Exchange 2003 Conference Room Automatic Booking as Resource help

[jrITguy]

Dear Exchange Admins and Experts,

I'm having some trouble with setting up Conference bookings. I am running Outlook 2003, Exchange 2003, Active Directory 2003. I welcome any solutions that will make my users easily book a conference with minimal confusion and conflicts.

My setup is as followed:

User accounts were created for each conference rooms (four total rooms). To book a conference room CORRECTLY, the meeting organizer would create a new calendar event. He/she would invite all the attendees as a REQUIRED or OPTIONAL attendant. The organizer would then invite the Conference Room as a RESOURCE attendant. When the event is sent, then the room is booked.

The main problem is that users tend to invite the conference room as a REQUIRED attendant, instead of changing it to RESOURCES. When they forget to change it, then the event is treating the conference room as a user, thus waiting for the event to be accepted. When this happens, the time spot is not booked on the calendar for others to see, which often cause conflicts as others might book another event for that same time.

So that is my problem and I can't seem to find a way to set the conference room that will make it a RESOURCE automatically. I found this 3rd party software online that has the solution, but not sure if its reliable

http://www.swinc.com/products/erm/#.

Has anyone ever used this? or perhaps a better solution?

Can anyone help? THANKS IN ADVANCE!!!!!!!

 

[Zelandakh]

http://www.tek-tips.com/faqs.cfm?fid=894

walks you through most of the steps you need. Its a bit out of date but last time I used it everthing still worked.

The swinc product is great too.

 

[nhbilly]

training session is needed ;-)

 

[jrITguy]

I agree, I do need more training. As you can see, I'm JrITguy, so I'm only a junior level on this.

Thanks for the link, Zelandakh. However, I do have a rule setup where if the room was booked incorrectly, there will be an automatic reply telling the user the correct method to do so and much edit their books to correct the issue. I can live with this, but my boss can not an is telling us to look for a cleaner way to do the bookings.

So my goal is to set it up where users can book the room and invite users as ATTENDEES and when they invite the conference rooms, it will automatically select it as RESOURCE. My boss is really particular.

Thanks for any added info!

 

[nhbilly]

I didn't mean you I meant the L-Users ;-)

I swear you make it so easy for them that they take IT for granted.

To be honest with you I haven't seen an in house solution for what you asked for.

 

[jrITguy]

hahah....i get it.

In this case, its actually the VP that wants it more automated. Like I said, he is VERY P-A-R-T-C-U-L-A-R, which makes it very difficult to satisfy. So me being the "small potato" have to do whatever the boss wants.

 

[nhbilly]

it seems like swinc is the only company that looks to be aligned with your VP's needs I guess the rest of the staff gets a free ride due too... ;-)

come on how hard is it to book an damn resource! for crying out loud - hey he pays your salary - don't listen to me.