Using Microsoft Exchangeto ManageResources

Microsoft OutlookTM calendaringhas become a popular way forstaff to schedule meetings.Using it to book meeting roomsand other resources such ascatering and AV equipment issurely a natural progression…

Leading email management experts,Essential Computing, share their tips ongetting the most out of MicrosoftExchangeTM or Office 365 to managecompany resources.

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Booking Rooms & Resources: Why Use Exchange? ............3Features for Managing Resources ...............................3Features to Help Users Book Resources ........................5Tips to Help With Exchange Resource Management...........6Creating Your Resources in Exchange 2007/2010..............8Creating Your Resources in Exchange 2013/Office 365..... 10Summary ...........................................................11

In this document:

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In these increasingly cost-conscious times, organisations arekeen to get the most out of limited and expensive resourcessuch as meeting rooms, work spaces, equipment and evencatering.

The ability to streamline the process of making and respondingto resource requests, however, is vital.

This white paper looks at the ‘native’ functionality available inMicrosoft ExchangeTM and OutlookTM to aid the process ofmanaging resources.

Importantly, it highlights tips for getting the most out ofExchange resources, including the best strategies forapproaching a resource booking project.

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Booking Rooms & Resources:Why Use Exchange?

For many organisations Microsoft Outlook hasbecome the # 1 business application that staff open‘first thing’, and stay connected to all day long.

As a consequence, the Outlook calendar applicationis widely used to schedule the ‘working week’.

Even the ‘traditionalists’ that have previouslyresisted getting to grips with an electronic diaryhave started using Outlook calendar to manage boththeir work and even their personal schedules. Thisis a trend that has been driven in part by easysynchronisation with mobile devices.

Apart from convenience for end users, there’s somany aspects of Exchange and Outlook that make itparticularly adept at supporting an organisation’sscheduling needs. These include:

n Easy checking of co-worker availability n Support for different locations and time zonesn The ability for staff to share calendars and

allow colleagues (e.g. a PA) to make diarybookings on their behalf

n Strong support for remote and mobile workers n Roles-based access rights and privileges that

are tightly managed using Active Directory

So, the concept of booking rooms and resources,like catering or video conferencing equipment,using the same system is highly appealing.

This document takes a closer look at the inbuiltcapabilities in Microsoft Exchange and Outlookdesigned to help you manage the booking of roomsand other corporate resources more effectively.

It also includes tips to help you deploy Exchange-based resource booking for your organisation.

Features for Managing Resources

With Exchange 2007 some key new features designedto help you manage resources were introduced,namely dedicated resource mailboxes, advancedmailbox policies, automatic request handling andenhanced calendar views. As these services remain inExchange 2010 and 2013, it is worth an explanation:

Dedicated Resource MailboxesWith Exchange 2007 two types of mailboxes wereintroduced that were specifically designed torepresent objects and not people. These are:

n Room mailboxes. These can be used to represent conference rooms, meeting rooms,training rooms and even hot-desks in differentlocations.

n Equipment mailboxes. These can be used torepresent ‘floating’ resources such as a portablecomputer projector, flip chart, or pool car.

In addition to supporting new mailbox types, theActive Directory schema was extended to support theaddition of customised resource properties.

Examples include ‘Room Capacity’ and otherdescriptive attributes that will help users select theresources they need. More on this later…

Advanced Policy CreationPrior to Exchange and Outlook 2007, all resourcebookings were either:

a) Subject to manual approval b) Automatically accepted or rejected depending on

whether the resource was free or not in Exchange

With later versions of Exchange and Outlook you nowhave the option to define more sophisticated policiesto help with processing resource bookings.

For example, you can specify rules for:

n Maximum meeting duration,n Times during which resources can’t be booked

(e.g. not outside normal working hours),n Levels of staff that are authorised to book

certain rooms without manual approval (thisfeature can leverage existing roles defined inActive Directory).

You can also define automated responses to requeststhat explain why a booking was rejected (or madesubject to manual approval).

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Prior to Exchange 2007….

In versions of Microsoft Exchange priorto 2007, if you attempted to useexisting features to manage roombookings you basically had to ‘fudge’the system.

Two main techniques were used:

Public Folders. Using this method, apublic folder was configured for eachresource to allow designated people(either end users or a designated‘moderator’) to insert new calendaritems.

