Add virtual meetings to work

Configuring third-party virtual meeting providers so that meeting links are added to new work items.

Overview

Organizations that need to provide services remotely have the option to enable virtual meetings.

Virtual meetings are a way to provide client services via video conferencing software delivered by a third-party provider through Skedulo’s web app. Skedulo currently supports Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet.

When virtual meetings are configured in your organization, jobs that are in a Ready state, that is that they are scheduled and have resource/s confirmed, will automatically have a virtual meeting created.

If configured to do so, the details of the virtual meeting display on the job in the Skedulo web app. The details are also sent via email to the contact for the job. If Attendees has been enabled during setup, job attendees will also receive an email.

Configure a virtual meeting provider

Virtual meeting configuration consists of two steps:

  1. Authorize the meeting provider.
  2. Set up meeting automation.

Detailed instructions for each of the steps follow in the sections below.

Prerequisites

  • The Virtual Meetings extension is installed.
  • The Meetings Configuration page is published in your Skedulo web app.
  • The Meetings Configuration page is available on your navigation bar.

Contact your Skedulo Customer Support representative for more information.

Authorize a meeting provider

To authorize a meeting provider in your team, do the following steps:

  1. On the Virtual Meetings Configuration page, navigate to the Meetings provider tab.
  2. Click the Select provider drop-down and then select your preferred provider.
  3. Click Authorize Provider. This opens your provider’s page to log in and authorize Skedulo within your provider account.
  4. After the provider has authenticated to your Skedulo environment, they appear in the Meetings provider tab of the Virtual Meetings Configuration page, along with the vendor user details for the user who initiated the authorization. You will receive an email from your provider to confirm that the Skedulo app has been installed/authorized.

Configure automation for virtual meetings

After you have virtual meetings enabled and configured with a virtual meeting provider, you can have virtual meetings created for all jobs automatically using the Automation feature.

When automated, virtual meetings are automatically created through your provider and then added to a job when the job status transitions to Ready (the job has been scheduled and allocated resources are confirmed).

Prerequisite

You must have a virtual meeting provider enabled and configured in your Skedulo organization. See the Authorizing the Meeting Provider section above for more information.

To automate the addition of virtual meeting details to jobs, do the following steps:

  1. Obtain a long-lived API token in the Skedulo web app under Settings > Developer Tools > API Tokens. For more information about API tokens, see Configure Skedulo API Token.
  2. In the Virtual Meetings Configuration page, navigate to the Automation tab.
  3. In the Skedulo API Token field, enter your long-lived access token.
  4. (Optional for Zoom) Provide a password for your meetings. Your meetings will be automatically created with this password, which will be required for guests to log in to the meeting.
  5. (Optional) Select Enable attendees if you want to invite all attendees to the meetings. (Attendees are only applicable when using Group events, which is for jobs with multiple client contacts attending).
  6. (Optional) The Send ICS to recipients option is enabled by default. This sends an email with the virtual meeting information to all meeting guests. Disabling this feature will stop the contact or attendees from being notified by Skedulo about the virtual meeting. Schedulers will have access to the meeting link via the Skedulo web app. Resources will have access to the meeting link via their device’s calendar application if they have the Skedulo iCalendar configured. Alternatively, resources can contact their scheduler for the meeting link.
  7. Click Enable Automation.

You can click Disable Automation to disable virtual job automation at any time.

To re-enable virtual meeting automation, you will need to provide your preferred configuration settings again, along with your Skedulo long-lived API token.

Virtual meeting lifecycle

When you have configured virtual jobs with automation in the Meetings Configuration page, any job you create will automatically have a virtual meeting created when the job status becomes Ready.

  1. Create a job with an assigned contact or list of attendees and schedule it with a resource.
  2. Dispatch the job to the resource. When the resource accepts, the job status changes to Ready. All guests will be sent an email with the details of their virtual meeting. If you require assistance with email customization, speak to your Skedulo Customer Service representative about creating a custom email template with your organization’s branding and preferred wording. When the job status changes to Ready, the job details page requires a manual refresh to display the meeting link.
  3. Resources can start jobs and complete jobs, as well as provide relevant notes and data the same way they would for any other job using the Skedulo mobile app. Resources can view the job on the Skedulo mobile app in the same way that other jobs appear, however the virtual meeting link is not available on the mobile app.
  4. Resources need to open their device’s calendar application to find the virtual meeting link and login information.
  5. All meeting guests can access the meeting via the meeting link. If applicable, passwords and other meeting details can be found in the meeting invitation email.

Remove the virtual meeting provider

You can remove the authorized virtual meeting provider from your Skedulo organization at any time.

Removing the provider will prevent virtual meetings from being created.

Any jobs that have already been scheduled with the current virtual meeting provider are unaffected and can proceed using the provided meeting URL unless your organization chooses to cease their account with the provider directly.

  1. In the Skedulo web application, go to Meetings Configuration to open the Virtual Meetings Configuration page.
  2. Confirm that you want to remove the virtual meeting provider currently authorized in the Meetings Provider tab.
  3. Click the Remove Provider button.

The Virtual Meetings Configuration page shows a warning if there is no integration for virtual meetings.