Schedule Online Meetings with Lync Online in Outlook 2010

I’ve recently set up our Internal Use licences for Office 365, and have been mostly using Lync…and it is awesome.

I’ve been using the IM function mainly, getting the system federated and adding new contacts etc. Today I was ready to schedule an Online meeting but came across a problem…

I clicked the “New Online Meeting” button in my Outlook 2010 client but hit an error message:

“The account names in Outlook & Lync do not match”

This made sense as my Outlook was connected to our corporate Exchange server and Lync uses a different set off login credentials for Office 365. If you find yourself in a similar situation, here’s how to fix it:

Type “Mail” into the Windows Search Bar:

Select “Email Accounts”:

Choose “New”:

Then “Email Account”:

Enter your Office 365 Details:

It will configure your settings and, all being well, will successfully finish.

Restart Outlook.

Outlook will ask for your Office 365 credentials. Click “remember my credentials” to save repeated entering

You will now see 2 email accounts in the left hand menu within Outlook.

Choose your Online account, go to your calendar and Voila – you can now schedule Online Meetings with Lync via your Outlook client.