Team Members: Mohammad Bin Hussein Eric Kurbat John Macharia Alcides Rodrigues.

Colaborative Scheduling/ Team Calendars

Team Members: Mohammad Bin Hussein Eric Kurbat John Macharia Alcides Rodrigues

Agenda IntroductionCollaborative Scheduling DefinedProject ToolsActivities Use Cases:

Capworks Development Inc. (CDI) Beverly Hills Spa & Hairdresser

Scheduling and calendar tools in the market Free software Paid software

What did we learn Important Factors to consider when choosing the softwareWikipedia Page

What is Collaborative Scheduling ?A bad name for a band.The ability to magically get everyone into a

meeting using pixie dust.The ability to coordinate schedules between

two or more people to schedule meetings and appointments.

Project ToolsDocument/decision/communication management

Voice communication and conference calls

Real Time screen sharing

Scheduling all our meetings

Activities 1-2

Creating, updating, and viewing schedules from different access points.

User reviews participants’ calendars in order to schedule a meeting.

A meeting organizer changes the time of a scheduled meeting.

A PC user wants to accept an event invitation from a Mac user.

Activities 2-2

A user wants to import calendar information into his personal calendar.

Users want to make sure that their data is protected from unauthorized users.

Users want to be able to work offline and then synch when possible.

Use Cases

Offline and automated synchronizationCustomer self-scheduling

Plan By Wire Use Cases

Offline and automated synchronization

Name: Kate Jennings (Age: 34)Position: Senior Account ManagerCompany: Capworks Development Inc.

(CDI)Location:  Chicago, Sacramento, and

Charlotte

Offline and automated synchronization

Objectives:Upgrade company’s scheduling/calendar tool to

include offline functionality.Increase employees productivity by maintaining an

up-to-date scheduling system; thus, allowing new trips/meeting to be scheduled more efficiently.

Offline and automated synchronization

Background:Non-for-profit organization involved in affordable

housing development.Matches developers with investors.Account managers are constantly on the road

visiting developers and touring proposed development sites - often visiting several sites in one trip.

Offline and automated synchronization

Scenario: KateSenior account manager based in Chicago. Responsible for the

Midwest region.Energetic and likes to get her work done efficiently.Prefers to visit more than one location when is on site visits.Visits sites in remote locations where Internet connectivity (or

mobile signal) is not available. If Internet connectivity is not available, Kate still wants to be

able to use her laptop or phone to review her appointments (or other members of her team).

Offline and automated synchronization

Requirements:Able to reach/modify calendar (using a laptop, or

mobile phone) even when there is no connection – automated synchronization takes place when internet or phone connectivity is present.

Automated notification of new appointments, conflicts, and/or updates.

Application must support at least 100 users.

Offline and automated synchronization

Technology:Microsoft Exchange - Outlook

Beverly Hills Spa & Hairdresser

Use Case(2): Enable customers to schedule and review appointments with service providers by directly accessing their scheduling tools.

Name: Veronica Nolan (age: 31)Position: Owner/ManagerEmployees: 4 Full-time / 12 Part-timeLactation: Los Angeles

BackgroundVeronica has an MBA from University

of Southern California. She and her friends wanted to start their own business.

Opened for Business on January 2008.Majority of Staff are friends prior to

working here.90% of their business is by phone

reservation, 10% walk-in customers.

All her Part-Time staff have Smart-Phones to make communication between them faster via emails.

Typical day at work 1-2

1. Starts with a really big cup of coffee!2. She reviews the current reservations

on Outlook calendar. 3. Customers call to make reservations. 4. She checks the current schedule of

her full time staff to see if they have time the same day or the following day.

5. If a time slot is available, Veronica confirms the appointment with the customer (who is still on the phone) and enters the data manually into outlook calendar.

Typical day at work 2-2

6. If all her full-time staff are occupied, then she schedules the customers for the following day.

7. Then she sends a group email to her part-time staff of the new appointment and waits for a reply from whoever is available.

8. If she receives a positive response then she confirmed the reservation.

9. If no one is available for the appointment, then she makes a new one based on availability then informs the customer of the new reservation date and time.

Veronica needs another cup of coffee!

Goals & ObjectivesMinimize the time spent on the phone

handling reservations and scheduling staff.

Provide customers with an easy tool to make their own reservations.

Avoid schedule/ reservation conflicts and increase efficiency.

Give part-time employees more flexibility in accessing and modifying their appointments.

Requirements to achieve objectivesThe software should have an easy intuitive interface

that enables staff and customers to use it comfortably with 10 days of use.

The tool can integrate to other calendar tools such as google calendar, outlook, iCalendar and others.

Veronica is able to see her staff’s schedules and be able to schedule appointments based on their availability information synchronized to the new software.

The tool will work on different platforms; Windows, Mac, Linux etc.. to accommodate all the users.

Price-Point: less than $50 per monthScalability: must support up to 20 people with the

ability to expand as the business grows

Selected Tool:

“TimeCenter”Online appointment scheduling

Service & event scheduling

SMS Text messaging

Instant popularity

Notifications

Customer reminders Promotion tools

Your TimeCenter-page

Customer database

Your logo

Customers manage appointments

Security

Demo: https://www.timecenter.com/demo/

Other Tools to Consider: “AppointmentQuest” http://www.appointmentquest.com/

Has pretty much all the features needed for Veronica’s business.

The software is adopted by different industries and business.

The interface is less impressive than that of TimeCenter.

“BookingCalendar” http://www.bookingcalendar.com/index.php

The tools…

Free Scheduling ToolsagreeAdate (basic service is free)doodleGoogle Calendar (beta)meetingWizardmixin (advertising-based revenue stream)SAM (Set A Meeting)timeBridge

Fee-based Scheduling ToolsNote that most had an available free trial period

Appointment-PlusappointmentQuestbookingCalendarfunctionFoxfusionCalendargraceSchedulegroupReadyhotSchedules

Meeting Room Manager

Microsoft - OutlookpeopleCube-

meetingMakerscheduleAnyWhereScheduleOnlineshiftBoardtimeCenterhyperOffice

What have we Learned? An increasing number of tools and software

are available which target different segments of the market

These tools are increasingly integrated and synchronized to different devices

The cost of these tools vary significantly, it is best to consider different tools to better match with business needs.

Important factors to consider when choosing the softwareCost

Can your department/office afford the tool?Who will be using it?

Will they all work for the same company?Are the target users technically savvy enough?

Where will the users be accessing it?Locally only? Is web access needed?

How many users will be using it?How will your needs change as time progresses? Will the

tool grow with your needs? If you go with a free tool, how long can you expect it to be

around?

Wikipedia pageTime permitting, we can now visit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar_software

Next presentation please!