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1. General
When synchronizing reservations from Workplace Management to and from an The integration between Workplace and the external calendar (Outlook/Google Calendar) there are two possible synchronization strategies: Room-centric and user-centric. The current integration between Workplace and the external calendar application works with works via a room-centric approach.
2. Room-centric vs user-centric
What is the difference between room-centric and user-centric and how does it work?
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In room-centric
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approach the main focus is on integrating with the room calendar (mailbox). For this approach there needs to be full access to the meeting rooms mailboxes. A meeting from Workplace is created in the rooms calendar and users are invited as participants.
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User-centric: In user-centric mode the main focus is on integrating with the users calendar (mailbox). For this approach there needs to be full access to the users mailboxes. A meeting from Workplace would be created in the requestors calendar, the room is added as a resource and additonal users are invited as participants.
In room-centric mode, it is necesarry to set up permissions in the external calendar application, so that Workplace has access to the room calendar to be able to create, edit and delete meetings. A meeting created in Workplace can then be synced to the calendar application, where the meeting is created in the rooms calendar and the users are invited to the meeting as participants. The users can accept or decline the meeting in Outlook/Google, but the requestor of the meeting in Workplace, cannot edit or delete the meeting in Outlook/Google.
In the room-centric approach, meetings can only be changed/cancelled in the system the meeting is created in. But there are a few exceptions where an update is done from Workplace to a meeting created in Outlook or Google. These scenarios are described below.
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Below, several scenarios are described on how the room-centric approach works when creating/updating meetings from Workplace to Outlook/Google Calendar and visa versa.
2. Scenarios
In this chapter, several scenarios are described to see how reservation or meeting reflects in both systems with a room-centric approach.
An 'outbound’ meeting is created in any of the Workplace touchpoints and is synced to Outlook/Google Calendar.
An ‘inbound' meeting, is a meeting created in Outlook/Google Calendar and is synced to Workplace.
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2.1 Create meeting in Workplace - synced to Outlook
The new meeting is created in any of the Workplace touchpoints (Workplace App, Go, Room display, etc.):
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If no other participants are added, the requestor will be the only participant of the meeting. If the requestor decides to decline the meeting (his own meeting created in Workplace), the meeting will stay in the meeting rooms calendar. |
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2.2 Create meeting in Outlook - synced to Workplace
The new meeting is created in Outlook. The meeting room is added to the meeting.
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If the user tries to Change the meeting in Workplace Management, the user will get an error:  The user can Cancel the meeting, which will result in the meeting being cancelled in Workplace. In Outlook, the meeting is removed from the rooms mailbox, making the room available again. The meeting will stay in the users mailbox in Outlook until it is deleted in Outlook by the user. |
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2.3 Create meeting in Workplace - synced to Google Calendar
The new meeting is created in any of the Workplace touchpoints (Workplace App, Go, Room display, etc.):
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If no other participants are added, the requestor will be the only attendee of the meeting. If the requestor decides to decline the meeting (his own meeting created in Workplace), the meeting will stay in the meeting rooms calendar. |
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2.4 Create meeting in Google Calendar - synced to Workplace
The new meeting is created in Google Calendar. The meeting room is added to the meeting.
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If the user tries to Change the meeting in Workplace Management, the user will get an error: The user can Cancel the meeting, which will result in the meeting being cancelled in Workplace. In Outlook, the meeting is removed from the rooms mailbox, making the room available again. The meeting will stay in the users mailbox in Outlook until it is deleted in Outlook. |
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2.5 No show via brain rule (automation)
A brain rule (automation) can be active which automatically frees up a meeting room, if the user who reserved the meeting room does not show up. With a occupancy sensor, the occupancy can be detected in a meeting room. If no occupancy is detected in the first 15 minutes of a meeting for example, the brain rule will automatically set the reservation to 'no show'.
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The sensor in the meeting room does not detect occupancy within the first 15 minutes of the meeting, which triggers the brain rule to “no show“ the meeting. In the room-centric approach Workplace does not have permission to edit the meeting in the users calendar, but the meeting in the meeting rooms calendar can be updated/cancelled. In case of a no show, the meeting in the meeting rooms calendar is completely removed, resulting in the meeting room becoming available again.
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2.6 End ongoing meeting early
In the Workplace App it is possible to end an ongoing meeting early. This can potentially be inbound or outbound meetings.
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The meeting in the users calendar remains the same, the meeting in the meeting rooms calendar is ended early. The original meeting was from 15:00-17:00 but now the meeting rooms meeting is updated to 15:00-15:30 and the room is available again from 15:30 to be reserved by someone else.
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3. More information
More information about the room-centric approach can be found here: Debunking the myths of room centric limitations