Microsoft Bookings - Full Bookings Instances
Bookings is a Microsoft 365 app that makes it easy for others to grab time with you when you are free. Bookings makes scheduling easier and removes the back-and-forth usually needed to find a good time to meet. Your free/busy information will be shareable through Bookings based on your membership settings and others will be able to grab time with you when you are available. You can learn more about Bookings here: https://office.com/bookings.
Microsoft "Book With Me" - mini Bookings instances
Book with Me is a new offering from Microsoft, it does not require a full setup here by resource coordinators. It only requires the Bookings license (see the Licensing section below).
More setup and use info at https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/office/bookings-with-me-setup-and-sharing-ad2e28c4-4abd-45c7-9439-27a789d254a2
Licensing
Full Bookings:Working within the constraints of Microsoft's configuration of the Bookings ecosystem, the Division of IT is only granting licensing for Bookings calendar owners. Regular users and folks who would book time with you do not need this license - only administrators who set avail/closed times, buffers, and set attributes on the calendar itself like logo, colors, etc. If you want to add someone to help administer your Bookings, you can contact your Resource Coordinator and they can access tools to request this.
Book with Me: to enable this simpler feature, you'll still need a Bookings license; your Resource Coordinator can request one for you.
Renaming Warning
Unfortunately, to preserve resource naming across the university's Microsoft 365 tenant, we cannot allow bookings to be renamed. Microsoft does not give us options to disable this, however, so it is imperative that each Bookings owner understands that they must not rename their calendar. If they do, regular maintenance may undo this action.
Request Process
Departmental Resource Coordinators have tools at their disposal (via 'RC Tools') to create Bookings instances which follow the established naming convention for Exchange items, and which coordinate with license granting for owner(s). They can also add new licensees and delete bookings with these tools.
Setup Process
After Division of IT processes the creation of the requested Bookings calendar, the new owner will be licensed and will receive an action-required email from Microsoft.
Accept Permissions and Onboarding
The owner of a new bookings instance will receive an invitation email from Microsoft, alerting them that "action is required from you to approve your staff membership." This is the permissions part of setup and is required if this person's Outlook calendar will be be shareable/bookable in this Bookings account. Complete these steps:
- Click "Manage membership" in the email
- A browser window should open. The owner will sign in with "ename@colostate.edu" and their eID password.
- A screen will show logged in status, and a pending message regarding staff membership status. Approve the conditions.
Complete the Onboarding Process
- visit https://outlook.office.com/bookings/onboarding
- Select Get it now and enter the name of the requested booking calendar in the box. Click the magnifying glass to complete the lookup. Do not choose Add a booking calendar, because new Bookings should only be created by resource coordinators.
Manage Staff
This sidebar section shows the staff in your Bookings. The DoIT admin account that created this bookings (o365bookings_svc@colostate.onmicrosoft.com) will be listed, and its calendar shared. You will have to share a different calendar, then delete the DoIT admin staff from your Bookings. This step is required by Microsoft when Bookings are created by an agent.
If the owner declined the invitation (see 'accept permissions' above), you will have to re-send the invitation so that they can accept permissions. Re-sending is available from a link on the staff page in bookings.
Set "reply to" email
As initially configured, customer replies are sent to o365bookings_svc@colostate.onmicrosoft.com — this email is unmonitored. Click the Business Information tab on the left side rail and change this to an email in your organization which should receive customer replies.
Adding Additional Owners/Administrators
Bookings can have more than one administrator. To set up additional administrators:
- Have your resource coordinator use the R.C. tools to request Bookings licensing for the new administrator.
- A current administrator (does not have to be a resource coordinator) opens the Bookings and adds them in the "staff" section. To do that, enter the new admin's ename in the 'Add People' box. A popup will appear with 'No Results' listed: click "search directory" to load them. Also be sure to choose "administrator" from the role dropdown.
