Feature
A calendar is a relatively simple tool. Hours, dates, months, years, all lined up in orderly fashion with little to no surprises outside of the occasional leap year.
Tell that to anyone who's had the thankless job of coordinating calendars across a digital workplace.
Why Won't Work Calendars Play Nice?
A calendar is a fundamental tool included in the offerings of the biggest digital workplace providers. Dozens of vendors provide them, but some of the best known include:
- Outlook Calendar: Part of Microsoft Office 365, used widely in corporate environments for scheduling meetings, managing tasks and coordinating events.
- Google Calendar: Popular for both personal and business use, integrates seamlessly with other Google Workspace applications.
- Apple Calendar: Integrated with macOS and iOS devices, used for personal and professional scheduling.
- HCL Notes Calendar (formerly IBM Notes and Lotus Notes): Used in enterprise environments for email, calendar and collaboration.
- Zoho Calendar: Part of the Zoho suite, used for business scheduling and integrates with other Zoho applications.
There are also specialized and collaborative calendar solutions form the likes of Trello, with its Calendar Power-Up functionality in Trello boards for project management, as well as Asana, which provides a visual way to view and manage project timelines and tasks.
If you're already confused by that list of calendars, think about the workers who are trying to manage tasks in the workplace across these disparate, and often siloed solutions.
The problem is that as one of the key workplace apps, calendars are creating issues with synchronization, information fragmentation and the creation of workplace silos, resulting in complexity, lowered productivity and poor collaboration.
Vendors are aware of these challenges. Once recent sign came in the form of an announcement from Google, which stated it had improved its calendar syncing process for users of third-party services like Outlook who collaborate with Google Calendar users.
The update promises more accurate event syncing across different calendar platforms and reduced email notifications from calendar syncing activities. What can organizations do to tackle the problem?
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Double-Booked Time Slots and Other Time Drags
Managing multiple calendars in a digital workplace can lead to disorganization, especially when team members use multiple platforms and don't have an easy way to sync events across calendars, Nicole Mears, product marketing manager at Apptoto, told Reworked.
The lack of cohesion and transparency in team members' schedules can result in double booked appointments and meetings. It can also lead to a business's employees or clients flat-out missing appointments when appointment reminders are not sent in a cohesive or automated manner before events, she said.
An appointment management solution can help manage calendar disorganization by unifying multiple calendars into a single, cohesive system, she added.
Syncing team members' individual calendars in such a way accomplishes three things:
- It provides a real-time overview of team members' availability
- Team members, clients and vendors can schedule time on employees' calendars based on an accurate reflection of their schedule.
- With all calendars synced, businesses can then implement automated appointment reminders for any and all meeting types.
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What Lack of Synchronization Can Do
The problem with most calendar apps is lack of synchronization, said Maxime Bouillon, co-founder and CEO of Archie. When calendar apps struggle to sync with third-party applications, it creates significant organizational challenges. He points to two major problems:
1. Impacts to Specific Industries
Problems with synchronization of calendars and the timetables they contain can interfere with organizational processes in nearly all spheres, but it will be particularly painful in the spheres of healthcare and logistics, he said. These sectors require precise coordination, making unreliable syncing particularly problematic.
2. Collaboration Features
He also notes that many calendar apps lack robust collaboration features, complicating team scheduling and communication. Integrations with project management tools at times fail to update in real-time, causing confusion about deadlines and resource availability. This is further exasperated, he said, by insufficient user training.
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Automated Syncing Solutions vs. Integrated Platforms
Bouillon also recommends implementing automated syncing solutions, like middleware platforms or API integrations, to streamline data flow between calendar apps and third-party tools. This reduces manual data entry errors and ensures accurate scheduling across platforms.
One other issue is often overlooked with third apps integration, namely data security. All processes should adhere to current regulations such as GDPR or HIPAA and administrators should regularly check permissions to avoid an unauthorized access or a data breach.
“By addressing these nuanced aspects of syncing challenges, workplaces can enhance efficiency and reliability in calendar management, fostering smoother operations and improved productivity,” Bouillon said.
Issues with time zones can lead to mis-scheduling of meeting or appointment times, said Sphere IT CEO Michael Collins. This is compounded by other problems like Sync Failures and Delay, which risks losing latest information and potential double-booking.
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Finally, organizations that fail to keep calendars up to date with the latest versions, as well as updating third-party integrations, can create security issues as bugs evolve and organizations operate on old fixes.
Collins recommends organizations look at integrated platforms rather than trying to access and integrate separate calendars. “Try using integrated platforms like Microsoft Office 365 or Google Workspace; their suites of apps have native integration and synchronization, which reduces the potential for compatibility issues between various software environments,” he said.
ScreenCloud CEO Mark McDermott agrees. It is crucial to ensure integration across various technology platforms. He notes the recent update from Google, which enhances the compatibility of its Calendar with third-party services such as Outlook, as an advancement that directly addresses user frustrations.