What is Space Management?
ServiceNow’s Space Management is the broader term for all applications and modules which are used to view, administer, plan, and allocate spaces within Workplace Service Delivery. It is also the name of the main plugin (sn_wsd_spcmgmt) required to access all the related features.
Note: The Workplace Core plugin is required as a dependency before installing Workplace Space Management.
Learn more about ServiceNow's Space Management product suite on our Space Management page.
Space Administration & Impact on Location foundational data:
Space Administration is an application under the Workplace Core Suite used to view and manage Spaces, and all other tables in the WSD Location hierarchy (Spaces, Areas, Floors, Buildings, Campuses, Sites, and Regions). Most customers do not manually manage these location records using this module as they are often populated through foundational data integrations and/or CAD files.
Note: The distinction between Spaces and Rooms is no longer required since the Space table has a “Space type” field with an option of "Room", therefore the Space table can be used for Room data.
Impact on foundational Location data:
The WSD location tables are extended from the globalcmn_location table, they are not duplicate or separate location tables. Records in the cmn_location table have a "Class" field that determines in which of the WSD tables to reflect the record. For example, a record in the cmn_location table with a Class of "Building" will also appear in the WSD Building table with additional building specific attributes. This classification approach ensures the sys_ID and all associated relationships to the global location record remains in tact.
Location classification is especially important for customers implementing WSD after you have already populated the cmn_location table as it is not recommended to duplicate the data. While an automated Location migration configuration feature exists to facilitate this activity, analysis will be needed to determine the best pattern and approach to classify the data, and what fields may need to be populated on each location record as the WSD hierarchy will be enforced via the Parent field once they have been classified.
For more information regarding the classification of locations from the global cmn_location table to WSD location tables, including our automation feature, please refer to this Location Migration blog.
Space Administration Module
WSD Location tables and Indoor Mapping location tables:
Additionally, if a customer is using ServiceNow's Indoor Mapping capability, there is a similar stack of location tables which are synchronized to the above tables. These tables are different than the WSD tables and the records must be synchronized across both.
Single record visible in both the cmn_location (parent) table and the WSD location (extended) table | Separate record linked to WSD location via the “indoor_map_[location type]” field | |
cmn_location “Class” | WSD Space Table (extended from cmn_location) | Synchronized Indoor Mapping Table |
Space | Space (sn_wsd_core_space) | Place (sn_map_core_place) |
Floor | Floor (sn_wsd_core_floor) | Floor (sn_map_core_floor) |
Building | Building (sn_wsd_core_building) | Building (sn_map_core_building) |
Campus | Campus (sn_wsd_core_campus) | Campus (sn_map_core_campus) *This is the only Indoor Mapping table visible in the Navigation menu under “Indoor Mapping” by default. |
Site | Site (sn_wsd_core_site) | N/A |
Region | Region (sn_wsd_core_region) | N/A (not part of Indoor Mapping) |
For more information regarding synchronizing location data between WSD and Indoor Mapping, please refer to this WSD and Indoor Mapping Synchronization blog.
Neighborhoods:
Additionally, within the WSD space structure we also have the concept of Neighborhoods, which are a group of spaces assigned to employees within an organization. A neighborhood can be located anywhere within the organizational structure (see below for more on workplace entities). Neighborhoods can be defined across multiple campuses, buildings, and floors to allow employees that meet specific criteria, such as the same department or business unit, to have dedicated areas to sit across various spaces.
Space Planners can create Neighborhoods, and add or remove users to neighborhoods manually (individually and/or in bulk) using the map-based space administration view, stack plans, or using space assignment rules which run on a schedule. Employees can view and reserve spaces in neighborhoods to which they are assigned, or which are unrestricted.
Learn more on our Neighborhoodsdocs page.
Workplace Entities (Custom Organizational Hierarchy):
A new feature called Workplace Entities allows customers to define their own organizational hierarchy levels and associate spaces and neighborhoods to them. Previously, customers could allocate spaces within the organization by department or cost center. This provides additional flexibility by allowing customers to define their own hierarchies, such as business units, divisions, or any other level they require.
Learn more on our Workplace Entities docs page.
Space Ownership & Tenancy: In order to facilitate a more granular representation of space allocation particularly in shared or co-owning environments, usage allocations can now be added to individual Space records for various workplace entities, departments, or cost centers.
This can be viewed by Space Administrators by looking at the "Space Management" view on a Space record.
Space Allocations - Space Record
Space Planning & Space Optimization:
Space Planning is a broad term used to describe the activities conducted by Space Administrators to view, manage, and/or optimize spaces used by the organization. Within ServiceNow, most of these activities can be done by space planners using a visual interface called Workplace Central Workspace.
Space Optimization is part of the Space Planning activities to review the allocation of spaces and ensure usage is efficiently allocated with minimal waste to the business. Space Optimization activities are conducted in the ServiceNow Workplace Central workspace, which allows space planners to review space allocation and utilization dashboards, conduct scenario planning, stack planning, and move requests to deploy finalized scenarios.
Key Space Planning & Space Optimization activities:
- Evaluate and reallocate space to ensure efficient and effective use of real estate
- Create stack and scenario plans and preview them from floor maps
- Update space attributes and allocation changes from an interactive stack plan or floor maps
- Streamline the deployment of a scenario with case and move management to carry out allocation changes
Workplace Central:
Workplace Central is the workspace that provides Space Planners with a central spot to view and manage space allocations, and conduct space optimization and scenario planning from a visual interface. This feature requires the Workplace Central (sn_wsd_central) plugin to be installed. Configuration of Floor plans using Indoor Mapping is required to use the floor plan based scenario plans. If maps are not configured, space planners will only be able to view the stack plans within buildings only.
