Practical application of dCal resources
When defining a resource, we should take into account both how we use the resource and dCal's capabilities might allow us to better manage it. Resources that are rooms are easily managed with dCal; Oracle Calendar resource accounts were designed with room resources in mind. Managing other types of resources requires more consideration.
Important Note: Resource owners may find the dCal group (and resource) scheduling system lacking if they try to use it as a resource management system; resource management tools have features such as usage reports, resource check-out/check-in, and asset tracking, that dCal does not offer. For example, when you notice that Laptop #17 is damaged, you can use dCal to find the last person who was scheduled to use it, but not the last person who actually used it (the last person who was scheduled to use it might never have picked it up).
The following scenarios can help you decide how (and if) you want to define your resources in dCal.
- You have one portable projector? Simple -- create a resource defined as equipment.
- You have three portable projectors? Less simple -- do you really need three separate resources, requiring users to add them one at a time, not knowing which one might be busy during their meeting time? It might work better to have a single resource that allows over-booking to represent the pooled projectors. The staff assistant that keeps them locked in her closet could then be set up as the approver for the resource, allowing the resource to be over-booked up to three times.
- You have a staff vehicle? Although it seems simple enough, consider the following scenario: Joe has a remote meeting from 1:00 to 2:00 and Judy has a remote meeting from 2:00 to 3:00. While dCal will not show a conflict when they both reserve the vehicle (because there is no conflict), it's fairly certain that Joe will not be back with the vehicle in time for Judy to take it to her meeting.
- You have a pool of laptops? This may seem simple enough as well, but what kind of usage data did you want to track for these resources? Again, dCal is a group scheduling system, not a resource management system.
- Your team wants to share a calendar? Group calendars should not replace individual calendar entries. If you want to keep a group calendar to help share calendar information, create the event on your own calendar, individually invite anyone who needs to take action in relation to the event, and invite the group calendar to supply information to teammates who are not actively involved. Please also note that group calendars cannot deliver reminders.