Let's see if this is your norm for organizing a meeting:

Step 1: John Doe needs a meeting with a list of people on a specific topic.

Step 2: You send out an email to all the parties asking for a good date/time to meet.

Step 3: You collect many emails from many people with their preferences of a date/time.

Step 4: You send out another email asking if everyone is OK with a specific date/time.

Step 5: You review all the emails.

Step 6: Then, you send the meeting invitation.

If you calculate 15 minutes for each email that you touch for a 10 person meeting, the time to plan that meeting may be longer than the actual meeting.


The steps to plan a meeting seem pretty straightforward, but it's not always so easy to coordinate. What if there was an easier way to request date/time preferences?

FindTime: Your Meeting Scheduling Solution

FindTime is a Microsoft product that can be added to Outlook to help you efficiently plan meetings and get back to work. When the attendees respond, you have a tally of their votes. All votes are in one location, easy for you to read and make the best decision at a glance. Simply review the votes and send out the meeting invitation! The process of finding a suitable meeting time is no longer a time-consuming task.

Below is a closer look at how you would view all of the votes in one location:

  • You can enter many dates and times.
  • Your recipients can select many dates and times that suit them. They can also select "prefer" to show their preference.
  • Your recipients can also select dates and times that do not work for them at all.
  • At the bottom of the tally sheet, your recipients can suggest dates/times if none of the options work for them.
  • Once you have a date that suits all recipients, you select the "schedule" option and the invitation is sent.
  • You have an option to receive a notice each time someone votes.

FindTime is perfect for meetings where:

  • You are not able to see other attendees' calendars internally
  • Attendees are in different time zones
  • Attendees need many options for a meeting date/time

Note: to use FindTime, the organizer is required to be on Office 365 (install is free) and recipients must have an email address.

What Are The Advantages of Using FindTime?

Everyone is looking to save more time because in business—time is currency. The advantages to implementing FindTime are not exhaustively listed in this blog, but the added value of using the scheduler is not hard to miss. If you attend meetings at all during your work day, you will find time to install this application in Outlook.

  • Significant time savings
  • Time zones adjust for the recipients based on their computer settings
  • Faster and easier to get group consensus for meeting dates/times
  • Mobile responsive

If you have the FindTime application, this is how your process would change:


Step 2: You send out FindTime email to all meeting recipients with many dates/times.

Step 3: Each recipient votes on a time that suits them.

Step 4: You review the all the poll votes in one location and send out the invitation.


In this situation, the organizer would save approximately 4 hours 45 minutes.

If you spend a large amount of time scheduling meetings, this product is at least worth your time to test. Hope you found this blog (and FindTime) to be a helpful resource! Let us know if we can be of further assistance in the use and/or implementation of any Microsoft Office/Dynamics 365 applications by contacting C5 Insight today.