Note: In order to view the floor plans in Workplace Central, the Space Planning view will need to be configured for each Campus in the Map Studio. This is not enabled by default.
Workplace Analytics Tab: The default home page of the Workplace Central Workspace now has several tabs with relevant WSD dashboards to help Space Planners gain insights into how the spaces are utilized.
Included Dashboards (tabs will be visible based on activated plugins):
- Space Optimization
- Lease Administration
- Maintenance Management
- Occupancy Dashboard (based on Workplace Connector data, see below)
- Workplace Dashboards with the following additional dashboards:
- Reservation Mgmt Dashboard
- Workplace Case Dashboard
- Workplace Manager Dashboard
- Visitor Reception Dashboard
- Synchronization Health Dashboard
Workplace Central Workspace
Workplace Connectors: Customers can integrate with any badging vendor through a flexible open framework in order to automate occupancy data with less manual inputs. These insights can be viewed in the Occupancy Dashboard on the Workplace Analytics tab.
Learn more on our Workplace Connectors docs page.
Space Optimization Tab: The second menu item in the workspace is the Space Optimization tab which allows Space Planners to view and create scenarios, and view building space usage. They can also view and action Space Requests from this tab.
Space Optimization Tab
Map-based Space Administration:
Within the Space Optimization tab in Workplace Central, Space Planners can leverage interactive floor plan views to update space attributes and allocation data either individually or in bulk. These changes are live and update production space data. This data can also be exported via Excel, JSON, HTML, or CSV files.
Learn more on ourMap-based space administration docs page.
Scenario Planning:
Space Planners can create one or multiple scenarios to manage and allocate spaces within a building using the stack view, or a floor using the floor plan view.
A Scenario is a copy of a building with its floors and space and user assignments, which allow space managers to view unallocated spaces and modify the allocations without impacting the published building in production. Once a Scenario is deemed optimal by the space planner, they can publish them for other Space planners to review, and Deploy them to generate Move cases for employees who have been re-assigned spaces.
Space allocations can be viewed byDepartment, Cost Center, Neighborhood, Space type, Assignment type, or Space status.
Scenario Stack Plan - Workplace Central
Scenario Floor Plan view - Workplace Central
Learn more on ourWorkplace Scenario Planning docs page.
Move Management Tab:
Once a space planner is satisfied with their scenario and procured all required approvals (if required), move requests can be generated to execute the re-assignment of users to spaces that may be needed as a result of the deployed scenario. This is the only way to generate bulk move requests at this time. Additionally, employees may trigger individual move requests through the employee center or workplace portals.
Move Management tab - Workplace Central
Within the Move Management tab, space planners can:
- Generate bulk Move Requests upon execution of a scenario
- Track move cases and associated tasks, including move requests initiated by employees via the Employee Center record producers
- Create Move projects to group related move cases and tasks and view them in a visual interface called Move Scheduler
Learn more on ourWorkplace Move Management docs page.
Employee generated Move requests & Space Recommender:
In addition to the bulk moves generated by a space planner during scenario planning, employees can also initiate individual moves through various record producers in Employee Center Portal, such as the Request a desk changecatalog item.These space allocations are for permanent or flex seat assignments/allocations, not for reservations.
Employees who are not familiar with the spaces available in their desired location can use theSpace assist request catalog item under the Workplace services taxonomy in the Employee Center, which can generate up to 3 space recommendations based on criteria specified by the employee, as well as pre-defined rules configured by the Workplace Administrator.
Note: Before this request can be used, thesn_wsd_core.ALLOCATION_TYPEproperty must be set by the workplace administrator with a value of either cost_center, department, or workplace_entity. In the above example, the department value was selected.
Allocation type property
Space assist request - Employee Center
Once the request has been submitted, the employee can navigate to the open case in the Employee Center and view the recommended spaces under the Tasks/To-dostab. Up to 3 options will be provided, along with the % of criteria that have been matched, and the ability to view the space on the map before selection. Once the employee clicks into their task, they will be asked to select one of the 3 options, or none of the above. This will then generate a corresponding move request which can be actioned by the Workplace Management team via the Move Management tab on Workplace Central.
Space recommender selection task - Employee Center
Space recommender selection - Employee Center
Learn more on our Space assistance docs page.
Event Planner Tab:
The Event Planner tab in the Workplace Central workspace allows Space Planners to view and manage reservations and related actions within Workplace Central. This provides space planners a visual interface to perform the following activities:
- View reservations using a schedule view
- Optimize space reservations by manually changing the start date and time, or location
- Manage reservations quickly and easily using drag and drop capabilities on behalf of employees
Event Planner tab - Workplace Central
The Schedule view allows Space planners to leverage a drag and drop capability to move reservations around using a visual interface.
Event Planner Schedule View - Workplace Central
Learn more on ourEvent Planner docs page.
What plugins are needed for Space Management?
Workplace Core (sn_wsd_core)
Workplace Space Management (sn_wsd_spcmgmt)
Workplace Central (sn_wsd_central)
Workplace Indoor Mapping (sn_wsd_indoor_map)
Workplace Move Management (sn_wsd_move)
Workplace Case Management (sn_wsd_case)