Configure Rooms for EMS Exchange Room Integration (ERI)

EMS and Microsoft Exchange are two separate scheduling systems. With EMS Exchange Room Integration, you can link the two for the following purposes:

• Self-serve video conferencing, that is, setting up an online meeting just by booking the room.

• Bi-directional sync that allows bookings or changes made directly in Exchange/Outlook to synchronize into EMS.

The settings must be in line with the following for this to function effectively and make the most of both systems. The objective is for the resource in Exchange to always accept the meeting series and decline individual meeting occurrences on dates already booked. This creates exceptions to the pattern and allows the user to choose an alternate room for those dates.

Ensure you have the following before you begin:

• All your mailboxes are in Exchange Online and you have no on-premises mailboxes.

• You are the administrator of your Exchange Online tenant.

• Access to Exchange Online PowerShell and to the Set-CalendarProcessing cmdlet.

To view the current calendar processing settings for your room mailboxes in Exchange, use the Get-CalendarProcessing cmdlet. For example, Get-CalendarProcessing -Identity "Room 212" | Format-List.

Use the Set-CalendarProcessing cmdlet in Exchange Online PowerShell to configure these options in Exchange. For more information on processing settings and PowerShell syntax, refer to the Microsoft documentation for this cmdlet.

1. Connect to Exchange Online PowerShell.

2. Get the list of room mailboxes that need to be updated and assign to a temporary object. For example, list all room mailboxes with the command $Mailboxes = Get-Mailbox -RecipientTypeDetails RoomMailbox.

3. Use the ForEach-Object cmdlet, where <Settings> are the calendar processing settings to be updated followed by the value being set. For example, -DeleteComments $false -AutomateProcessing AutoAccept$Mailboxes | ForEach-Object { Set-CalendarProcessing -Identity $_.Name <Settings> }

For more information, refer to the Microsoft Documentation.

Exchange room mailbox configuration on resources is no longer supported. The concept of combo rooms is not supported by ERI as it does not exist in Exchange. Each component must be booked and managed individually as they are in Exchange.

1. On the EMS Desktop Client menu bar, click Configuration > Facilities > Rooms.

2. Filter Rooms to display the rooms you want to edit.

3. Select a room and click Edit.

4. On the Exchange Integration tab, enter the email address used to configure Microsoft Exchange.

   Multiple fields are available for email addresses on this tab. Enter only one email per room as multiple Exchange room mailboxes cannot be assigned to a single EMS room. Ensure the capitalization matches and that there are no trailing spaces or extra characters.

5. On the Everyday User Process Templates tab, verify the room is using process templates that have Integration to Microsoft Exchange enabled.

   • If the configuration of the process templates needs to be changed, edit the everyday user process template.

   • All process templates where this room is available in EMS must have a range of days value for only allow new bookings within range of this many days equal to the BookingWindowInDays setting in Exchange. If this is not done, it can cause a room to get booked in one system but not the other.

   • Set this to a value below 180. If you set a higher value, it might have a negative impact on performance and usability. Microsoft does not recommend setting this higher.

6. Click OK.

Once you configure your rooms for EMS Exchange Room Integration, you can view reports for the same in EMS Desktop Client.

Create Room Report for EMS Exchange Room Integration

1. From the Desktop Client, select Configuration > Facilities > Rooms.

2. Filter Rooms to display the rooms you want to view in the EMS Exchange Room Integration report.

3. Click Print.

4. Select Exchange Mailboxes.

1. Install EMS Platform Services and Exchange Integration Web Service and make sure you meet the system requirements.

2. Configure ERI settings in EMS Platform Services Admin Portal as follows:

   • Navigate to EMS Platform Services Admin Portal.

   • In the Two-Way Sync Configuration section, set your defaults for Exchange Sync parameters:

     To sync with EMS, reservations created in native Exchange applications, such as Outlook Mobile must have a Reserve Status, Conflict Status, Cancel Status, Default Group, Sync Pending Status and Reservation Source. When Exchange syncs with EMS, the values you selected for the Exchange Sync parameters are applied to the reservations. Refer to the following table for more information.

3. Click Save Two-Way Sync Configuration.

4. Select Calendaring > Register Exchange Sync.

   The Register Exchange Sync section is only available if you have a valid license.

5. Complete the Register Exchange Sync section.

   For this, register a new application for EMS in the Azure Portal under an admin account. You will need the Application ID, Application Secret, and Directory (Tenant) ID from the Azure Portal. For more information, refer to Graph API Configuration for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online.

6. Click Enable Exchange Sync.

   Enable Exchange Sync is only available after the above Exchange Sync section is completed.

7. Enable Exchange Sync toggles to Disable Exchange Sync.

8. To initiate sync, restart the app pool.