A crash course in the terms you're likely to come across in Robin-land for all things office scheduling + management.
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A
Abandoned desk protection
Abandoned desk protection is a desk setting for hot/hotel desks that admins can enable for an entire building or specific pods of desks. It automatically frees up a reserved desk if nobody checks in within a specified time frame.
Abandoned meeting protection
Abandoned meeting protection is a space scheduling setting that admins can enable on the building or a specific space level. It automatically removes no-show meetings from the room’s calendar if nobody checks in, freeing up that meeting space for others to use.
Activities
Activities is a feature that allows users (with the Activity Creation permission) to create, plan, and share social, cultural, and community events at the workplace using the web dashboard and mobile app. Users without the permission can view and RSVP to activities.
Amenities
Equipment made available in spaces or at desks that employees can see and filter by when booking a desk or a space.
Announcements
Announcements is a feature that allows users (with Announcements permission) to share real-time office updates and policies with employees. All employees can view announcements. Announcements can go live immediately or can be scheduled. There are two types of announcements:
- Standard announcement: lands in the "announcement inbox" that can be read at the user's convenience and does not require confirmation.
- Priority announcement: requires an acknowledgment and is considered a "mandatory announcement."
Assigned desks
A fixed desk that is assigned to a user by an admin (or by a user with the Manage offices & maps permission, Desk Delegation permission, or Assign Desk permission). Assigned desks can be shared by the assignee and/or by an admin.
Authentication methods
The way users in your organization sign in to Robin.
Types of methods
B
Badge integrations
Outside systems or softwares that are connected with Robin to allow access-controlled doors to check users into Robin with a badge swipe automatically.
Building
Locations for your office that usually have physical addresses. A building contains spaces and desks which are optionally organized by floor.
Booking user
A booking user is a generic user (service) account that the org would use instead of a personal account to manage/create events. This helps keep personal calendars clear of other user’s events.
C
Calendar systems
Calendar systems are either going to be Microsoft or Google. This is the calendar software that the organization is integrating with Robin.
Campus
A campus is a group of buildings and an optional setting in Robin. Campuses are often organized by city or by country (Boston Office, Singapore), whereas buildings in a campus could be East/West, nicknames, or street addresses. Employees in a campus often have in-person meetings with each other, even if they are located in different buildings.
D
Deliveries
Deliveries are the packages that are put into Robin that need to get to users at a specific location. Users can view a list of deliveries (with the View deliveries permission) or manage deliveries (with the Manage deliveries permission) for a campus or location.
Desks
Desks are workstations that belong to a desk pod. These can be permanent assigned seats or short-term workspaces. Each desk may include amenities such as a phone, monitor, or the ability to adjust the desk. Members can book short-term desks in the web dashboard or mobile app, and admins can assign permanent seats or reserve short-term desks for users.
- Hot desks
- Hotel desks
- Assigned desk
- Shared assigned desk
Devices
Devices are external hardware that allow employees and guests to interact with the office.
E
Event
An event is time booked in a space. This can be presented in the form of a meeting, stand-up, independent work blocks, etc. Users most often create an event in their calendar system.
Event composer
The event composer is where users can book and edit event details in the Robin web dashboard and mobile app.
Experience survey
The survey is sent to users after they have been to the office. Office managers use the results of this to make adjustments.
F
Favorites
Favorites are coworkers marked for easy reference for a quick view of their schedules to help coordinate work plans. Typically, users favorite coworkers who they work with closely and/or often.
G
Groups
Groups are the buckets of people that are used in conjunction with permissions to create Roles in Robin. Groups can be defined in SCIM files or created directly in Robin.
H
Health checkpoint survey
A survey configured by admins that is sent to anyone associated with a desk (including non-Robin members) to collect information about a person's health before entering the office.
Hot desks
A flexible desk that can be booked for one day only and same day only. Users can book it themselves, or users with desk delegation permission can book it for someone.
Hotel desks
A flexible desk that can be booked for 1+ days and can be booked in advance, like a hotel. Users can book it themselves, or users with desk delegation permission can book it for someone.
