This blog is a deep dive into the new features for the November 7th, 2024 release of the Workplace Service Delivery (WSD) Store Apps.
Please note that this is a summary of the most notable items, not an exhaustive list. For full details, refer to the Product documentation and release notes on the ServiceNow Store.
New features:
- Workplace Core: Location Directory enhancements
- Workplace Service Delivery for Mobile: Location Directory Experience
- Workplace Space Management: Schedule PLanning
Enhancements:
- Workplace Connectors: Support for Wi-Fi data
- Workplace Space Management: Map-based Space Administration and Scenario Planning enhancements
- Workplace Case Management: Service request enhancements
Workplace Core: Location Directory enhancements
Persona: Employee + Map Admin & Workplace Admin to configure the experience
Role: sn_wsd_core.workplace_user
Plugins: Workplace Core, Workplace Indoor Mapping (map view), Workplace Reservation Management (for the reservation data and option to create a reservation), Workplace Case Management (for the option to open a case), Workplace Connectors (for the occupancy data) and the Workplace Service Delivery for Mobile.
The Location Directory, a key tool in the Workplace Service Delivery experience, allows employees to take actions through both card and map views. In this release, we’ve enhanced the interface and user experience and made the feature available on the mobile app
These enhancements include:
1. Map view
- A full-screen experience of the map
As the Employee opens the location directory, the map view is displayed by default. The world map is shown, enabling the Employee to either select the campus either by selecting the icon shown on the map or by selecting it from the campus dropdown list shown at the top of the screen.
Once the Campus is selected, the Employee will be prompted to select the Building either by selecting it from the drop-down menu or by zooming onto the map on a specific Building.
The next step will require the Employee to select the Floor from the drop-down list.
To facilitate the search, Employees can also use the search bar to search for a specific place or person and have the map open on the correct location.
Enhanced filtering capabilities
- In the August '24 release, employees gained the ability to filter occupancy and reservation status when searching for a reservable space in the Location Directory. This release introduces additional filters by space type, allowing employees to view only the data they need, ensuring a clearer map.
Once applied, the filters defined by the Employee will be shown above the map for reference.
- Neighborhood filtering, enables Employees to visualize the neighborhood layout on the map using colour coding.
Using the legend pop-up, Employees can get clear indications on the Neighborhood colour coding and use the checkbox feature to easily toggle neighborhood colors on and off and clearly see the neighborhood layout on the map.
- Improved legend view, which now includes the neighborhood list in addition to the existing amenities icons and sensor status. This helps users understand the meaning of different icons and the availability of spaces.
1. Card view
- The card view has been improved to also provide a fullscreen view. When an Employee searches for a location that does not have a map, the location directory will show the card view.
- Employees can switch from the map view to the card view and have the selected filters retained when switching from one view to another.
Workplace Service Delivery for Mobile: Location Directory Experience
With this release, we have delivered the Location Directory on the NowMobile application for Employees to be able to have the same experience on mobile as on desktop.
1. Access the location directory on mobile: employees will use the three dots beside the profile picture on the top right of the screen to view the location directory.
2. Search options: just like on the desktop experience, the map view will be shown by default. Therefore the location can either be selected by:
- Using the search bar to search for a location or a person.
- Selecting the campus > building > floor from the drop-down list
- Clicking the campus icon on the map and using the pinch-to-zoom capability to select the building.
3. Filtering options: at the floor level, Employees can use the filtering capability to simplify the map view by selecting to overlay the reservation and/or occupancy status along with defining which space types should be shown. Just like on the desktop view, these filters will be retained if the Employee selects to switch to the card view.
4. Neighborhood view: employees can select to view the neighborhood allocations on the map by enabling the show neighborhood option which can be accessed by swiping-up below the map.
5. Neighborhood filtering: to ensure clarity, each neighborhood can be turned on or off depending on what the Employee is interested in seeing.
6. Legend view: using the same pop-up, Employees can get a clear understanding on the map legend both for the space availability icons which display colour coded icons based on occupancy and reservation status and the amenities which lists of the space types that can be seen on the map.
7. Display options: Employees can select the gear icon on the right side of the map in order to :
- Remove any map layers that are not relevant and once disabled a simplified map view with be shown.
