[MaleqAlhaq]

Hi!
I hope this is the right forum to post in...

OK, here is my problem:
My boss told me yesterday evening / afternoon to get a ressource manager working. The problem is: I don't have the faintest idea how. I would appreciate suggestions as to how I can do something like that. The situation is this:
We have ~20 machines in our company. These machines have to be maintained regularly (for most of them this means every 3 months, some stuff is done once a year). We have to have a digital system to shedule these maintances, and the engineer should be contacted by mail/Outlook Appointment to be reminded that he should take care of the machine. Furthermore, for planning, there should be an 'overview' function where all machines are displayed and the planners can see when a machine is down for maintance.

I really hope, somebody can give me some advice...

Thanks a lot!

Phil

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woohoo..i can actually answer this one! hehehe...i think

(right jaxisland?)

anyway

what version of both exchange and outlook are you running?

[dsenette]

woohoo..i can actually answer this one! hehehe...i think

(right jaxisland?)

anyway

what version of both exchange and outlook are you running?

[MaleqAlhaq]

woohoo..i can actually answer this one! hehehe...i think

(right jaxisland?)

anyway

what version of both exchange and outlook are you running?

Hi!
We are running Exchange Server 2000 (on a Win2000 server) and the Outlook Version we mainly deploy is also 2000, but there are some (~5) with Outlook 2003, but AFAIK they're not involved in the management process...

Thank's for replying!
Phil

[dsenette]

the steps i'm about to suggest are confirmed to work with exchange 2003 and outlook 2003 so i cannot verify the accurace for 2000 BUT...if you can get to the options that i'm seeing in 2003 it may work
( http://www.geekstogo...02-t130187.html a bit of the same question)

basically what i was able to do was create a user for each resource (theoretically i could have just created a mailbox...but i wasn't able to figure out how to do that)...i then logged on as each resource user (mine are conference rooms and projectors) and opened outlook to it's mail account...then i clicked tools > options > calendar options > then i clicked "resource scheduling" (this is where i'm not sure if pre 2003 is the same) and ticked the first two boxes (automatically accept, and automatically decline) then clicked permissions... on the permissions page...i added the users (actually a group that i made for this purpose) that needed to edit the calendar and gave them "author" permissions...once you do that to all the resource users calendars...the rest is done from the calendar of the person who's scheduling/reserving the resource

on the scheduler's calendar...you highlight the proper time block...right click and choose "new meeting request" then you click the "to button"...what I do to schedule the resource...is have the user put my name in the "required" box (this could be any staff that HAS to know about the meeting/schedule...such as maintenance personel) and the resource in the resource field (meeting room/projector/machine whatever)...then y ou put a subject and any special comments and press send....
this will automatically add the meeting to the resources calendars...and send an invitation to the "required" users so that they can accept the meeting and add it to their calendars...

i've got two powerpoints for the reservation side of this (not the set up) if any of this process actually works in 2000

Edited by dsenette, 28 September 2006 - 11:01 AM.

[MaleqAlhaq]

Thank you very much for the fast reply!

I will try this when I'm back at work (I'm off tomorrow, so it'll be at least Monday), and I'll post any results I get!

Again: Thank you!

[dsenette]

just for encouragement http://www.slipstick...urce.htm#ol2000 (where i got my steps from) actually suggests that 2000 should be able to do this

[MaleqAlhaq]

Even though I'm at work, I can't check out your advice (at least not completely... Ressource scheduling does work! *yeah*)... Do you know a way to create some kind of overview of those scheduled mashines? There ought to be be somothing, I think... The workaround by creating a new appointment and inviting the mashines is not very much appreciated in my department...
Thanks again!

Phil

[dsenette]

you can add the resources calendar to your outlook v iew...by doing file > open other user's folder > finding the user and picking calendar...that will show the other calendars in your outlook view...but...i don't see what the issue is with the reservation technique...hehe

[MaleqAlhaq]

Well, the problem is:

We have a planning department, and they should be able to see all the events on one calnedar, so that they don't shedule work during an important maintance time...

[dsenette]

ah...then....i guess should they just be manually creating the events on the one callendar? or are other people actually SCHEDULING the events and they're just needing to see them?...cuz if they're the only ones dealing with this scedule (i.e. scheduling and viewing)...then they should be doing it manually...if they are viewing but multiple people are scheduling...then they can do one of two things....use the method above to give them access to all of the calendars at once (this is how i do it..i can see all the events at a glance...but i don't have alot of resources to manage)...OR you could create a master RESOURCE user who is always added as a required (and set to automatically accept meetings and decline conflicting meetings)...then give access to all of the planning group to this one callendar...this is basically the ssame as the other setup...except that there is only one calendar (besides their own) for them to manage

[MaleqAlhaq]

Thank you for that last tip! I will discuss that with my collegues and hopefully wok something out...
Thank you again for those tips & quick replys!

[MaleqAlhaq]

OK, here a little update on what we did and how it works:
The scheduling works quite nicely (according to dsenette's tips). In addition to that, we use ExchangeGroupCalendars (for now in the 30 day trial mode) from www.exchangegroupcaldendar.com to display all our mashine calendars in one calendar, and, from the same company, we're useing the GridViewTool for displaying the information in a horizontal fashion... The drawback: the pricetag of ~1300$ just for the server add in to display multiple calendars in one Outlook calendar / view. The only problem we had was with the GridViewTool, which doesnt display all calendars present in the GroupCalendar if in the permission tab a user is double (f.i. in a group and aded seperately in the permissions tab).

Thanks, and bye

Phil