Time Zone Best Practice

HCL Domino Domino Forum
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This is an issue we run into time and time again, and whilst there are several right answers, I was wondering if there was a consensus on the subject.

FYI I am NOT talking about Notes mail calendaring here. This is about using custom calendars in applications.

We have a client scheduling system - we schedule sales meetings using an internal database of contacts. The contacts are in varying time zones. To avoid confusion on the part of the salespeople, we always schedule the meeting so that the time on the screen is the contact’s time. So in other words, while our telemarketers are in US EST, they schedule meetings with contacts for their time zone, so if it is 2PM in Chicago they put in 2PM - they don’t think about the difference between CST and EST and put in 3PM.

Likewise, although our salespeople are located across the country, we force their machines to always be on EST, so that the time they see in the app is the time the telemarketers see.

The danger of course is that if a salesperson were to ever change their time zone, they run the risk of arriving at a meeting at the wrong time…

How do others handle this situation? Can one strip the time zone from a date&time value? (It can be done by converting to text). We could of course code the contact’s time zone into their record and adjust appropriately, but that seems like alot of potential upkeep.

Any input would be welcome. No disasters thus far, but I am concerned.

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Subject: Time Zone Best Practice

My thinking is that best practice is to do it the same way Notes calendaring does it. Everyone enters their time as local to them. If someone else looks at it, it displays based on the time zone of the person looking at it.

So, if I schedule a call on someone in California at noon his time, 2 PM mine, I enter it as 2:00. If a colleague in Boston looks at it, she sees 3:00.

The application will automatically adjust for each users’s time zone. Any other practice, IMO, does not avoid confusion; it causes it.

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Subject: RE: Time Zone Best Practice

Thank you.

Yes but keep in mind we are not talking about internal use or phone calls. These are actual meetings. Here is an example.

I am a telemarketer for 2 salespersons. One salesperson is in Boston, the second is in Dallas.

I call and schedule a meeting with a contact in LA for 9AM (that is, I agreed 9AM with the contact). At the moment, I will be sending my Dallas salesperson there. What time do I put the meeting in for?

If I put in 12PM, then that salesperson will it at 11am. When they travel, they probably won’t update the time zone on their laptop. I sure hope they don’t arrive 3 hours late!

If I put it an 9AM, the salesperson will see it at 8am. Again, I hope they don’t arrive an hour early (but at least they will be there on time).

And if for some reason, I need to reschedule the meeting so that the Boston salesperson will attend (let us say the Dallas guy is sick), things can get very muddy.

And moreover, if they sync to a PDA, the timezone info will be lost.

I think the way to look at it is the same as if we were using paper. If I scheduled a 9am meeting in my diary for an LA based contact, I would enter in 9am. I know the meeting is in LA, so I know I am using local time. I would not start to figure what time that is for me.

As you say, phone calls are a different matter, and then it would make sense to use the Notes feature. But these are physical meetings. Hope that helps to elucidate the problem.

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Subject: RE: Time Zone Best Practice

There is no solution to the scenario you suggest where the user won’t change their timezone. It’s why timezone information is stored.

How can a computer know that whilst you’re in London, the meeting you are scheduling is in LA time unless you tell it by specifying a timezone, unless you schedule at local time.?

In the Notes calendar, you have the option of displaying multiple timezones side by side. This is probably the easiest way for most users, then they can say, ok I need to schedule this for 9am LA time etc. Most modern Smartphones have Timezone support, and often automatically switch timezone when you travel, if the PDA doesn’t have timezone support I have to think it is either very old or a pretty obscure device.