VEXA Services and VEXA Software are proud to announce VAST is entering beta testing on February 6, 2023.
It’s an exciting time around here. We’re putting the polishing touches on our VAST Application to help you easily organize the little details of your executive’s invitations, calendar, and contacts.
What is VAST?
The VAST application offers a suite of capabilities designed for the unique needs of executive-level administrative professionals.
VAST syncs with both Google and Outlook calendar and contact databases and is designed to manage calendars, contacts, invitations, and event/travel expenses in one central location. VAST helps executive assistants organize details more easily while providing their executives with the information they need in a single, simple to use, and organized interface when they need it.
What does VAST do?
VAST helps keep executive assistants and the executives they work for organized by connecting four components of an executive’s day: invitation management, calendar management, contact management, and expense tracking for events and travel.
These components are all interdependent and before the creation of VAST they were managed independently. When pertinent information was added to one, or a change occurred in another, each function had to be manually updated. And, because the information that was changed or added was not necessarily a core function of each component, information had to be added in obscure notes sections without any formatting or context for easy reference.
VAST changes all of this with one environment to house all of these components so they can easily share information in an intuitive and easy to use way. Executives and their assistants will no longer have to copy and paste information from one component to another or create clunky spreadsheets or databases that are impossible for the next assistant to decipher.
VAST is an evergreen solution linked to the executive. So, if there is a new assistant hired, the system created to handle the management of these components does not disappear with the former assistant. The new assistant can easily learn to use VAST and continue without any interruption to workflows.
How does VAST work?
Invitation Management:
The goal for the VAST invitation management workflow was to create an easy to use, paperless system tracking invitations to social or business-related events from receipt to response while focusing on the unique social and professional requirements of senior executives.
Because invitations can be received by phone, email, letter, or in person, the task of responding to and processing each in a standardized fashion can be challenging. VAST creates a centralized location to house all invitations regardless of their medium and standardizes the way they are processed.
Instead of post it notes, emails, or time-consuming meetings to get the executive’s response to invitations, an executive opens VAST on either their mobile device or desktop to see all pending invitations and the pertinent information for each and simply click on a “yes” or “no” response. The executive assistant is notified of the response and can RSVP accordingly. If the response is yes, calendars are automatically updated with the event. Contact information, dress requirements, seating designations, speaking requirements, dinner choices, and more are automatically attached to the event so the executive can easily refer to it when needed.
Calendar Management:
The overwhelming majority of executives use either a Google or Outlook calendar to manage their daily activities. However, both calendars have very limited functionality beyond the storing of event dates, times, and locations. VAST changes that and gives your executive’s calendar a litany of useful customizations.
With VAST you can use our library of calendar templates or create custom templates based on your needs to help manage all the information necessary for different types of calendar events. If your executive is speaking at a conference the information, they may need is very different from the information needed to attend a charity ball.
With VAST the information needed is always presented in a way that makes sense for the event on our easy-to-use and easy-to-read calendar extension. In addition, VAST syncs with your default calendar so, if you enter an event outside of VAST, it is automatically updated within the VAST application and vice versa.
Contact Management:
Much like the calendar, the VAST contact management system was created to extend the functionality of the default Google or Outlook contact management systems, organizing details in a logical and easy to use manner. This information is then synced throughout the VAST environment updating calendar events, invitation workflows, and even expenses.
If an executive is invited to attend a charity dinner, knowing who they are sitting next to is not the only necessary information. Knowing who they work for, their spouse’s name, their children’s names and ages, what hobbies they enjoy, where they last interacted with them, what kinds of gifts may be appropriate, etc. There are any number of informational items that can be useful to ensure a successful event for any senior executive.
With VAST all this information can be easily stored and displayed when needed so an executive who needs the information while travelling in Europe can get it without calling his or her assistant at 3AM stateside. And, like VAST calendar management, you can use our library of contact templates or drag and drop the necessary information fields into each individual contact entry.
Expense Management:
VAST expense management is a unique feature allowing executives and executive assistants to attach expenses to the corresponding social event, travel event, or meeting. No longer will you have to send an email with a receipt for logging. You can now upload an expense to the VAST portal and tie it directly to an event or invitation making expense reporting easy.
When will VAST be available?
Great question!
VAST is still in production with an expected release of version 1.0.0 in April of 2023. There is limited Beta testing taking place in January of 2023 with a more expansive Beta round starting in February 2023.
For more information about VAST, you can visit our website at https://vastcsuite.com.
To take a peek at what the VAST interface looks like and get this guide click on the button below…