Although this approach gave visibility ofresource availability (provided staffknew where to look), the downside wasthat it was not associated with theOutlook calendar appointment bookingprocess and could easily be neglected.

Pseudo Mailboxes. This approachinvolved creating virtual user accountsusing suitable names to represent eachof your resources.

Users wanting to book a resource wouldthen invite the resource just as theywould the other attendees to theplanned meeting.

Organisations using this method wouldtypically implement the Auto AcceptAgent, an agent that checked theavailability of the resource mailboxbased on the resource’s schedule andaccepted or declined meeting requests.

Although this approach used anadditional mailbox licence, it fittedmore easily into the workflow involvedin booking a meeting.

It did however need improving on, forexample, users would find it hard tolocate the right ‘resource mailboxes’from their address list. It was alsodifficult to cope with any degree ofcomplexity, such as restrictions on whocould and couldn’t book a particular room.

Automated Request HandlingWorking hand-in-hand with the resource policy creation, there’sa dedicated ‘agent’ that, if enabled, automatically processesrequests according to these pre-defined policies. This is calledthe Resource Booking Attendant (RBA).

The RBA looks at the account policy settings associated with theresource, and can, for example:

n Automatically accept ‘in policy’ requests. n Forward ‘out-of-policy’ requests to nominated members

of staff for approval.n Automatically send a ‘tentative’ response back to the

requester in the absence of a ‘clear cut’ policy decision. n Automatically provide information back to end users in

the event of a declined request (e.g. this resource is onlyavailable to manager level and above).

An example of a ‘tentative’ message received by a user is asfollows:

An example of a request for approval sent to a resourceadministrator is below. Notice that the reason for needingapproval (in this case, a recurring meeting) is explained in themessage.

From here, the resource administrator caneasily accept or decline a request withfurther explanation as to why a requesthas been rejected.

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Viewing Resource BookingsAs well as receiving resource requests via email,resource administrators can get an overall view of allrelevant bookings via Outlook calendar.

To enable this view from Outlook 2007, create a NewGroup Schedule: from the Calendar Function selectActions>View Group Schedules>New and then selectgroup members.

In Outlook 2010/2013 there’s also a new CalendarGroups option on the ‘ribbon’ that performs a similarfunction.

In each case you can elect to show calendars side-by-side or overlaid.

The screen below shows an example of the Outlookcalendar side-by-side view created by adding a group of3 room calendars (shown to the right of the resourceadministrators own calendar).

In order to give staff responsible for administratingresources (e.g. room managers, reception staff,catering staff) visibility of requests and bookings theyneed to be given what is termed ‘delegated access’ toresource mailboxes.

Features to Help Users Book Resources

Also introduced with Exchange and Outlook 2007 weresome features designed to make it easier for end usersto locate and book resources. These included:

Easier SchedulingWhen booking a meeting, users can have a SchedulingAssistant which makes it easier to search for meetingtimes when all attendees and resources are available.

Users can adjust the date and duration of themeeting to get a better fit. The Suggested Timesinformation shows optimal times for attendees andresources.

New icons help differentiate between the differenttypes of resource.

Potential times of availability are colour-coded andlabelled as Good, Fair or Poor (see screen shotoverleaf).

Personal Availability SettingsA service that goes hand-in-hand with the improvedscheduling is the option for end users to customisetheir own personal settings within the OutlookCalendar Options.

So, for example, if you normally like to keep Fridaysfree for a quick get-away, you can specify this sothat the Scheduling Assistant will automatically takethis into consideration when selecting the ‘best fit’for your meeting.

Easier Resource SelectionPrior to Exchange 2007, resources would appearlisted alongside staff members in the Global AddressList (GAL).

This led to techniques such as adding a pre-fix toresource names so that all available rooms etc couldbe viewed as a group. For example:

Z_Meeting Room 1Z_Meeting Room 2Z_Conference Suite

Outlook users can now specifically look for rooms,equipment etc by selecting the new OutlookCalendar Add Rooms… button.

By clicking this button users get to see and selectjust rooms and resources.

To further aid the selection of resources, users cannow see additional attributes including roomcapacity and a brief description of additionalfeatures which can be tailored as required (see laterin this document).

