In order to connect Outlook with any web scheduling system there is a need to:

1. Download a small sync program to the user's desktop
2. Sync the user's calendar data with an online database
3. Enable the web scheduling system to read and write to that database in real time

Google has developed a great solution for 1 and 2:

1. Google has a calendar sync program for the user's desktop
2. Google calendar is a great online storage for calendar data
3. ScheduleOnce has tight integration with Google Calendar

Some web scheduling vendors develop their own solutions for items 1 and 2 but in our view Google's solution is the best because:

• The sync program is excellent. It is lightweight (only 1mb to install) and works with all versions of Outlook (2003, 2007 and 2010). 
• Google Calendar is an excellent online storage. It is secure and available by Google standards, and most importantly, ScheduleOnce reads and writes to it in real time so that your Outlook calendar information is never stored on the ScheduleOnce servers.

Other web scheduling vendors with Outlook connectors store all your Outlook information on their servers. You would probably agree that Google has more security safeguards than any scheduling vendor can afford. 

So even if you are not actively using Google Calendar to manage your Schedule, you can simply use it as a bridge (the online database) between Outlook and ScheduleOnce. Google calendar is free with no restrictions and takes only a minute to setup.

Follow these steps to connect Outlook with ScheduleOnce:

Important: If you already have a Gmail account don't use your Gmail's Google Calendar as the bridge. Why? because scheduling emails will come from your Gmail email address instead of your Outlook email address.

1. Go to https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount and create a Google Account on your Outlook email address.
2. Go to https://www.google.com/calendar and configure the new calendar. Make sure that your Outlook email address is showing on the right corner of the Google header. DO NOT create a Gmail account, calendar only.
3. Download the Sync program from Google
4. Install the Sync program and and sign in with your new Google Account. choose the two-way Sync option between your Outlook and your Google Calendar

5. Sign into your ScheduleOnce account and connect your synced Google Calendar with ScheduleOnce
6. When the Sync program completes the initial Sync, you will be able to see busy time from Outlook in ScheduleOnce and any meetings that you schedule in ScheduleOnce will show up in Outlook. Learn more about calendar connection

More information on syncing Outlook with Google Calendar can be found here.