Chapter 36
Group Scheduling
CONTENTS
In a more orderly world, everyone in
your company would eat lunch at the same time-not only at the
same time, but in the same place. If this were the case, the jobs
of the scheduling secretaries would be much easier, because then
they could communicate with everyone all at once. Meetings and
projects could be organized, vacation days established, conferences
planned, sales calls set. After lunch, the secretaries could write
up a company schedule and send it out before the work day ended.
However, we do not live in an orderly world-not everyone eats
lunch at the same time. In fact, very little that is done in a
company happens concurrently. Each member of a sales team has
individual calls to make. Each department has different conferences
to attend. Meetings sometimes happen spontaneously. Sometimes
a prearranged schedule is abandoned altogether, and sometimes
a schedule is lost.
If you've ever joined coworkers for an out-of-town conference,
participated in a bus day trip, or taken your kids to Disney World,
you know how difficult coordinating a group schedule can be. No
matter what the occasion, everyone seems to have a private agenda-an
agenda that can't be compromised. Working around personal agendas
to achieve a time for a group meeting can be next to impossible.
Many tools and techniques are used to keep track of everyone in
the office. Wall-sized calendars are one favorite. This technique
requires employees with strong biceps, as much erasing and rewriting
is required. Another tool is the In/Out magnet board. With this
implement, each employee is signified by a circular (sometimes
rectangular) magnet. The idea is that each employee moves the
magnet to "in" when arriving at work and moves it to
"out" when leaving. The success of the In/Out board
is questionable. Most often, the magnets wind up on the refrigerator
in the lounge.
The most popular way to manage group scheduling is to require
all employees to tell the secretary where they are going every
time they leave the office. Additionally, employees must plan
their work schedules ahead of time so that secretaries know when
they are going to be out of town, at a conference, or even in
another part of the office building. This technique leads to a
sure bottleneck. Even a team of secretaries can't keep up with
the comings and goings of employees at a good-sized company, especially
when the employees themselves often forget to pass out their schedules.
To get a grasp on group scheduling, many companies have put their
group schedules onto a computer system. With LANs, the first group
scheduling programs have taken hold. These scheduling applications
are more successful than the In/Out board for a variety of reasons.
First, they give employees the means to enter their schedules
whenever doing so is convenient. In this sense, a scheduling application
is something like an old-fashioned date book. Meetings and events
can be entered when the scheduler is first learning about them.
The second way in which scheduling applications are useful is
that they provide a clean interface for arranging appointments.
Instead of the employees scratching dates on paper and having
to erase them later, the computer can do all the work and keep
the calendar looking nice. With a group scheduling program, employees
also can view the schedule of a coworker or workers (this capability
can be very helpful if your boss is known to take off to Europe
at the last minute). In short, a scheduling application can provide
what was previously impossible: a schedule for a group of people
that can be viewed in one piece and that isn't pasted on the wall
in the reception room. Instead, this schedule is available from
the computer desktop of whoever needs it.
A third way in which scheduling applications are handy is that
they usually can integrate with other computer applications, such
as e-mail. In these applications, e-mail messages can be sent
out automatically as reminders or updates. Having a scheduling
application integrated into a personal or company contact list
is also helpful; this way, appointments can be linked to addresses
and phone numbers. Some LAN scheduling applications take integration
to the extreme, providing complicated features like the ability
to send a fax from a calendar or automatic phone dialing.
All these features are nice, but no software application can add
hours to the day. Likewise, no software application can convince
people to compromise their personal agendas. What a group scheduling
application can do is make life easier for everyone by offering
an organized and efficient way to coordinate and view a multiple-person
schedule.
More than likely, your company already has some sort of scheduling
application installed on the computer network. This application
might be part of a groupware package, such as Novell's Groupwise,
or it might be stand-alone software, such as On Incorporated's
Meeting Maker. Or maybe your company has not yet developed an
electronic scheduling system. (Is the
In/Out board working for you?) However your group scheduling is
being done, you can undoubtedly find room for improvement.
In this chapter, you look into the future of group scheduling.
The Web brings new possibilities to the well-developed LAN scheduling
applications. These possibilities are the focus here, as online
scheduling is an online application that has not yet been widely
used. Because the potential benefits of online scheduling are
tremendous (I describe those benefits later in this chapter),
you can anticipate that online scheduling will eventually be a
common intranet application.
