Space management

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Space management

    Space management is a component of the Facilities Service Management application that defines and analyzes organizational spaces at multiple levels, such as campus, building, floor, and individual spaces. It provides standardized metrics like occupancy percentage and total available space to help customers understand and optimize their facility usage.

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    Note: This feature is no longer available for new customers.

    Key Features

    • Space Hierarchy: Organizes spaces in a natural hierarchy from campus down to individual spaces, enabling effective space utilization analysis.
    • Space Types and Tables: Allows creation of different space types extending the core space table ([fmspace]) with appropriate access controls.
    • Roll-up Calculations: Aggregates occupancy, maximum occupancy, and assignable area metrics from lower to higher hierarchy levels. A script include manages these calculations, providing real-time occupancy percentages.
    • Associated Users: Users can be assigned to multiple spaces with one primary location. Assignments update occupancy stats automatically. User inactivity frees up space availability.
    • Associated Departments: Spaces can be allocated to multiple departments with weighted ownership percentages summing to 100%, facilitating cost allocation and reporting.
    • GeoJSON Map Integration: Supports floor plan visualization using GeoJSON files, enabling graphical representation of spaces.
    • Customer-Created Maps: Customers build maps by sequentially adding campus, buildings, floors, and spaces.
    • Data Import via Transforms: Exporting space data to Excel (.xls) and importing it back into the application allows bulk data management and updates.

    Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Forecast future space requirements accurately to plan facility needs.
    • Simplify chargeback processes through precise space and department allocations.
    • Perform detailed space analyses for both current occupancy and planned use cases.
    • Leverage hierarchical views and roll-up calculations to monitor and optimize space utilization effectively.
    • Visualize spaces on maps for better spatial understanding and management.

    The concept of space is part of the Facilities Service Management application. Space provides a definition at all levels with the same unit measure, and presents metrics that are readily available for analysis. These metrics include occupancy percentage, total space available, and so on.

    Note:
    This feature is no longer available for new customers.
    The additional benefits of space management include:
    • Ability to forecast future space requirements
    • Simplification of the charge back process
    • Space analysis for actual and planned use cases
    • Addition of zones for creating different collections of spaces

    Space hierarchy

    A natural hierarchy models all the spaces of your organization. You can use this information to determine how effectively you are using your facilities space. The hierarchy from top to bottom is campus, building, level (floor), and space.

    You can create types of spaces as needed. New space definition tables extend the [fm_space] table. Be sure to set the proper ACLs. The following graphic depicts how tables are related to one another.
    Figure 1. Space table hierarchy
    Picture depicts order of tables as fm_campus, alm_building, fm_level, and fm_space and how they are extended

    Space roll up calculations

    The Facilities Service Management application can roll up occupancy, area, and usage information from lower to higher levels in the space hierarchy. Roll ups are spaces designated as available for occupancy. The occupancy values from that space roll up to the level above them.

    When you designate a space as available for occupancy, you can also specify the maximum occupancy. Depending on the actual occupancy, a percentage appears to show how much space is available. A script include modifies the roll-up calculations.
    Figure 2. Available for occupancy selected and dependent fields
    image is a screenshot showing the available occupancy check box and dependant fields
    The values that roll up are:
    • Occupancy
    • Max occupancy
    • Assignable area

    The percent occupied calculation takes place based on the current and max occupancy values.

    Associated users

    You can assign users to more than one location, with a primary location.

    Assign employees a primary location. A business rule ensures that an employee can have only one primary location. Employees that travel between campuses can have an assigned space on each campus. The [fm_m2m_user_to_space] table stores these records. Adding a user automatically updates the current occupancy and availability status of the space and performs the percent occupied calculation.
    Note:
    Space becomes available when a user becomes inactive.

    Associated departments

    You can assign spaces to more than one department for cost allocation and reporting purposes.

    The Associated Department [fm_m2m_department_to_space] table extends the fm_space table, containing the relationship of departments and percentage ownership. A percentage automatically calculates after setting the weight for each department. A business rule sets the percentages based on weight so that the sum of percentages equals 100%.