Room Finder Add-in for Outlook

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Laura CARBO

Audience: End users, IT, Spacewell consultants

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Room Finder is a Spacewell add-in for Outlook. It helps users find an available room that fits their meeting, in a list or on a floor plan, and adds it to the meeting.

Room Finder only works when Reservation Sync is set up for Microsoft Exchange.

Room Finder is compatible with Workplace SSO (see How to set up Workplace SSO).

‪Before you begin

  • Asse) and a Workplace tenant with users set up.
  • Reservation Sync configured and active for the tenant (Microsoft Exchange).
  • A Microsoft 365 subscription with mailboxes on Exchange 2016 or later.
  • Azure configured as described in Configure Microsoft Exchange and Azure
  • The rooms mapped to a room mailbox in Exchange.
  • Users sign in with their Workplace credentials; Workplace SSO is supported (see How to set up Workplace SSO).

Note

Room Finder is a Workplace touchpoint and shows all Workplace rooms, while Reservation Sync only synchronizes the rooms that are mapped to Exchange. Keep this gap in mind when setting up Room Finder.

Configuration (Spacewell consultant)

In Asset: set up master data and create the reservable objects.

Install Room Finder

Info

Depending on user rights, users can install the add-in themselves or IT pushes it centrally. This Microsoft guideline describes how administrators can deploy add-ins for the whole organization.

‪1. In Outlook app, select File, then Manage Add-ins // In Outlook web, go to https://outlook.office.com/mail/inclientstore

‪1.a. In Outlook app, select File, then Manage Add-ins

1.b. In Outlook web, go to https://outlook.office.com/mail/inclientstore

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2. This will open the managed Add-ins for Outlook (when coming from Outlook app, it will probably also open in web browser): select "Room Finder 2.0"
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3. Open an appointment or meeting in Outlook
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4. ‪Select the Room Finder Add-in from Spacewell
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5. ‪Log in with your Workplace credentials (only first time login; SSO supported)
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‪6. Select relevant location and floor
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Use Room Finder

1. Open an appointment or meeting in Outlook, select the right time for your meeting
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2. Add Required participants to the reservation

Adding participants to your reservation will indicate the required capacity to the Room Finder Add-in.
For example, when inviting 2 people to the reservation, the capacity search will be “3” (including the Reservation Responsible user), probably suggesting meeting rooms that have “capacity 4”.

3. Select the Room Finder Add-in from Spacewell
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4. Room Finder opens on the right side of the screen

Room Finder will present the rooms most suitable for your search under “Recommended Rooms”. How does it define the most suitable locations? This depends on number of participants and availability known in the reservation system for that moment.

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If you want: verify where the room is on the floor plan. The selected location is highlighted.

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5. Select the room in Room Finder

The Room Mail Box from Exchange will be added to the Required + Location field of your appointment /meeting.

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Changing the meeting details updates the rooms shown in Room Finder.

Good to know

  • Exchange treats rooms and workplaces (desks) differently. A desk reservation synced from Workplace to Outlook does not set your status to Busy. A room reservation does ("going into a meeting").
  • E-mail addresses are cached in Workplace and refreshed daily for all tenants with the Exchange interface configured; all APIs work with cached values.

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