The topic of online scheduling brings to mind the old proverb
that in order to take one step forward, you sometimes have to
take two steps back. Such is the case with online scheduling and
with the Web in general. Many of the features in the LAN scheduling
applications simply have not yet been made available for intranets.
This does not mean that you'll have to paste yet another wall-sized
calendar above the reception room sofa. In fact, online scheduling
can offer more in the way of convenience than the most sophisticated
LAN scheduling application.
The advantage that online scheduling applications have over their
LAN ancestors is that they allow you to view your schedule inside
a Web browser. If you need to check out your meeting list late
Sunday night, you therefore can do it from your home computer
and modem. LAN scheduling applications are beginning to offer
plug-ins that will give you some means of using the application
though an intranet. Novell's Groupwise, shown in Figure 36.1,
has recently developed tools for integrating Groupwise functions
into a Web browser.
Figure 36.1: You can register for a Novell Groupwise
WebAccess trial at
http://www.novell.com/groupwise
to see how Groupwise scheduling can be inregrated
into a Web browser.
If your company is working from a groupware product that already
offers scheduling, and the scheduling is well-developed, check
with the application's home office to see what they are offering
for intranets. If the options are not adequate, one of the intranet
suites might be a good option.
I've already pointed out the advantages of using a suite of applications
for online scheduling. The easy integration with messaging and
contact records makes scheduling less of a chore. Add online functionality
to an already convenient package, and you can toss the In/Out
board in the trash. An online schedule is there when you need
it, even when you're on the road. You're less likely to be late
to a meeting when you can easily look up an address straight from
your schedule. And if you are running behind, you'll appreciate
being able to bring up a phone number you need with a simple point-and-click
in your computer's day planner.
The advantages are clear, but are they possible? For the most
part, yes. The future for group scheduling is bright. Besides
the LAN schedulers that are building Web tools, a few intranet
applications provide group scheduling functions.
How are the online scheduling applications to be used? To answer
that question, consider how a fictional company, called LifeLine,
Inc., used an online scheduling application to organize a group
of employees for a conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.
LifeLine distributes vitamins to health food stores throughout
the southwest. They are sending employees to the Las Vegas conference
as a way to check out their competition and get some leads on
new vitamin science. Fourteen employees are attending the conference,
and all of them will be spending three nights at the Radcliffe
Hotel in downtown Las Vegas.
The conference begins on Saturday, but the employees will arrive
at the hotel on late Friday afternoon. A secretary has the job
of getting the whole group from the office to the airport and
setting up a group schedule for the length of the conference.
The schedule will be a tight one.
Almost everyone who is going to the conference has meetings with
people from other vitamin companies. The boss wants the LifeLine
group to meet at least three times as a group during the conference
for brainstorming sessions. Three big conference events-the welcome
speech, a dinner party, and a lecture given by a vitamin industry
bigwig-are required events for all LifeLine conference attendees.
A three-session workshop series about hybrid herbs is of special
interest to about half the LifeLine employees, and they don't
want to miss a minute of it. At least one employee must attend
to a LifeLine booth in the main ballroom from nine to five on
Saturday and Sunday.
To complicate matters further, three of the attendees can't leave
with the group because they will be out on calls late into the
afternoon. They will be arriving later than everyone else, and
special arrangements are made for getting them to the airport.
The boss's wife, two kids, and Aunt Martha are arriving on Saturday,
and a few of the employees have requested that Saturday night
be open for "a night on the town," and want to coordinate
a starting point.
The secretary originally making the group conference schedule
will not be going to Las Vegas. He plans to have a quiet weekend
at home. But because he created the schedule using the online
scheduling application, all the attendees can adjust their agendas
accordingly after they arrive. They can view the schedule from
the laptops that most of them are taking along, as well as from
the workstation that will be set up at the LifeLine booth. Before
the group leaves, the secretary sets up the system to send reminder
e-mail messages to everyone who needs one and a general reminder
to check the schedule for last-minute changes.
The first group of employees arrives at Las Vegas according to
plan. But it doesn't take long before things go awry. The clerk
at the Radcliffe doesn't have space for everyone and doesn't seem
to have a record of the reservation the secretary made so carefully
three weeks before, even though the secretary confirmed the reservation
before the group left town. As a result, six employees are moved
to a hotel called Star Palace down the street. Late Friday night,
someone meets the second group of employees at the airport, and
they are taken to Star Palace as well.
