Release of Teams for Notes – Avoid duplicate invitations
Are you one of those companies that use Microsoft Teams but don’t have Exchange and Outlook? If it bothers you that you have to send duplicate invitations to schedule a meeting, then continue reading.
We will introduce a solution to avoid duplicate invitations when using Microsoft Teams and a different email system or calendar. In our practical example, we look specifically at HCL Notes and Microsoft Teams.
Go straight to the solution of FirstAttribute AG: Teams for Notes
HCL Notes and Microsoft Teams
HCL Notes as an e-mail program
Exchange and Outlook are widely used software applications that are used in almost all companies. However, only “almost”. In practice, there are many companies that use other providers, such as HCL Notes (formerly Lotus Notes/IBM Notes) or Google, and process their e-mail communication and meeting calendars via them.
A mail migration to Exchange is a time-consuming and costly affair for many larger companies. This is another reason why established applications, such as Notes, are held on to because they work and do their job.
HCL Notes, for example, offers an e-mail client software application that is used to send e-mails and covers typical calendar functions.
This means that, in general, meetings can be added to and scheduled in the Notes calendar.
Parallel use of Microsoft Teams
With the triumph of Microsoft Teams as a popular collaboration platform, companies using Notes or Google have also realized the many benefits of Microsoft Teams.
However, the parallel use of applications from different providers, such as Notes and Teams, brings with it some challenges. This is because many functionalities overlap and the synchronization of data is not always easy.
Scheduling meetings to be held in Microsoft Teams presents one of those challenges. This is because Teams offers its own Teams calendar, which is synchronized with the Outlook calendar.
In fact, Teams merely offers a different view of the Outlook calendar, in a stripped-down version. Because there is no 1:1 correspondence here either: many typical calendar functions are missing. However, there is a close integration of the two applications, which makes it easy to add meetings and appointments.
A simple synchronization with the Notes calendar is not provided.
Create Microsoft Teams invitations without Exchange
Duplicate calendar entries – in HCL Notes and Microsoft Teams
If a meeting is scheduled via Teams, it will only appear in the Teams or Exchange calendar. For it to appear in the Notes calendar, it must be entered there separately.
It’s the same the other way around: if a meeting is scheduled in Notes, it doesn’t automatically appear in the Teams calendar. Notes has its own calendar that is completely independent from the Microsoft world.
This means that employees have to enter the invitations twice if they are to be saved and visible in both systems.
Furthermore, what happens if the Teams calendar is deactivated?
Use case: Teams invitations with HCL Notes
In our practical example, our customer uses HCL Notes and, more recently, Teams. The latter is used exclusively as meeting and collaboration software.
Neither the Outlook calendar nor the Teams calendar are used internally within the company.
The customer needs a way to create Microsoft Teams invitations without using the Exchange calendar. The appointments and invitations should be created using Notes alone.
Solution: Teams for Notes
For such a practical example, FirstAttribute AG offers a simple interface that can be accessed by external tools (Rest API).
In addition, the Teams for Notes solution includes a Teams integration and a web interface to create Microsoft Teams links.
Teams for Notes creates a session with a Teams meeting link that can be used to open Teams.
Both the interface and the Rest API can be individually customized for customers.
External persons can also be invited normally. When typing the mail address, if no match is found with the Active Directory users of the company, it is offered to take over the e-mail address. The external invitee will then also receive all chat messages and files from the appointment.
About FirstAttribute AG
FirstAttribute AG is an independent, German cloud service and software company with a focus on Identity & Access Management (IAM) for AD and M365.
Since its foundation in 2001, FirstAttribute has successfully supported many well-known medium-sized and large companies in Germany and internationally.
Our software development focuses on innovative solutions that help companies with daily routine tasks and save time and costs in the long run.
Contact us, if you would like to learn more about Teams for Notes or our IAM software applications.
