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Please find out for me if there is a company-wide calendar analytics service that analyzes meetings based on everyone’s calendars. I’m looking for a tool that will answer questions like: How much time we spend in meetings, in general and per role. How much time we spend in internal meetings vs external. How much time in recurring vs ad-hoc.
Hello! Thanks for your question about company-wide calendar analytics services. The most useful sources I found to answer your question are Capterra and Esper. The short version is that there are 5 systems that perform team calendar data analysis, but overall, Teem and Esper provide the most efficient and streamlined process. Both systems work with Google Calendar, but only Esper appears to work with iCal. Below you will find a deep dive of my findings.
METHODOLOGY
Using your 4 questions as parameters, I conducted an internet search for services that provide calendar data analysis. The first step was to determine if the service was capable of analyzing multiple calendars. I then looked for ones that integrated with either Google Calendar or iCal. Finally, I weighed the services ease in providing visual representation of the overall data in an efficient manner.
CALENDAR ANALYTICS SERVICES
1. Microsoft Excel Calendar Analytics Tool: This service imports your calendar into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that allows you to analyze data about your meetings.
This tool can provide answers to some of your questions. It allows you to view your individual calendar and analyze the data contained. However, it appears that to view multiple calendars, the user will have to do a lot of data entry. The analysis of the data requires a concentrated effort on the user's part to collate data from individual calendars into a chart or graph that examines time spent in meetings as a whole. The tool has no publicly available ratings, but based on the aforementioned effort required, the Calendar Analytics tool does not provide a streamlined and efficient process to obtain the desired information.
2. Esper: This service allows you to examine all of team members' calendars for patterns. The website specifically mentions compatibility with "Google Calendar...and more." The service also allows you to export the data into an Excel file if you need to conduct more in-depth analysis than what the service provides.
This tool can provide answers to all 4 of your questions. The service can do this in 2 ways: by categorizing your meetings and categorizing future meetings, and by using hashtags to label a meeting. Although this would take some set-up, you could categorize meetings as internal vs. external, as well as recurring versus one-time meetings. Hashtags could be used to identify external meetings as well as one-time events. The advanced reporting option would allow you to determine how much time is spent in meetings by role, as well as across the board. Esper is currently in use at Stanford Law, Dropbox and Uber demonstrating the service's versatility and utility in providing time stats analysis.
One of the downsides of this service is price. In order to analyze a group of calendars and utilize the advanced reporting features, you would have to purchase the Enterprise plan. The plan is $20 per user per month and requires a minimum of 10 users, although the website mentions there are volume discounts available.
3. Meeting Booster is a cloud-based service that helps with the efficiency and analysis of meetings. It works with iCal and Google Calendar, which would work for your company.
Meeting Booster has the capability to answer all 4 of your questions. The system keeps track of attendees, which would help in determining external vs. internal meetings, as well as the number of meetings per role. It also supports recurring meetings, so you would have the ability to calculate how many of your meetings are recurring vs. one time. The system has excellent case studies and testimonials on its website, but it also has an overall 4 out of 5 stars on Capterra.
One downside might be that the system is designed to facilitate the entire meeting process from pre-meeting tasks, during meeting note-taking, and post-meeting task assignments. If you are only looking for time analytics, the Meeting Booster might have too many extraneous functions.
4. Robin Powered is a system that allows you to simplify your meeting schedule, make changes, and book a meeting room. The system works with Google Calendar, but not iCal which is one drawback of the system. Robin has the capability to answer all 4 of your questions. If you use Robin to book meeting rooms, you will be able to analyze how much time is spent in meetings overall. With attendee tracking, you could figure out external vs. internal meetings and how many meetings per role.
The site does have a 5 out of 5 star rating and review on Capterra. However, the major feature of Robin Powered is the meeting room scheduler. If this is not a necessary function, the data analysis options might not be worth the $99/month starting price. The other downside is that much of the analysis you need to perform would have to be done with downloaded data and not necessarily conducted in the system itself.
5. Teem is a conference room management system that provides analytic tools to determine meeting efficiency and productivity. It integrates with Google Calendar, but not iCal.
Teem has excellent insight capabilities that answer all 4 of your questions. Teem allows you to look at meeting participants (who attends meetings, as well which roles have the most meetings), if meetings are scheduled in advance, on a recurring basis, or at the last minute. This information can be captured in charts and graphs within the system itself rather than having to export the downloaded data into Excel, for example. The system comes with some superfluous options (such as visitor tracking) that may not be useful, especially since you would need to consider the Enterprise plan which has a custom pricing structure.
Mozilla, AirBnB, Yale University, and Pinterest all use Teem (formerly known as Eventboard) for room scheduling among other product features demonstrating the value this service provides.
Based on the above information, Teem and Esper are the two systems that would give you the most information about your company's meetings in the most efficient manner possible.
CONCLUSION
To wrap it up, there are 5 options for services that analyze meeting information. Overall, Teem and Esper are the two best platforms for efficiently gathering and analyzing the data around your team's time spent in meetings. Both services integrate with Google Calendar, although Esper appears to be compatible with iCal. Teem and Esper have superfluous services, but the deciding factor will be the price which is determined based on the plan level and the number of team members.
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