Hybrid work policies
A feature that allows admins to set office visit guidelines in Robin for employees to reference while planning their work week. It is displayed as a banner on the Schedule page Workweek view
I
Integrations
Outside systems/software that are connected to Robin. Refer to our integration page for a list of available integrations.
Issue reporting
A one-way reporting feature that allows employees to communicate a problem about a desk or room in the office directly to workplace managers using the Robin web dashboard, mobile app, and room display.
M
Meeting check-ins
In-app meeting reminders across Robin and other integrated tools (i.e., Slack & email) that gives users an opportunity to confirm or delete a meeting before it starts.
Meeting room calendar
Represent the physical rooms in your office. When you create and add these calendars to your organization's address book in Office 365, people can reserve rooms through both Outlook and Robin.
Meeting services
Meeting services are services such as food & beverage services that are available for users to request when reserving a meeting room. Admins configure the types of services that can be requested and the corresponding provider to ensure users are connected to the right person for service support.
N
Neighborhoods
Defined work areas on the Robin map to help employees identify the best place to work at a glance. Neighborhoods can be based on things like departments, work styles, and teams.
O
Office layouts
Interactive floor plans in Robin represent the physical office space, including meeting rooms, desks, common areas, and neighborhoods.
On-demand spaces
These are spaces in the office for ad hoc use and cannot be booked in advance using Robin. On-demand spaces do not have a Google or Microsoft calendar connected. These spaces may have a room display mounted outside for users to mark the space as “in use” for walk-up meetings.
Organization name
This is the id that one will use to login to the Robin dashboard, and can also be found in the URL of your dashboard. Example: https://dashboard.robinpowered.com/mycompany.
P
People
When you add co-workers to your company account in Robin, they will receive an invitation to create their own account. Once they've registered they will be able to schedule events in the rooms you've configured via their web browser, native calendar using Robin plugins, or mobile app. All new users are added at the "Member" role, but you can upgrade them to Administrative roles as needed.
- Member
- Administrator
- Owner
R
Request-only spaces
Spaces in Robin that users can book in advance but require a designated admin to approve the meeting request before the user can move forward with completing the booking. A Google or Microsoft calendar must be connected for this space type.
Resource calendar
A Google or Microsoft calendar meant for shared resources like rooms or equipment that can only do one thing.
Roles
Roles define the permissions, responsibilities, and access levels assigned to different types of users within Robin. There are 3 default roles within Robin: member, admin, & owner. Advanced Authentication & User Management users can create custom roles.
Room display
Robin uses a variety of methods to know when someone is in a room. One way is through the display app, Rooms. Rooms is a companion app for Robin that runs on iPads and Android tablets. Mount displays outside of conference rooms to keep schedules and events updated in real time.
S
Scheduled spaces
Spaces in Robin that users can book in advance. A Google or Microsoft calendar must be connected to this type of space.
Service account
A service account is simply a user account with a specific purpose to provide a security context for services, such as your calendars, which run off Windows.
Shared assigned desks
A feature that allows multiple users to share a single assigned desk on a rotating or scheduled basis.
Smart Room Suggestions
A booking feature in the web dashboard and mobile app that surfaces meeting room suggestions based on meeting criteria and past room bookings for meetings without a space attached.
Spaces
Spaces belong to a building, and, if applicable, a level. These are most commonly rooms inside of your office, such as conference rooms and on-demand spaces. You can also use spaces as a way of marking departments or common areas such as the cafeteria. Each space may have calendars, devices, and other information connected with it. Users interact with spaces directly, meaning you can easily switch the associated calendars or devices without interrupting anyone.
Space types:
Space Planning
Strategizing the design and arrangement of physical office space using Robin’s layout planning tools to optimize the layout of desks, meeting rooms, and other workspaces.
Stickers
Stickers are QR codes or NFC tags that admins can purchase and set up on desks in the office. Employees can scan the stickers on the desk that opens the Robin mobile app to check in, reserve, or swap desks.
V
Visits
W
Web Dashboard
When you hear us mention the dashboard, we are referring to the Robin application you would access through your computer rather than a mobile or tablet device.
Workplace occupancy
Workplace occupancy is knowing who is present in your office regardless of the desks or spaces they’ve booked.
Workplace presence
Workplace presence is data capturing when a person is confirmed to be physically present in the office.