1. What is this module about
Buildings and areas are one of the master data modules of Workplace Management.
The Buildings and Areas module allows you to use location information in other modules. This offers practical benefits in other modules. Some examples:
Requests: Connecting requests to specific buildings or areas helps the Service Desk quickly locate and resolve issues.
Reservation Management: Reserving areas within buildings, ensuring efficient use of space and better room availability.
Contracts: Linking Buildings or areas to contracts ensures the cost can be tracked per building or area. leading to better and more data-driven strategic decision-making
Apart from the use in other modules, the Buildings and Areas module can aid in managing your real estate, as it helps to get insights into the organization's buildings, including details like location, ownership, occupancy status, and maintenance history.
Most of the core concepts of this module can be managed by key users (building and area editors), therefore most concepts are described in the user manual that can be found here: User manual: Buildings and Areas
The next parts will go into more detail on some of the core concepts of this module that are mostly relevant for administrators:
1.1 Categories
Each building and area that is created, is created in a category. For more general information about categories, see: Categories
The following default categories are available for this module:
Buildings
Category | Description |
|---|---|
Building | The category for actual buildings, uses a page with all the relevant fields to track building information like construction date, owner, status, address, etc. |
Site | The category for sites, e.g a terrain containing multiple buildings. has less fields than a building. |
Geographical area | The category for Geographical areas, e.g a complete country or otherwise a more conceptual location, not representing a physical building or site. Containing. Containing even less fields. |
Buildings (not only the category, but the object in general) can also have a hierarchical structure (e.g building can have sub-buildings). The categories do not impact the use of sub buildings and parent buildings. It is possible to set a building of the category ‘Geographical area’ as a sub building of a ‘building’ category building. However, this might lead to issues if integrations with for instance Workplace Experience is used. As other product might have more strict rules for buildings in categories that are allowed to be set as child of certain categories. Therefor, if all categories are used, it is advised to use a logic structure (Buildings on the lowest level, followed by sites and on the top level the ‘Geographical area’ buildings)
Areas
Category | Description |
|---|---|
Main area | Cannot be selected when creating a new area. Each new building automatically gets a ‘Main area’. Every additional area is always (directly or indirectly) part of this area. |
Floor | The category for floors. Limited number of fields. Does not contain the options for reservations, as it is not possible to reserve a floor. |
Meeting room | The category for meeting rooms. Also has the option to specific the capacity and can be made reservable (relevant if reservations are used) |
Workplace | The category for workplaces. Has a default capacity of 1 and can be made reservable (relevant if reservations are used) |
Parking | The category for parking spots. Has a default capacity of 1 and can be made reservable (relevant if reservations are used) |
Area (general) | The category for any other type of area, that would not fit the other default categories. Also has a capacity field and can be made reservable (relevant if reservations are used) |
Areas also have a hierarchical structure. E.g meeting rooms and workplaces are part of a floor area). The categories do not impact the use of sub areas and parent areas. It is possible to set an area of the category ‘floor’ as a sub area of a ‘Workplace’ category area. However, this might lead to issues if integrations with for instance Workplace Experience are used. As other product might have more strict rules for the area hierarchy in categories that are allowed to be set as child of certain categories. Therefor, if all categories are used, it is advised to use a logic structure (e.g parking, workplaces and meeting rooms on the lowest level, followed by floors)
2. Additional information on this module
More information on the Buildings and Area module can be found via the following related articles:
For an (end) user manual, see: User manual: Buildings and Areas
For more detailed implementation information (including how to enable the module, which system groups are involved, data imports, and more information on the startboard and navigation menu options), see: Masterdata: Buildings and areas module activation and information