Allocation - types, setting, and impact
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Summary of Allocation - types, setting, and impact
This guide explains how to categorize and allocate workplace locations within your organization using allocation types such as cost center, department, or workplace entity. These allocations help manage space reservations, scenario planning, and access controls effectively in the ServiceNow Workplace Space Management application. Starting from Workplace Core version 2.16.1, the allocation types cost center and department are deprecated in favor of the more advantageous workplace entity type.
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Allocation Types and System Property
- Allocation Types: Locations can be allocated as Cost center, Department, or Workplace entity. The workplace entity allocation type is the preferred and new standard from version 2.16.1 onward.
- System Property: The
snwsdcore.ALLOCATIONTYPEsystem property defines which allocation type governs how spaces are retrieved and displayed to users during activities like reserving spaces, scenario planning, and space recommendations. - Reservation Impact: User access to spaces during reservation depends on the allocation type, the user’s workplace profile, and settings like "Require Allocation" and "Enable allocation duration" in the reservable module. Duration checks align with allocation start and end dates in the system time zone.
Setting Allocations
Allocations are created or activated on workplace location records via the Allocations related list. Existing customers upgrading from versions before 2.16.1 will have their allocation types automatically mapped via a fix script to the new system property. If multiple allocation types exist (e.g., both cost center and department), the property remains unset and warnings prompt specification of a single allocation type.
Impact and Usage of Allocations
- Allocations control which locations appear to employees when searching for spaces to reserve, based on their access rights and reservation settings.
- Allocations can reflect organizational hierarchies, allowing assignment of locations and employees to workplace entities, which can be organized in parent-child relationships for better business alignment.
- During scenario creation and planning, spaces can be grouped by the active allocation type except for workplace entities, which are viewable but not available for scenario creation or editing.
- Spaces can have multiple allocations of different types, but space assistance requests use the allocation type defined in the system property.
Push Down Functionality
The application enables pushing down cost center or department allocations from parent workplace locations to child locations such as floors, areas, rooms, and spaces. This ensures consistent allocation assignment across hierarchical workplace locations by selecting the "Push down" option on floor or area forms.
Access Control Based on Allocation
User access to spaces depends on matching allocation types between users and space configurations, governed by the snwsdcore.ALLOCATIONTYPE property:
- Cost center allocation: Users access spaces if their cost center matches the space’s cost center or if the space has no cost center set.
- Department allocation: Access is granted if the user’s department matches the space’s department or if the space’s department is unset.
- Workplace entity allocation: Access is based on matching the user’s workplace entity or its parent with the space’s workplace entity.
- Null allocation type: Users can access spaces regardless of allocation settings.
Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers
- Flexible and hierarchical allocation of workplace locations improves space management and organizational alignment.
- Dynamic control over space reservation visibility and access based on user roles and organizational structure.
- Streamlined scenario planning and space optimization by grouping spaces according to defined allocation types.
- Improved data consistency through push down functionality for allocation attributes across workplace hierarchies.
You can categorize the locations in your organization based on cost center, department, or workplace entity.
Allocate your workplace location to a type based on which at any time the location can be classified when performing various workplace-related activities.
Allocation types
- Cost center
- Department
- Workplace entity
System property
The application provides you with the system property, Allocation type [sn_wsd_core.ALLOCATION_TYPE], which enables you to specify an allocation type based on which you want spaces to be retrieved and displayed to users while searching for spaces to reserve, during scenario planning, space recommendation and more.
When a user searches for a space to reserve, depending on the allocation type, the workplace profile of the user, and the Reservation Allocation check and Enable allocation duration check settings in the reservable module, the spaces are displayed to the users. The duration check follows only the start and end dates of the allocation, which are set in the system time zone.
If you do not specify any allocation in the system property, then the Require Allocation check field is not available in the reservable module form.
Setting an allocation type
On the workplace location's record, you can create or activate an existing allocation in the Allocations related list. For more information, refer to Allocate a cost center, department, or workplace entity.
If you are an existing customer and are using Workplace Core version below 2.16.1, then a fix script is automatically applied to map your existing allocations to the Allocation type [sn_wsd_core.ALLOCATION_TYPE] property. For example, if your allocations are based on Department, then the property is set as Department. Similarly, if your allocations are based on Cost center, then the property is set as Cost center. If your allocations include both Cost center or Department, then the property is set as empty and warnings are displayed to specify an allocation type.
Impact of allocation
- When an employee searches for a location to reserve and if the Require allocation check and Enable allocation duration check options are enabled on the reservable module, the appearance of the resultant locations depends on the allocations that the employee can access. The duration check follows only the start and end dates of the allocation, which are set in the system time zone.
- You can make allocations based on the cost center, department, and the workplace entity to which a location or employee belongs.
- You can make allocations based on the business hierarchy of your organization. You can assign a location or an employee to a workplace entity and create a hierarchy. The application enables you to configure entity types based on your businesses and assign workplace entities to them. You can also create a parent-child hierarchy between workplace entities. For more information, refer to Configure Workplace entity and entity types.
- During scenario creation, you can specify based on what type of allocation you want to group the spaces. The grouping options are displayed to you based on the allocation that is specified in the system property
sn_wsd_core.ALLOCATION_TYPE.Important:You cannot create a scenario based on workplace entities. You can only view and make map space administration for workplace entities.
- During scenario planning, you can also change the View by option of a scenario to view based on different allocations. However, you cannot edit the scenario if the View by that you selected is different than the Group by setting of the scenario.
- In the case of scenarios that are created with a Group by option that is not the same as the current allocation type set in the sn_wsd_core.ALLOCATION_TYPE system property, then such scenarios can only be viewed in a read-only mode.
- For a space, you can create multiple allocations of different types.
- When an employee raises a space assistance request, the allocation type of the spaces is set based in the allocation type that is specified in the Allocation type [sn_wsd_core.ALLOCATION_TYPE] system property.
Push down functionality in Workplace Space Management
The Workplace Space Management application enables you to push down the cost center or department of a parent workplace location to its child locations.
You can assign the cost center or department to child locations such as areas, rooms, and spaces. Select the Push down option on the Floor or Area form to apply the values of the Cost center or Department fields. The cost center or department is applied based on the Push down option selected in child workplace locations.
The following table explains how the push down functionality works with respect to Cost center and Department field configuration of a workplace profile and a space:
Access to spaces based on allocation
Users can be assigned a Cost Center, Department, or Workplace Entity. The Cost Center or Department is assigned from the Users [sys_user] table and the Workplace Entity is assigned from the User Workplace Profile [sn_wsd_core_workplace_profile] table.
Access to a space depends on the type of allocation set in the sn_wsd_core.ALLOCATION_TYPE system property and the allocation set in the space configuration.
| Value of the allocation type property | Space configuration | Accessibility on the space based on the configuration match |
|---|---|---|
| Cost center | Cost center: Null Department: Null or Workplace Entity: Null or |
The user can access. |
Cost center: <value>Department: Null or Workplace Entity: Null or
|
The user can access if the Cost Center matches. | |
| Department | Cost center: Null or <value>Department: Null Workplace Entity: Null or |
The user can access. |
Cost Center: Null or <value>Department: Workplace Entity: Null or
|
The user can access if the Department matches. | |
| Workplace Entity | Cost Center: Null or <value>Department: Null or Workplace Entity: Null |
The user can access. |
Cost Center: Null or <value>Department: Null or Workplace Entity:
|
The user can access if the Workplace Entity or its parent matches. | |
| Null | Cost Center: Null or <value>
Department: Null or Workplace Entity: Null or |
The user can access. |