Room for Improvement: Unable to Invite Attendees

[Jason Dunn]

I found myself very frustrated at a limitation with the Smartphone OS this morning. I was creating appointments on my phone, and I needed to add another person as an attendee so they'd get the appointment, and the current version of Windows Mobile doesn't support that. Luckily, they were in the same room as I was, so I had to settle for beaming my appointments from the phone to their Pocket PC. Talk about a kludge! If the Smartphone is going to be a fully functioning extension of Exchange/Outlook, it has to support the core functions necessary to do so. Has anyone else found this limitation frustrating?

[lurch]

You pose a good question that's worth asking:
Is the Smartphone going to be a fully functioning extension to Outlook/Exchange? Or in other words, is the Smartphone going to be capable of replacing the Outlook client as an interface to your information?

Or is it going to be a limited function interface for when you are away from your desk? Isn't the smartphone targted at mobile business professionals? Many of whom I would suppose have someone back at the office (i.e. "personal assistant") who has permission to create Outlook meetings for them.

I just never saw the Smartphone as a potential replacement for Outlook, just a mobile compliment that contains a subset of functionality.

Just my 2 cents. :)

[Kris Kumar]

I am more annoyed by the fact that when it comes to setting up the reminder for a calendar item, there is no option for '0 minutes before the event'. The lowest is '1 minute before' (WM2003 SE). I believe SP2002 had 5 minutes or 15 minutes as the lowest.

I use calendar for a reminding myself about paying online bills, or check some site etc. (Smartphone does not have tasks :-)) And prefer to have 0 minute reminders. 1 minute works fine. But why couldn't they add an option of 0 minute. :?

[Jason Dunn]

You pose a good question that's worth asking:
Is the Smartphone going to be a fully functioning extension to Outlook/Exchange? Or in other words, is the Smartphone going to be capable of replacing the Outlook client as an interface to your information?

Well, I don't think it will ever replace Outlook on a desktop computer, but what's the point of having a mobile device if you need to wait until you get back to your desk to invite someone to a meeting? That's basic, core functionality that should be supported.

[lurch]

That's basic, core functionality that should be supported.
True, that is pretty core, but think of all that's involved with scheduling a meeting (as opposed to putting an appointment on your calendar) -- you can reference other people's calendars to find an available time for everybody, you can include resourse availability and scheduling, etc.

I will concede that it would be useful to have minimum functionality like being able to at least send an email to attendees saying "there's a meeting at 3" or something. But then you depart from Microsoft's apparent committment to a fully integrated platform. And also there is the fact that just because someone has a smartphone they don't necessariliy have i-net access and thus could even send an email.

Well anyway, I agree it would be great, but I don't think it will happen, and I personally wouldn't expect to see it. :)

[lungbutter]

the lack of this feature makes me crazy as well! i don't feel that adding this feature would be trying to create a replacement for a desktop version of outloook, etc. it can't be that difficult for them to include.

[Jason Dunn]

True, that is pretty core, but think of all that's involved with scheduling a meeting (as opposed to putting an appointment on your calendar) -- you can reference other people's calendars to find an available time for everybody, you can include resourse availability and scheduling, etc.

I'm not asking for any of that - all I want is what we have on the Pocket PC: the ability to send an invitation. I'm not asking for real-time resource scheduling, blah blah, just an entry that allows you to send a meeting request to someone. It's on the Pocket PC so it can't be all that hard.

And also there is the fact that just because someone has a smartphone they don't necessariliy have i-net access and thus could even send an email.

I have a really hard time believing that someone would get a Smartphone without GPRS access...and even if they did, offline emaiing is certainly an option.

I think you're over-thinking this a bit. ;-)

[Mike Temporale]

Has anyone else found this limitation frustrating?

Although it hasn't effected me personally, I do think this functionality should be included. For some reason Microsoft has left out a number of key features when it comes to appointments. I would also like to be able to see and edit the category field. I can ActiveSync to only sync appointments of type "business" but if I create one on the phone, I can't set the category. :evil:

[Mr. PPC]

I just got an I-mate SP3 to play with, I am the IT Manager (has perks) after all. I might as well return it, nobody is going to want it if they can't schedule meetings with it. Like we can on our XDA II's, X30's and I-mate PDA2K s that we have deployed.

Ohh, we use a mix of WiFi and GPRS.

[richmullikin]

You pose a good question that's worth asking:
Is the Smartphone going to be a fully functioning extension to Outlook/Exchange? Or in other words, is the Smartphone going to be capable of replacing the Outlook client as an interface to your information?

Or is it going to be a limited function interface for when you are away from your desk? Isn't the smartphone targted at mobile business professionals? Many of whom I would suppose have someone back at the office (i.e. "personal assistant") who has permission to create Outlook meetings for them.

I just never saw the Smartphone as a potential replacement for Outlook, just a mobile compliment that contains a subset of functionality.

Just my 2 cents. :)

Lurch, good thought. Here's what I've found in my smartphone travels.

4SmartPhone allows Windows Mobile smartphone owners to tap the full potential of the device for very little $$.

For $3.99 per month, you get::
· Usage of their own email addresses
· 100MB of mailbox space on a hosted Exchange Server 2003
· Over the Air (OTA) synchronization of email, contacts and calendar
· Mobile access using Outlook Smart Access
· PC access using Outlook Web Access ONLY (no Outlook support)
· Over the Air smartphone setup
· NO SOFTWARE to install on the phone or the PC
· Virus checking
· SSL Encryption and security
· Spam filtering
· Daily backups

My two cents.
Rich Mullikin