Business centre giant embraces MBD technology.

A company that provides flexible office accommodation for businesses across the south has turned to an innovative digital agency to revolutionise its reception areas. Arena, which delivers high quality and bespoke serviced suites at seven prominent sites, called in MediaBase Direct (MBD) to modernise and futureproof front of office services.

Business centres operated by Arena in Southampton and Basingstoke and two in Fareham are now utilising MBD’s easily installed and customisable e-Reception Book by LEADR and Mailroom apps.

The apps developed by Segensworth and London-based MBD have replaced the traditional, non-compliant visitors’ book in reception areas across the country, and Arena is a big advocate of the system. The firm builds, design and develops mobile and web based products and solutions for a wide range of clients.

Arena Communications Manager Natasha Bance said: “We previously used a paper book with tear-out inserts for signing in visitors, which was cumbersome, time-consuming, inefficient and left visitor data on display – something we knew we needed to change in advance of the GDPR changes next year. “We have been delighted to have the opportunity to trial e-Reception Book and Mailroom at selected Arena offices and it has worked brilliantly for us. We have had many positive comments from visitors regarding the innovative new signing in procedure.

“Signing in to our business centres has now become more of a memorable process and that gives a lift to our business as visitors remember Arena as a hi-tech, modern environment.”

The e-Reception Book app enables visitors to swiftly sign in – and then sends a welcome email with vital, customisable data such as fire and safety information to those who opt in to receive.

After the visitor signs out, a ‘thank you for coming’ email is generated, enhancing their experience.

Natasha added: “The system frees up our centre teams to concentrate on managing the centre – and the chance of error is eliminated as the person being visited is also sent an email to say their visitor has arrived. “System administrators can see immediately who is in the building at any time on the easy-to-use dashboard – and, crucially, the app is entirely compliant with the strict new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) privacy laws being introduced next May.”

Arena – established by directors Sharron Domanska and Helen Deverill in 2003 and now hosting 300 separate businesses over 260,000 sq ft in Southampton, Fareham, Basingstoke, Farnborough, Poole and Ferndown – is also embracing MBD’s Mailroom app. It is a simple way to automatically help manage parcel and package deliveries, which works on any smartphone or tablet device and only takes minutes to set up. It syncs to the e-Reception Book dashboard and the two features are often used together.

The way Mailroom works is that when a parcel delivery arrives, the receptionist takes a quick picture of it and emails it to the intended recipient who is immediately aware something is waiting for them.

Natasha said: “We trialled Mailroom last year and the version we use now is even more sophisticated. “It simply means than no phone calls are necessary from reception to tell recipients that their parcels have arrived, which is especially important given the nature of our multi-tenant office spaces. “This used to take a considerable amount of time, especially with lots of parcels arriving in the run-up to Christmas, and was prone to difficulty if clients were away from their desks. “Now, with the emails and pictures, clients are coming to collect their parcels much more quickly and are able to identify them easily – which means much less clutter in our reception! “It is a much better process and a great improvement on what we had before.”

MBD Head of Product Daniel Jain said: “Our e-Reception Book is becoming indispensible for businesses who must meet strict new GDPR, and other important data protection legislation criteria. “We have worked hard to produce this app to ensure all data capture is fully compliant and opt-in friendly – making cumbersome and expensive visitor books obsolete. “Customers can also benefit through data conversion to actionable information via fully automated intelligent email alerts, fast email cleaning, intelligent screening and fast validation processes – boosting awareness and response rates.”

Daniel added: “Helping hundreds of companies move from paper-based capture forms to using our LEADR Data Capture app to compliantly meet with the constantly changing data protection legislation has been one of our biggest achievements to date.