Case Study

The Department of Risk and Security Management at the University of Applied Sciences (FH Campus, Wien) uses MeetingBooster to optimize its meetings

Background

With around 5,800 students, FH Campus Wien is the largest university of applied sciences in Austria. In the 2016/17 academic year, students have been offered a choice of over 50 bachelor and master degree programs as well as master courses on a part-time or full-time basis in the departments of Applied Life Sciences, Building and Design, Health, Public Management, Social Work and Engineering. FH Campus Wien extends across four sites: Vienna-Favoriten, Campus Vienna Biocenter, Muthgasse-BOKU, Schloss Laudon-Oktogon and three teaching partner sites of the Vinzenz Group in Vienna, Linz and Ried. In the autumn of 2015, two other universities of applied sciences have been added to the facilities of the Vienna Hospital Association (KAV). FH Campus Wien cooperates with the Universities of Vienna, MedUni Vienna, BOKU, Vetmeduni Vienna, TU Vienna, MU Leoben and Uni Innsbruck. Therapeutic and diagnostic health studies, which include midwifery training, are conducted in collaboration with the KAV and the Vinzenz Group. Public Management and Tax Management courses were developed in cooperation with the Federal Chancellery and the Federal Ministry of Finance respectively. Numerous R&D projects that are part of the study courses and external contract research are conducted through specific research companies. FH Campus Wien is networked with various companies, associations, schools and public institutions. In addition, recognized certifications testify to the high standards in quality management held at the university.

Case Study

Various types of meeting are held in the Risk and Safety Management department, from recurring meetings, such as the weekly status meeting, the monthly PR and Alumni meeting or the Research meeting, to the many meetings generated by all our ongoing improvement projects. Since the department employs a large number of part-time lecturers (about 100) in addition to full-time staff, effective collaboration, and above all, reliable documentation, is crucial. Even when minutes are produced, searching in the various documents is difficult and tracking tasks almost impossible. It’s common experience that if an agreement reached during a meeting only becomes relevant a few months later, by then it is highly likely that it will be overlooked or completely forgotten.

It was therefore decided to acquire appropriate software for the management of our meetings. After drawing up an internal specification, several suppliers were approached and two products were tested in real operation. MeetingBooster stood out, as both the scope of the functionalities and their ease of use were convincing.

With MeetingBooster, we can now search for objectives in the meeting minutes, track all tasks, and manage the minutes in a collaborative manner. This is particularly significant for an experts’ organization insofar as the relevant points can best be documented by the people who introduce them. Thus, many tedious and costly feedback loops can be avoided.

Conclusion

With the introduction of MeetingBooster, our effectiveness and efficiency has improved significantly, and MeetingBooster has become an important management tool for us. With MeetingBooster, we have increased our productivity, while also satisfying the requirements of senior management and external supervisory authorities with solid and reliable meeting documentation.