How to Get the Hummingbird Workplace App In Microsoft Outlook and Exchange

We’ve all experienced the frustration of walking around the office trying to find an available room five minutes before a meeting starts. Without room reservation software, it’s a constant scramble.

But if you want employees to actually use your software, you have to make it easy for them.

The best way to do that is to integrate it with an existing platform. That’s why we’ve made our Hummingbird workplace app available in Microsoft Outlook and Exchange. Here’s how it works.

What Is the Hummingbird Workplace App?

iOFFICE Hummingbird is a platform that allows employees to easily find people, reserve space, request services and receive mail and visitors through several touch points. It effectively closes the loop between the workforce and workplace leaders by connecting iOFFICE’s integrated workplace management system with an employee-friendly interface. Employees can access Hummingbird via a tablet, digital kiosks or a mobile workplace app.

Hummingbird also closes the loop between employees and operations, allowing workplace leaders to see how people are using space and then to make adjustments in response to their usage in real time. This helps them cut costs, enhance the employee experience and make data-driven decisions.

Using The Hummingbird Workplace App in Microsoft Outlook

Using a new Hummingbird plugin for Outlook, employees can now access the same reservation booking interface available in the Hummingbird app in Outlook. This gives them a consistent, intuitive experience when reserving spaces.

This new plugin displays in the command bar ribbon at the top of the screen when adding a new event to your calendar. To reserve a workstation using the Outlook Calendar, employees can pull up their calendar and click the New button to see the Details screen. They can enter the date and time they need a space, then click the Hummingbird icon. The Hummingbird plugin will display the time and date. Using the plugin, employees can locate a room by filtering for type and capacity, selecting a building and floor, or using the Search field.

Once a room is located, they can click on the room to add it to their calendar event. When they click Save, the event is added to their calendar and the room is booked in the Hummingbird app. This saves time and eliminates the need for employees to keep track of their schedules in separate applications.

How to Get the Hummingbird Workplace App for Microsoft Exchange

If your workforce already uses Microsoft Exchange, there’s a way to get Hummingbird notifications sent there or vice versa.

You will need a few things to get started, including:

• The URL and access to Exchange Web Services
• The version of the Exchange server
• Working AutoDiscovery on the Exchange account (this can be tested at testconnectivity.microsoft.com)
• A service account (username, password and domain) with access and impersonation rights (to allow more than 10 connections) to all reservable rooms.
• A list of Exchange room addresses and the corresponding iOFFICE room, floor and building.

It takes a few steps to set this up, but like the Outlook integration, this will simplify the process for room reservation. Employees will only have to check one interface, rather than going back and forth between two platforms.

When either of these integrations are set up, reserving a room becomes as simple as clicking a mouse or tapping in a smartphone app.

And you can avoid the last-minute scramble that usually ends with someone taking a meeting in the supply closet.