Can our receptionist let us know when someone's arrived?

[Widmerpool]

Bear in mind that many of our staff are resistant to using any technology
newer than the pencil; but at the moment we have to go down to reception to
check if a client has arrived, then (if they're late) either do it again five
minutes later or hang around. Clients often don't know the name of who
they're there to see. I'd like us to have a (voluntary) system where the
receptionist can see our calendars (yes I know how to share calendars) and
somehow use them to let us know when a client is there. Not email - I ideally
want something where the receptionist just has to click on a button and an
alert pops up on my screen and sounds a tone. Anyone know anything like that
in Outlook? We're using Outlook 2003 (v.11.56)

 

[Brian Tillman]

Bear in mind that many of our staff are resistant to using any
technology newer than the pencil; but at the moment we have to go
down to reception to check if a client has arrived, then (if they're
late) either do it again five minutes later or hang around. Clients
often don't know the name of who they're there to see. I'd like us to
have a (voluntary) system where the receptionist can see our
calendars (yes I know how to share calendars) and somehow use them to
let us know when a client is there. Not email - I ideally want
something where the receptionist just has to click on a button and an
alert pops up on my screen and sounds a tone. Anyone know anything
like that in Outlook? We're using Outlook 2003 (v.11.56)

I don't think Outlook has the ability you describe, but there are IM
solutions and Windows itself contains the MSG command that might suffice if
you all use a shared server or you might be able to use the NET SEND
command.

 

[Widmerpool]

I don't think Outlook has the ability you describe, but there are IM
solutions and Windows itself contains the MSG command that might suffice if
you all use a shared server or you might be able to use the NET SEND
command.

Thanks for that, Brian, that was very helpful. I've tried it out at the
command prompt, >msg "widmerpool" "testing" and it works nicely. I
can't expect the receptionist to do that; so I'll write a quick piece of
Visual Basic to do the job.

Maybe MS could put this feature into Outlook?

 

[Bob I]

:




Thanks for that, Brian, that was very helpful. I've tried it out at the
command prompt, >msg "widmerpool" "testing" and it works nicely. I
can't expect the receptionist to do that; so I'll write a quick piece of
Visual Basic to do the job.

Maybe MS could put this feature into Outlook?

Just a thought, but can she add an appointment to your calendar that
would trip the reminder alarm?

 

[Widmerpool]

I'm trying to avoid her having to do anything beyound click a button - I
could do without making myself hated by the reception staff!

I'm now just trying to learn how to invoke the msg facility from within
Access; I want to be able to give Reception a list of my appointments so that
when they hit the button it pulls up cmd.exe, fills in the username and
message, including the client's name (from the database), and sends the
message. I'm not a developer, so this is all new to me. So far I've got a
button and I've got it to open the command prompt window, but I can't yet
find out how to get it to insert the data and send the message. I guess this
is really a question for either an Access or a VB forum...

 

[Bob I]

Humm, you may want to have a look at "AutoIT". After you script it, the
staff could select the appointment and then trigger the AutoIT you
scripted. Presto bango all done. AutoIT is available for free(donations
accepted) from the authors web site.

I'm trying to avoid her having to do anything beyound click a button - I
could do without making myself hated by the reception staff!

I'm now just trying to learn how to invoke the msg facility from within
Access; I want to be able to give Reception a list of my appointments so that
when they hit the button it pulls up cmd.exe, fills in the username and
message, including the client's name (from the database), and sends the
message. I'm not a developer, so this is all new to me. So far I've got a
button and I've got it to open the command prompt window, but I can't yet
find out how to get it to insert the data and send the message. I guess this
is really a question for either an Access or a VB forum...

:

Widmerpool wrote:

:






Bear in mind that many of our staff are resistant to using any
technology newer than the pencil; but at the moment we have to go
down to reception to check if a client has arrived, then (if they're
late) either do it again five minutes later or hang around. Clients
often don't know the name of who they're there to see. I'd like us to
have a (voluntary) system where the receptionist can see our
calendars (yes I know how to share calendars) and somehow use them to
let us know when a client is there. Not email - I ideally want
something where the receptionist just has to click on a button and an
alert pops up on my screen and sounds a tone. Anyone know anything
like that in Outlook? We're using Outlook 2003 (v.11.56)

I don't think Outlook has the ability you describe, but there are IM
solutions and Windows itself contains the MSG command that might suffice if
you all use a shared server or you might be able to use the NET SEND
command.
--
Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]


Thanks for that, Brian, that was very helpful. I've tried it out at the
command prompt, >msg "widmerpool" "testing" and it works nicely. I
can't expect the receptionist to do that; so I'll write a quick piece of
Visual Basic to do the job.

Maybe MS could put this feature into Outlook?

Just a thought, but can she add an appointment to your calendar that
would trip the reminder alarm?