Essential Reading for the Microsoft 365 integration

Best practice for initial setup and room mapping

Best practice for general administration

Best practice for users

2.1 Delegate calendars

Delegates using the classic Microsoft Outlook user interface (UI) might face syncing issues, and bookings might not appear in Eptura Engage. This is a known Microsoft fault that provides an incorrect Event ID, which Microsoft is currently investigating.

To help mitigate this, the Eptura Engage Outlook add-in displays a warning message when Outlook provides an incorrect Event ID, preventing users from creating a booking that does not synchronize correctly. Users can attempt to make the booking again, or use Outlook Web Access (OWA) or the new Microsoft Outlook UI, which are unaffected by this issue. 

Users are advised to make all necessary updates in the Outlook event window before opening the Eptura Engage Outlook add-in, so that the workaround is effective.

2.2 Delegates with multiple accounts using New Microsoft Outlook UI

When delegates with multiple email accounts are using the New Microsoft Outlook UI, ensure the delegate's calendar is selected as the primary calendar. This step is crucial for synchronizing delegate-created bookings accurately with Eptura Engage.

2.3 Linked rooms are not supported

The Eptura Engage Microsoft 365 integration does not yet support linked rooms. Bookings with a linked room combination are not correctly synchronized to Exchange room calendars and might cause out-of-sync issues. Do not map Exchange rooms that might be part of a linked room setup in Eptura Engage.

2.4 Blind-managed rooms are not supported

Do not map an Eptura Engage blind-managed resource to an Exchange room; otherwise users can directly invite the Exchange room via a calendar event and book the Eptura Engage resource, bypassing the blind-managed booking process. 

2.5 Multi-room bookings

Up to 8 rooms are supported in a single booking.

2.6 Recurrences

• Up to 450 instances are supported for a recurring booking. When booking multiple rooms for the recurrence, each room is counted as one instance; so a 4-room daily recurrence for 100 days, totals 400 instances.
• Infinite series from Microsoft Outlook are not supported and will be rejected.
• The Eptura Engage 'Specific' series type is not supported by Microsoft Exchange so is not synchronized. The 'Specific' series type cannot be created from Eptura Engage for any resource when the Microsoft 365 Integration is enabled, even for resources that are not mapped to Exchange.
• Monthly recurrences are only supported by Eptura Engage when the First and Last recurrence dates are set.

2.7 In-progress bookings

Bookings that are in progress in Eptura Engage cannot be deleted or have their start time changed; they can only be shortened.

As Microsoft Exchange does not have restrictions when editing in-progress events, doing so might cause the bookings to become out of sync.

2.8 Past bookings

Bookings that occurred in the past, cannot be edited in Eptura Engage.

As Microsoft Exchange does not prevent past events from being edited, doing so might cause the bookings to become out of sync.

2.9 Attendees

• Only attendees who are marked as ‘on site’ from the Eptura Engage Outlook add-in are added as attendees in Eptura Engage and therefore added to the booking form.
• External attendees are only marked as visitors if they are set as a ‘visitor’ from the Eptura Engage Outlook add-in.
• Attendees of calendar events where the room is invited directly from the calendar event (not via the add-in), are assumed to be remotely attending and are therefore not passed to Engage or added to the booking form.

2.10 Setup and clean down (buffer) times

As Microsoft Exchange has no concept of buffer times for setup and clean down periods that extend a booking window, bookings made in an Exchange room mapped to a resource configured for setup and clean down times in Eptura Engage, can cause an out of sync state.

During these buffer times, the room will appear available in Exchange when it cannot be booked in Eptura Engage. It is strongly recommended to remove setup and clean down times, or remove Exchange rooms from the Global Address List (GAL), if they are mapped to an Eptura Engage resource with setup and clean down times configured.

2.11 Initial synchronization might trigger update notifications to attendees

When an Exchange room is mapped to an Eptura Engage resource that had no existing Exchange equipment mailbox set in Resource Admin, any bookings created from Eptura Engage that were added to the user’s Outlook calendar, must now be associated with an Exchange room calendar.

To do this, Eptura Engage adds the email address of the Exchange room as an attendee of the user’s calendar event. This triggers an update to all the attendees on the event.

In addition, existing location information stored in the calendar event for Eptura Engage-only resources might remain, if the room is subsequently mapped to an Exchange room. Manual intervention might be required by the user, to ensure that the location details are correct.

We recommend informing users about this before starting the mapping process for a room.

2.12 Initial synchronization for existing bookings not linked to an Exchange calendar event

When an Exchange room is mapped to an Eptura Engage resource, any existing bookings which are not already linked to an Exchange calendar event will have an event created in the Exchange room calendar. The initial synchronization process does not automatically create any events in Exchange user calendar.

2.13 Changes to user calendar subscriptions

Providing access to a user's calendar and then revoking it (or vice versa), might cause synchronization issues where the booking can no longer be tracked or updated in Exchange. It is recommended that a user’s calendar is subscribed for the entire lifetime of the integration.

2.14 Existing Exchange equipment mailboxes

Any equipment mailbox added to a resource in Resource Admin, must be set as a 'room' type in Exchange, to ensure they are listed on the Exchange room mapping page. 

When mapping an Exchange room to an Eptura Engage resource, we recommend selecting the existing equipment mailbox added to the resource; mapping a different Exchange room might cause existing bookings to be canceled.

2.15 Calendar events where the Exchange room is the owner

Users (including admins and delegates) must not edit or decline any calendar invites directly from the Exchange room calendar. 

2.16 Mandatory custom fields

Mandatory custom fields are not supported and might cause a booking to be rejected. Mandatory custom fields must be removed before implementing the Eptura Engage Microsoft 365 integration.

2.17 Invites to Exchange rooms from non-subscribed user calendars

When Eptura Engage detects an invite to an Exchange room calendar from a user's calendar that is not yet subscribed, it will attempt to automatically create a subscription to that user's calendar and then book the associated resource in Eptura Engage. If the user's calendar cannot be subscribed for any reason, it will follow the non-subscribed user journey below.

Users who do not exist as a user in Eptura Engage and invite an Exchange room, also follow the non-subscribed user journey.

Non-subscribed user journey

Invites to Exchange rooms from users whose calendars cannot be subscribed, will create a booking in Eptura Engage using the default Admin account. These bookings might be deleted from Eptura Engage; however they cannot be edited.

Only single-day and single-room bookings are supported for non-subscribed users. Recurrences and multi-room bookings will be declined.