I'm hoping to get some good opinions on some scheduling software for a project I've been assigned. I was originally tasked with finding a third-party solution (preferably Sharepoint-based) to do this, but I have not been able to find one that fits our needs as of today.
We have a person in our organization who schedules phone shifts for roughly 34 people. These 34 people have other duties and meetings, so the current process is that they print their monthly calendars, give them to this person, and she goes through all of them and schedules phone shifts for them. Shifts are of varying lengths; people with title A do 4 hours per week, title B do 2 hours per week, and title C do 1 hour per week. They have a lot of other rules regarding phone shifts (ie, the same person can't get the same shift time two weeks in a row), but I told them that they would need to modify their process if they want a product to do this for them.
So, any ideas on what to look for? In my idea world, the product would either:
1. Be integrated with Sharepoint
or
2. Be an enhanced enterprise solution that ties into Exchange 2007 and can be accessed through Outlook.
I've looked at a couple of standalone clients, but the ones I've looked at have the disadvantage that they can't edit the server-based Exchange calendar directly and must use PST files (which we forbid). I'd frankly prefer to avoid anything with a dedicated client if at all possible; extensions or plug-ins to Outlook are fine, however.
Thanks!
We have a person in our organization who schedules phone shifts for roughly 34 people. These 34 people have other duties and meetings, so the current process is that they print their monthly calendars, give them to this person, and she goes through all of them and schedules phone shifts for them. Shifts are of varying lengths; people with title A do 4 hours per week, title B do 2 hours per week, and title C do 1 hour per week. They have a lot of other rules regarding phone shifts (ie, the same person can't get the same shift time two weeks in a row), but I told them that they would need to modify their process if they want a product to do this for them.
So, any ideas on what to look for? In my idea world, the product would either:
1. Be integrated with Sharepoint
or
2. Be an enhanced enterprise solution that ties into Exchange 2007 and can be accessed through Outlook.
I've looked at a couple of standalone clients, but the ones I've looked at have the disadvantage that they can't edit the server-based Exchange calendar directly and must use PST files (which we forbid). I'd frankly prefer to avoid anything with a dedicated client if at all possible; extensions or plug-ins to Outlook are fine, however.
Thanks!
Last edited: