I work for a very meeting-oriented organization. Our current calendaring
application allows us to create a meeting and immediately block the
attendees' calendars as tentative whether they have the calendar app open or
not.

As I understand it, Outlook requires the client to be open in order for that
time to show as booked. This would seem to create a great deal of opportunity
for double-booking and re-work. Especially if an attendee is out of the
office for a week or two and does not open Outlook while people are back at
the office scheduling meetings for after they return.

We're considering defaulting to auto-accept, which would end up confusing
everyone as to whether or not someone is actually attending a meeting. Having
an auto-tentative would be fantastic or at least updating the free/busy time
immediately so those scheduling meetings can see the slot is tentatively
booked.

Does anyone out there have a better idea?

Thanks!