How can I show all of my clients when I'm available for meetings?
August 5, 2008 7:51 AM Subscribe
What is the best way for me to share available time on my calendar with a small group of clients at different companies? Bonus points for a way to synchronize it with my current Palm software.
I am an independent contractor/consultant. I generally provide expertise and an extra pair of hands on project teams. One of my major clients, who shall remain nameless, has the reputation for chewing people up and spitting them out, but I work with them because they're usually nice to me and pay very well. As part of their wanting to "own" everything within their reach, all of my work for them must be done on a computer owned by them. They all use Outlook and schedule what seems to be millions of meetings.
Partly because I have an unhealthy resentment of people telling me how I have to work and partly for practical reasons, I have refused to maintain the Outlook calendar on their computer. I want to make sure they always know they are not in charge of my schedule and don't always have the right to know where I am. (They only pay me when I'm working and I'm very honest about my hours.) I keep a full calendar on my own computer which is also sitting on my desk. I update my calendar manually with their meetings as well as other client meetings and engagements. I have a Palm Pilot that is not also a phone and I use Palm desktop software.
Up until now this has worked pretty well and the client has lived with it. The problem comes when they are trying to schedule meetings, want to include me, and cannot see my full calendar. My workaround has been to throw out some available times through email and let them pick, but there's got to be a better way.
Google Calendar was the obvious choice, but I was put off by its lack of synchronization with Palm desktop software. The only way I saw that I could sync the two would either be by purchasing 3rd party software or by using Yahoo calendar as a go-between. I looked at Yahoo calendar and fuggetaboutit. I want to show available or busy, but no detail about meetings for the privacy of all clients.
So MeFites, I'm looking for a great alternative. Any ideas?
I am an independent contractor/consultant. I generally provide expertise and an extra pair of hands on project teams. One of my major clients, who shall remain nameless, has the reputation for chewing people up and spitting them out, but I work with them because they're usually nice to me and pay very well. As part of their wanting to "own" everything within their reach, all of my work for them must be done on a computer owned by them. They all use Outlook and schedule what seems to be millions of meetings.
Partly because I have an unhealthy resentment of people telling me how I have to work and partly for practical reasons, I have refused to maintain the Outlook calendar on their computer. I want to make sure they always know they are not in charge of my schedule and don't always have the right to know where I am. (They only pay me when I'm working and I'm very honest about my hours.) I keep a full calendar on my own computer which is also sitting on my desk. I update my calendar manually with their meetings as well as other client meetings and engagements. I have a Palm Pilot that is not also a phone and I use Palm desktop software.
Up until now this has worked pretty well and the client has lived with it. The problem comes when they are trying to schedule meetings, want to include me, and cannot see my full calendar. My workaround has been to throw out some available times through email and let them pick, but there's got to be a better way.
Google Calendar was the obvious choice, but I was put off by its lack of synchronization with Palm desktop software. The only way I saw that I could sync the two would either be by purchasing 3rd party software or by using Yahoo calendar as a go-between. I looked at Yahoo calendar and fuggetaboutit. I want to show available or busy, but no detail about meetings for the privacy of all clients.
So MeFites, I'm looking for a great alternative. Any ideas?
Setup a way to push your schedule to your website (maybe write a script to make a filtered version of it available, removing details, grouping blocks together) and have them pull down the ical file with Outlook 2007. If they aren't using Outlook 2007, there are plugins for older versions of Outlook as well.
posted by SirStan at 7:59 AM on August 5, 2008
posted by SirStan at 7:59 AM on August 5, 2008
timedriver.com - they're in beta, but this is exactly what you are looking for.
posted by revan at 8:45 AM on August 5, 2008
posted by revan at 8:45 AM on August 5, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by k8t at 7:59 AM on August 5, 2008