Setting up Systam Rooms with Microsoft 365

Systam Rooms shows meeting room bookings straight from your Microsoft 365 room resources. This guide walks you through connecting Microsoft 365 to Systam Studio and getting your meeting room displays up and running.

Before you start

• Microsoft 365 admin credentials
• Admin credentials for Systam Studio (app.systam.io)
• A list of the meeting rooms that will get a display

The setup has six steps. The first three happen in Microsoft 365, the last three in Systam Studio.

1. Check your room resources
2. Create a service account
3. Give the service account access to the rooms
4. Connect your calendar to Systam Studio
5. Add spaces
6. Add meeting room displays

1. Check your room resources

Each meeting room needs its own room resource in Microsoft 365. If people can already book the rooms in Outlook, you can go straight to step 2.

To add a new room, open the Exchange admin center (admin.exchange.microsoft.com) and go to Recipients → Resources → Add a room resource. Give the room a name and an email address. Room resources don't need a license.

More information: Microsoft's guide to managing resource mailboxes

2. Create a service account

Systam Rooms reads and makes room bookings through a dedicated service account. You can create it in the Microsoft 365 admin center (admin.microsoft.com) under Users → Active users → Add a user.

• Username: for example meetingrooms@company.com
• License: Exchange Online (Plan 1). The service account won't work without a license.
• Role: User (no admin center access). The service account doesn't need admin rights.
• Password: a strong password. Keep it at hand, you'll need it in step 4.

3. Give the service account access to the rooms

The service account needs Read and manage (Full Access) permission on every room. Without it, the room's bookings won't show on the display.

A few rooms: Exchange admin center

1. Open the Exchange admin center and go to Recipients → Resources.
2. Click the room and open the Delegation tab.
3. Select Read and manage (Full Access) → Edit, add the service account and save.
4. Repeat for each room.

Many rooms: PowerShell

If you have a lot of rooms, it's easier to grant the permission in one go with Exchange Online PowerShell. Replace the service account address with your own. The script below grants access to every room resource in your organization.

Connect-ExchangeOnline
$svc = "meetingrooms@company.com"
Get-Mailbox -RecipientTypeDetails RoomMailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | ForEach-Object {
  Add-MailboxPermission -Identity $_.PrimarySmtpAddress -User $svc -AccessRights FullAccess -AutoMapping:$false
}

When you add a new room later, remember to give the service account access to it too.

4. Connect your calendar to Systam Studio

1. Log in to Systam Studio at app.systam.io.
2. Go to Rooms → Calendar providers.
3. Click Sign in with Microsoft.
4. Sign in with the service account you created in step 2.
5. Accept the permissions Microsoft asks for. Systam Rooms asks to read the service account's basic profile and to read and write the calendars the service account has access to.

Once the connection is ready, it appears on the Calendar providers page.

If the sign-in stops at a message saying the app needs admin approval, ask your Microsoft 365 admin to approve the Systam Rooms app for your organization.

5. Add spaces

Add each meeting room to Studio as a space under Rooms → Spaces → Add space.

• Name: the room name
• Calendar provider: the connection you made in step 4
• Email: the room resource address from Microsoft 365

You can link several displays to the same space. If you have a lot of rooms, you can import them all at once with an Excel template: Importing spaces and devices in bulk to Systam Rooms.

6. Add meeting room displays

1. Go to Devices → Rooms displays and click Add display.
2. Give the display a descriptive name and pick the space it belongs to.
3. Studio shows a PIN code. Enter it on the display when it asks for it during first start-up.

Installing the display: Setting up Systam Rooms application to a display

Display settings such as language, booking from the display and showing the organizer's name: Editing Room Display Settings in Systam Studio

If something doesn't work

• Bookings don't show on the display: check the step 3 permissions first, then check the calendar connection in Systam Studio.
• Other display issues: Troubleshooting Systam Rooms displays

All set! Your meeting room bookings now show right at the door.