Custom Database & Scheduling Diary

The Client 

Prompting Plus is one of the UK’s leading autocue and teleprompting companies. It provides equipment and staff for TV, video, conferences and live events.

Clients include major broadcast outlets including BBC News, ITV, Sky and BT Sport as well as many corporate clients such as Jaguar Land Rover and Sainsburys. 

The Challenge 

Despite its extensive sector coverage and client base, Prompting Plus is run by a small team of administrators. Founder & MD Pete Larter approached us as they wanted to improve the elements that are required to manage their hire bookings; 

• Equipment (e.g. autocue machines, laptops etc). 
• Staff (e.g. camera & teleprompter operators). 
• Content (e.g. autocue scripts, schedules). 
• Logistics (e.g. hotel and travel bookings). At the time, Pete and his team were managing bookings using a mixture of paper-based systems and Excel spreadsheets. With the number of jobs increasing rapidly, this mixture of systems was making it hard to keep tabs on all the logistics.

The Solution

We built a cloud-based database solution that stores all the information related to each booking in one central database.

Built on Microsoft technologies and hosted on Microsoft’s own ultra-secure Azure platform, the system offers a range of features including;

Availability Checker

Prompting Plus uses a team of over 20 freelance autocue operators. Prior to the new system, checking their availability meant a time-consuming ring-round.

However, the new system has speeded things up massively. Now, when a job is added the system sends a text message to operators’ phones, giving them details of the job. Operators indicate their availability directly from the text by replying ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.

With availability now known and logged in the system, Pete and his team can allocate the job to one or more operators. Operators then get an email and text confirming their booking.

Client Portal

Prompting Plus’ customers can manage their own bookings using the new system. They can;

• View all their bookings (past, confirmed and pencilled).
• Book new events.
• Upload scripts schedules and call sheets.
• Store hotel bookings and travel documents.
• Send emails or SMS to the Prompting Plus office or operators assigned to their bookings.

Calendar View

The calendar is described by staff who use it as ‘the heart of the system’. It shows, at-a-glance, forthcoming bookings.

A highly visual interface which uses icons and colours means that staff can easily see the status of each booking and whether there is staff to fulfil them.

The Results 

• Improved levels of service. Many of Prompting Plus’ clients have several dozen ‘live’ bookings at any one time. Before the new system, it was difficult to keep track of all these bookings. However, now customers can view and manage their bookings in one place on their PC, phone or tablet. 
• Quicker confirmation of jobs. Many of the contractors Prompting Plus use work all round the world. Being able to get almost immediate availability from contractors via texts has meant that jobs can be confirmed very quickly. 
• Reduced administration time and costs. The new system has automated many tasks that used to be done by hand (e.g. communication with clients, booking of operators etc). This saves both time and money.
• Better accuracy. Many of the jobs that Prompting Plus works on are live broadcasts. This means there’s no room for booking mishaps. The system includes a whole host of failsafe features to prevent these. For example, the system doesn’t let users book operators that have already indicated that they are on holiday or otherwise unavailable.