Outlook/Exchange resource scheduling?

[Tom Geldner]

Our environment is Exchange Server 2000 with a mix of Outlook 2000 &
2002. We have about 20 employees.

I've read everything on Slipstick and followed most of the posts here on
this issue but nothing seems to address this directly. Here's what we're
trying to do...

We have a public calendar folder in Exchange that is supposed to hold all
of the special events and conferences we host onsite. They can be held in
either of two locations - our training facility or conference room. Both
have mailboxes setup for them and both have been set to accept / reject
meeting requests automatically via Outlook.

The problem is that some people have been scheduling these rooms
themselves on their personal calendars meaning that the events don't
actually show up on the combined calendar. And, the way our public
folders are configured, the resource calendars themselves show up under
Staff Calendars and are basically calendar.xnk links within individual
messages. That makes it a hassle to see what's scheduled in the
conference room for example because you have to open Public Folders, All
Public Folders, Staff Calendars, scroll to the right message, then double
click on the link in the message. YIKES. I'm not even sure this is the
right way to do it but that's how our IT consultant set it up.

What I'd like to do is have all events appear on one calendar and have
only one or two people able to book the resources.

Anyway, what is the best way to handle this situation? Does the person
who schedules the meeting become unavailable for anything else? How do
you get around that?

I could really use some advice or pointers to guidelines. Again, the
Slipstick stuff is helpful but it doesn't seem to address the specifics
of our situation. Thanks in advance!

And yes, I've read the MS KB article on this and it doesn't really
address public folders.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

It sounds like the public folder just holds links to the resource mailbox
calendars and, therefore, is a bit of a red herring here.

If you're scheduling resource calendars in mailboxes, you can set each one
up for delegate scheduling, rather than direct booking. The page at
http://www.slipstick.com/calendar/scheduleall.htm explains this. Users need
to be trained to invite the resources.

Anyone with Reviewer permission can look at what's already scheduled by
using the File | Open | Other User's Folder command in Outlook. You might
consider upgrading your meeting bookers to Outlook 2003 so they can see
these resource calendars side-by-side.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Tom Geldner]

It sounds like the public folder just holds links to the resource
mailbox calendars and, therefore, is a bit of a red herring here.

OK, is there a way to get one click access to a resource's calendar in
Outlook XP or 2000?

What I think I'm going to do is setup 3 people to initiate meeting
requests and they will be the only ones who will be accepted by the
resoources (conference room & training facility). They will book the
event in the public folder calendar which will hold all of our company
meetings, etc. That seems to be the most straightup way of doing this I
guess.

I was having a hard time figuring out what the advantages and
disadvantages of each approach were. My biggest concern was that I didn't
want the people who book the meetings and reserve the resource to have
their own personal time blocked out on the calendar. Does setting up the
delegate system avoid that?

Anyone with Reviewer permission can look at what's already scheduled
by using the File | Open | Other User's Folder command in Outlook. You
might consider upgrading your meeting bookers to Outlook 2003 so they
can see these resource calendars side-by-side.

This is an idea. We may do this.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

You might be able to just drag those .xnk shortcuts to your desktop and then
to the Outlook Bar.

Managing a resource calendar as a delegate has no effect on the delegate's
own calendar.


--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers