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Outlook Calendar Connector

Your calendar is more than just a schedule; it is the blueprint of your customer interactions and strategic priorities. The SiftHub Outlook Calendar Connector seamlessly integrates this vital context directly into your SiftHub Platform. By connecting your meetings, you transform static event details into triggers for proactive intelligence. SiftHub uses this data to automatically generate comprehensive meeting briefs, research participants, and surface critical internal knowledge before you ever join a call, ensuring you are always prepared with the right insights at the right moment.

What Gets Connected

SiftHub ensures you maintain complete control over what content gets indexed. The connector focuses on the essential details needed for call preparation:

  • Meeting Metadata: Event titles, dates, times, attendee lists, and descriptions.
  • Attachments: Files attached to calendar invites are securely indexed to provide context.

Access Control

SiftHub respects the security and privacy of your calendar data. 

  • Participants Only: Briefs are strictly emailed to users who are listed on the calendar invite (as a Host or Attendee), keeping sensitive internal meetings private.

Using Outlook Calendar Content in SiftHub

Your connected Calendar content powers the following features:

  • Automatic Meeting Briefs: SiftHub generates pre-meeting summaries, attendee research, and topic primers based on the calendar event details.
  • Proactive Knowledge Surfacing: Relevant documents and past conversation insights are automatically retrieved based on the meeting agenda.
  • Search & Answer Context: Calendar metadata helps ground AI answers in the "when" and "who" of your business operations.

Content Updates

  • Sync Frequency: Content and permission updates sync every 30 minutes.
  • Deletions: Cancelled meetings or deleted events are automatically updated in SiftHub during the next sync cycle.

Outlook Calendar Connector Setup

Time to complete: 10 mins

Connection Requirements: Ensure you have the following access and permissions before you begin the setup, or contact the respective administrator for the same.

  • Microsoft Azure Administrator access: To register an application and grant Graph API permissions.
  • SiftHub Admin or Account Owner role: To activate the Connector from the SiftHub Web App.

The process for setting up the Microsoft Azure App includes the following main steps:

Step 1: Create Microsoft Azure App and Credentials

A Microsoft Azure App is required to setup and manage Microsoft Graph APIs. This app enables the required identity and access management services.

1.1. Create a Microsoft Azure App

  1. To create an App in Microsoft Azure, go to the following link - https://portal.azure.com
  2. If you are not logged in, you will be required to login using your work Microsoft 365 account. Ensure that a Microsoft Azure Administrator logs in.
  3. Search for ‘App Registrations’ in the search bar.



 

  1. Select New registration.



 

  1. On the Register an application page, register an app with, Name (eg. SiftHub Calendar Integration), Supported account type( Accounts in this organizational directory only (Single tenant), Redirect URI(Leave it blank).
  2. Click on Register.




 

On creation of the App, you will be redirected to the App homepage.



 

1.2. Create Client Secret

  1. Click on Certificates & secrets in the left-hand menu.
  2. Click on New client secret.

  1. Enter a description (e.g., "SiftHub Calendar Key"). Select Custom in the Expires dropdown and select today’s date for Start and 2 years from today’s date for End. Then, Click Add.



 

  1. Important: Under Client secrets, copy the Value (not the Secret ID) immediately. This value is hidden after you leave the page. You need to securely share this with your SiftHub Customer Success Manager.

     

Step 2: Enable required API Permissions for the App

SiftHub Platform needs API access to read calendars, fetch user profiles, and access attachments for context.

2.1. Enable Microsoft Graph API access

To enable Microsoft Graph API access, follow the steps below:

  1. On the left side navigation on the overview page, select API Permissions -> Add a permission.

     













 

  1. Select Microsoft Graph.



 

  1. Choose Application permissions.

  1. Search for and select the following permissions:
  • Calendars -> Calendars.Read: Required to read all events in user calendars.




 

  • User -> User.Read.All: Required to read profiles of users to map attendees correctly.



 





 

  • Files -> Files.Read.All: Required to fetch attachments included in calendar events.

  • MailboxSettings -> MailboxSettings.Read: Required to get user-specific context (like time zones) to interpret events accurately.

  • Group -> Group.Read.All: Required to fetch members of groups if calendars belong to group mailboxes.

