Can change freezes be added to an outlook calendar?

[Chaz_]

Hi,

I would like to know if there is any functionality which allows users to be automatically subscribed to any future change freezes and then have that freeze added to their outlook calendar?

Scenario is that many get caught out with change planning and don't realise that a freeze is on. The forward schedule of change can be viewed but this is manual and we are looking at any type of integration which would be immediately obvious to a change requester.

Thanks.

[Robbie · Accepted solution]

Hi @Chaz_ 

This is absolutely possible. Have you seen the 'Calander Integration' docs/notes? See below for high-level details, but essentially from a standard email notification, you can leverage the 'change.calendar.integration' email template to pass and integrate into Outlook (or other) calendars.

Take a peek at the email template 'change.calendar.integration' and look to use this (or similar/customised version suitable for your needs)

To help others, please mark this as correct and helpful.

Thanks, Robbie

High level docs:

https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/vancouver-platform-administration/page/administer/notification/re...

Email template 'Message text': similar to the following:

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
PRODID:-//Service-now.com//Outlook 11.0
MIMEDIR//EN
VERSION:2.0
METHOD:PUBLISH
BEGIN:VEVENT
ATTENDEE;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;RSVP=TRUE:MAILTO:${to}
ORGANIZER:MAILTO:${from}
FREEBUSY;FBTYPE=FREE
DTSTART:${dtstart}
DTEND:${dtend}
LOCATION:${location}
TRANSP:OPAQUE
SEQUENCE:${sys_mod_count}
UID:${uid}
DTSTAMP:${dtstamp}
DESCRIPTION:${description}
SUMMARY:${summary}
PRIORITY:${priority}
X-MICROSOFT-CDO-IMPORTANCE:${priority}
STATUS:CONFIRMED
CLASS:PUBLIC
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR

[Chaz_]

Thanks - that's really useful. 

What would be the best way to allow users to subscribe to a calendar notification? I wonder if a catalogue item would be best which updates the notification, or just to manage at the notification level and amend the users field each time someone requests this.

[Robbie]

Hi @Chaz_ 

I'm glad I could help or point you in the right direction.

Typically, recipients or subscribers to a Change Calander are driven by the type of change and the CI or affected service which are dynamically driven by data on the Change itself - eg Assignment group, subscribers to that Change etc. Given you are referring to a wider and bigger Change Freeze I see your thought process. A cat item could absolutely drive and manage this to save any manual updates.

Thinking out loud, if your org has a process and an outlook group where people can subscribe to that group outside of SN, you could also consider this. Essentially, SN would always send to this one Change Freeze group which is then/could be managed outside of SN. (Just an alternative option)

Cheers,

Robbie

[Chaz_]

Hi Robbie,

I was thinking of the latter also. How could a meeting invite notification be sent to a shared calendar or outlook group? I can see the benefits and simplicity of using this approach. However, users may not want to find and subscribe to another calendar, but at least I can try presenting this approach.

Thanks.