Groupware Function: Scheduling and Calendaring Software

The final category of groupware considered in this chapter is that used for diary or calendar management within an organization. When justifying groupware to managers who are unfamiliar with the technology, this is perhaps the easiest function to explain since the problems of arranging times for meetings will be known to all, and an electronic solution will have obvious appeal. The functions of these packages include calendaring (the process of entering names and times onto calendars) and scheduling (arranging a convenient time for a meeting).

These packages provide a shared diary available via the network for employees to arrange meetings quickly without clashes. Sophisticated group scheduling products automatically seek the optimum time for a given list of participants and confirm the meeting time and agenda using e-mail. Products available to provide these functions are available in a range of categories, according to the scale at which they are deployed:

Workgroup based applications are often based on Personal Information Managers. Early versions of Lotus Organizer provide an example of such a product. These products tend to focus more on individual information management rather than group features. They may not scale well to larger numbers of users. For larger numbers of users, integration with the company e-mail and directory services are required. This may be achieved though integrating products such as Lotus Organizer with Lotus cc:Mail or Notes.

An alternative approach from Lotus was to provide a...