Hi all,
I currently use Doodle.com to prepare meeting polls which allows me to schedule meetings by giving several individual externals several availability slots to chose from. Once the polling is over then the overlapping time can easily be found allowing me to schedule the meeting based on the most convenient time, which is then added automatically to my primary calendar. It seems to be similar to what I have read for FindTime although its functionality seems to be limited to being an outlook add-in. Doodle has been great because:
- it allows me to synchronize all my calendars (work and personal) to facilitate the selection of my free time slots to propose to the externals while preventing conflicts with any of my calendars.
-it allows each individual external to select which time works best for them.
From a different front, I use calendly to allow a single individual external to book me (only) by going to my page which contains my availability: https://calendly.com/vikyverna/. When an individual external books me a meeting invite is automatically added to my primary calendar.
Additionally, calendly also allows a single individual external to book not just me but also a whole team (i.e. https://calendly.com/confinis-corporation/). The published availability for the whole team is based on the availability of each individual internal team member who get to synchronize their work and personal calendars to calendly. When an individual external books the team a meeting invite is automatically added to my primary calendar of each of the individual team member's primary calendar.
Now when it comes to MS Bookings, I like the feature it has that neither Doodle nor calendly has (to my knowledge) to allow an individual external to not only be able to book me but also select other specific staff. However, before taking the leap I wanted to verify if it also has the functionalities that enjoy from Doodle and calendly above; specifically:
- Meeting poll preparation for several individual externals with the following capabilities
- Synchronization with several calendar sources (not just outlook) (for a single user and for each member of an internal company team where applicable)
- Automatic display of available slots (to avoid conflicts with several source calendars) for a singe user (me) and team (several members with each being able to source from their multiple calendars)
- Automatic invite to primary calendar (of a single user, and of each member of an internal company team where applicable) after best time is found.
- Time slot selection by a single individual external to book me, any members of a team (i.e. staff), or a whole internal company team; with the same synchronization and display capabilities listed above.
If anyone could let me know if all of these features are available in MS Bookings that would be great!
Also, is MS Booking available for free on Office Enterprise E1 - If my requirements above are met I will upgrade my account from Office 365 Business Essentials to Enterprise E1. Please advise.
Thank you in advance for your attention to this request and pardon the length.