- Show the name of the employees permanently assigned to a space to facilitate locating colleagues.
8. Location directory actions: By selecting or searching for any location, Employees can reserve the space (if the reservation management module is configured), get directions by using the wayfinding capability (if the experience is configured), raise an issue and have the form prefilled with the location data (if the case management module is configured), mark the location as favorite (if the capability is enabled).
Workplace Space Management: Schedule Planning
Persona: Project Owner
Role: sn_wsd_spcmgmt.project_owner
Plugins: Workplace Core, Workplace Space Management, Workplace Central
Schedule Planning is a new capability delivered with this release, providing Project Owners with a tool to facilitate project planning by ensuring they can assign Employees to specific projects and manage space assignments for a set period of time.
With this new feature, a new role: sn_wsd_spcmgmt.project_owner has been added to the Workplace Space Management application to enable project owners to access the Schedule Planner workspace within Workplace Central.
In the Schedule Planner workspace, the Project Owner can view key metrics, including:
- Schedule plans they have created or are assigned to.
- The number of departments, cost centers, or workplace entities they oversee (only one allocation type is displayed at a time), assigned as follows:
- Department: by primary contact field
- Cost Center: by manager field
- Workplace Entity: by managed by field
- The number of users assigned to the allocations (departments / cost centers or workplace entities) that are part of the allocation they oversee.
- The number of spaces allocated under their responsibility (departments / cost centers or workplace entities).
Below the metric overview, the Project Owner can view a detailed list view for each of the metrics. They are therefore able to get more insights into understanding the status of the created plans (draft, in progress, published, complete, cancelled).
To begin, the Project Owner selects ‘Create schedule plan’ and is guided through several steps to add project details, assign employees and space to the project, confirm assignment mapping accuracy, and validate the plan which will trigger notifications to each Employee involved.
Providing below an example of the creation of a new schedule plan for a Project Owner who is the primary contact for several Departments.
Step 1: Create a new schedule plan and define the details of the plan
Project Owners input the following information:
- Schedule plan name
- Department that is assigned to the project (only one department can be selected)
- Description of the project
- Project schedule:
- Schedule: which polls the various option define at the platform level
- Start date: when the project and assignments are set to start (the date can not be a date in the past)
- End date: when the project will end, and the assignments will no longer be in place
Step 2: User selection
Based on the department selected in step 1, all users assigned to that department will be shown for the Project Owner to select and assign to this project. Employees can then be selected manually if specific users need to be involved.
Step 3: Space selection:
Once the Employees have been selected, the Project Owner will then be prompted to select the spaces that will be allocate during the define timeframe. All available spaces that are allocated to the selected Department for the project all be shown for the Project Owner to select.
Step 4: User – Space Mapping
In this step, an automated mapping will occur to assign each selected user to a selected space ensure all Employees get assigned to a location for the entire duration of the scheduled plan.
Even though the matching is automated, the Project Owner has the option to manually edit the way the space allocations are made and make sure no validation issues are shown. Validation issues could be the result of any of the following:
- User not found: more spaces have been allocation to the plan than Employees
- Space not found: more Employees have been assigned to the plan than spaces
- Space entry duplicative: a space has been allocated to more than one Employee
- User entry duplicated: an Employee has been assigned to multiple spaces
After addressing all validation issues, the schedule plan can be validated. Once validated, all employees assigned to the plan will be notified of their allocated space for the project’s duration, and each employee’s workplace profile will be updated with the new assignment.
Workplace Connectors: Support for WiFi data
Persona: Facility Manager
Role: sn_wsd_wc.admin, sn_wsd_wc.manager
Plugins: Workplace Core, Workplace Connectors
During this release, we are enhancing the Workplace Connector application to provide support for Wi-Fi data. This capability will enable organizations to connect their WiFi access points to WSD in order to retrieve occupancy data.
The new provider will need to be setup, in order to define the Wi-Fi access point and get the data flowing into the new Wi-Fi access table shown below.
Description of Wi-Fi Access Data table:
- Access Point: Unique ID for each of the Wi-Fi devices.
- Connect time: The time stamp at which the Employee connects their device (laptop, mobile...) to the Wi-Fi.
