SecretaryBot V2

Make Time, Enjoy Life!

Inspiration

In the mobile first, cloud first world, users often use mobile phone with small window size. In the past era users always use PC with big screen and could easily superimpose calendar and arrange meeting. But in case of smart phones, we don't have big screen and can't do so. In this situation bot has a great interface which combines users and calendar data. What users have to do is just talking to bot on the smart phone apps and bot will fetch/post data through API with cloud! We believe it enables users to reduce lots of dull tasks in many scenarios.

What it does

Basic concept is talking to bot at first, tell the bot about meeting duration, title, and attendee's alias, then bot can find several common free time for users and meeting attendees, and meeting rooms if empty room exists.

Previously, we have only supported to arrange 1:1 meeting. Now we are happy to announce that we support to arrange meeting with multiple people. In addition to that, If you choose "lunch meeting", bot can arrange meeting and provide the recommend lunch places near the user's location.

How we built it

Build app with C# and Visual Studio. We developed app with Bot Framework V3. To fetch/post data in uses' business tools, we used Microsoft Graph API. We deployed app in Azure Web Apps. To select multiple users in Microsoft Teams, we use Office 365 connector card.

Challenges we ran into

The challenging points is arranging meeting with multiple users. To arrange meeting with multiple attendees, we have to have users select multiple attendees. In the past, however, Office 365 connector card was not supported, so we was not able to create good design for users to select multiple meeting attendees. Now, as Office 365 connector card is supported, users can choose multiple attendees easily.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The bot is being used over 240 countries and 3500 organizations!!

What we learned

We are sure that bot can increase our productivity definitely and to be one of the important interface with apps. In the mobile first world, users often uses phones and it is not have enough window size. In the past era, we can easily superimpose calendars and can find free time for attendees with big screen, but now some users don't have it because they use phone. In this world, bot is good interface to arrange schedule with Graph API (Cloud Power).