Enhancing Humanitarian Coordination with Sustainable Room Booking Solutions

Client Overview

The Icelandic Red Cross, founded in 1924, is a leading humanitarian organization in Iceland, dedicated to providing aid in disasters, supporting refugees, and promoting health and social care projects. As an auxiliary to the Icelandic government, it operates through 28 branches and 33 local units across the country, supported by 94 staff members and over 2,300 volunteers. With headquarters in Reykjavik and a network of offices nationwide, the organization focuses on voluntary service, community engagement, and rapid response to emergencies, playing a vital role in Iceland's social and humanitarian landscape.

Challenge

In a volunteer-driven environment with dispersed operations, the Icelandic Red Cross faced difficulties in efficiently managing shared spaces:

• Manual room booking processes led to scheduling conflicts, double-bookings, and wasted time during critical meetings for disaster planning, volunteer training, and refugee support sessions.
• With multiple branches and a need for flexible, on-demand access to meeting rooms, there was a lack of real-time visibility into room availability, causing disruptions in daily operations.
• As a non-profit focused on sustainability and environmental responsibility, the organization sought energy-efficient solutions that aligned with their values, avoiding high-power consumption devices in remote or low-maintenance locations.
• Ensuring low-cost, easy-to-deploy technology was essential to minimize administrative overhead and support their 24/7 humanitarian efforts without technical complications.

Solution

To address these needs, the Icelandic Red Cross implemented Offision's room booking system integrated with 10 Qbic EP-0700 e-paper devices across key offices, including the Reykjavik headquarters and select branches.

Key reasons for selection:

• Eco-friendly e-paper technology — 7.5-inch displays with black-white-red colors, ultra-low power consumption, and up to 3-year battery life using Bluetooth Low Energy 5.0 for wireless updates.
• Seamless integration with Offision Workplace Suite — Real-time synchronization with Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace calendars, enabling instant booking visibility and one-touch reservations via the lightweight, wall-mountable panels.
• Sustainability focus — Thin, lightweight design (182 x 122 x 11.6 mm, 183g) with no backlight or glare, reducing eye strain and environmental impact while blending into office decor.
• Quick deployment — Installed in under a month with minimal training, supporting landscape/portrait orientations and programmable buttons for custom functions like quick check-ins.
• Centralized management — Remote monitoring and updates through Offision's admin tools, ensuring reliability in distributed locations without on-site IT support.

Benefits/Results

The deployment transformed space management, eliminating booking conflicts and providing real-time availability updates that streamlined coordination for volunteer meetings and emergency response planning. Volunteers and staff experienced frictionless access to rooms, reducing administrative time and allowing more focus on humanitarian initiatives. The energy-efficient e-paper devices aligned with the organization's sustainability goals, lowering operational costs and environmental footprint while maintaining high reliability in Iceland's varying climates. Overall, it fostered a more collaborative and efficient workspace, enhancing the Red Cross's ability to deliver timely aid across the country.

Project Information

• Locations using Offision: Europe - Iceland