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Improved Room SelectionIn Outlook 2010 & 2013 users can now navigate available roomsaccording to location.

The Room Finder also remembers the previously used locationand places at the top of the list for easy access on the end user’snext meeting request (see our tips section later in thedocument).

Improved ResponsesAlso introduced with Exchange 2007 was a new process calledthe Calendar Attendant which keeps track of all meetings andmakes sure all requests are always up-to-date, even where staffare not logged into Outlook.

For example, the Calendar Attendant will automatically shownew meeting requests that have not yet been accepted as‘tentative’ in your calendar, without you having to do anything.

This service helps avoid double bookings, which is especiallyimportant when booking meeting rooms.

So for example, if a member of staff tries to book a resourcethat requires manual approval, they will immediately receive atentative accept message.

Likewise a tentative booking will be made with the resource andreceived by the member of staff assigned to that resource.

Tips to Help With ExchangeResource Management

Here are some tips to help when creating Exchange resources for your enterprise:

1 Understand What’s Viable - Involve Key Decision Makers

Whatever version of Exchange and Outlook you’re using,we recommend the IT team starts with some test resourcebooking examples to familiarise yourself with what’spossible.

To really make progress on automating resource bookingsfor your organisation, however, you need to include thepeople who are responsible for managing room and otherrelevant resources.

Working as a team you should consider what’s involved inexisting procedures for booking resources so you can fullyunderstand what restrictions and work flows apply.

What resources do you want to manage?

Prepare by listing all the rooms and equipmentyou want to make book-able and determine theattributes and restrictions that apply, such as

n room capacity n fixed equipment (e.g. built in projection)n must be booked 24 hours in advance

Next, work out who is going to be involved inservicing any requests for rooms and resources.For example, reception or facilities staff maybe responsible for provisioning meeting roomsand IT staff may need to set up AV equipment..

Bear in mind that you may have differentresource administrators in different officelocations.

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5 Enable Room Selection by LocationTo ease the process of selecting rooms you can letstaff view meeting room availability according to theirlocation (using the Room Finder option).

In order to set this capability up for your organisationyour rooms need to be put into special room distributiongroups (Room Lists) first. This can be done using shellcommands.

For more information see later in this document and:http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee633471.aspxhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee332328.aspxhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124955(v=exchg.150).aspx

Note that there isn't an equivalent to Room Finder forfinding Equipment. A potential workaround here is to useRoom Mailboxes instead of Equipment Mailboxes, using agood naming convention so users can tell they are not rooms.

6 Avoid Responding to Invitations fromMobile Devices

It’s advisable to encourage users to only accept ordecline meetings from within your email application.

Meetings responded to elsewhere (i.e., iPhone, iPad,Android, etc) are notorious for resulting in missedupdates and changes that don't get properlysynchronised back to the main Outlook Calendar.

7 Don’t Book M eetings as All Day Events‘All day events' are intended for things like birthdaysand anniversaries and as such the default setting forthis is ‘Show time as Free’ (as you wouldn’t want yourAunt's birthday to block out your calendar for the day).

This means that if you send an invitation to an eventthat lasts all day to co-workers - or indeed book a room- and mark it as an 'All day event' the default actionwi ll be to show the invitee’s calendar time as free.

This is dangerous as it means the people and resourcesyou’ve booked could still be booked by someone else.

Additionally booking a resource for effectively 24hours will skew any usage analysis you might want to do.

The best solution is to create an appointment with thedesired Start and End times, and check that theresource time shows as ‘busy’. You can, of course, seta policy on such resources to say that bookings canonly be made within working hours.

8 Watch out for Recurring MeetingsLong-standing recurring meetings can often lead torooms getting booked in advance, but not used on theday (as they just get forgotten about).

Consider setting your resource mailboxes to declinerecurring meetings or setting a maximum number ofweeks.

See also the Summary at the end of this article.

2 Keep Resources SimpleAlthough it’s possible to define additional attributesthat describe the features of a room such as ‘WhiteBoard’or ‘VideoConferencing’, or the type of resource, suchas ‘TeaAndBiscuits’, it is only viable to take a verysimplistic approach. For example, there is no way toindicate the number of people for which say,‘TeaAndBiscuits’ would be needed for, or at the timeit would be required (other than the meeting start).

