My organization uses MS Exchange 2003 with Outlook XP for the client. We'd like to expand our usage beyond simple email and personal calendar functions to help us manage our activities better.
I've got 2 challenges to solve:
1. We have meeting rooms, a laptop, projector, etc that we would like to make "reservable" when someone schedules a meeting. Some need to be approved by a facility manager, but others just need to avoid being able to double-book the resource.
2. We have a lot of "public programs" - exhibits, lectures, kids classes, outings. My staff would like to be able to look at one "public programs" calendar that would show them in one place all the things that are going on for a particular time period. These programs also need to make use of the resources that I've mentioned above.
I confess that I'm unsure about the appropriateness of asking this question here because I'm just not that familiar with the forum, but I'm having a really hard time getting my head wrapped around just what Exchange/Outlook can do to help us meet these challenges and it seems like this is a good place for such undefined questions.
So does anyone have any suggestions/experiences that can provide some guidance as to whether Exchange/Outlook can do these things, how to approach them, and whether or not an add-on tool is needed?
Thanks for listening!
You can setup a mailbox for
You can setup a mailbox for your confernce room, enable it as a scheduled resource and then mail dates to it. It will automatically handle notifying your staff if the time is available. I have this implemented with several clients and it works very well.
As for the calender, Create a new Public folder containing calender items. Mail enable the folder, setup the permissions for reviewer, owner, publisher etc. Again I deploy this method frequently and it works well.
Hope this helps,
Tennyson LaJeunesse
RedCell Technologies, Inc.