Microsoft recently released the updated version of the Resourcekit Tool : Webscheduler.

You can download the Webscheduler here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6d6848ec-e7d6-41f4-82d9-5bed3526fcbd&displaylang=en

While this is a great tool to schedule Audio Conferences and Live Meetings, I do have some remarks

The good things are:

• Users without Outlook or Outlook Plug-in can schedule Conference Calls and Live Meetings
• Web interface for users to manage conferences
• You can send out invites to users in your company and external users by mail

The bad:

• Not all information is clearly available like Dial In numbers
• There is a link to the Dial-In conferencing page on the Communicator Web Access server, but then you require internet access when searching for the Dial-In number
• No admin interface to manage all conferences

The Ugly:

• The link to join an Audio Conference via the Browser is missing
• The invite has information to install the Live Meeting client for Audio Conferencing, while this client is only used for Live Meetings

Let’s have a look at the Webscheduler:

Login to the Webscheduler
This is your personal login and the user must be enabled for Office Communications Server
(No admin interface is available)

When logged in you can see the list of conferences that are scheduled for you

Now let’s create a new Conference Call

You have to manually select PSTN Meeting if you want to activate a PSTN Dial-In conference
(This should be automatically enabled by default)

You should select : “Send Meeting Invitations”
(You must have already configured a SMTP Server to be used by Webscheduler)

Meeting has been scheduled

When looking at the Email invitation there are a few remarks to make

• The Dial-In Conference ID & Passcode are available in the meeting request
• To find the Dial-In Access numbers you need to click on the link (bad user experience)
• The Join Conference link is the link that opens Communicator and connects to the conference
• There is no link available for joining using the Web browser (that is not a good thing)
• The email suggests to install the Live Meeting client, which should not say that or be there

When we look at the details of the Conference Call in the Webscheduler there is also confusing information

The Conference ID for PSTN is not the Conference ID of the Meeting
If you dial into the Conference you need to specify the Code next to PSTN Access : Enabled <Passcode is here>

That is a little bit confusing at least

Scheduling a Live Meeting is much better.

The only thing missing is the Dial-In Access numbers, you must click the link to find the numbers

If you view a meeting that was not scheduled with Webscheduler you see this page.

Conslusion:
Great tool but not quite finished yet