On April 15th 2019 Mazévo began with a vision for a better way to manage room and resource scheduling. Back then Mazévo was just an idea about creating a modern room scheduling software platform that was accessible from anywhere and powerful yet easy to use.
We started by talking to event coordinators in both higher education and at religious institutions who managed the events and spaces at their facilities. We actually spoke with over two dozen higher education institutions and summarized our findings in the 2019 higher education scheduling snapshot report. One of the themes we heard over and over again is that existing systems were too complex and becoming outdated. Download the Higher Education Scheduling Snapshot Report here to learn more about our findings.
We started work on Mazévo and released the first version on June 5th, 2019. This was a small lightweight facility scheduling system useful for smaller organizations or departments that need a tool to schedule rooms and track basic event setup information.
We began showing this system to potential customers while gathering feedback to prioritize what was needed for a more robust system for busy event services departments. This helped clarify the need for a system accessible from any desktop PC or Mac requiring no software to install and a companion app for the phone or tablet.
On August 27th we started the Mazévo Product Update Page to document our progress in creating a complete room scheduling software solution. As of this writing we have released 15 updates since then or about one update every two weeks.
Major product milestones:
- Integrated Event Billing - Create invoices and track payments in Mazévo
- Public API - Integrate Mazévo with other systems
- Event Calendar - Monthly calendar view of events
- Activity Log - View event changes for specified time period
- Flexible Event Request Form - Request dates, times, rooms and services
- Mazévo Course Importer - Import courses from a Student Information System
- Room Capacity by Seating Style
- Single Sign On (SSO)
- Automated Approval Process - Route events to appropriate staff for review
- Document Links - Link documents and room diagrams to events
- Enhanced User Security - Create rules around when rooms can be requested
We began serving our first customer in September 2019 when Gender Road Christian Church in central Ohio switched from using EMS to Mazévo. Intown Community Church in Atlanta soon followed and started scheduling their events and facilities with Mazévo. Earlier this year two additional higher education signed up to switch from other scheduling systems to Mazévo.
Late in 2019 we decided to start getting in front of the camera to tell our story. Our YouTube channel has over a dozen short videos highlighting Mazévo capabilities and interviews with Dean and I.
In March of this year the COVID-19 crisis began in the US which caused mass cancellation of events and event services personnel working from home. While the effects of the crisis are widespread, Mazévo has been 100% remote from day one so the situation has not affected our service or daily operations.
No one knows exactly how long the effects of COVID-19 will last but we do know that the need for human connection and meeting together in person is not going to change. The way meetings happen and how they are managed will most likely change however (at least in the short term). To address these unknowns we are meeting with customers and friends in the industry regularly so we will be ready to adjust our plans quickly to meet changing needs.
Overall, it has been an amazing year even in these historic and uncertain times. We have several other project and initiatives on our roadmap for the remainder of the year which I will discuss in a future blog. We look forward to celebrating many more milestones with you in the near future.
