FindTime–A really awesome schedule plugin for Outlook

Microsoft has an internal initiative named Microsoft Garage projects where employees from all over Microsoft turn great ideas into real projects. One of the most recent projects to come out of this initiative is called FindTime, announced on the Office blog, an Outlook plugin which lets you schedule meetings with colleagues – but with polling functionality like Doodle. Or much like the Sunrise app on the iPhone. The FindTime add-in works with Outlook 2013, Outlook 2016 and with Outlook Web Access.

It’s real simple. Start a new e-mail, add people to the To or Cc fields, and you will see their availability in the plugin. In the image below you see I have chosen three possible time slots for a 30 minute meeting with my colleagues, Mads, Elsa and Thomas.


Next I click the Next button and get to pick a location and see some other meeting settings, before I insert it into the e-mail itself.





The people you invite will each get an e-mail and when opening the link they can vote for their preferred and possible time slots.



As the attendants respond you get e-mails about their choices.



Once everyone has answered you will get a final e-mail, and an appointment has been added to everyone's calendar.





What if this was default functionality in Outlook? :)