Note
Conflict resolution and reconciliation are available for Microsoft Exchange only.
Reservation Sync includes two safety mechanisms that keep room availability the same in Workplace and Outlook, even when something goes wrong – for example when one system is temporarily unavailable.
Mechanism |
When |
What it does |
|---|---|---|
Real-time conflict resolution |
Immediately, when a conflict is detected |
Keeps the reservation created first and cancels or declines the later one. On by default. |
Reconciliation – Report |
Once every 24 hours |
Fixes out-of-sync reservations and sends an e-mail listing remaining conflicts for manual follow-up. |
Reconciliation – Automatically fix conflicts & sync issues |
Once every 24 hours |
Fixes out-of-sync reservations and remaining conflicts automatically. What cannot be fixed is listed in a report e-mail. |
Two kinds of problems
Out of sync
A reservation is out of sync when it no longer matches between the two systems. This happens when an update does not reach the other side – for example because Workplace was unavailable when a meeting was created in Outlook, Microsoft did not send a notification, or a room is missing or wrongly mapped. Examples:
- A reservation created in Workplace did not reach Outlook: the room is booked in Workplace but looks free in Outlook.
- A meeting was cancelled in Outlook while synchronization was unavailable: the room is free in Outlook but still booked in Workplace. The next reconciliation run removes or updates the outdated reservation.
- A meeting was rescheduled in Workplace but the change did not reach Outlook: Outlook shows the old time.
Conflicts
A conflict is two or more reservations for the same room at the same time. Examples:
- During an out-of-sync situation, a room looks free in Workplace while it is already booked in Outlook, and someone books it.
- Workplace is configured to allow several reservations for the same room at the same time.
- The room in Exchange has AllowConflicts set to True, so it accepts every request.
Note
Conflicts caused by configuration (rooms that allow double reservations, in Workplace or Exchange) are not solved by reconciliation, but they are reported. Correct the configuration.
Who keeps the room?
For conflicts that are resolved automatically, the reservation with the earliest original creation date and time is kept. The later reservation is cancelled or declined, depending on the direction and scenario. Reservation Sync uses the creation time, not the time the reservation was last changed, rescheduled or synchronized, because the "last modified" time also changes for routine updates such as attendee replies.
How a double reservation is handled in real time (Real-time conflict resolution):
Report mode
With "Report", reconciliation fixes out-of-sync reservations, and sends an e-mail with the remaining conflicts to the configured addresses. A reservation coordinator or administrator resolves them manually and informs the users whose reservation is removed in the room calendar.
How to read the report e-mail
Column |
Meaning |
|---|---|
Type |
|
Direction |
|
Organizer |
E-mail address of the person who created the reservation |
Subject |
Subject of the reservation (if empty: the user name) |
Start time / End time |
Start and end of the reservation |
IWMS reservation ID |
|
IWMS status |
|
Calendar status |
|
Calendar create time |
|
IWMS create time |
|
Good to know
- Reconciliation only checks reservations within the reconciliation window (10–90 days ahead).
- Because reconciliation runs once every 24 hours, an outdated reservation can stay visible for a while after a sync problem. Some situations need more than one run.
- The same prerequisites and limitations as for normal synchronization apply. See Features, prerequisites & limitations
- Conflicts between two reservations that were both created in Workplace (or both in Exchange) are configuration issues and are not reported. Fix them in Workplace/Asset or in Microsoft.
- E-mail addresses for the report must be set in Sync Settings (configured by Spacewell consultant in the Integration Platform), even if failure notifications are disabled.
Info
Reporting for outbound-to-outbound scenarios is not supported, as these are essentially configuration issues that need to be resolved in Workplace/Asset.
Similarly, inbound-to-inbound scenarios are also configuration-related and should be corrected in Microsoft.
What is supported
Situation |
Single room, single reservation |
Single room, recurring |
Multi-room |
|---|---|---|---|
Out of sync (created in Outlook or Workplace) |
Fixed |
Fixed |
Fixed (single and recurring) |
Conflict, real time (created in Outlook or Workplace) |
Resolved |
Not yet (planned) |
Not resolved |
Conflict, automatic reconciliation |
Resolved |
Not yet (planned) |
Not resolved |
Conflict, Report |
Reported |
To be confirmed |
Reported |
Info
- Relocation (a reservation moved to another room) is not supported for conflict resolution, because Reservation Sync is room-centric.
- Rescheduling works, but may only be resolved after several runs.
- For a conflict where the Outlook reservation was created later, the room declines it – the meeting itself cannot be cancelled in the organizer’s calendar.
The Spacewell consultant configures the options in Reconciliation service configuration guide (SW internal):
- Real-time conflict resolution (default: on)
- Report on conflicts & solve sync issues (default: off)
- Automatically fix conflicts & sync issues (default: off) (Reconciliation will try to solve any detected Conflicts and out-of-syncs. Any situations that cannot be solved, will be part of a Report e-mail)
- the reconciliation window (10–90 days)
- and the schedule.
What these settings mean for customers is summarized in Settings configured in the Integration Platform
Info
It’s important to distinguish
- “Real-time conflict resolution", which will solve conflicts and
- “Reconciliation process” (Report & Automatic Reconciliation), which runs once every 24 hours, and identifies and corrects out-of-sync reservations (including missed updates or cancellations during a period of synchronization downtime) and addresses remaining conflicts according to the selected conflict-resolution setting.