Glossary

The EMS Academic Import Utility (AIU) is an optional module for EMS Enterprise or EMS Professional that works together with most popular academic scheduling systems to import data on when and where academic classes are scheduled to take place.

Defines a set of courses taught for a specific time period, such as a semester. Terms are synchronized into EMS Campus from a Student Information System (SIS)

In EMS Campus an Academic Unit is a level of organization within an institution that defines responsibility for making schedule requests for a portion of a Domain. Academic units are used when assigning permissions to academic users and when filtering reports. In EMS the default term “Academic Unit” can be changed to a more relevant term, such as “Department” or “Division”.

Licensed customers can download the software they purchased from Accruent on a secure website. This site only shows the software for which the logged in user has authorized access. Accruent Access also provides access to support (case tickets), knowledge base articles, product documentation, and product forums.

Academic Import Utility

An Application Programming Interface (API) is used by software components to communicate with each other. 

You can use EMS APIs to develop your own custom solutions to take data from EMS and use it elsewhere, such as another software application, a digital sign, or a web page. The APIs include "Get" calls, which are used to query data that already exists in EMS. Also included is the use of "Update" calls to add or update information in EMS. There is an additional charge for APIs. For pricing, or more information, contact a sales representative.

An Area is a collection of buildings defined by a user during configuration. Users can use areas to search for and run reports on buildings within a geographic region.

The Annual Service Agreement (ASA) for EMS products provides customers with support services. Customers with a current Annual Service Agreement (ASA) have access to our Standard Support services. EMS Enterprise, Workplace, Legal, Campus, and District customers can upgrade to our Premium or Premium Plus Support packages. Contact EMS Sales for additional information. 800-440-3994 x863 (Toll Free US & Canada) 303-771-0110 x863 (All Other Countries) 303-796-7429 (Fax)

ASP.NET is a Web application framework developed and marketed by Microsoft for programmers to build dynamic Web sites, Web applications, and Web services.

An attachment in EMS is a file that is saved with the room record.

The Reservation Book provides a graphical view of all the confirmed reservations for your organization.

A Booking is the where and when of an event. For example, Group X can schedule the large auditorium (the where) for a staff meeting on the second Monday in January (the when). There are one or more Bookings in a Reservation. A Booking might be assigned Details, which are the resources or services that are needed for an event, the setup notes for the event, the room charges for the event, or any combination of these.

Booking Details, also called Categories, are the services, notes, attendees, activities, and room charges that can be assigned to a booking. A Booking Detail is a logical collection of similar items, such as audio visual equipment (projector, screen, sound system). A Booking can have one or more Booking Details.

Booking Detail Items, also called Resources, are the individual items (coffee, sandwich, projector, and so on) that you assign to a Booking Detail.

General term for template used to reserve a room. Templates have predefined values, and are typically assigned to specific users and groups of users. Everyday Application Templates are used in EMS web applications, such as the EMS Web App and EMS for Outlook. See the definitions for Everyday User Process Template and Web Process Template.

The Browse > Browse Events page in Virtual EMS (VEMS) is the best way to see a snapshot of scheduled events.

The Browse > Browse Facilities page in Virtual EMS (VEMS) is useful for viewing the services available in each room, and how each room can be configured.

The Browse > Browse for Space page in Virtual EMS (VEMS) should be the first place you go to locate an available time and location for your meeting.

A building is a physical location that contains one or more spaces such as rooms, and open areas). Users can reserve these for an event. Buildings are one of the core data items that you must configure so that your users can make reservations in EMS.

The term Calculations in EMS refers to additional charges that can be applied to billable items (a category, a group, a group type, a resource, or a room), such as gratuity or sales tax.

A Call is a stored database procedure with a given name.

The web-based interface used by Academic Units to review course schedule data and communicate changes to the domain scheduler. Any computer with a standard Internet browser can be used to access the Campus web client.