  1. Click on Add permissions.
  2. You will be redirected to the API permissions screen.
  3. Grant Admin Consent: Click the Grant admin consent for [Tenant Name] button next to the "Add a permission" button.

  1. Select Yes to confirm.

Note: The step mentioned above is the recommended approach. It enables full tenant-wide calendar ingestion, which is standard for most organizations wanting comprehensive coverage. If you prefer not to grant access to the entire tenant, you can restrict ingestion to a specific subset of users using a Mail-Enabled Security Group. Regardless of the approach you choose, SiftHub will securely index the metadata and attachments. However, with this Restricted Access approach, you get more granular control by explicitly defining exactly which users' calendars SiftHub is permitted to read, ensuring only the members of your designated security group are indexed.

A trade-off with this restricted approach is the additional administrative overhead required for SiftHub to access user calendars. Unlike the tenant-wide setup, the Microsoft Azure Admin must manually maintain the Mail-Enabled Security Group. Whenever a new user needs to be onboarded, the Admin must add them to this group; otherwise, SiftHub will be unable to access their calendar or generate meeting briefs. Additionally, this method requires executing complex PowerShell commands rather than a simple UI configuration, increasing the complexity of the initial setup.
Step 2 for the alternate approach is mentioned here.

Step 3: Activate Outlook Calendar Connector

The following details need to be shared with your SiftHub Customer Success Manager once the Azure App with required permissions is set up:

  1. Application (client) ID: The value you copied after creating your Azure APP.
  2. Directory (tenant) ID: The value you copied after creating your Azure APP.
  3. Client Secret: The "Value" you copied in Step 1.2.4.

Time to activation: Once shared, the Outlook Calendar Connector will be active within 24 hours.



















 

Alternative Step 2: Mail-Enabled Security Group Setup (Optional)

Use this step only if you need to restrict SiftHub's access to a specific subset of users rather than the whole tenant.

2.1  Create a Mail-Enabled Security Group

To limit SiftHub's access to specific users, you must first create a group that acts as an "allow list."

  1. Log in to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center (admin.microsoft.com).
  2. In the left-hand navigation, go to Teams & groups > Active teams and groups.



 

  1. Click on the Security groups tab.

  1. Click Add a Mail-enabled security group. Set up the basics:
    • Name: Enter a clear name, e.g., SiftHub_Calendar_Access.
    • Description: Enter a description, e.g., "Users authorized for SiftHub calendar ingestion."
    • Click Next.

  1. Assign Owners.



 

  1. Click Add Members  and select the users you want to authorize.

 

 

  1. Configure Settings. Add Group email address and domain.



 

  1. Review your setting configurations and click Create group.



 

  1. After creating this group, you will be navigated to this page.



 

2.3 Scope Access via PowerShell

To enforce this restriction, the Global Admin must connect to Exchange Online PowerShell and run a command that explicitly links your Application ID to the resource scope (the security group you just created).

Prerequisite: You must have the Exchange Online PowerShell module installed.

  1. Open PowerShell on your machine (Run as Administrator).
  2. Run the following command to connect to Exchange Online and log in with your Admin credentials:


Connect-ExchangeOnline

  1. Create a Resource Scope: Run the command below to define the scope based on the group you created in Step 2.1. Replace <Security-Group-Name> with the exact name of your group 


New-ManagementScope -Name "SiftHubCalendarScope" -RecipientRestrictionFilter "MemberOfGroup -eq '$(Get-Group <Security-Group-Name> | Select-Object -ExpandProperty DistinguishedName)'"

  1. Create the Role Assignment: Run the command below to assign the ApplicationImpersonation role to the SiftHub App, restricted only to the users in the scope. Replace <Application-Client-ID> with the Client ID you copied in Step 1.
    PowerShell


New-ManagementRoleAssignment -AppId "<Application-Client-ID>" -Role "ApplicationImpersonation" -CustomResourceScope "SiftHubCalendarScope"

Result: SiftHub now has permission to access calendar data, but only for the members of this Security group.

Source Documentation:

Need Help? If you are experiencing issues with the connector or its setup, contact your SiftHub Customer Success Manager or reach out to support@sifthub.io.