- Device name: The unique identifier of the device which is being connected and can be tied back to an Employee. The Device name might appear several times during one day as the Employee moves across the workplace and gets disconnected and connected to different access points.
- Disconnect time: The time stamp at which the Employee disconnects their device (laptop, mobile...) from the Wi-Fi.
- Event timestamp: This indicates the time at which WSD received the information from the Wi-Fi access point.
- Location: Indicates where the access point is located. This location uses the WSD location hierarchy.
- Provider connector configuration: Display the name of the provider defined in the Workplace Connector app.
This data can be used by the Facility Team for several key purposes:
- Track how long an employee spends in the workplace by filtering by the device name associated with them. Multiple records may be generated for a single employee as they move throughout the workplace during the day.
- Gain insights into floor or area occupancy, as access points typically cover large areas, allowing the Facility Team to filter by access point for a clearer understanding of occupancy levels.
- Analyze Wi-Fi data trends to determine peak attendance days and identify which floors are most frequently used at various times.
Detailed step-by-step guidance on setting up the configuration can be found here.
Workplace Space Management: Map-based Space Administration and Scenario Planning enhancements
Persona: Space Planner
Role: sn_wsd_spcmgmt.space_planner, sn_wsd_spcmgmt.scenario_reader
Plugins: Workplace Core, Workplace Space Management, Workplace Central, Workplace Indoor Mapping, Workplace Case Management
Map-based Space Management and Scenario Planning, part of Workplace Space Management, empower Space Planners to efficiently manage and optimize space allocations and employee assignments using stack plan and map views. This release introduces enhancements to both features for improved usability.
These enhancements include:
- The ability to easily select in bulk all spaces allocated to a department, cost center, neighborhood or workplace entity to facilitate any allocation changes.
This new bulk space selection feature enables Space Planners to easily select all spaces associated with one or more departments, cost centers or neighborhoods. The Space Planner also has the option to utilize the lasso feature to select a set of spaces.
- To facilitate the way the “View by’ options are shown to the Space Planner, the Workplace Admin can now define the default option as well as define the order in which each of the other view options are shown. Providing them also with the flexibility to remove or deactivate some of the options that are not used and add any custom fields their organization uses to manage space allocations and assignments.
The default option and ordering need to be done at the instance level in the View By Configurations table delivered in the latest release of the Workplace Space Management application.
- In the map view of Map-based Space Administration, selecting allocations after choosing spaces has been improved, allowing Space Planners to easily choose the allocation type and search directly for the correct allocation, bypassing the need to scroll through the dropdown list.
- Similarly, in the map view of Scenario Planning, Space Planners can use the type-ahead feature when managing space allocations or assignment types, allowing them to quickly locate the relevant allocation or type.
- When Space Planners work on a scenario, they often need to switch between the map and stack views. To streamline this process, an improvement now enables automatic synchronization of changes across views, eliminating the need to refresh the page when switching from one view to another.
Workplace Case Management: Service request enhancements
Persona: Employee
Role: sn_wsd_core.workplace_user
Plugins: Workplace Core, Workplace Case Management
In this release, we’ve enhanced the service request forms available to employees, aligning them with the improvements introduced in the August '24 release for requests such as equipment, catering, badge access, heating & cooling, technical support, and cleaning.
Additional fields to capture urgency and impact have been added to the following request forms:
- General request
- Request a desk change
- Space arrangement
- Furniture request
An additional out-of-the-box request has been added to provide a simplified way for Employees to request parking.
1. The Employee will start filling out the request by detailing who the request is for, the date and time it is requested by, along with the urgency and impact. This information is unified throughout all the out-of-the-box service requests.
2. Details on the reason for the request and where the car will be parked will then need to be inputted.
3. To identify the vehicle, information such as the make, colour, model and license plate need to be added.
4. In the case of an emergency, the Employee needs to provide the details of an emergency contact (name, phone number and email address).
5. To complete the parking request, the Employee will need to define the term of the parking request whether it is short or long. This will enable the workplace team to either allocate an existing parking space or contract a third-party service if the space is shared.
To explore further and access detailed technical documentation, we recommend using: https://docs.servicenow.com/.
