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Workplace Central

Every meeting, room and service in one view

Workplace Central gives the people who run other people's meetings one calendar-style grid of every meeting across your rooms and locations, with the catering, the attendees and the notes attached. Drag a meeting to a new room or time, and Outlook, the order and the guest list follow.

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Workplace Central grid: a coordinator drags Client Meeting Introduction from Conference Room D to Conference Room E, confirms the change, and the Outlook invite, the catering order and the expected guests follow.
Built for meeting teams

What is Workplace Central?

If you run meetings for other people, the hard part is rarely the booking. It is the morning after somebody moved one. The invite was updated, the catering was not, reception was never told, and you find out when a guest asks where to go.

That happens because the meeting was never in one place. It lived in an invite, a service order, a note to reception and somebody's head. Workplace Central, or Central for short, puts it in one place: a calendar-style overview in the AskCody Management Portal for conference services managers, meeting coordinators, receptionists and office admins.

  • Every meeting in one grid, across your rooms and locations, by date.
  • Services on the card: catering, room setup and AV, with delivery time, provider and order status.
  • Attendees and internal notes on the same card as the meeting.
  • Drag-and-drop rescheduling that updates Outlook and everything attached to the meeting.
How Workplace Central works: a meeting booked in Outlook appears in the Central grid through Microsoft Graph, catering, guests and notes attach to the meeting card, and one move updates Outlook, the catering order and the expected guests.
How it works

How does Workplace Central work?

Central sits between your Microsoft 365 and the teams that serve your meetings, and it does three things.

  • It reads your room calendars. Central reads every room calendar in Exchange Online through Microsoft Graph, so a meeting booked in Outlook shows up in the grid. Users are synchronized from Microsoft Entra ID. Users sign in with their Microsoft account.
  • It puts everything on the meeting. Catering and service requests, attendees and your internal notes sit on the same meeting card, and expected guests are tied to the same meeting.
  • It sends one change everywhere. Move the meeting, and Outlook, the order and the expected guests follow. That is Follow-the-Meeting Intelligence.
The grid

See every meeting by room, time and location

Pick a date and a location, and Central shows your rooms side by side in a calendar-style grid, with work hours in white and off-hours in gray. Every meeting is a card with its title, host, catering and service requests, request status and attendees, and the grid holds more than 30 rooms in a single view.

Click a room to see its picture and description, so a new coordinator knows which room is which. You can print the day's meetings for the team on the floor, and when you need a list instead, All Bookings shows the same meetings as a list you can search and sort.

How to use Central

Workplace Central grid for one location and day: rooms side by side by hour, off-hours in gray, each meeting card with host, attendees and service status, and the room info for Conference Room E.
Rescheduling in Workplace Central: a meeting dragged from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM with a dotted line at the original start, a confirmation with undo, the change log on the meeting, and a private meeting that cannot be moved.
Rescheduling

How do you reschedule a meeting for someone else?

Drag the meeting card to another room or time slot. While you move it, a dotted line marks the original start time, and a confirmation shows the change before it is saved, with the option to roll it back.

The meeting then updates in Outlook. The attendees get an updated invitation, catering and service requests move to the new time, and expected visitors update in Visitor Management. That is Follow-the-Meeting Intelligence: one change, not nine. Every move is logged in the meeting card, with the old and new time and room. Need to check with the organizer first? Start a Teams chat or an email from the card.

Moving other people's meetings takes the Central Full Access Rescheduler role. Private meetings show only limited information and cannot be moved.

What is Follow-the-Meeting Intelligence?

Services

View, edit and print service requests from the overview

Open a meeting card to see what was ordered for it: catering, room layout and AV equipment, with the delivery time, the service provider and the order status. When a meeting has catering or services, the buffer time for preparation shows in the grid too, so you can see when the team needs the room before and after.

Need to change an order? Select Edit on the card to open the request in the AskCody Services portal and update it. The Edit link shows for people with the Central role, the Services Portal User role and a membership of the provider that holds the request.

More about meeting catering

A Workplace Central meeting card with buffer time before and after, the Services panel with provider, order number, Accepted status and delivery time, and an order edited in AskCody Services from 12 to 14 coffees.
The View dialog in Workplace Central: a desk is added and the auditorium is dragged to the top, and the grid then shows the rooms in that order.
Your view

Show the rooms and desks you work with

Choose the location and the rooms and desks that matter to your team, and drag the rooms into the order you work in, such as floor by floor. A compact view fits more rooms on the screen, and the date you pick stays selected all day as you move between Central, Maps and All Bookings.

Running several offices? With location memberships, an administrator decides who sees and manages the meetings of each location.

How location memberships work

Internal notes

Keep the details on the meeting, not in your inbox

Walk-up bookings, last-minute changes and visitor check-in tend to arrive at the same time. It is easier when the details sit on the meeting itself.

