Using Third Party Room Panel Screens
- Sophie Cooper
- Natalie Menzies
This article relates to third-party room panel screens. To learn how to use Equiem’s Room Panel Screens, please refer to this article.
Contents:
Overview
Room panel screens allow you to display real time availability of resources outside of the resource itself. In order to connect bookable resources to a third party room panel, you will first need to connect the resource on the Equiem platform to the resource calendar associated with your room panel.
You will need the ICS feed link and the resource calendar email address.
You might also need to include your IT team and the room panel vendor.
How does the integration work?
Our bookings calendar integration is a 2-way sync between the Equiem platform and a resource calendar (e.g Google, Outlook 365).
An ICS link that is associated with your resource calendar is stored against a resource in the Equiem platform, this connection will block out times in the Equiem platform that correspond with bookings already made in the connected calendar. If bookings are removed from the connected calendar, the times will become available again in the Equiem platform.
In addition, by adding a calendar email address to a resource in the Equiem platform, bookings made via the Equiem platform will send a confirmation email (with an attached ICS file) to that email address. If this mailbox is linked to a resource calendar which automatically accepts ICS events, bookings made through the Equiem platform will be reflected in the resource calendar. This will also apply for updates/cancellations.
Obtaining your ICS Feed Link
Each email provider will have a different method of obtaining this. The most common providers are Office 365 and Google. In order to connect Bookings to your calendar you will need to be an admin in both systems.
The below instructions are a guide, however, we recommend checking with your calendar provider for the most up-to-date instructions.
Outlook 365:
Login to Office 365
Click on the Calendar app
Open the Calendar Settings menu by clicking the cog icon (bar at top, on the right)
Click Options (bottom of the menu)
Click on the Calendar publishing option (found under Calendar > Shared Calendars)
Select the calendar you want to use from the drop-down menu
Go to the section called Shows availability, titles and locations
Copy the ICS link
Google:
Log into your Google Calendar.
Under My Calendars on the left-hand menu, locate your calendar account and click on the vertical ellipsis (⋮).
Under "Calendar settings" on the left side of the screen, click on Access permissions and confirm that the calendar is public.
Under "Calendar settings" click on Integrate calendar and copy the URL under Public address in iCal format.
Connecting your ICS Feed Link
You cannot connect the same ICS link to multiple resources in the Equiem platform.
Open Equiem One and select Bookings from the left hand menu
Navigate to the Resources catalogue tab and open your chosen resource
Navigate to the Additional Settings section. Paste the ICS link in the box provided and add the resource calendar email address at the bottom of the section.
Press Save & Publish to confirm. Reservations from within Bookings for this resource should now be blocked out on your resource calendar and reservations within your resource calendar should be unavailable within Bookings.
