Case Study: Indiana University achieves 90% fewer manual reservations and a 98% reduction in scheduling time with Calendly

How Indiana University streamlined bookings using scheduling automation

Indiana University’s MAD LABS (Makerspaces for Art + Design) faced growing pains as walk-up access to industrial-grade equipment like 3D printers and plasma cutters turned into a flood of emailed reservation requests. Ryan Mandell, who manages the Bloomington campus labs, was spending half his day handling bookings, staffing was inefficient because attendants were often idle between scattered appointments, and poor communication led to student and faculty complaints.

Ryan switched to self-service scheduling by creating a Calendly page for each piece of equipment, linking bookings from the MAD LABS website and embedding instructional videos on confirmation. Staff now use Calendly’s dashboard and color-coded event types to plan shifts, cutting manual reservations by 90%, reducing scheduling time by 98% (from hours a day to about 15 minutes per semester), and eliminating customer complaints while improving overall communication and productivity.

Indiana University

Ryan Mandell

Indiana University