Schedule Group Meetings in Seconds with Supercal

Problem Statement

Coordinating a group meeting can waste up to 30 minutes as per sources (1), causing delays and added stress for all parties.

Problem Explanation

Based on our research, significant time and financial losses can arise from inefficient meeting scheduling. Industry sources indicate that 40% of members waste up to 30 minutes every day determining suitable meeting times -  including tasks like coordinating schedules, managing location details, and navigating time zone differences. 
 

This makes group meetings a hassle to set up, requiring resources to navigate complications that lead to wasted time, lost productivity, and frustration. When coordinating meetings with several participants, especially across different time zones, businesses face challenges such as:

• Endless back-and-forth emails
• Delayed responses
• Scheduling conflicts
• Difficulty managing global teams

These inefficiencies not only cause disruptions in workflow but can also slow down decision-making and project execution, leading to missed business opportunities.

The Approach

Supercal was conceived as a smarter way to handle the often cumbersome process of group scheduling. Rather than relying on traditional manual methods, where participants exchange countless emails to coordinate, Supercal uses artificial intelligence to automate the entire process. At the heart of Supercal is an AI assistant, Alex, who intelligently schedules meetings based on participants' calendars, availability, and preferences.
 

By analyzing the schedules of all invitees, Supercal determines the optimal meeting time with minimal user input. This means that instead of spending hours, or even days, exchanging availability, Supercal handles everything in seconds, freeing up time for more productive tasks.

Supercal’s Advanced Event-Driven Infrastructure

Supercal is built on an event-driven architecture, making it both robust and scalable. Here are the key technical components:
 

1. Event Time Finding Algorithm: Supercal’s core innovation is its algorithm that scans users’ calendars and matches shared availability, assigning a score to each time slot to select the best option.
2. AWS Infrastructure: Supercal’s backend and frontend systems are hosted on AWS EC2 instances.
   • AWS SES manages inbound and outbound emails.
   • AWS SNS ensures real-time event-driven email processing, which triggers backend processes.
3. Third-Party Integrations: Supercal integrates with Google Calendar API and Outlook Graph API, accessing calendar data under user consent, and ensuring compliance with privacy regulations.

How We Implemented It

To ensure scalability, performance, and real-time responsiveness, we utilized a technology stack that is designed to ensure the following characteristics: 

1. Backend Technology: Python (Django) provides the REST API that handles emails, extracts scheduling information, and interacts with third-party calendar services.
2. Asynchronous Event Handling: AWS SES handles email delivery and reception. Supercal uses DKIM signing and SPF authentication to ensure that emails are not flagged as spam. AWS SNS manages real-time event processing.
3. Stateless Architecture: Supercal’s system is designed to be stateless, meaning that components do not store internal states, allowing the system to scale horizontally without performance loss.
4. Dead Letter Queue (DLQ): If an email fails to process due to an external issue, it is sent to the Dead Letter Queue, ensuring that no scheduling requests are lost.
    

This level of technical detail assures Supercal remains highly efficient and reliable for users at any scale.

How Supercal Works

Supercal simplifies and streamlines the traditionally complex scheduling process. Here’s how it works:
 

1. Create a Meeting Invite: Input the meeting details (date, time range, attendees, etc.) and connect your calendar.
2. Share the Invite: Supercal automatically checks the availability of all attendees by accessing their connected calendars.
3. Find the Best Time: Supercal’s intuitive interface uses a color-coded system to show availability:
   
   • Red: Busy slots with scheduled events.
   • Green: Completely free slots.
   • Yellow: Tentative slots usable if no fully available time is found.
4. Supercal Does the Rest: Supercal automatically selects the optimal time that works for everyone, adds it to your calendar, and sends invites to all attendees.
    

This eliminates the need for endless back-and-forth emails, making group scheduling quick and easy.

Alex: The AI Assistant

For users who want an even more hands-off approach, Alex, Supercal’s AI assistant, takes automation to the next level. Alex handles the entire scheduling process through a simple email interaction:
 

Instead of using the Supercal app, you can send an email to your attendees and simply CC Alex (alex@supercal.com). Alex automatically extracts the meeting details from the email and initiates the scheduling process. It pulls the availability of each attendee and aligns the meeting time based on everyone’s calendar. Once all participants confirm their availability, Alex schedules the meeting and sends a confirmation email.
 

With Alex, all you need to do is send one email. Alex takes care of everything else.

The Outcome

Remember that it takes members up to 30 minutes to schedule group meetings without Supercal. 
 

Thanks to Supercal’s real-time efficiency, driven by its integration with AWS Simple Email Service (SES), initial usage stats show that it takes no more than 30 seconds to schedule a group meeting even for large teams.
 

That means you’re doing the same task in half a minute that used to take half an hour! 
 

But what does that mean in real terms for your business? 

Let’s say the average hourly rate of a resource is USD 27 (2). Based on the time saved per year per member, an organization would save up to USD 3,451 per member per year. 
 

For an organization with 1,000 members where only 40% of members spend time scheduling meetings, that translates to a whopping USD 1.38 million saved annually!

Conclusion 

With Supercal, scheduling a meeting no longer takes hours or days - just a few seconds. Supercal is set to revolutionize how professionals manage their meetings. By cutting out the inefficiencies of manual scheduling and providing a smart, AI-driven solution, Supercal empowers businesses to operate more efficiently and effectively. With Alex handling the scheduling, users can focus on what truly matters - their work.