Further dialog would be needed between thedesignated ‘catering delegate’ and the requestor.

To help with this we advise you pay attention todefault replies back to the requestor on how toconfirm their request with the relevant staff member.This is a good article:http://exchangeserverpro.com/exchange-2013-resource-schema-room-equipment-mailboxes/

3 Be Responsive to Facitilies StaffThose responsible for servicing resource requestsneed careful consideration.

First off, they may not be comfortable with theconcept of automatically accepting requests basedon the available booking policies that can be defined.

For this reason, you may wish to make bookings thatare ‘In Policy’ subject to approval.

BEWARE - Even if you’ve checked the Booking Requestsoption to ‘go to named delegates’(i.e. those peopleresponsible for approving or provisioning a request for agiven resource), a booking that is technically ‘in policy’(e.g. within the working day), will be auto-accepted.

To ensure both in- and out-of-policy bookings are sentfor approval you will need to check that the calendarprocessing option for ‘AllBookInPolicy’ is set to FALSE.

Next, although an attempt was made with Exchange2010 to make resource mailbox policies configurableto authorised delegates via OWA, this route is limitedand appears to be unavailble in Exchange 2013.

The IT team may therefore need to offer a well-defined and responsive service to facilities and otherservices staff when policies need to be updated, orthe attributes of a room or resource change.

4 Ensure ‘Delegates’ See Latest StatusThis problem can occur when you have multiple staffresponsible for one or more resources. Consider ascenario where delegate A accepts a booking, but ata later time delegate B rejects the same booking,unaware that the request had already been granted.

This can happen where the shared mailbox/calendarview is cached and is not being viewed in real timefrom the server. To avoid this disable or un-check the"Download Shared folder" option in the Outlook profilesettings to enable all delegates to see the currentonline version of the shared mailbox or room calendar.

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Creating Your Resources inExchange 2007/2010 See later in this section for notes on Exchange2013, although the PowerShell commandexamples in this section are still relevant.

To reiterate, the two new types of mailboxes youcan now specify to represent resources are roommailboxes and equipment mailboxes. We suggestyou use the ‘equipment’ resource to representcatering.

To create resource mailboxes you can use theMailbox Wizard:

From the Exchange Management Console (EMC):

n Expand the ‘Recipient Configuration’ optionn Select Mailbox>New Mailbox…

The New Mailbox Wizard will appear as shown inthe figure below.

n Select a Room or Equipment mailboxn On the User Type option, select New user n Specify the Organisational Unit and give the

mailbox a name that represents theresource you are creating, such as‘Conference Suite’

n Specify any relevant Mailbox Settingsn Click New to create your mailbox

The mailbox you have created will appear as aRoom or Equipment mailbox type in the EMC. TheAD account created is automatically disabled.

You can also achieve the same results using PowerShellas follows:

New- Mai l box� - Name� ' Conf er ence� Sui t e' � - Al i as' conf er encesui t e' � - Or gani zat i onal Uni t' acme. co. uk' � - User Pr i nci pal Name' conf er encesui t e@acme. co. uk' � - SamAccount Name' conf er encesui t e' � - Fi r st Name� ' Conf er ence' � -I ni t i al s � ' ' � - Last Name� ' Sui t e' � - Room

This will create a new *disabled* user account with anactive mailbox that is set up as a room.

NB – if you use the mailbox wizard to create resources,it shows you the PowerShell command used. Simply copyand edit this as required to create additional resources.

At this point, the resource mailbox is not completelyconfigured. For Exchange 2010 you need to enable theresource booking attendant as described later on in thisdocument.

For Exchange 2007, after creating a resource mailbox,you should configure it to auto-accept meetings to whichthe resource mailbox has been invited. Otherwise, theresource mailbox does not automatically acceptmeetings sent to it and they will sit in the calendar ofthe resource in a "tentative state".

At the PowerShell command prompt type:

Get - Mai l box� | � wher e� { $_. Resour ceType� - eq� " Room" }| � Set - Mai l boxCal endar Set t i ngs� -Aut omat ePr ocessi ng: Aut oAccept

Create Custom Resource PropertiesIf you like, you can create additional properties thatdescribe your resources.

Examples of custom properties relating to rooms couldbe ‘good-accessibility’, ‘air-conditioning’, ‘projector’.Examples of properties relating to equipment include‘PoolCar’, but could also be ‘TeaAndBiscuits’.