The next problem arises early Saturday morning, when the boss
is detained at the airport, waiting for his family's flight to
come in (late). A group brainstorming meeting ends early, and
a few attendees abandon the conference in favor of shopping. The
person scheduled to attend to the LifeLine booth is sick from
allergies (no vitamin seems to help), and another person takes
her place instead of attending the first workshop. Because the
computer is set up at the booth, these changes are easily entered
into the group schedule as the attendant checks her e-mail.
Now everyone is back on track again, and it's a good thing. The
boss needs someone to get him and his family at the airport. He
has left his wallet at the hotel and doesn't have money for a
cab. His wife has only travelers' checks, and no cabby will take
them. After the booth attendant is alerted by a phone call, she
is able to contact the second in command, who is attending a lecture
as scheduled. After the boss's wallet is retrieved, two employees
leave the conference to take a bus to the airport. A second brainstorming
meeting is canceled, but when the boss and company arrive back
at the hotel, it is rescheduled for early that evening. The booth
attendant enters these changes, and it seems something of a miracle
when everyone shows up on time.
Online group scheduling, when applied, is indeed something of
a miracle. Out-of-town conferences, which are notoriously subject
to Murphy's Law, are just one example of how online scheduling
applications can be useful. For day-to-day operations, a company
like LifeLine might use online scheduling to keep track of employees
who are out on sales calls and to enable all employees to make
scheduling changes from their desks, at their homes, or on the
road.
| MCKEON & JEFFRIES
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| Due to the relatively static nature of M&J's intranet, it has little opportunity for a scheduling application. Typically, such an application would require fairly advanced CGI or database programming. The firm does use the intranet,
however, to announce meetings and events for the firm. Each office has its own page that is regularly updated with new items by the administrator. This way, with minimum effort, the employees of the firm can have an updated schedule of items at their
fingertips at any time. On the calendar page is an e-mail link to the administrator who updates the page, so if a scheduling conflict occurs, or if someone wants to add an event, making the change is as easy as clicking the mouse and sending a message to
the correct person.
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| THE SPORTING GOODS AND APPAREL ASSOCIATION
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| The SGAA has a more advanced and dynamic scheduling system. On this system, users can get information on trade shows, press releases, deadlines, new product releases, or any other type of event. Some users can even post events to the
calendar by using an interactive form. This function is available to both SGAA staff and members. Users can easily post events and relevant materials relating to the events. If a manufacturer posts a press release or a new product release, for example, the
text of the press release or the specification sheet for the new product can be posted and linked from the event itself. Along the same lines, SGAA staff can post events regarding a convention or meeting and link the event to a sign-up form or an agenda.
This scheduling function is built using a back-end database, and all the event information is stored in the database. The information is pulled from the database by CGI scripts, and the event pages are created on-the-fly by the Web server. In this manner,
events can be posted, modified, or deleted immediately without using HTML. The scheduling function is useful to the association because having up-to-date event in-formation makes avoiding conflicts easy when scheduling for dozens or hundreds of
individuals.
|
Online scheduling applications are likely to be a part of most
of the up-and-coming intranet suites. A few suites already offer
scheduling applications. The advantage here is that you can integrate
the scheduling with the other suite applications. Intranet group
scheduling is different from LAN scheduling in that group and
personal schedules can be updated without the limits of geography.
The applications reviewed in the following sections are featured
for a simple reason: they are the only ones available at this
time. But because more and more pop up every day, you might do
some research on your own.
The central scheduling calendar in InTandem, shown in Figure 36.2,
can be viewed by day, week, or month. Events also can be displayed
or printed out on a single chronologically ordered list. The calendar
gives organizations the opportunity to maintain a complete list
of important events, including everything from upcoming meetings
to employee vacations. All authorized users can add new events
to the calendar and modify the events that they have added.
Figure 36.2: InTandem's add-an-item from allows you
to designate an appointment as public or privaste.
You can add events to the calendar by simply typing information
into an online form. Using this form, you can upload document
files or images and link them to events, as shown in Figure 36.3.
Similarly, you can embed images and hypertext links to information
elsewhere on the intranet or on the Internet itself within the
specific event information, allowing participants to have instant
access to agendas, maps, online registration forms, and other
relevant information.
Figure 36.3: InTandem offers a hyperlinked event list.
Colored buttons designate event categories.