Services, notes, attendees, activities, and room charges that can be assigned to a booking. A Category is a logical collection of similar items, such as audio visual equipment (projector, screen, sound system). A Booking can have one or more Category.

A client is an application (like EMS Lite or EMS Master Calendar) that accesses information (such as a database) made available by a server. The server is often (but not always) on another computer system, in which case the client accesses the service by way of a network, such as a company network, or the internet.

A Combination Room is a collection of two or more Standard Rooms, usually based on a logical relationship among the component rooms. For example, a Combination Room called Grand Ballroom could be made up of the Standard Rooms Ballroom A, Ballroom B, and Ballroom C, dividable with moveable partition walls. A Combination Room can also be configured into subsets of its components such as A+B+C or A+C.

A comment is a text entry that explains or clarifies a reservation, a booking, a group, or a booking detail that is a service order.

Describes the establishment of every significant user parameter within EMS software. During Configuration the user defines rooms and resources, establishes user privileges, and creates the workflow that best suits the organization. The process is undertaken immediately after the software is purchased and installed, and generally doesn’t require frequent changes.

A Confirmation is a document that details the critical information for a reservation: date, time, location, and scheduled resources. Confirmations are sent to the group sponsoring or hosting an event to verify the accuracy of the reservation information and to convey other non reservation-specific information.

A connector is used to pull information from an EMS scheduling product (such as Lite, Professional, or Enterprise) into EMS Master Calendar.

A contact is a person who serves as the coordinator or focal point for a group. In EMS Campus, instructors are also referred to as contacts.

A menu that opens when you right-click on a folder or item in the Navigator.

EMS Users can indicate counts for certain special types of Booking Details – those involving catering. For Catering Booking Details, counts facilitate planning and billing. The fields available are Estimated Count, Guaranteed Count, and Actual Count.

Course types are used for limiting the types of rooms in which a course can be taught, such as lecture or lab.

Credentials are your login name and password.

Crestron Inc. is a manufacturer of advanced touch screen display systems. Touch screens positioned at the entrances to meeting spaces allow users to view space availability and make room reservations. EMS software products are fully compatible with Crestron products and provide users with powerful scheduling capabilities.

The Crestron Connected Scheduling Application (CCSA) is software which allows organizations to integrate their Event Management System (EMS) software with the Crestron TPMC-4SM touch screen. The CCSA is available exclusively from Crestron.

Two or more different courses which are cross-listed are taught in the same room, at the same time, with the same instructor.

In addition to an array of reports and powerful features, EMS offers an optional paid service to develop custom reports or application extensions.

The Dashboard shows all the critical information about reservations.

A Database is an organized collection of data, most commonly in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality (for example, the availability of conference rooms in building), in a way that supports processes requiring this information (for example, locating a vacant conference room for a meeting).

EMS employs an application-level security model. All EMS end-user accounts are provisioned within the EMS application. Connectivity between the EMS database and all EMS components such as EMS Desktop Client, VEMS, EMS Web App, EMS Mobile App. It's managed with one fixed EMS SQL Server user account (EMSUser) that is created during the EMS database installation process. This security model requires that the server authentication for the Microsoft SQL Server where your EMS database resides must be set to a mixed mode (SQL Server and Windows Authentication mode). 

Award-winning software development based in Austin, Texas. For over 25 years EMS (formerly DEA) has provided customers with best-of-breed software solutions for room scheduling, meeting services management, web calendaring, and online event registration and surveys.

A Delegate is an Everyday User or Web User who can create and view reservations on behalf of another Everyday User or Web User.

An EMS Desktop Client refers to a computer on which EMS software is installed, and on which a user, generally an administrator, accesses EMS software directly. See also: Campus Web Client, Virtual EMS, Everyday User, and Web User.

EMS District. Software tool designed specifically for K-12 school districts to manage facilities, equipment, and resources.

A Dynamic Link Library (DLL) is a collection of small programs which can be called upon when needed by the executable program to communicate with a specific device, such as a printer, or might contain source code to perform particular functions.

