Enhancing Productivity and Accelerating the Pace of Business with a Private ScheduleOnce Edition

Transcription

1 Enhancing Productivity and Accelerating the Pace of Business with a Private ScheduleOnce Edition In this white paper we explain why calendaring servers such as Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes and others cannot address the complete scheduling needs of an organization. We then show how the portion of scheduling which cannot be addressed by these calendaring servers is supported by the Private ScheduleOnce Edition. We conclude with a description of the key features and benefits of the ScheduleOnce solution. Introduction Meetings are the lifeblood of business activity. Hundreds of millions of meetings are scheduled each day both face to face and virtually, via audio, video and web conferencing. However, not all meetings place a scheduling burden of the same level on the organization some are easy to schedule and some are not. To gain a better understanding of the scheduling pain, we will start by analyzing the type of meetings that originate from within an organization: be it a corporation, an educational institution, or a non profit or government organization. We will analyze these meetings from a number of perspectives: A. Number of Attendees One on One Meetings: These are the most common meetings. These meetings are typically easy to schedule by or phone and their scheduling doesn t take more than 2 3 minutes. These meetings do not place a significant scheduling burden on the organization. Mid sized Meetings (2 6 attendees): These meetings are not as common as the one on one meetings, but they occur often, and usually involve between 2 6 attendees. These meetings are typically difficult to schedule and place a heavy scheduling burden on the organization. Large Meetings (more than six attendees): These meetings are large gatherings that usually happen only once in a while, such as monthly and quarterly business reviews, company announcements, guest lectures, etc. These meetings are typically scheduled far in advance, often by announcing a single time. These meetings do not place a significant scheduling burden on the organization. However, in some cases, such meetings require that specific individuals participate, making them resemble mid sized meetings. Copyright ScheduleOnce All rights reserved. Page 1 of 8

2 B. Organization Membership Members of the Organization: Attendees who are members of the organization typically share their free/busy information, allowing other members to see when they are available. For this reason, scheduling with members of the same organization does not place a heavy scheduling burden on the organization. Non members: Attendees who are not members of the organization cannot easily share their free/busy information, making it very difficult for someone within the organization to know their real time availability. For this reason, scheduling with non members places a heavy scheduling burden on the organization. C. Working Relationship Close Working Relationship: People who work together on an ongoing basis have developed formal and informal codes of conduct between them. This usually implies that they have each other s permission to schedule meetings in their available time slots. This type of scheduling does not place a significant burden on the organization. Distant Working Relationship: When people do not have an ongoing working relationship, even though they may work in the same organization, it is less acceptable to book a meeting in an attendee s free time without first verifying availability and asking for permission. This type of scheduling places a moderate burden on the organization. Mid Sized Meetings Create Most of the Scheduling Burden From the above analysis we can conclude that most of the scheduling burden is centered on mid sized meetings with 2 6 attendees, especially when at least some of the attendees are not members of the organization, or are members with which the meeting organizer has a distant working relationship. The following table analyzes how scheduling for these meetings is supported by the organizational calendaring server based on the organization membership and working relationship dimensions: Copyright ScheduleOnce All rights reserved. Page 2 of 8

3 Calendaring Server Support for Mid Sized Meetings Yes Organization Membership No Complete Support: Identify a free time and create the meeting No Support: Cannot see free/busy data and need to manually ask for availability Partial Support: Identify a free time, but manually ask for permission No Support: Cannot see free/busy data and need to manually ask for availability Yes No Working Relationship The calendaring server s inability to support a large portion of the mid sized meeting scheduling scenarios creates a void that is filled with manual scheduling (via , phone, or SMS). Manual scheduling increases costs and reduces productivity in the organization but this is not the only problem. During the time span between the time of scheduling and the proposed meeting time, there is no visibility into attendee availability, making it difficult to respond to schedule changes which create opportunities to advance the meeting time. As a result, meetings scheduled manually are on average scheduled farther in the future, slowing the overall pace of business. The ScheduleOnce Private Edition Support for the Organization s Core Scheduling Activity The ScheduleOnce solution is inherently designed to support the organization s core scheduling activity mid sized meetings with 2 6 attendees. This is not to say that it cannot be used for one on one meetings or large meetings with dozens of attendees it can. However, mid sized meetings have their unique characteristics and these have been consciously taken into account when the SceduleOnce solution was originally designed. Copyright ScheduleOnce All rights reserved. Page 3 of 8

