XFOR: Meeting Request Behavior on Delegation between Systems (199744)

SYMPTOMS

When an Exchange Server user delegates a meeting to a Lotus Notes user, Exchange Server does not inform the Notes meeting chairperson of this delegation. The delegated Notes user receives the original invitation. If the delegated Notes user accepts the invitation and the Notes meeting chairperson later sends a confirmation message for the invitation, the delegate receives the confirmation message as well as a new invitation.

CAUSE

Notes does not apprise the Notes meeting chairperson of this delegation. Thus, it does not send a decline message to the chairperson or inform him or her that the delegation has taken place.

Consequently, the Notes meeting chairperson thinks the Exchange Server user is still part of the invitee list and leaves the user in the "No Response" field instead of moving the user to the "Delegate" field.

In this situation, the delegated Notes user receives the original invitation by virtue of the delegation. He or she also receives a new invitation, if he or she accepts the invitation and the Notes meeting chairperson later sends a confirmation message for the invitation.

The correct behavior is for the delegate to receive only the confirmation message.

WORKAROUND

There are two workarounds to this problem.

Do not delegate between users on different systems (such as Lotus Notes and Exchange Server).

-or-
If the Exchange Server user sends the decline message in the initial stage of the meeting request informing the Notes chairperson of the delegation, the Notes chairperson can move the Exchange Server user to the Delegate field, and a confirmation message would not be sent. The delegated Notes user then receives only a single confirmation message.

MORE INFORMATION

This problem is the side-effect of the behavior mismatch between the Notes and Exchange Server delegation strategies. In Notes, "delegate" really means "forward the meeting;" in Exchange Server, "delegate" means "allowing access to someone else to accept or decline."