Add internal coordination notes to a meeting card for the things that usually travel by email: special requests, access details, who to call. The notes are for meeting coordinators and service teams, they are not visible to the attendees or the organizer in Outlook, and changes save automatically.

Internal coordination notes typed on a meeting in Workplace Central and saved automatically, next to the organizer and attendees; back in the grid the meeting card shows the notes icon.
For IT

What does IT need to switch on Workplace Central?

Central is a Microsoft Graph application and runs on the same Graph integration as the rest of the AskCody Platform. If your Exchange Online integration is set up, the permissions Central needs to show meetings are already granted.

  • Exchange Online: the rooms and users you manage in Central are on Exchange Online. Central is not available with on-premises Exchange Server.
  • Microsoft Entra ID: users are synchronized into AskCody from Entra ID.
  • Single sign-on: people sign in to Central with their Microsoft account.

Roles decide who can move meetings

Give the team the Central Portal User role, and the Central Full Access Rescheduler role to the people who move meetings. The rescheduler role is always assigned manually and needs extended permissions for the AskCody enterprise application in Microsoft Entra ID.

Locations decide who sees what

With location memberships, only the members of a location view and manage its meetings in Central.

Rooms by their primary address

Central looks up each room calendar by its primary SMTP address, so set the room mailbox to that address in the integration settings.

Read the setup guide

Hear it from our customers

"I use AskCody every single day. I mean one of the first things I do in the morning is pull up Central and look at what is going on that day and the following for each of the offices that I manage. So that I know where we stand with meetings and visitors; how many people are arriving and departing. Because that all plays a role with my reception team."

Dale Pollock
Conference Services Manager at Eversheds Sutherland
(in the video from 2:45)

Read Eversheds case

 

Common questions about
Workplace Central

What is Workplace Central?

Workplace Central, Central for short, is the calendar-style overview in the AskCody Management Portal. It shows every meeting across your rooms and locations by date, with the room, catering and service requests, attendees and notes on each meeting card. It is built for conference services managers, meeting coordinators, receptionists and others who administer other people's meetings. See how to use Central.
What do we need before we can use Workplace Central?

Central is a Microsoft Graph application, so it needs:

  • The rooms and users you manage in Central on Exchange Online.
  • Users synchronized into AskCody from Microsoft Entra ID.
  • Microsoft single sign-on enabled for AskCody.

Central runs on the same Microsoft Graph integration as the rest of the AskCody Platform, so if your Exchange Online integration is set up, the permissions it needs to show meetings are already granted. Read how to set up and access Central.
Does Workplace Central work with Exchange Server?

No. Central, Maps and All Bookings are built on Microsoft Graph, so they need Exchange Online and are not available with on-premises Exchange Server. See how to move AskCody from Exchange Server to Exchange Online.
Which roles do people need?

To open Central, a user needs the Central Portal User role. To move meetings by drag and drop, they also need the Central Full Access Rescheduler role, which is always assigned manually and needs extended permissions for the AskCody enterprise application in Microsoft Entra ID. The AskCody Owner role configures everything, but an Owner who wants to reschedule in Central also needs the rescheduler role. See the roles and memberships.
Who is notified when I move a meeting in Workplace Central?

Everyone involved, for the part that concerns them. The meeting updates in Outlook and the attendees get an updated invitation, catering and service requests move to the new date or time, and guests registered as expected visitors update in Visitor Management. This is Follow-the-Meeting Intelligence. Read how it works.
Can I edit a catering or service request from Central?

Yes. Open the meeting card and select Edit under Services. The request opens in the AskCody Services portal, where you update it. You see the Edit link when you have the Central role, the Services Portal User role and a membership of the provider that holds the request. See the steps.
Can we limit which locations a user sees?

Yes. By default, people with a Central role see the meetings of every location. Turn on location memberships for a location, and only the members you add can view and manage its meetings in Central and All Bookings. Owners keep access to every location. Set up location memberships.
Can we change the work hours shown in the grid?

Yes. Work hours are set per location in the Admin Center and show in white in the grid, with off-hours in gray. The default is 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Change the work hours.
What does Central show for private meetings?

Private meetings show only very limited information, out of respect for privacy, and they cannot be rescheduled in Central. Read about the meeting card icons.
Why does a room show no meetings in Central?

Central finds each room's calendar in Microsoft Graph by its primary SMTP address. If the room is set up with an alias, set its mailbox to the primary address in the Microsoft Exchange calendar integration, and all of its meetings appear, including the ones booked before the change. See the fix.
Is Workplace Central included in my plan?

Yes. Workplace Central is included in all AskCody plans. See pricing.

See Central with your own rooms

Book a demo and see every meeting, room and service in one view, and how one drag of a meeting card updates everything attached to it.
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