Getting started with resource scheduling

Get started with the AskCody Outlook Add-in for Resource Scheduling

To get started scheduling and booking meetings in Outlook and Office 365 with AskCody, it’s time to install the AskCody Bookings Add-in in Outlook.

This part of the guide goes through the steps you need to take as an Exchange Admin to install the Add-in for your employees.

Deploying the Bookings Add-in for resource scheduling for Outlook and Office 365

Please follow these steps to install the AskCody Bookings Add-in. In this step, we recommend that you open two tabs in your browser since you need to be logged into both the AskCody Management Portal and the Exchange Admin Center (in Office 365).

1. Log in to the AskCody Management Portal with the credentials created when creating your organizational account on the signup page. Choose EU or US.
2. Click the menu tab in the upper left corner.
3. Go to the Admin Center.
4. Go to Add-ins.
5. Now, press copy on the Workplace Manifest URL. You need this URL to install the Add-in in the Exchange Admin Center.
6. When copied to your clipboard, open a new tab in your browser and log in to your Exchange Admin Center with your Microsoft admin credentials.
7. In the Exchange Admin Center, click Settings on the left side menu and choose Integrated apps.
8. Click on Add-ins in the introduction text. 
   
   
   
9. Click +Deploy Add-in and click Next.
   The Centralized Deployment service builds into Microsoft Exchange and Outlook lets you deploy ‎the Add-ins to users of ‎Outlook across your organization.
   
   
   
10. Choose Upload custom apps. Choose I have a URL for the manifest file and insert the specific Add-in URL copied from the AskCody Portal.
    
    
    
11. Click Upload.
12. Who shall have access to the Add-in? 
    Everyone (Deploy it to all employees in your organization (and in your domain)?
    Specific users/groups (Deploy it to specific users or groups from your Active Directory. You can choose this option in the test period and choose to only deploy it to your AskCody Project team)?
    Just me (Deploy it to yourself. This option is good for initial testing)?
    
    
    
13. Choose Deployment method:
    Fixed, Available, or Optional. We recommend you select Fixed. This will ensure automatic deployment of the Add-in to the assigned users/groups, and they will not be able to remove it from their ribbon.
14. Click Deploy. 
    After you choose to Deploy, the Add-in will be available on assigned users' ribbons the next time they open their Outlook or log into Office 365. 

Using Office 365 and Outlook Add-in to book meetings

Opening your Outlook or Office 365 Calendar now allow you to search for meeting rooms with AskCody when scheduling and booking meetings. To use Bookings Add-in, please follow these steps.

1. Open your Outlook or Office 365.
2. Go to the Calendar and select New Meeting. You can also just double-click on the selected date of your meeting in the calendar view.
3. Type in the Subject of your meeting and invite your guests. Select the duration of the meeting and type in the start and end times. This will enable you to search for rooms that are available in a specific period of time.
4. Book meeting:
   1.  Outlook client: Find the AskCody Bookings Add-in at the top of the Outlook window (ribbon).
      
      
      
   2. Office 365: Find the AskCody Bookings Add-in by pressing ··· followed by selecting AskCody Bookings.
      
      
      
5. Select the criteria for the room you need for your meeting. In the Bookings Add-in, you are able to see the search criteria Location, Purpose, Equipment & Services, and number of Attendees.
6. You can select multiple locations, purposes, and capabilities (equipment and services). However, there must be at least 1 location for the search to perform. When you have selected the criteria you are looking for, click on Find and the search will begin. This might take a few seconds.
   
   
7. When the search is done, you will be shown all of the resources that fulfill the selected criteria. By default, you will only be able to see the available resources, but if you click the box named "Show # occupied resource(s)" the occupied resources that fulfill the criteria will also be shown.
8. Each resource will be shown alongside its name, capacity, and a short description. Click on the resource(s) you would like to book and then click on Add resource.
   Now the meeting room will be added as a room to the meeting.
9. Finish the meeting invitation by pressing Send in the Outlook window. Microsoft Exchange will also send you a meeting response confirming your meeting booking.
   
   

Using Central for meeting overview

Central makes it possible to have a live overview of the activities inside the organization through a single tool. It provides meeting owners and office managers with real-time data, enabling better data-driven decision-making on the fly. This video guides you through how it’s used.

Central allows you to:

• See every meeting room (including hot desks, and other resources) integrated with AskCody along with all the relevant information you need about the meeting.
• Gain a complete and user-friendly overview of the activities in the different locations of your organization.
• Understand how bookable resources are being utilized in your organization.
• Optimize your resources according to their usage by empowering you with actionable insights.
  
  

When a meeting room is activated in Resources, in the AskCody Management Portal, Central will start gathering data for that specific resource. For the meeting room to appear in Central, it has to have a meeting scheduled on the date chosen in Central. If you followed all steps in Step 5 Configuring meeting rooms in AskCody and added Room Types, Capacity, Equipment, and Purposes, this information will be present and available in Central.

Using Insights to understand meeting behavior

Insights is a workplace analytics tool to ease facilities management’s work and optimize resources and utilization of meeting space using real-time data. 

You get the insights, analytics, and trends displayed in a beautiful dashboard build on Microsoft’s powerful PowerBI Platform, where you can pull the metrics you need to make informed decisions about your meeting room space, conference rooms, workstations, or other resources, across multiple locations. Read more about Insights here.

With Insights you will:

• Get the full picture of the utilization of resources across the whole organization.
• Understand the needs of the employees of your organization in terms of resource booking.
• See real-time and historical information on resource utilization.

After enabling Insights on your meeting room calendars as done in Step 4 Integrating with Microsoft Exchange, it will start collecting data points* and display meeting room data within 24 hours. After the initial data collection, Insights will collect data once a day at 00.00 (UTC). 

*Insights only gathers data from activated calendars. 

Insights collect data both from meetings booked in personal calendars, and ad-hoc meetings. Ad-hoc meetings are meetings booked directly in the meeting room calendar or meetings booked on the AskCody Meeting Room Displays.

Insights collect data from the calendar types: Room, Desk, and Equipment.

Data points collected in Insights:

• Time of meeting
• Date of meeting
• Meeting room
• Number of attendees
• Meeting duration
   

If you enabled Insights on your meeting rooms in Step 4, defined Opening hours, and set meeting room Type when you configured your meeting rooms. You are now ready to start using Insights to get an overview of meeting room utilization.

Next Step: Test resource scheduling setup