In EMS Campus a Domain is a level of organization within an institution that defines scheduling responsibility. Functions such as synchronizing, optimizing, and running reports are carried out on a per domain basis. See Academic Unit.

An EMS Campus user who has permission to run reports, perform optimization, and synchronize Academic Terms on behalf of a Domain.

DYMO Corporation is an American company that manufactures handheld and portable label printers. EMS offers an optional module for users to print visitor badges using DYMO printers.

Event Management Systems. Scheduling software produced by Accruent.

EMS Enterprise. Enterprise-level scheduling software produced by EMS Software. Comprehensive room and resource management for larger organizations, includes additional features and expanded capabilities.

An Event in EMS is comprised of three elements: a Reservation, one or more Bookings, and Booking Details. These three elements exist in a hierarchy. A Reservation contains one or more Bookings, and each Booking can have one or more Details associated with it.

The time of day during which the event actually takes place, such as 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM.

An Event Timeline consists of the Event Time, the Setup/Teardown Hours, and the Reserved Time.

A "web user" (as defined in user profiles, booking templates, and permissions by your Administrator) who works in any of the EMS web applications, such as EMS Web App or EMS Mobile App. See Web User.

All EMS Software applications other than EMS Desktop Client: EMS Web App, EMS for Outlook, EMS Mobile App, EMS Kiosk, EMS Glance, Master Calendar, and Regics.

Booking templates used by Everyday Users. See Web Process Template. When these templates are configured, there is a checkbox option Administrators can use to enable the template for EMS Web App, EMS for Outlook, and EMS Mobile App users.

Everyday users are prohibited from selecting a resource that has been excluded from a particular room. EMS Desktop Client users can select excluded resources, but they will receive a warning if they do so.

EMS Integration to Microsoft^® Exchange is a component for EMS Web App that integrates with Microsoft^® Exchange. With this module, everyday users can view the availability of both meeting rooms and attendees, and send Outlook^® meeting invitations, all from within EMS Web App. You must be licensed for EMS, EMS Web App, and EMS Integration to Microsoft^® Exchange to configure and use this module.

Greenwich Mean Time. The Solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, England, accepted as the global time standard.

A group is an team of users for which reservations are made at your facilities. A group can be as granular as a single person, or it can represent an entire organization or department of people (for example, an Academic Affairs group). Contrast with Grouping.

A Grouping in EMS refers to a defined collection of resources. Contrast with Group.

A booking request submitted by an anonymous or unauthenticated user.

EMS records the history of actions taken by users for any given booking. The History tab displays the dates that changes were made to a booking detail, the ID of the user who made the changes, the fields that were changed, the old field values, and the new field values.

Holidays are days of special significance to your organization, such as Spring Break, Staff Retreat, and not commonly-recognized holidays such as New Year’s Day. The holiday designation in EMS is for informational purposes only. You must specify that your organization is closed on a holiday to prevent users from making reservations on that day. You must configure your organization’s holidays each calendar year.

Integrated Authentication

Internet Information Services (IIS) – formerly called Internet Information Server – is a web server application and set of feature extension modules created by Microsoft for use with Microsoft Windows.

In EMS Campus an Instructor is a person designated to teach a course. They are also referred to as a Contact after publishing.

Integrated Authentication provides single sign-on for users of the web version of the EMS client, Virtual EMS or EMS Master Calendar based on centralized authentication via the network or web portal. IA is an optional, separately-licensed feature.

The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is an application protocol for accessing and maintaining information over an Internet Protocol (IP) network.

EMS Legal. Effective meeting room scheduling and resource management software for legal firms

EMS Lite. Scheduling software for small to mid-sized organizations.

Under certain circumstances, bookings or booking details in EMS can become locked. Locked items are displayed in EMS, but you cannot edit or cancel the items. Locking can affect the basic booking information (date, time, room, and so on) or the details for the booking (catering, equipment, and so on). Locks are typically independent of one another. Just because one item is locked does not mean other items in the reservation are locked.

