Beginning July 3, Cornell departments can sign up for a new service that makes it easy to schedule meetings among people all across the campus. The service, called CorporateTime, is funded by the university and offered at no cost to campus units. It runs on Windows, Macintosh and UNIX/Linux computers.
"Many groups on campus are already using calendar-management software like Meeting Maker, Now Up-To-Date and MS Outlook," said Gail Honness, CorporateTime project coordinator. "What CorporateTime does, besides being a robust, feature-rich application, is enable faculty and staff in any department that uses the service to electronically schedule meetings with each other. The ease with which anyone on the server can be invited to a meeting makes the use of CorporateTime a tremendous timesaver that users of those other systems do not enjoy."
Cornell Information Technologies is overseeing CorporateTime's central operation. Campus units interested in using the service should designate a person who can tell CIT about the unit's organizational structure and particular needs. That person should then complete the CorporateTime registration form at http://www.cit.cornell.edu/calendar/register.html. Within two business days, a CorporateTime project team member will contact the person to work out details.
Although CIT is providing central support for CorporateTime, each unit will need to have its own team to create calendar accounts, train new users and provide local technical support. To help units get started, CIT has developed documentation and training resources, including material for people now using Meeting Maker. (Note that Meeting Maker databases can be transferred to CorporateTime; see the web site for details.)
"I like the flexibility CorporateTime has in letting each user be as open or as private as they want about who can view or enter items on their calendar," said Polley McClure, vice president for information technologies. "If most faculty and staff decide to use CorporateTime, we'll all gain significant efficiency in managing each day's finite space."
A product of Corporate Software & Technologies of Montreal, CorporateTime was selected by a cross-campus task force and has been tested in a pilot program involving nearly 1,000 people in several campus departments. For more information, see http://www.cit.cornell.edu/calendar/ or e-mail corporatetime@cornell.edu.
·How is a calendaring system like CorporateTime different from an electronic appointment calendar or personal information manager (PIM)?
With CorporateTime, you still have your own electronic appointment calendar, but it is tracked, along with everyone else's calendars, by a central system. That lets other people check your availability for meetings and lets you permit other people to manage your calendar if desired. CorporateTime also keeps track of resources needed for meetings, such as rooms and audiovisual equipment.
An electronic appointment calendar, or PIM (such as Lotus Organizer or Yahoo! Calendar), is typically created and used only by one person. It's more like a paper datebook. Some can interact with the calendars of other people who use the same tool, but generally it isn't automatic or all-encompassing the way it is with a calendaring system.
·Is CorporateTime intended to replace all other calendars at Cornell?
Not at all. CorporateTime's primary purpose is scheduling meetings among faculty and staff. It will not replace Schedule 25, which is the method for booking classrooms and major lecture halls. It also will not replace any events calendars, such as the web-based Cornell Calendar of Events used to publicize campus happenings.
·My department already uses Meeting Maker. Why should we switch to CorporateTime?
Costs to your department will be lower, since you won't have to run your own Meeting Maker server or purchase software. Thanks to university funding, CorporateTime services are free to all departments. Also CorporateTime lets you schedule meetings with anyone else who uses the service, not just people in your own department.
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