It is everchanging.

EMS Solution's

Comments: Still working on the usage and knowledge base.

Pros:

The scheduling system, Reporting, reports

Cons:

configuration, Master calendar, billing

Very funconal

Comments: very help affordable software that allows us to reserve spaces all over campus.

Pros:

We like EMS as it has a lot of flexibility that allows us to use it how we want to.

Cons:

the lack of an api for integration. we wanted to integrate more with it but couldn't accomplish what we wanted.

Office coordinator

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

IDA likes EMS

Comments: we love it--very easy to use for reserving conference rooms -- 250 plus conference rooms in two HQ buildings

Pros:

very easy to use for entire company--1000 plus

Cons:

would love to take EMS to the cloud; we have EMS on-prem software right now