Forsyte, a Microsoft partner supporting organizations with innovative strategies and products built on Microsoft technologies
A Microsoft Gold Partner since 2015, Forsyte I.T. Solutions works closely with clients to accelerate digital transformation and cloud adoption. Best known as experts in identity and security, Forsyte is a go-to partner in the education industry, serving K-12, higher ed, and training facilities across the United States. A mid-size technology firm, Forsyte employs former Microsoft employees and expert engineers that work closely with clients to accelerate digital transformation and cloud adoption.
Forsyte has multiple Microsoft gold cloud competencies including Cloud Platform, Cloud Productivity, Enterprise Mobility Management, Small and Midmarket Cloud Solutions, and Azure Virtual Desktop. Forsyte has created multiple modern work IPs and offers in the Commercial Marketplace to support clients with secure remote work and learning.
Forsyte’s CalendarConnect for Education solution, available on Microsoft AppSource, bridges the calendar and meeting gap for students on Google Calendar who need to collaborate with teachers who are on Microsoft 365. CalendarConnect makes it easier to support both types of users.
“CalendarConnect for Education makes it easy for organizations to use Microsoft Teams while keeping Google as their main calendar application. It’s an innovative way to bridge the cross-platform collaboration gap,” said Stefanie Dunn, CMO, Forsyte.
Working with Microsoft technologies to create a sustainable solution to support student-teacher connections
Teachers and students have been on the forefront of learning disruptions because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education. In many institutions, students use Google Calendar for scheduling, while teachers and staff are on Microsoft 365. As Microsoft Teams emerged as a remote learning tool, students and teachers needed a streamlined solution to manage meetings and class sessions between the two platforms.
"CalendarConnect for Education is really a product of the current pandemic. As a Microsoft partner we work extensively in the education space, and few sectors were affected such as education. We had an entire group of institutions who were just getting started with remote learning and struggling to put together a cohesive strategy for the millions of students now working from home. Microsoft Teams emerged as the leader in this space but left Google customers with limited functionality. Our goal was to provide feature parity in Teams no matter what calendar platform you use," said Chris Irwin, CTO, Forsyte.
Forsyte’s solution used APIs to integrate Microsoft Teams with Google Calendar, enabling two-way scheduling between the platforms. Now, students can create and join Teams meetings easily anywhere from any device. CalendarConnect reduces the time to meeting and creates an easier workflow for our education clients stuck in both Google and Microsoft Teams. It encourages Teams collaboration and is an excellent app for education clients inside of Teams.