EMS Master Calendar. Web-based event calendar available as a stand-alone tool but most often used together with EMS scheduling software.

The EMS Master Calendar API (application programming interface) is a tool that developers can use to write programs that interact with a Master Calendar database.

A memorized report is a report for which the filter settings have been saved, or memorized, so that you do not have to adjust the filter settings every time you run the report.

A message in EMS is a block of text that can be added to the header and footer of confirmations, emails, and invoices. One header message and/or one footer message can be added.

Microsoft SQL Server Data Engine (MSDE, also referred to as Microsoft Data Engine or Microsoft Desktop Engine) is a relational database management system developed by Microsoft.

Optional software add-ons to augment the functionality of EMS software products. To find out more about modules contact EMS sales today at 800.440.3994 x863 or sales@ems.com

MySQL, commonly pronounced "My Sequel," is an open-source (free) relational database management system (RDBMS).

Setup Notes are instructions to facilities staff or maintenance crews for the configuration or preparation of a space for an event. Users have the option to display these instructions on both internal and external reports, or on internal reports only.

Notifications alert you, or groups of which you are a member, when additions or modifications have been carried out in the EMS database. These notifications are controlled by rules established by the EMS system administrator. The EMS administrator can configure notification rules to alert users when bookings or service orders are created or modified, or when new web accounts are created, and so on.

The Microsoft^® 365 application used to schedule meetings, which is compatible with the EMS for Outlook add-in. 

An Override Room is used in EMS to loosely define a useable space which is not formally configured. For example, a lobby might have chairs and sufficient privacy for a small meeting, so an Administrator might choose to define the lobby as an Override Room. No additional configuration will be performed for this space, so no additional information regarding this space will be available to a user making a reservation request.

Software Patch, a controlled minor modification to software code intended to address known issues or add enhancements to software products. In order to be proactive and avoid problems, the user should apply all available patches once each month by performing an update of EMS software. Applying the latest patches will not harm your software.

The optional Plan a Meeting (PAM) module integrates the Virtual EMS (VEMS) application with your email system (such as Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes). With the PAM tool you can find available rooms, add attendees for a meeting, and automatically send invitations to attendees when you submit the reservation in VEMS. In V44.1, this was replaced with Exchange Integration. 

In computer networking a Port is a communications endpoint in a computer’s host operating system, and is associated with an IP address.

Preferences are settings that affect the basic functioning of your EMS system and are applicable only to a specific user account. Contrast with System Parameters.

Events created in EMS are displayed to web users, but the details of those events can be hidden, in which case the web user sees the word Private.

EMS Professional, sometimes referred to simply as Pro. Scheduling and resource management software for medium to large organizations.

A query is the primary mechanism for retrieving information from a database. A query consists of questions that are presented to the database in a predefined format.

The Query Builder function is available from the Reports menu. You can use this function to create queries for retrieving information from your EMS database.

EMS Regics. Flexible web-based registration and online surveying tool.

A reminder is a comment that has been assigned a due date. See Comment.

A Reservation in EMS is the who and the what of an event. For example, Group X (the who) can reserve some space for an Event Y (the what). A Reservation contains one or more Bookings.

Sometimes referred to as the Book or Book View, the Reservation Book provides a graphical view of all the confirmed reservations for your organization.

The time of day at which staff members will begin setting up for an event and the time of day at which staff members will complete the cleanup after an event. If an event does not require setup, then the Reserved Start Time is the time of day an event begins. If an event does not require cleanup, then the Reserved End Time is the time of day an event ends.

The total time, in hours, for which the space is reserved. This is the Event duration, in hours, plus the Setup/Teardown, in hours.

Resource conflicts occur when bookings for the same date and time require the same resource, and insufficient quantities of the resource exist to accommodate all the bookings. EMS automatically verifies resource quantities and notifies the user when conflicts occur.

