- Created by Rachael Oldfield, last modified by Jenna Buttershaw on 12 Jun, 2022
You are viewing an old version of this page. View the current version.
Compare with Current View Page History
« Previous Version 20 Next »
The Exchange Calendar Integration Module allows you to synchronise your trainers' accessplanit calendars with their Exchange calendars to streamline your operations and give you real-time visibility of your trainers' availability!
You can choose to push calendar appointments from accessplanit into the trainer’s Exchange Calendar calendar, pull information from the trainer’s Exchange Calendar calendar into their accessplanit calendar, or both!
Using the Exchange Calendar Integration
This is a chargeable module/integration, please speak to your CSM if you would like any more information about this feature.
Please note that the Exchange Calendar integration cannot be used alongside the Google Calendar integration.
Where to find the Exchange Integration Options
To configure and manage your company’s master account Exchange Information, open the ‘Exchange Integration’ page from the Administration menu options:
To manage the Exchange Integration per Trainer, edit your Trainer from the Resources area of your platform, and open the Exchange Integration page:
Important information on the integration details
There are some settings that need to be put in place for the Exchange Integration to work correctly. The calendar will also undergo some changes when the integration is active:
The Sync Engine
This is an option that must be enabled by accessplanit. Without the Sync Engine enabled, Exchange Integration will not automatically sync. Please get in touch with a member of the accessplanit support team to ensure the Sync Engine is turned on when you are ready to start using your integration.Enable the calendar sync for your trainers
When the Sync Engine is running, you can define per Trainer if any items that are placed into the Trainer's Outlook calendar will be Synced over to the Resource Calendar. To do this, change the following options for that Trainer in their Exchange Integration settings:Check the ‘Calendar’ checkbox
The direction is set to "both" or "in"
Any items that are entered into the Trainer's calendar when the Sync Engine is enabled will show up in accessplanit as "Unavailable". They will not show the same detail as they do in the Trainer's Outlook calendar.
Common Uses for Exchange Calendar Integration
Pushing appointments to Outlook
To pull calendar appointments from your trainer’s Outlook Calendar into their accessplanit calendar, make sure that you have selected your exchange service in the ‘Service’ drop down box, make sure that the Calendar checkbox is checked, and select the ‘Out’ option or the ‘Both’ option in their ‘Direction’ setting.
Courses will send over to Outlook in the following formatTitle: ‘Training: Name of course or alias override’
Start & End time: The start date & end date of the Course
Location: The venue name and address (class courses only)
Body: Course label, course date, venue, venue address, venue phone, venue email, trainer webinar details, a link to view more details about the course
Pull appointments from Outlook
To pull calendar appointments from your trainer’s Outlook Calendar into their accessplanit calendar, make sure that you have selected your exchange service in the ‘Service’ drop down box, make sure that the Calendar checkbox is checked, and select the ‘In’ option or the ‘Both’ option in their ‘Direction’ setting.
Appointments pulled into your trainer’s accessplanit calendar from Outlook will create unavailability with the following information from their Outlook calendarSummary = Unavailability Description
Start Time = Unavailability Start Date / Time
End Time = Unavailability End Date / Time
Configuring Exchange Integration
There are two areas that need to be configured before the Exchange Integration can be used.
These areas are:
Master Account
You can find the configuration options for this in Administration > Exchange Integration.Trainer Accounts
You can find the configuration options for these accounts in Resources > Manage > find a Trainer > right click > Edit > Exchange Integration. This will be repeated for each trainer that you would like to set up with your Exchange Integration.
Once both of these areas have been configured, your Exchange Integration will begin to sync!
Master Account
To get started, you will first need to have a master account set up by your internal IT department.
As this master account will be used to read the calendar appointments in your trainers' Outlook calendars, and it will be used to create new appointments in your trainers' Outlook calendars, the master account must:
Have full access over any of your trainers' Exchange accounts
Be on the same domain as your trainer’s Exchange accounts
If this master account does not have this top level of permission over your trainer’s Exchange accounts, the calendars will not be able to synchronise and the integration will not be able to work.
Within Outlook, this can be done by following the steps below:
Open Outlook
File
Account Settings
Delegate Access
Select the master account and then set the permissions as shown in screenshot attached ('ap exchange' is the name of accessplanit’s master account, you will see your own master account name at the top of the window)
Once your master account has been set up by your internal IT department, you can log the account’s details in your accessplanit platform! To do this, open the Exchange Integration menu option from the Administration page, and if you have multiple Training Providers, select the correct Training Provider in the Active Account drop-down box at the top of the page.
You can then complete the Exchange Information form with the master account’s Exchange Details.
When you click the Save button, accessplanit will verify if the synchronisation has been successful.
If the synchronisation was not successful, accessplanit will provide a log of information to help to diagnose the problem, if you are unsure of what is causing the problem please get in touch with a member of the accessplanit support team.
Once your master account has been successfully configured in your accessplanit platform’s Exchange Integration page, you can set up each of your trainers!
Trainer Accounts
To set up a Trainer with your Exchange Integration, find the Trainer in your Resources DataGrid in your accessplanit platform.
Right click on your Trainer to view the Context Menu Options, and select the ‘Exchange Integration’ option.
There are several options in this page to configure
Select your Exchange account within the Service drop down box
Check the Calendar checkbox to enable calendar synchronisation
Select the Direction of the sync
In
This option will pull calendar appointments into the Trainer’s accessplanit calendar from their Outlook calendar onlyOut
This option will push calendar appointments from the Trainer’s accessplanit calendar into their Outlook calendar onlyBoth
this option will push calendar appointments from the Trainer’s accessplanit calendar into their Outlook calendar and pull calendar appointments into the Trainer’s accessplanit calendar from their Outlook calendar
Enter the Trainer's Outlook email address into the Email option, if this is not already populated (please note that this must be the email address that the master account has permission over)
Click Update to save these details:
Once you have completed these details for one trainer, you can set up your next trainer!
How do courses appear within Trainer Outlook Calendars?
Once you have synchronised your Trainer's calendar including the out direction, it will show training events and any other Unavailability set within your accessplanit platform.
Clicking on the course items will allow the Trainer to see further detail about the course they are assigned to:
Clicking onto the training event will take the Trainer to further information about that course.
From here, the Trainer can view venue information. They can also view more details about the course, view the Delegate joining instructions and Trainer joining instructions.
FAQs
If the Trainer deletes the course from their calendar can they get it back?
Yes, accessplanit will periodically sync with the Outlook calendar and override any changes the Trainer makes to the calendar item and replace any which have been accidentally deleted.
What is the difference between this module and the Outlook Plugin?
The Outlook Plugin module allows you to push your Outlook emails into accessplanit, rather than calendar items.
Are we able to change to a new Exchange Account if we already have Exchange Integration enabled?
Yes this is possible! Please contact the accessplanit team to let them know that you plan to update these details as this can cause issues for trainers that are included in the original Exchange Account, but not in the new Exchange Account.
On this page:
- No labels