Allocation - types, setting, and impact

Xanadu Employee Service Management

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xanadu

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en-US

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Xanadu Employee Service Management

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emplsm

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emplsm

workflow

Employee

Allocation - types, setting, and impact

Release version: Xanadu

Updated August 1, 2024

5 minutes to read

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Summary of Allocation - types, setting, and impact

This guidance explains how to classify workplace locations within ServiceNow Workplace Space Management using allocation types such as cost center, department, or workplace entity. Allocation types help control and optimize space reservation, scenario planning, and access based on organizational structure. Starting with Workplace Core version 2.16.1, the allocation types “Department” and “Cost center” are deprecated in favor of the new, more capable “Workplace entity” allocation type.

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Key Features

Allocation types: Locations can be allocated by Cost center, Department, or Workplace entity, with Workplace entity being the preferred and newest option for better flexibility and hierarchy management.
System property: The snwsdcore.ALLOCATIONTYPE property determines which allocation type governs space retrieval, display during reservation, scenario planning, and recommendations.
Allocation setup: Allocations are created or activated on workplace location records. Existing customers below version 2.16.1 receive automatic mapping of their allocations to the new system property.
Push down functionality: Cost center or department values can be pushed from parent locations to child locations (e.g., floors, areas, rooms) to maintain consistent allocation assignments throughout the hierarchy.
Access controls: User access to spaces depends on matching the allocation type configured in the system property and the allocation assigned to the space. For example, if the allocation type is Cost center, users can access spaces matching their Cost center.
Scenario planning: Scenarios can be grouped by allocation type and viewed accordingly; however, scenarios based on workplace entities cannot be created, only viewed or administrated.

Impact and Practical Considerations

When allocation requirements and duration checks are enabled in reservable modules, employees see only the spaces they are authorized to access based on their allocation and the allocation type setting.
Allocations enable organizations to align workspace usage with their business hierarchy, improving management and utilization.
Multiple allocations of different types can be assigned to a space, but access and visibility depend strictly on the allocation type defined in the system property.
For transitioning customers, allocation mappings are handled automatically to ensure continuity and prevent conflicts.
Allocation start and end dates are respected during availability and reservation checks, using system time zone settings.

By understanding and configuring allocation types properly, ServiceNow customers can ensure that space management aligns with organizational structure, improves allocation governance, and enhances user experience in reserving and managing workplace spaces.

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

You can allocate your workplace location under the following system provided allocation types:

Cost center
Department
Workplace entity

Important:

Starting from Workplace Core version 2.16.1, the allocation type Department and cost center is no longer available. A new allocation type Workplace entity is introduced that provides more advantages.

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

Depending on a workplace location's allocation, the following actions are performed:

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.

Table 1. Access to a space based on allocation type and 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 `<value>` Workplace Entity: Null or `<value>`	The user can access.
Cost center	Cost center: `<value>` Department: Null or `<value>` Workplace Entity: Null or `<value>`	The user can access if the Cost Center matches.
Department	Cost center: Null or `<value>` Department: Null Workplace Entity: Null or `<value>`	The user can access.
Department	Cost Center: Null or `<value>` Department: `<value>` Workplace Entity: Null or `<value>`	The user can access if the Department matches.
Workplace Entity	Cost Center: Null or `<value>` Department: Null or `<value>` Workplace Entity: Null	The user can access.
Workplace Entity	Cost Center: Null or `<value>` Department: Null or `<value>` Workplace Entity: `<value>`	The user can access if the Workplace Entity or its parent matches.
Null	Cost Center: Null or `<value>` Department: Null or `<value>` Workplace Entity: Null or `<value>`	The user can access.