Booking Detail Items, also called Resources, are the individual items (coffee, sandwich, projector, and so on) that you assign to a Booking Detail.

A Rollback is an operation which returns a Database to some previous state.

EMS uses three classifications of rooms: a Standard Room, a Combination (combo) Room, and an Override Room.

System Administrator

One of several classes of the same Course.

When installing EMS, or configuring the software to your needs, or troubleshooting an issue, it is often necessary to know the SQL Server name. The SQL Server name can be found in SQL Management Studio.

Although often shortened to simply “Server name”, it is the SQL Server name which is important—not the User’s computer name or the User’s Local Area Network (LAN) Server name, both of which can be found in Windows.

A Service Order in EMS is a request to use a resource for a specified time period as opposed to using the resource for an entire event.

Setup Count is the anticipated attendance for an event.

Instructions to facilities staff or maintenance crews for the configuration or preparation of a space for an event. Users have the option to display these instructions on both internal and external reports, or on internal reports only.

Setup Type is the physical layout or arrangement of a room (e.g. theater-style or classroom-style).

An internal report that setup crews, custodial, or operations personnel use to ensure that each room is arranged properly for each event.

The time, in hours, spent by staff preparing a room for an event or cleaning up after an event (for example, 2 hours setup + 1 hour teardown = 3 hours).

In EMS Campus two or more courses can have identical course date records and be scheduled in the same room at the same time. EMS software normally does not allow this type of duplication, but it can be accomplished using the Shared Space designation.

To be designated as Shared Spaces, Courses must not already be Cross-Listed, and the designation does not affect the Student Information System (SIS).

A student information system (SIS) is a software application for education establishments to manage student data. These systems vary in size, scope and capability. The Default term “SIS” in EMS Campus can be changed to a more relevant term, such as a proprietary system name (PeopleSoft, Banner, Colleague, etc.)

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is an Internet standard for electronic mail across networks. While email servers use SMTP to send and receive mail messages, most people use a proprietary system, such as Microsoft Outlook, to access their mail box accounts.

Structured Query Language, often pronounced Sequel, SQL is a programming language designed for managing data in Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS).

Microsoft SQL Server Express, a free, downloadable version of Microsoft’s SQL Server relational database management system (RDMS) is intended for small-scale applications. EMS Lite and EMS Professional customers can use SQL Express, but EMS Enterprise and Master Calendar require the full version of Microsoft SQL. (SQL Server is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.)

Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft’s relational database management system (RDMS). (SQL Server is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.)

SQL Server Management Studio is a software application produced by Microsoft Corporation used for managing SQL Servers. Users can view the names of every SQL Server and their associated databases. (SQL Server is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.)

A Standard Room is any single physical space that can be booked at your facility. A group of two or more Standard Rooms can be defined together to configure a Combination Room.

A Service Order or Category State is a phase or state the item moves through in your organization’s processes, for example, “Unassigned,” “Assigned,” “Out for Delivery,” “In Prep,” and so on. Your Administrator configures the states that are specific to your organization when configuring Categories. Contact your EMS administrator for assistance with states. If a service order, for example, is part of a Category that is configured to Use States, the state of the request will show on the Manage Services browser in EMS Desktop Client, where authorized users can approve, deny, and otherwise work with the state of the request.

In EMS Campus Subjects describe the topic of a course offered, for example, Math or English. Subjects are assigned to Domains and Academic Units to designate who manages the courses that are taught within a Subject.

System Parameters are global settings that affect the basic functioning of your EMS system, and affect all users on the system. Contrast with Preferences.

EMS software products are designed to operate on desktop computers for everyday use (client), and to operate on database server computers to store and retrieve data (server). Minimum performance requirements for client and server machines ensure the optimal performance of EMS software products.

