Develop Facilities Booking Systems (FBS) using the EDG Grant
One type of system that we do get enquiries about to develop using the EDG Grant are Facilities Booking Systems. In this post, we will explain what types of FBS can or cannot be supported by the EDG Grant.
For most SMEs, their requirements for an FBS are basic. As such booking processes can be generalised, such as the booking of rooms rooms, equipment, and resources, there are many readily available booking systems online that can be adopted easily without having to develop it from scratch. These readily available systems will also be more affordable compared to developing your very own FBS.
The first question that you will need to ask yourself is, how complicated do you need the FBS to be, and what is your budget?
If your business requirements are simple, and there are existing solutions in the market that can solve your needs, then what you would need to do is to go to the Productivity Solutions Grant portal to see if you can find s suitable solution there. These are affordably priced readily available solutions, <$40,000, that you can adopt quickly at up to 80% subsidy via the PSG Grant. For such solutions, you will not be able to utilise the EDG Grant.
On the other hand, if your business requirements for your FBS are unique and there are no existing solutions in the market, then you can look at the EDG Grant to develop it. You may be asking, how can it be possible? FBS processes are so simple, and booking systems in the market are widespread, how could someone have a need that existing solutions cannot solve? Well I must say, there are indeed many scenarios where this can arise. Let me share with you an example:
An Enterprise company has 6 office buildings under its wing. Under normal circumstances, there would be one Facilities Booking System for each of their office buildings. However, this business found it to be unproductive. Information for each building was silo-ed in their respective FBS. When their staff wished to book the facilities of any particular building, they had to log into that particular FBS in order to do so. There was no centralised platform where the staff could view all the facilities of the 6 different buildings in one place. Similarly, the building managers could not have a bird's eye view of all the 6 buildings' facilities and their booking statistics. This business therefore required a unique FBS that was able to house all of their 6 buildings within one system, and that could provide reports and statistics on an individual basis, as well as a combined basis. In such a case, this business may have a chance to apply for the EDG to develop their own unique FBS to suit their Enterprise's needs.
Well the above is just one example, but do note that there are many more scenarios that would be considered on a case by case basis. If you have a unique scenario, share it with us and let us advise you accordingly.