NB – custom property names can only include alpha-numeric values (spaces are not allowed).

It’s advisable to keep your properties succinct as the‘Description’ field that end users see is limited in size.

First, to define your custom properties you usePowerShell for example:

$Resour ceConf i gur at i on� =� Get - Resour ceConf i g�$Resour ceConf i gur at i on. Resour cePr oper t ySchema+=( " Equi pment / TeaAndBi scui t s" ) �$Resour ceConf i gur at i on. Resour cePr oper t ySchema+=( “ Room/ Ai r condi t i oni ng" )Set - Resour ceConf i g� –� Resour cePr oper t ySchema$Resour ceConf i gur at i on. Resour cePr oper t ySchema

Then, having defined custom properties, allocate themas appropriate to the relevant resource mailboxes.

In Exchange 2007 this is done via a tab called ‘ResourceInformation’. In Exchange 2010 the same is achievedvia the ‘Resource General Tab’.

In Exchange 2013 this is done using Shell commands -see this article: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124948(v=exchg.141).aspx

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Give defined users resource mailbox accessOnce you’ve created the relevant resource mailboxesyou will need to give ‘resource administrators’ theability to be able to manage these resources and anyrequests related to them.

Bear in mind that one person may be responsible formultiple resources (such as all the meeting rooms at agiven location) and need to be given rights to thesemailboxes.

Alternatively, more than one member of staff may beresponsible for a single resource.

First, give the resource administrators ‘delegates’access to the applicable resource mailboxes:

Delegated access basically enables a member of staffto receive and review all calendar requests sent to theresource mailbox(es) that he or she is responsible for.

It will also enable them to view the individualcalendars belonging to the resources they manage.

If you are using Exchange 2010, this can be done froma new Resource Policy tab (see later in this document).

In Exchange 2007 this is done using PowerShellcommands. For example, to give John Smith delegateaccess to the calendar associated wit h the ConferenceSuite resource, enter the following command:

Get - Mai l box� - Reci pi ent TypeDet ai l sEqui pment Mai l box, � RoomMai l box� | � Set -Mai l boxCal endar Set t i ngs� - Resour ceDel egat es� “ JohnSmi t h” �

Assign resource administrators privileges tomanage resource policies.If the resource administrators in question are to beresponsible for managing policies and options inrelation to the resource, you will need to give themfull administration permissions on the resourcemailboxes. This will enable them to work with theOWA-based resource setting options that wereintroduced with 2007.

You can assign full access permissions via the ExchangeManagement Console.

Note that the Exchange 2010 tab also lets you enablethe Resource Booking Attendant.

Configuring Resource Options &Policies

With Exchange 2007 and 2010 It is possible, withthe appropriate access permissions set, toenable resource administrators to defineresource scheduling policies as well ascustomised messages to go to users that requestbookings.

This is done on a per resource basis, using OWA.

With the introduction of Exchange 2010, thiscan also be achieved using the ExchangeManagement Console (see next page).

Using Exchange 2007, the resource administratorcan logon to their regular mailbox through OWA,and will be able to select any additionalresource mailboxes they have been given accessto using the Open Other Mailbox feature (foundin the upper right corner of the OWA page).

An option called Resource Settings appears onthe left hand side and there are 4 sectionsthat can be completed:

n Resource Scheduling Options – E.g. setmaximum duration for meetings in thespecified room or only enable meetings tobe booked within working hours.

n Resource Scheduling Permissions: E.g.specify if certain types of users (managersor PAs, for example) make a bookingwithout manual approval by the facilitymanager.

n Resource Privacy Options – E.g. hide thename of the meeting requester andmeeting subject used in association withthe resource (as this may be sensitiveinformation).

n Response Message – E.g. contact detailsfor the person that manages roombookings, catering, etc.

In Exchange 2010 OWA the “manage other users”tab allows authorised staff to manage resourcesin a similar manner. With Exchange 2013 theconcept of enabling non-IT staff to manageresource policies would appear to havedisappeared.

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Creating Your Resources inExchange 2013/Office 365

With Exchange 2013 the configuration ofresource mailboxes (for Rooms or Equipment)and associated policies is achieved using thenew web-based Exchange AdministrationCenter (EMC). You can also use the ExchangeManagement Shell (PowerShell).

