It seems as though the more straightforward the technology is to use, the better. It is especially true with organizations trying to simplify the user’s experience when joining a meeting from conference devices. 

One Button to Push alleviates the need to type in meeting information when joining a meeting. It simplifies the user experience by providing the users with a simple one-button-to-push to participate from their conference device. 

It is surprisingly easy to provide the One Button to Push. 

We will be going through the details of how to deploy One Button to Push for cloud registered devices and leveraging O365 to reserve those devices for a meeting. The good news is, is that there are other deployment models based on calendar deployments types if you are not an Office 365 organization today. Think G-Mail, Exchange..

The other great thing is if you have on-premise registered devices, you can leverage Cisco Webex Edge for Devices. Webex Edge for Devices will give you cloud capabilities on the conference devices while keeping the device registered on-prem. 

Prerequisites:
Admin access to Cisco Webex Control Hub – https://admin.webex.com
Admin Access to O365 tenant – I’m using a free trial of O365 Business premium
Telepresence device

• 1. Enable Hybrid Calendar

Log into https://admin.webex.com with your admin credentials. From there choose Services > Hybrid Calendar > Office 365.

After choosing to authorize, you will be asked for an account to use to associate the Hybrid Calendar service to your Webex Control Hub. This account should be an admin account in your O365 tenant.

• 2. Create a resource room in O365

If you don’t already have a resource room created, create one now. The resource room will create a room mailbox that is used when scheduling a meeting.  

I’ve created a resource room through the admin portal https://portal.office.com/adminportal > Resources > Rooms & equipment

• 3. Create a Place in Control Hub and Enroll a Telepresence Device

The “Place” will serve as a hierarchy for you to organize your device with. For this purpose, the Place will only be hosting one device. 

Choose Places > Add Place > Provide a common name for the device. Click Next. Follow the on-screen prompts.

Activation code will be used to enroll your Telepresence device.

• 4. Powershell

By default, Hybrid Calendar will remove the body of an email. If left as the default, any information like SIP URIs will be removed from the meeting invite and prevent OBTP from working.

This is a default behavior of O365, to strip the body of an email sent to a “room resource” (as opposed to a user mailbox). Which is why you need to connect with powershell to change the default behavior of the identity.

Before Powershell

Notice that the subject of the meeting invite “OBTP Pre Powershell” isn’t in the subject of the reserved room below. Also, notice that there is no OBTP because the SIP URI was removed from the message body of the invite.

After Powershell

Notice that the subject of the meeting invite “OBTP Post Powershell” is in the subject of the reserved room below. Also, notice that there is an OBTP.

Run the below Powershell commands in order. You should provide your admin O365 account when asked for a username and password.

::To permit signed scripts to run
Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
::Check to be sure 'Basic = True'
winrm get winrm/config/client/auth
::If Basic != True then run
winrm set winrm/config/client/auth '@{Basic="true"}'
::Send O365 credentials
$UserCredential = Get-Credential
::In Pop-up Username: O365-Admin-Username password:O365-Admin-Password
::Run the below
$Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://outlook.office365.com/powershell-liveid/ -Credential $UserCredential -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection
::Run the below
Import-PSSession $Session -DisableNameChecking
::Run the below
Set-CalendarProcessing -identity "obtp" -DeleteComments $false -DeleteSubject $false -AddOrganizerToSubject $false
::Disconnect when Done
Remove-PSSession $Session

Awesome! We have made life that much easier! Your Cisco conference devices can now join any SIP based meeting with One Button to Push.

Mike

References

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/exchange/exchange-online/connect-to-exchange-online-powershell/connect-to-exchange-online-powershell?view=exchange-ps

https://help.webex.com/en-us/uuhc6x/License-Requirements-for-Cisco-Webex-Hybrid-Services

https://help.webex.com/en-us/yvz1kw/Make-it-Easier-for-Video-Devices-to-Join-Meetings-with-OBTP#One-Button-to-Push-with-Office-365

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cloudCollaboration/spark/hybridservices/calendarservice/cmgt_b_deploy-spark-hybrid-calendar-service.html