Introducing Scheduling poll in Outlook!

Hi Sally_Richardson AmirHaque-MSFT 

I have been looking forward to the release of the Scheduling Poll. I had a chance to test it to prepare a demonstration.

I was not a FindTime user, so I am coming with an unbiased perspective. I had mentioned what I liked about this feature's potential in my previous post in July. (I don't want to sound like a "hater" in this post.) Here are several limitations that I found with Outlook's latest feature, Scheduling Poll. 

• Delegates unable to respond on behalf of others 
• Many Admin Assistants manage calendars for executives and leaders. Now that Scheduling Poll is a core feature in Outlook, more subscribers will be using this feature. However, this missing functionality may be a deal breaker. 
• Hold Dates on My Calendar Setting
• It's great that the proposed dates are available on the Organizer's calendar. It is also imperative that the invitees hold the dates on their calendars. Some users' calendars are booked 30 to 60 days ahead, depending on the role.  By the time the organizer lands on a date, it may not be available.  It may be best to give the attendee the option to hold the dates or not. 
• Editing Voting Poll
• It was odd editing the meeting name, location, and duration from the dashboard rather than from the actual Organizer's vote page, where everything else is managed. 
• Reminder message
• I was not surprised that the Organizer could not generate a custom reminder message, but I can see users asking for it.
• Also, the reminder email goes to all attendees instead of just the non-responders. This could be a time waster for those who acted immediately.
• Anyone added after the poll is created does not get the reminder message. You must send it manually.
• Add an Attendee from the Voting Page
  • The user does not get the invite. You must send it from your email after adding them from the Voting Page first.
• Others
• The Organizer and invitees need easy access back to Outlook. I get it. The voting page and dashboard have been navigated from Outlook to accommodate external attendees, but it would be nice to get back to Outlook from these web pages via a link.
• The above functionality also explains why the Organizer and internal invitees must add the full email address on the voting page. This functionality is painful since users have never entered colleagues or teammates' email addresses. I am still determining how your developers will work their magic with this request, but it is on my wish list.
• This not a limitation but can you give a real-life work example when to use "Require attendee to verify identity.  I was drawing a blank. Is it targeted to internal and external attendees?
• One more. I would love the option to have the Scheduling Poll icon in the top navigation for easy access to navigate to the dashboard.

Still, I plan to use Scheduling Poll. It will save time in coordinating meetings.

I anticipate and look forward to the subsequent updates. My fingers are crossed that some of these limitations are rolled out in May 2023.

• /Teresa
• #traccreations4e

Hi Sally_Richardson,

Thank you for this update. I was not aware of the FindTime app.  So, I installed the app knowing Microsoft will be replacing it with Meeting Poll in a couple of weeks. 

While using the app, I came across several bugs and limitations which led me to review the Feedback portal.  QUESTION: Can you confirm if Microsoft has fixed the issues and addressed the user’s feedback before the rollout in August?

I was prepared to give users a Preview Demonstration video of the product but decided to wait. 

FindTime Current Issues/Limitations

• The Hold dates were not removed from the calendar once the meeting date is scheduled.
• If the organizer deletes the Hold dates from the calendar instead of the Meeting Poll Email, the Hold dates remain on the invitees’ calendar with no way to delete them.
• I found it confusing to use Outlook to populate the Meeting Title and Attendees since the remaining fields are not needed. I actually sent Outlook’s calendar event with the wrong details before having an ah-ha moment.
• Delegates can not vote on behalf of another person

On a positive note, here is what I like about the feature.

• Provides more duration times vs. the suggested times in Outlook
• Better functionality than Outlook’s Classic Scheduling Assistant
• Ability to easily select multiple dates and times
• The email and Poll View were concise and easy to follow
• The Send Vote Reminder option is a nice add

Overall, the FindTime/Meeting Poll has great potential. It will save meeting organizers 15 to 30 minutes with coordinating meetings.

Again, thanks for sharing.

Teresa #traccreations4e

Sally_Richardson 

We use this wonderful app with our team. 

We've found that meetings scheduled with FindTime appear in the organizer's calendar with "TENTATIVE" mention. However, they do not appear in the calendars of the people invited.

It seems to me that until recently, the propositions appeared in the Outlook calendar of both the organizer and the guests until the final choice. How do I get the tentative mention to appear in the calendars of everyone affected by the FindTime? Thanks!

The Duration dropdown for Scheduling Poll is very limited. Is there a plan to expand the available durations or incorporate a custom duration?

Sally_Richardson you said it isn't available to GCC customers right now but didn't indicate when. That app is super useful and saves a lot of time. I have to say that it is irresponsible of Microsoft to just yank a useful app with no replacement available.

askhetan, Simon45, and to all,

I have created a video of the New Scheduling Poll feature in Outlook.  

I discussed the key components, best practices, limitations, and benefits. And I demonstrated how to create a poll, apply the settings, monitor the responses, and confirm a meeting.  You will also learn about the verification code feature and much more.

Hope this helps existing and new Scheduling Poll users. 

#TeamSchedulingPoll

/Teresa

#traccreations4e

Sally_Richardson 

Hi there,

In our org we use the Find-Time add-in in combination with the M365 Apps Semi-Annual Channel, currently v2208.

During the transition period to the next office build that includes the FindTime build-in.

Will we be able to keep deploying the add-in from the Admin center?

We want to start communication about the fact that this addin is built-in on the Outlook Web.

But only if the desktop version keeps working and there is no period where the add-in in desktop is removed and we are still on an older build of the Office Apps.

Anything you can tell me to assure me ?

The Add-in will be removed from the store in May 2023.

But will we keep the possibility to deploy the current add-in version from our Admin center?

Thanks for your feedback!

Sally_Richardson many thanks for this, it's excellent news. I'm glad to see this coming to Outlook natively. 

One question: are there plans to integrate room booking into the Scheduling Poll? The current limitations are:

- when I select the poll participants, I can also add a room (Resource from Exchange Online) as one of the participants, but there seems to be no indication if it is available or not. I have to manually open a separate Outlook Calendar of the room (or rooms) to see if it is available during the proposed times

- if I do manually add a room to the poll, the room does not get calendar holds - meaning there is a danger than between the time I send the poll and the consensus for the timeslot is reached, someone else would book the room I was meaning to use. So I have to manually create and delete room holds.