One of the improvements introduced with 2013is that you are able to set booking policies orassign delegates during the creation of the

Defining Policy Options in Exchange 2010With Exchange 2010, the policy options that wereintroduced with Exchange 2007 and made editable viaOWA are also configurable using the ExchangeManagement Console (EMC).

The EMC has a series of tabs for editing resourceproperties. Here’s a quick overview:

n Resource General – As with the ’ResourceInformation’ tab in 2007, this tab lets youconfigure custom properties such as capacity.You can also configure whether you want toenable the Resource Booking Attendant for thismailbox or not.

n Resource Information - This tab lets you defineinformation available in the resource mailbox’scalendar, such as attachments (e.g. a map) andcomments on things like accessibility, seatinglayouts and so on). It also allows configurationof additional text sent to the meeting requester.

n Resource Policy – This tab lets you configurespecific policies that apply to the resourcemailbox, such as maximum meeting length. Youcan also configure resource mailbox delegates.

n Resource In-Policy Requests - Here you canconfigure those users who are allowed tosubmit in-policy meeting requests, which canbe either automatically approved or approvedby a resource mailbox delegate.

n Resource Out-of-Policy Requests - This taballows you to configure users allowed to submitout-of-policy meeting requests which need tobe approved by a resource mailbox delegate.

Refer to this Microsoft TechNet note for moreinformation.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124255.aspx

resource mailbox, rather than as asecondary task after the mailbox iscreated (as with Exchange 2007/10).

As with configuration in Exchange 2010,there are some general properties you cancustomise.

You can specify the delegates you want toassociate with the resource along withcontact information on who to call in caseof queries.

The booking options (policies) can befurther tuned with regards to whetherrecurring meetings are allowed, bookinghours and cut off times, and customreplies.

There’s also a MailTip section to alertusers of potential issues before they senda booking request to the room mailbox.

As noted earlier - the concept of givingdelegates responsibilty for tuning theseparameters would appear to havedisappeared with Exchange 2013, so the ITteam should prepare to take on board thisresponsibility.

WORKING WITH RESOURCESIN A HYBRID ENVIRONMENT

If you plan to work with room and equipmentbookings in a hybrid environment, there’s a fewthings to watch out for, including:

Re-Establish Booking PoliciesWhen you migrate an existing Exchangeresource mailbox to Office 365, any permissionsand policies (e.g. automatically accept a roombooking within office hours/weekdays) will notautomatically move across. To ensure yourroom booking processes continue to workseamlessly our best advice is to copy thesepolicies and re-apply them post-migration. See also https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/3079772

Move Resource Mailbox DelegatesTogether With MailboxesImportantly, if you have individuals set up asdelegates on a room or resource mailbox (forexample, with the purpose of approving orturning down booking requests), you will needto make sure you migrate those individuals toOffice 365 at the same time as you move theroom resource.

Problems with Office 365 Users Not‘Seeing’ On-premises ResourcesA known issue when working in a hybriddeployment is where cloud-based OWA userscan’t see on-premises room mailboxes in theresources list.

If this occurs, you can create a room listdistribution group (limited to 100 rooms) andsynchronise it across.See https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2904381

Lost/Duplicate AppointmentsA side-effect of working in a distributed, hybridenvironment, is that users are more likely to beworking with a mix of BYO client devices.

Mobile devices such as Apple iPhones and iPads,Android and Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES),also Apple Macs running Entourage, are likely tobe running buggy, non-Microsoft approvedcalendaring clients. These are known to createa number of problems that fail to interactproperly with ActiveSync, creating a host ofbroken appointments and other problems.

The best practice to avoid this is to use Microsoftapproved clients and ‘police’ which devices andclients are connecting to your network.

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Summary

There’s no doubt that the Outlook calendarapplication is a logical place from which staff shouldbook the resources needed to support their work.

Being able to schedule co-workers for meetings,along with the required room, equipment andcatering - in one place - makes life a lot easier forend users. It also has the potential for saving a lot oftime and ‘phone calls back and forth.

Similarly, making advance bookings for hot desks asstaff schedule their working week makes enormoussense.

