Timetabling, Space Management, Room bookings software solutions

Description

Leeds Trinity University seeks advice from independent market participants with a view to developing the scope and specifications needed to plan and conduct its procurement procedures. No call for competition has been made, and no contract award opportunity identified. All relevant information exchanged or resulting from this preliminary market consultation will be documented and may be communicated to other candidates and tenderers participating in any resultant procurement procedure. Introduction: Leeds Trinity University needs to be able to manage and optimise the use of all physical spaces including collaboration spaces, pods, desks, teaching spaces, offices and so on. As we strive to deliver an unrivalled student experience, our use of digital technology should enable a cultural transformation of the way we work, study, and connect stakeholders. We are cautious about the introduction of additional standalone systems, and where appropriate, consolidation or rationalisation is preferred to engender efficiency, and reduce dependencies on integration with other systems. We are limited in capacity to support systems development, and therefore any 'off the shelf' solutions, may be advantageous in the first instance, though the correct solution will be considered, not just speed of deployment. Our priority is to instate a new timetabling and space management solution. We envisage that timetabling solutions may go hand in hand with other space management platforms, room booking systems etc. We wish to learn how the market is organised in providing such solutions, what these solutions offer, and how (or if) these systems might work together. Our current timetabling system delivers the core functionality of timetabling, providing individual, customised timetables for each student which capture the breadth of the co-curricular offer alongside scheduled learning and teaching sessions. With ambitions for students to be able to manage additional appointments in their diaries and coordinate informal study sessions, we believe we can further improve the student experience of interacting with their timetable The functionality of any future system will need to be adaptable, e.g, to accommodate growth in non-credit-bearing short courses, and in the apprenticeship market, which we envisage will bring non-standard timetabling requirements. The system will need to be responsive to changing pedagogy, evolving practices of hybrid and blended learning and provide real time availability for impromptu demand. Our current Room Bookings product is no longer being developed by the vendor, who continues to provide basic support for the product. This doesn't prohibit further development or integrations; however, these would need to be developed internally and capabilities would be limited to current functionality. We currently use more than one system for space management, and operates CAFM which is integral to estate operation and maintenance.