Microsoft Outlook^® is an excellent email client and calendaring solution that many organizations use, but its meeting and resource booking capabilities leave a lot to be desired. From lack of visibility to missing description, using Outlook for meeting and resource booking can present many issues. The following are some of the most common problems that users experience when booking meetings and resources through Outlook^®.   The need to use multiple, disparate systems to book resources and order services   When you book a meeting room, you often need to order additional services like catering or audiovisual equipment. If you’re using Outlook^® to book meetings, this means you’ll have to log into different systems to order catering, create invoices to send to service providers, etc.  

Add-On Products is pleased to announce the rollout of a new Outlook add-in to supplement the existing Resource Finder. The Outlook add-in can be used in Outlook 2016 and newer for PC and Mac. This is a major enhancement since Mac users were previously unable to use the Resource Finder. The Outlook add-in has a completely new look and feel and is integrated into the meeting booking screen/window. Below are some of the features you’ll find in the Outlook add-in.   Icons for Room Features  Icons representing room features, such as podiums and videoconferencing equipment, can be added to Resource Central when it is configured. These icons are displayed in the Outlook add-in when you select a room, enabling quick visual recognition and making it

Finding a meeting room that’s both available and appropriate for your meeting can be frustrating. You might not be familiar with all the different meeting rooms at your office, or perhaps you’re booking meetings for other office locations. Unless there is more detailed information provided about the meeting rooms, you may feel like you’re booking meeting rooms while blindfolded. This is where having access to a floor plan in your meeting room booking software can be helpful. Floor plans provide a visual representation of meeting rooms, so you can gauge the size and capacity of meeting rooms at a glance and quickly find the right space for your meeting.  Resource Central is a meeting room and resource booking tool for Microsoft Outlook^® and Exchange. Because it integrates

Since the release of Resource Central 4.0 Service Release 2 back in 2017, the Resource Finder has a feature called multiroom ordering. As its name suggests, this feature allows users to book multiple rooms and order catering and other services for each resource in just one step. Each selected room has its own tab containing an order form.  The multiroom ordering feature is excellent to use when you need to book multiple meeting rooms for an event or meeting. For example, the feature comes in handy when you need to book a videoconference between meeting rooms in two different locations. The multiroom ordering feature allows you to order catering in both locations without having to involve others in the process. The order form conveniently pops up inside

From meetings that go on and on with no end in sight, to meetings where participants are playing with their smartphones and wondering why they are even there, meetings take up a good chunk of your workday but they often feel like a waste of time. Most organizations depend on meetings to accomplish tasks and achieve team success. But are meetings at your organization the most effective and efficient that they can be? Chances are, they aren’t. Managers and senior leaders typically spend over half their time at work in meetings, but studies have shown that 25-50% of meeting time is wasted.  The biggest problems in an organization, including the issue of pointless and ineffective meetings, seem to arise when there is a lack of shared understanding.