A transaction in EMS can be any of the following types:

Deposit – A deposit is the dollar amount paid in advance of a meeting or event before invoicing occurs.

• A deposit is added to a reservation. After you invoice the reservation, all outstanding deposits are applied to the invoice to reduce the balance due.
• A damage deposit is used to a collect a deposit that is not applied to an invoice and therefore, does not reduce the balance due. Instead, if the customer does not damage the room, any reserved equipment, and so on, then you must return the damage deposit to the customer by voiding the damage deposit transaction.

Payment – A payment is the dollar amount that is applied to an invoice to reduce the balance due. A pre-payment is similar to a deposit and is applied to a reservation.

Adjustment – An adjustment is a modification that is made to the amount due on an existing invoice. For example, if you send out an invoice to a group for $202.00 and the group sends you a check for $200.00, you can make an adjustment of $2.00- to close out the invoice.

Refund – A refund is the return of funds that have been applied to an invoiced reservation.

An Unattached Reminder is created from the Reminders tab on the Dashboard and is not attached to any specific group or reservation.

A user who has accessed a computer system without entering identification credentials, generally to view or submit requests only.

A controlled minor modification to software code intended to address known issues or add enhancements to software products. In order to be proactive and avoid problems, the user should perform an update of EMS software once each month. Applying the latest Updates will not harm your software in any way.

Upgrading to a new software version. Major changes to EMS products called Versions, occurring approximately once every 2 years are significant modifications to software code intended to address known issues and add enhancements to software products. While older versions of EMS software will continue to function properly, Upgrading to a new version is designed to improve workflow and reduce technical problems.

If the resources within a category move through an organization in a defined process, the Category can be assigned Use States. For example, a beverage cart in a catering category can be assigned the states In Prep, Delivered, and Returned. The organization’s EMS Administrator configures the states that are specific to the organization and can also specify a default state.

User Defined Fields (UDFs) are additional fields that store custom data for a reservation or a booking detail.

A View is a user-defined grouping of rooms. Views are useful if you make multiple reservations for groups who always book events in specific rooms or locations.

Virtual EMS, or VEMS, is a web-based application that allows users to browse events in a calendar, view facility information, and if allowed, submit and manage room reservations and service requests. See also Web User and Campus Web Client. In V44.1, VEMS was replaced by EMS Web App.

A Visitor in EMS is an unauthenticated user. If allowed, visitors can browse a calendar of events or view details about your organization’s space; however, to submit and manage reservations, a Web User account is required. See Everyday User (V44.1) or Web User (V44).

Any web-based application (which can only be accessed via the internet), or, the EMS Web App (introduced in V44.1), which replaces VEMS as the web-based application for Everyday Users to book, modify, and cancel reservations in EMS. Like all EMS products, the application's setting, booking templates, and general behavior is controlled by Administrators in EMS Desktop Client. It is typically installed with EMS for Outlook which enables users to book rooms via Microsoft^® Outlook. 

A Web Process Template defines the functions that are available to each type of web user in Virtual EMS (VEMS). This is now known as Everyday User Process Template.

A web reservation is any reservation that a user has submitted through Virtual EMS (VEMS).

A Web Security Template specifies a user’s access to the system (the available menu items and the viewable fields).

A computer that runs a web site.

A Web service is a method of communication between two electronic devices over the Internet.

A Web Template defines and controls the access that a Web User has in Virtual EMS (VEMS). VEMS uses two types of web templates: a Web Security Template and a Web Process Template.

Web Text is customized text on field labels, page titles, and in areas on various pages in VEMS, EMS Web App, or EMS Kiosk. This feature is useful for providing help text or policy and procedure information.

A Web User is someone who can submit requests for reservations using VEMS, EMS Web App, or EMS Mobile App.

The Windows Installer (previously known as Microsoft Installer) is a software component used for the installation, maintenance, and removal of software on Microsoft Windows systems. Customers are encouraged to install the most current version of Windows Installer prior to upgrading any EMS product.