The room & equipment reservations system that is built into Outlook can be used to manage reservations of any rooms on campus as long as these rooms are not already being managed in another software. For example, classrooms that are already managed by the Office of the Registrar should not be added to this system because this would create conflicts. Once added to the system, these rooms can be seen and selected by users in Outlook desktop and web apps when composing a meeting invitation. The room will be treated just like other invitees but will be listed on a separate line called Location.
There are several different options that can be configured for each room, so when submitting a request to add a new room you will be asked to specify your preferences. Some things to consider prior to submitting your request are:
- Should room reservation requests be processed automatically based on availability, or should there be a designated person (i.e. room delegate) in your area to review and approve/decline each request? Is so, who will be designated room delegates? Compile a list of names that you will need to provide on the request form when you make the request.
- If you decide to go with automated processing, should anyone at the University be able to reserve this room when available, or should this be restricted to a selected group of people? If so, compile a list of names that you will need to provide on the request form when you make the request.
- If you decide ot go with approvals, who in your area will be designated to review and approve/decline each request? Compile a list of names of room delegates that you will need to provide on the request form when you make the request.
- Who will be designed room booking administrators in your area responsible for managing reservations for this room? These people will have full admin access to each room calendar which will allow them to see all details about each reservation and edit/cancel existing reservations. All other users will be able to access room calendar and see reservations but will not be able to see details such as who reserved the room, and will not be able to edit existing reservations.
Once you make these decisions and gather required information, proceed with submitting your request by opening a ticket for Microsoft Room & Equipment Reservations service on this portal. Be sure to select Requesting new room or equipment to be added in the Request Type field on the form. This will expose additional form fields that you will need to fill out prior to submitting your ticket. Note that if you need multiple rooms to be added, you will need to submit one ticket per room as the information for each room will be unique, such as room number or name.
If you would like to learn more about how this system works, please review the following KB article collection:
If you have follow-up questions, or would like to get a one-on-one training/demo, please book a "Microsoft 365 Consultation" appointment using our bookings site at http://uwindsor.ca/its/bookings