Setting up the calendar invite integration

The Systam Visit calendar invite integration brings visitor details from your calendar straight into visitor management. The host creates a normal calendar invite, adds your company's invite address, and Systam Visit handles the rest. Guests receive a pre-visit message and QR code automatically.

This guide is for the IT contact who handles the invite address and calendar environment configuration.

How the integration works

1. The host creates a calendar event in their calendar. The event contains an iCalendar-standard (RFC 5545) invite.
2. The host adds guest email addresses and the company-specific invite address to attendees.
3. The invite address forwards the calendar invite to Systam's customer-specific mailbox.
4. Systam Visit reads the invite automatically, creates a visit and sends the pre-visit message to guests.

Setup options

You can roll out the integration in four ways. Pick the one that suits your environment best.

1. Direct invite address

Systam provides an invite address ending in @respamanager.fi (e.g. customer@respamanager.fi). The host adds the address directly to the calendar invite attendees.

No setup is needed from IT. Good for piloting and small environments.

2. A separate invite address for each location

IT creates an invite address for each location in the company's own email, for example invite.vantaa@company.com and invite.espoo@company.com. The addresses redirect incoming messages unchanged to Systam's technical address. Hosts only see the company's own addresses.

Instructions for IT are below under Redirecting invite addresses.

3. Outlook Add-In

The Systam Outlook Add-In adds a button to the calendar that attaches the invite address to the event with one click. The user does not need to remember the address.

Suits O365 environments. The Add-In is distributed centrally via Microsoft 365 Admin Center.

4. O365 or Google Workspace room resource configuration

A customer-specific room resource (e.g. a meeting room calendar resource) is configured so that it attaches the invite address automatically when the resource is booked via a calendar invite. This option also ties the integration into Systam Rooms room booking views.

Redirecting invite addresses

Systam provides one technical address (@respamanager.fi) during setup. All location invite addresses are redirected to this same address.

How Systam Visit identifies the location

When the invite is redirected unchanged, its attendees still include the invite address the host added. Systam Visit uses it to work out which location the visit belongs to. So:

• Redirect messages unchanged. A regular forward (for example an Outlook rule's Forward) creates a new message, so the location can't be identified and the invite may not be readable.
• Send Systam a list of invite addresses and their locations before go-live, and let us know if you add addresses later.

Setup in Exchange Online

1. Create a shared mailbox for each location in the Exchange admin center (Recipients → Mailboxes → Add a shared mailbox).
2. Open the mailbox and select Mail flow settings → Email forwarding. Turn on Forward all emails sent to this mailbox and add Systam's technical address.
3. Allow automatic forwarding to an external address, as Exchange Online blocks it by default. In the Microsoft Defender portal, go to Email & collaboration → Policies & rules → Threat policies → Anti-spam. We recommend creating a separate outbound policy that applies only to the invite addresses, with Automatic forwarding rules set to On.
4. Test it: send a calendar invite with the invite address and your own external test address as attendees. The test address should receive a pre-arrival message, and the visit shows up in RespaManager as an expected visit at the right location.

What the calendar invite must contain

The invite must contain at least:

• The visit host (invite sender)
• At least one guest (attendee)
• The visit profile (invite address)
• The visit date and time

What data is processed

The integration processes only the calendar invite attachment from incoming emails. The following are stored in Systam Visit:

• Invite sender (host)
• Invite attendees (guests)
• Invite timestamp
• Invite title
• Invite unique identifier (UID)
• Optionally configured: invite location (e.g. meeting room)

All incoming emails and invite attachments are permanently deleted from Systam servers. This includes messages that could not be processed.

How guest details are built

The host and guests are looked up by email address. If a person is not found, a new record is created.

The name is taken primarily from the common name attached to the email address, e.g. Matti Meikäläinen <matti.meikalainen@yritys.com>. The guest's organisation can be derived from the domain.

If the common name is missing, the name is parsed from the local part of the email address:

• matti.meikalainen@yritys.com → Matti Meikalainen
• matti.matias.meikalainen@yritys.com → Matti Meikalainen
• meikalainen.matti@yritys.com → Meikalainen Matti (note: order may be reversed)
• matti@yritys.com → name cannot be derived
• sales.team3@yritys.com → Sales Team3 (note: not a person's name)

If a name cannot be derived, the guest is stored with only the email address. The host is asked to complete the missing details.

Summary to the host

Once the invite has been processed, the host receives an email summary of the added visit details with a link to complete the data. The link is not generated in serviced office sites.

Troubleshooting

If a calendar invite does not create a visit, check that:

• The invite address is in attendees
• The invite has at least one other attendee besides the invite address and the host themselves
• The invite has a start and end time
• If using a forwarding rule, that the forwarding is active and the message has not been held in spam filtering
• The invite was redirected unchanged, not as a regular forward, and the invite address has been reported to Systam

That's it! Once it's set up, calendar invites pre-register your visits for you.

If an invite didn't create a visit, see Your calendar invite didn't create a visit.