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.

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.

Ok, but not as good as previous

Comments: Managing Rooms for events

Pros:

Very powerful software and it can serve your organization regardless of size (and can expand with you as you grow. They have moved into the online presence very well and we have used them as a company with close to 100 rooms with little complaint.

Cons:

We've used EMS for years and i would brag that there software was my favorite to use as a systems admin. easy to deploy and do monthly updates. However, that has dropped off severely in the last year or two. While it is not bad, it does not rise to the quality that I have come to expect from them.

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The EMS fat client is old and outdated.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.

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 - 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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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 Software

Comments: Overall it's very powerful and wonderful to use. Implementation wise it's piece-mill. I would highly recommend before any University purchases it, they get buy in from campus leadership about unifying scheduling policies on campus before moving forward. Don't be cheap, get everything you need up front. Implementing it piece by piece is terrible especially if you have to engage multiple areas on campus to implement anything like we do. It's like herding wild buffalo... and that is because we didn't know better up front and we're staggering along with a ton of legacy issues because of it.

Pros:

I love using and training ffolks in the software. It's robust and generally anyone who feels comfortable using a PC will enjoy it. We host the database, and the test and dev environment on our own servers in our computing center on campus rather than the cloud offerings by Accruent but a smaller university can really benefit from that service. It is an amazing and very flexible software, easy to train users on it and set up spaces and special use facilities fantastically .

Cons:

Does not work for Apple OS, Web Client is not updated to keep up with newer versions of EMS Client so can cause template bugs and issues in teh client if items are created in the Everyday users admin tools. The mobile application is not really viable or working properly on the platform services, and the UIX is terrible according to any of my users who are trying it out. . They both seem to be the ugly step child of the client software. Support is more generic ticketing and less helpful and frustrating to engage with. It used to be one day turn around on solutions to an issue, it takes forever now. usually gets lost in ticket system hell, and they nickle and dime licenses under "professional services" outside of the paid for service agreement under accruents ownership these days. They close tickets before solving the problem to keep their "ticket" stats looking good I guess for potential buyers of the product it seems. Obviously it frustrates me as I've used the product since 2008 and loved it until the purchase of it by accruent.

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.

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

Lots to Offer, Lots to Learn

Comments: EMS is very complicated up front because of everything that it offers. There are so many different uses and parts of the software, so it does have a steep learning curve. However, once you learn the system and its shortcuts, it is very useful and offers a lot for your organization.

Pros:

I appreciate all of the different functions that this software offers. I use the reporting, calendar, and billing systems almost daily, and could not do my job without them. I am lucky that my designated customer service rep is knowledgeable in EMS, and can quickly guide me through any questions that come up.

Cons:

Before switching to EMS Campus, the biggest issue we had was that only two users at a time could be on the software. Our team was too big for this, but once switching to Campus, it has been resolved. With EMS Campus, my biggest pet peeve is that everyone on our umbrella account has their own information in each drop down menu throughout the system, so it is difficult to keep the system clean and overly personalized for our office.

Complex, yet easy at the same time.

Comments: We used EMS for internal and external events within our organization. We recently switched to Communico and I'm desperately missing EMS, which seemed built for our needs. We could easily tell what events were internal and which ones were external, what was a meeting and what was a special event.

Pros:

EMS let us view all of our events happening in one day on one easy-to-view screen. I could easily sort via a drop down and insert things like furniture, a/v needs, and other information by copying it over from another event. I also liked the ability to copy an entire event without having to do much work. Reports are easy to read. I liked that I could see who created each event so I knew who to contact if I had questions.

Cons:

There's a lot going on with this software. It seemed as though some ways of doing things were convoluted, but once I figured it out, it was easy. It was a little slow at times, but we DID have an outdated version.

Great software, not so great support

Comments: I enjoyed working with the software. It was easy and did everything that I wanted it to do.

Pros:

EMS is a robust platform with so many functionalities. It is relatively easy to learn and use. Their manual and online help resources are good.

Cons:

I was disappointed with the sales rep for our account. We had been clients for several years and had the software on our server. When we made the decision to go cloud-based, there were other companies that were anxious to talk immediately and give us sample accounts to test. When I asked for the same from EMS, our sales rep was too busy for us. He wouldn't even set up an appointment less than one month out. I felt that he wasn't interested in our business so we switched to another company.

EMS

Comments: Overall this works very well for us and keeps a large organization running efficiently.

Pros:

EMS has proven to be a good organization system for room bookings. We use it internally for a large synagogue where there are multiple classrooms and function rooms that are used all day, every day between the synagogue staff, day school staff and religious school staff.

Cons:

The "look" of it is very antiquated. There must be a more attractive platform on which to present this software. Also, you have to go through (sometimes hard-to-find) wizards to duplicate booking details, and it always seemed like there must be a smoother way to accomplish that step.

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.

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

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.

Easiest tool for setting meetings

Comments: Overall, EMS is an important tool in our day-to-day meetings. Overall, it is an easy software to use for setting up meetings. It's very responsive and has never crashed on me or disconnected my calls. I would high recommend for any businesses that operate virtually to use EMS as a video conference program.

Pros:

The most I liked about using EMS is how easy it is to set up conference rooms for meetings. Compared to zoom, EMS has an easier interface and can allow my teammates to simply join rooms for meetings and set up scheduled times. In addition, the video conference calls are high in quality.

Cons:

The least I liked about this software would probably be the interface. While it's easy to use, the UI may need an update in appearance as it appears to be outdated.

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

Powerful tool with clunky interface

Pros:

EMS has a lot of powerful features and robust reporting. Their customer service is always willing to go the extra mile to help you out.

Cons:

EMS pushes updates to the software at least monthly but a lot of bugs go unnoticed. Some of their notification features, the Web App and Room Sign App/Kiosk leaves much to be desired. I don't always feel that EMS values the input of their customers.