But, even with recent improvements to Exchange andOutlook, where there’s a large number of resourcesto be managed, or where requirements go beyond asimple room or projector booking, some challengesstill exist. For example:

It’s Difficult to Support Complex BookingsAs we saw earlier in this document, the attributesavailable for defining and booking items such asequipment and catering, are limited.

For example, with catering requests it’s only reallyworkable to create a few options such asHotForkBuffet, SandwichSelection, Tea&Biscuits.

Other things you will struggle to cope with are:

n Certain catering options may only be availablein certain rooms/locations.

n You may have cut off times beyond whichcatering requests will not be accepted (e.g. aHotForkBuffet requires 48 hours notice).

n There’s no option for specifying cateringnumbers.

So, in practice, any special requests to the cateringfunction will still require the catering manager toengage with the requester to confirm numbers,timing etc.

Note that users can’t actually search by capacity orany other room attributes.

It’s Difficult to Select the DesiredRoom/Resource in Large OrganisationsIf you have lots of rooms with different attributesand facilities and in different locations, it can bedifficult to ease the selection process for end users.

Additionally in Exchange Online, there’s a defaultsystem setting (which, at the time of writing can’tbe changed) that limits the number of roomsdisplayed in OWA to 100. In larger enterprises, thiscan cause some user frustration.

It’s Not Viable to Give Service ProvidersControl The OWA-based tool for administrating ResourceMailbox policies is not ideal for facilities staff.

Even though the interface introduced withExchange 2013 makes resource configurationeasier, you will still need to resort to usingPowerShell, so it’s still very much an IT function.

There’s No Dedicated Request-Tracking Although service providers will receive requestsfor resources via email, and can view the diariespertaining to the resources they manage, keepingtrack of any requests, collating any updates andcreating a schedule of all requests on a particularday or week, requires diligence on the part ofthe service provider.

There’s Potential for ConfusionAny resource requests that require manualapproval will result in a email request being sentto ALL delegates assigned to the resource mailbox.

This means that if multiple service providers areresponsible for the same resource (e.g. aconference suite), without proper managementit is possible that one person could accept therequest and another reject it.

There’s No Easy ReportingOrganisations that wish to improve how theirresources are used are also keen to get bettervisibility of resource usage. Exchange does notmake management information readily available.

No Real-Time Visibility Leads toWastage & ContentionOutlook Calendar offers no convenient way forstaff to see what rooms and desks are free orbusy ‘on the day’ as they walk about the office.

Organisations the world over have the problem ofrooms getting booked in advance, but if no-oneturns up on the day, there’s no easy way to makethe room available for immediate re-use.

Another common problem is where staff ‘meetingsquat’ in what appears to be an empty room -only to find that the ‘rightful bookees’ turn up in10 minutes time.

These and similar scenarios are a massive sourceof waste, frustration and unprofessionalism.

If you would like to build on your investmentin Microsoft technologies, but would like toaddress any or all of these challenges, speakto Essential.

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Article written by James Fussell, Microsoft CertifiedProfessional, Essential Computing.

Acknowledgments go to the support and consulting teamat Essential Computing team, including Janet Bagot andDave Kellett.

Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Active Directory and Office 365are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

All references to Microsoft TechNet and other articles acknowledged.

All other copyrights and trademarks acknowledged.

About Essential

Essential is regarded as one of the UK’s foremost experts on electronic messaging, email archiving &collaboration technologies. It is also a long-term Microsoft Partner.

Microsoft Exchange and Outlook have become the default portal through which businesses and individualsschedule their time and activities. Coupled with the use of Active Directory to define people, rooms,equipment etc, and underyling synchronisation services such as ActiveSync to support mobile staff,Exchange makes the perfect platform for optimising resource usage.

We can help you get the most out of your existing investment in Microsoft software and skills with solutionsthat are designed specifically to extend and enhance native Outlook, Exchange and Office 365 functionalityand that offer full integration with Active Directory, IIS and other industry-standard infrastructure.

Applications include:

- room booking software to support complex bookings & service provision- hot desk booking - visitor badge creation & visitor logs - instant room booking using touch-screens - resource usage reporting - group calendaring - calendar overviews to assist in planning events, holiday coverage, projects, etc

web: www.resource-essentials.co.ukcall: +44 (0)1275 343199email: info@essential.co.uk