1. General

When synchronizing reservations from Workplace Management to and from an 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 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?

Room-centric: In room-centric mode 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.
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:

A customer can have occupancy sensors set up in a meeting room and can have a brain rule (automation) set up to automatically cancel a meeting if no occupancy is detected. This prevents meeting rooms being reserved but not used. An inbound meeting (created from Outlook/Google) can be cancelled by a brain rule if the occupancy sensor does not detect occupancy within the specified period. The reserved room will become available again.
Via the Workplace app it is possible to end a meeting early. This will update the end time of the meeting to end now. If the 'End' button is pressed in the Workplace App for an inbound meeting, the meeting in the rooms calendar will also be updated with the new end time. The meeting in the users calendar will stay as is.

3. 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.

3.1 Create meeting in Workplace - synced to Outlook

The new meeting is created in any of the Workplace touchpoints (Workplace App, Go, Room display, etc.):

The meeting is synced to Outlook. The meeting room becomes the organizer of the meeting and the requestor is added as an attendee:

Because the original requestor is added as an attendee to the meeting rooms meeting, the requestor gets an email to accept, decline or tentative the meeting:

The reservation can only be edited or cancelled from Workplace.

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.

3.2 Create meeting in Outlook - synced to Workplace

The new meeting is created in Outlook. The meeting room is added to the meeting.

The meeting is synced to Workplace. The user who created the meeting in Outlook, will become the requestor in Workplace. The meeting room is added to the meeting.

The 'Edit Meeting Details' button is visible, but no actual changes can be made for the future reservation in the Workplace App.

No options are available to Change or Cancel the meeting in Go.

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.

3.3 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.):

The meeting is synced to Google Calendar. The meeting room becomes the organizer of the meeting and the requestor is added as an attendee:

Because the original requestor is added as an attendee to the meeting rooms meeting, the requestor gets an email to accept (Yes), decline (No) or tentative (Maybe) the meeting:

The reservation can only be edited or cancelled from Workplace.

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.

3.4 Create meeting in Google Calendar - synced to Workplace

The new meeting is created in Google Calendar. The meeting room is added to the meeting.

The meeting is synced to Workplace. The user who created the meeting in Google Calendar, will become the requestor in Workplace. The meeting room is added to the meeting.

Screenshot of Workplace App to add (Bug in Google environment):