4 Following are the key characteristics of mid sized meetings: High importance: These meetings are typically at the core of the organization s activity and take place in order to advance business issues and make critical decisions. Short scheduling timeframe: Since these meetings are important to the business, there is pressure to have them sooner, rather than later. All attendees are important: In these meetings almost all attendees have critical roles. In many cases it is impossible to have the meeting if not all attendees are present. Mixed audience: These meetings typically involve stakeholders and subject matter experts from other parts of the organization or from outside the organization. Virtual and face to face: These meetings are often completely virtual, or involve at least some level of participation via conference call, and attendees may be located in different time zones. Importance of the scheduling experience: Since these meetings are important and often involve important attendees, it is critical that the scheduling experience leading to the meeting is satisfying and does not create unnecessary delay, hassle and discontent. In order to address the above needs, ScheduleOnce is based on the following principles: Organization agnostic: ScheduleOnce works across organizations. For each meeting, ScheduleOnce collects the availability of all attendees, regardless of their organizational membership. Connection to attendee calendars: Busy times from attendee calendars update their availability for the meeting, ensuring its accuracy at any point in time. Integration into the meeting organizer s calendar: The entire scheduling process can be easily managed from the organizer s calendar without having to go to an external website. Time zone and Daylight Saving Time support: To avoid confusion and embarrassment for the organization, a scheduling solution must always be accurate, regardless of the time in the year and time zones involved. For this to happen, the solution must make all necessary adjustments to properly account for Daylight Saving Time changes around the world. Integrated into the organization s application environment: The solution is under the organization s domain and features the organization s brand. Visibility and transparency: Attendees see each other s availability during the process, facilitating convergence towards a common time. Copyright ScheduleOnce All rights reserved. Page 4 of 8

5 Based on availability: ScheduleOnce is based on availability rather than discrete time suggestions. With availability, a one hour meeting can take place from 9:00 10:00, 9:15 10:15 and so forth, providing maximum scheduling flexibility. Based on 15 minute increments: Rather than using 30 minute increments, the ScheduleOnce solution allows 15 minute increments, which maximizes utilization of attendee availability. The Scheduling Process with the ScheduleOnce Private Edition The scheduling process with ScheduleOnce is a three step process and only takes a few minutes to complete. The following steps describe the process in detail: 1. The meeting organizer sets tentative availability for the meeting: Marks tentative availability for the meeting (green) If the organizer s calendar is connected, tentative availability overlapping busy times (blue) is not displayed to the invitees Copyright ScheduleOnce All rights reserved. Page 5 of 8

6 2. The meeting organizer sends a link to all invitees. Invitees click on the link and reply with their tentative availability: Invitees see each others replies, helping them identify common meeting times They mark tentative availability (green) within the organizer s timeframe If the invitee s calendar is connected, tentative availability overlapping busy times (blue) will not be displayed to the organizer Copyright ScheduleOnce All rights reserved. Page 6 of 8

7 3. The optimal meeting time is automatically identified by comparing real time availability: Best times are automatically identified by the system If the organizer s calendar is connected, once scheduled, the meeting is automatically created in all attendee calendars Copyright ScheduleOnce All rights reserved. Page 7 of 8

8 The Benefits of the ScheduleOnce Private Edition With the ScheduleOnce Private Edition you get complete technological support for your organization s core scheduling activity, resulting in: Meetings are scheduled earlier, accelerating the pace of business: In contrast to manual scheduling, which takes a snapshot of attendee calendars at a single point in time, ScheduleOnce is constantly updated by attendee calendars, taking advantage of changing schedules and free time slots. In addition, the transparency and visibility of the scheduling process allows invitees to see each others availability for the specific meeting, facilitating convergence towards a common time. Meetings are scheduled faster, enhancing productivity: While the manual scheduling process can sometimes take longer than the meeting itself, the entire process with ScheduleOnce only takes a few minutes to complete. For example, a complex scheduling scenario with three external attendees in different time zones only takes two minutes to schedule in ScheduleOnce. This saves time and money, and frees employees to do the more strategic aspects of their job. Professional organizational image: Scheduling is often the first point of contact for an external invitee with your organization. With ScheduleOnce, all invitees are engaged with a professional system and a transparent process under the organization s domain and brand, conveying an image of an efficient and sophisticated organization. Summary We have seen that mid sized meetings are responsible for most of the scheduling burden in the organization. Existing calendaring servers such as Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes and others are not designed to support scheduling of mid sized meetings. The scheduling of these meetings is currently done manually, resulting in much inefficiency for the organization. A Private ScheduleOnce Edition implemented at the organizational level can put an end to manual scheduling, accelerating the pace of business, increasing productivity and conveying a professional organizational image. Copyright ScheduleOnce All rights reserved. Page 8 of 8