The following will provide a brief introduction to some of the new functionalities in Resource Central. More information can be found in the different user guides for Resource Central.
Status on Extra Services (Properties)
It is now possible to configure a separate status for extra services like room configuration, AV-equipment etc.
Role types
Properties and items can be applied to roles in 2 ways:
- Informative: The persons with this role can see what is ordered but cannot change the status.
E.g., Room configuration is applied to Catering as informative, because Catering would like to be informed about how the tables will be set up, but they are not responsible for the service and should not be allowed to change its status.
- Assignable: The Persons with this role can see what is ordered and can also change the status.
E.g., Room configuration is assigned to Facility as assignable, because Facility is responsible for setting up the tables.
Accept/decline and changing status only on ‘own’ part of an order
When a service provider accepts or declines an order or changes status on it, it will only affect the items and properties assigned to the role of the person. This means that e.g., Facility can accept the room configuration without changing the status of the catering order.
Configuration
Whether or not to use status on Extra Services are configured on property level. Therefore, you initially need to consider how you have structured or are going to structure your services and how you want to be able to approve the ordering of them.
E.g., you might want to confirm the ordered table arrangement service, but not confirm the cost code. In this case, you would set the Cost Code property to not use the status.
Series – Alternative resources for occurrences with conflicts
When booking a series in Outlook conflicts on one or more of the occurrences are very likely to occur. The Alternative Resource Feature enables the Organizer to easily find other resources for conflicting occurrences and place orders for catering and other services.
This feature is available in both our Resource Finder Add-ins
After selecting the resource for the series, a button “Alternative Resources” will appear allowing you to select new resources for the conflicting dates.
After sending the meeting invite Resource Central will replace the conflicting dates with the selected Alternative Resources.
- Resource Finder Com Add-in example:
Resource Finder Outlook Add-in example:
In the Outlook Add-in the feature is available after Exchange has accepted the whole Series and your resource request.
The feature currently depends on user impersonation rights, we expect to have this changed to other policies later this year. So, if you do not wish to use this right set but are interested in this feature stay tuned on our future releases.
Close a location or resource
This feature allows an administrator to close a whole location or a single resource for a period.
This can be beneficial when you have many resources or Pooled resources and do not want to handle the closure in Exchange.
The feature will notify Organizers of the upcoming closure in Resource Finder and per email informing the Organizer to reschedule the booked resources during this time period. This will ease the huge job of communicating about the closed period to all users with or without bookings during this period.
A contact can be added to the notification email if e.g. a facility department can be contacted in case of questions.
Support of new platforms and languages
Resource Central can from this release be used with the following platforms and languages:
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Outlook 2021
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Windows 11
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Windows Server 2022
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Czech
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Polish
New Resource Finder COM Add-in
The browser engine in the Resource Finder COM Add-in has been replaced by Microsoft’s Chromium Edge browser.
This has the following advantages
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Improving load performance of the Com add-in.
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Reduction of initial load time of the Com add-in when starting Outlook as the browser is already loaded.
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32 and 64 bite version are included into one installer, making it easier to deploy with e.g. Intune.
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Better integration with Single Sign On process.
This COM Add-in version can be used from Resource Central RC 4.2 Hotfix 5 and up.
Anh Bach Duy
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