Each time an event is added, InTandem's calendar is instantly
revised, providing all authorized users with accurate, continuously
updated information. Events are shown listed by title on the given
date and can be viewed in detail with the click of a mouse. Users
have the option of entering public, private, and group events
into the calendar. This flexibility ensures that only items of
interest to everyone are posted in the public area. Obviously,
not everyone in the office needs to know that Joe's daughter Suzy
has a dentist appointment on Wednesday, September 3, at 12:00.
Public events are visible to all authorized users, and private
events are visible only to the user who created them. Group events
are visible to all the members of a group-for example, the budget
committee. Group events are used to post information that is confidential
or not of interest to all users. As an aid in scheduling meetings,
the schedules of an entire group can be automatically superimposed
on a single calendar to determine times at which the entire group
is available to meet. A contact address is automatically included
in every calendar event for those people who need further information.
By simply clicking the name of the person who posted the event,
users can send an RSVP or ask questions by way of an automatically
generated e-mail message. As with all of InTandem's features,
the scheduling software is completely customizable and can be
searched using a powerful search engine.
The WebShare Calendar, shown in Figure 36.4, is part of the WebShare
intranet suite and is a hearty tool for group and individual scheduling.
A demo on the Radnet home site (http://www.radnet.com)
provides a sense of the WebShare Calendar's basic functions. You
can pull up a daily, two-week, or monthly view of a group or individual
calendar. An additional feature enables you to group and view
appointments in specific categories.
Figure 36.4: The WebShare starter calender offers multiple
views and a calender overview.
WebShare users can purchase the WebShare Designer (for Windows
NT) and customize the WebShare Calendar to their liking, as shown
in Figure 36.5. The interface can be redesigned for more detailed
views. Integration with the other WebShare applications (Calendar,
Problem Tracking, Resources & Reservations, Discussion, Moderated
Discussion, Employee Record, Newsletter, and Contacts) is well-constructed
and can be taken further with the WebShare Designer.
Figure 36.5: You add appointments to WebShare by filling
out an online form.
In WebShare, you add appointments to the calendar by using a form.
Fields for descriptions, categories, and start and end dates are
provided. You can add customized fields with the WebShare Designer.
The original WebShare developers were once employed by Lotus Notes,
and when they created WebShare, their goal was to create "Lotus
Notes for the Web." You decide whether they achieved their
goal.
Crew Calendar, shown in Figure 36.6, is an online scheduling application
that comes with Thuridion's Crew intranet suite. Integrated with
the other applications (Locker, Messenger, Cardfile, and Office),
the Crew Calendar features a handy and well-constructed calendar
that can be used for group and individual agendas. The highlight
of Crew Calendar is the ability to search for free blocks of time.
You also can share your schedule with others, including those
people who do not have Crew accounts.
Figure 36.6: The Crew Calendar provides a week view
and a month view on the same screen. Both views are supplemented
with hyperlinks.
Another Crew Calendar highlight is the way it integrates with
the Crew Office application. It works so that a user logging in
can go to the Crew Office and retrieve a page with the day's plans
outlined on-screen, as shown in Figure 36.7.
Figure 36.7: Crew Office integrates with Calendar so
that information about scheduled appointments
is accessible from either application.
Never short on hyperlinks, Crew Calendar allows users to stock
their day planners with contacts, documents, and any other item
that might come in handy.
Online group scheduling can't add hours to the day or eliminate
Murphy's Law, but it can be a tool for decreasing the chances
that unexpected emergencies and last-minute changes will hamper
your company's productivity. A fluid, easily updated group schedule
is a resource that can benefit everyone from interns to CEOs.
What's more, a group schedule brings a sense of unity to a team
of people who might not see each other all that often.
When you're looking for an online scheduling application, you'll
find that most of them are part of intranet suites or redeveloped
LAN applications. Which of the two will serve your needs the best
depends on what scheduling application you are currently working
with. If a LAN application is already in place, you might want
to supplement it with tools for the Web. If you're unhappy with
the LAN application, or if no means of computer scheduling is
currently in place, an intranet suite with a scheduling application
would be a good choice.
Whatever you decide, pay special attention to a scheduling application's
capability to provide a comprehensive array of functions. The
best online scheduling application allows you to add hyperlinks
and send e-mail right from your calendar. It should also provide
a streamlined interface that looks good when printed onto paper.
All these features will be the miracle workers you need to keep
on top of a group and to keep track of your personal agenda, which
you should never compromise.
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