1. General
MCS and Asset are FM applications a lot of customers are using and Spacewell is currently supporting. Spacewell’s goal is to migrate every MCS customer to Asset and migrate these customers as smoothly as possible.
MCS and Asset can be used as the “backend“ for Workplace Experience. Customers only using Workplace Experience functionalities (Workplace App, Go, Door displays, Floor displays and Kiosks) might not even know that a application like MCS or Asset is used on the background for the data and relevant configuration.
The first phase of migrating MCS customers to Asset are the customers only using Workplace Experience functionalities. It will be like only changing the engine under the hood. The car is still the same on the inside and drives the same, so the users will not even realize that MCS is replaced by Asset. Workplace Experience functionalities will keep working as always.
This module activation will enable all modules relevant for Workplace Experience and helps the consultant with the relevant data imports and the configuration.
2. How to activate this module
As for every new module, use the ‘Module activation’ option on the administrator startboard (only available for level 2 and 3 admins). For more general information about these 'Module activation' options, see Module activation
2.1 Prerequisites before enabling this module
The 'MCS to Asset: Workplace Experience only' module is a solution which consists of multiple modules (Buildings and areas and Reservations). This module activation can only be activated for new environments that has not have been set up yet. There are no prerequisite modules applicable.
2.2 Module activation
For this specific module activation, multiple settings and options apply:
Settings to be determined
- Reference Workplace Experience tenant: Enter the reference of the corresponding Workplace Experience environment.
- Date pattern to import room reservations: To import existing MCS room reservations (from the past or future) in Asset, the date pattern in the MCS export Excel file need to be provided to be able to import the reservations correctly.
- Default reserve on behalf of someone else: This determines the default reserve on behalf of setting for all users to be imported.
After starting the module activation, the relevant user profile and data imports are automatically generated. The Workplace Experience credentials become available and after the data is imported, the data check reports can be used to export the data to Excel. These Excel files are used to validate the exported data from MCS and imported data in Workplace Experience.
2.3 Data imports
For this module activation there are no default import templates, which can be generated in Asset and need to be sent to the customer. Instead, the MCS consultant will provide the Excel file exports necesarry.
The following export files will be provided by the MCS consultant and need to be imported via the default available imports in Asset:
- Areas
- Sites
- Buildings
- Floors
- Room Classifications 1
- Rooms
- Reservable Rooms 2
- Workplaces
- Reservable Workplaces
- Companies
- Departments
- Employees
- Accounts
- Room Reservations 3
Note
- The ‘Room Classifications' file is used to import area Folders (categories). The type of the category determines the type of the objects created in that category. For example, a new area created in the category ‘Standing Desk' will automatically get the type 'Workplace’.
Because we do not know the type of the category, the import automatically creates the folders as a child of the ‘Meeting room’ folder and will automatically get the type 'Room’.
Before importing the Rooms, make sure that all area categories are set to the correct type (Room, Workplace or Parking). If this is not done beforehand, a mass update needs to be executed on all areas with the incorrect type. The type of room is also important for Workplace Analytics. For more information on managing this, see Area types. - The ‘Reservable Rooms’ file is used to set the Rooms to reservable and set several reservable settings. In this Reservable Rooms import file, the corresponding Room is registered via the Building (Reference), Floor (Reference) and Room (Reference). If there is no Building (Reference), Floor (Reference) and Room (Reference) specified in the file, the data row can not be imported and thus the Area in Asset is not reservable.
A Reservable Room must be linked to a room in the 'Room.xlsx' file to be reservable in Asset.
All Reservable Rooms linked to an actual Room are initially set to Reservable = Yes and if the Reservable Room is out of use, will be set to Reservable = No again. This is done to be able to link reservables to historical reservation which are not reservable anymore. - The 'Room Reservations' file is used to import reservations. Reservable Rooms linked to Reservations, which are not linked to an actual Room via the Building (Reference), Floor (Reference) and Room (Reference) fields, will be imported, but the reservation items will not have the reservable room linked to it, because the reservable room does not exist.
Reservations with a Reservable Room linked to it, which is not linked to a room in the ‘Room.xlsx' file, are imported, but the reservation item does not have a reservable linked to it and the import log shows an error.
Room Reservation imports are split up into future and historical reservations imports. The consultant needs to split the file manually to distinguish between future an historical reservations. Historical reservations are imported into the default category ‘Imported historical reservations’ and do not have a workflow. Future reservations are imported in the default category ‘FMB Reservations’ with the current active workflow.
This difference is made because it takes (significantly) longer to import objects in a workflow and this is not relevant for historic reservation.
Make sure to configure the setting 'Ignore reserve in advance restrictions for system group’ (Module settings → Reservations) and make sure the user importing has this group, to be able to import reservations in the past.
The corresponding imports will be automatically generated in the module activation:
The MCS to Asset imports can also be found via the administrators startboard → 'Default imports'.
Via the button 'Generate default imports' the imports can be (re)generated in case the imports are deleted (by accident). When regenerating the imports, the latest version of the imports become available again. Already available/existing imports will not be regenerated.
Note
If this module activation was started some time ago (e.g more than a few days ago), it is advised to always delete and regenerate the MCS to WPM imports again before starting the first imports , to make sure the most recent versions are used, in case newer version are made available based on bug fixes or improvements.
Warning
Important import remarks
- Importing large data files can take a long time. For any of the above mentioned imports make sure to cut the file up into smaller pieces with a max of 10.000 rows each. (see exports in step 12 of MCS to Axxerion re-implementation )
- It is advised to import outside of business hours (evening/weekend) to prevent clusters from getting performance issues.
2.4 System groups / user profiles
When a module is activated, system groups become available automatically. This module has a pre defined user profile. The user profile 'End user reservations' is automatically generated and will be assigned to every user created/imported in Asset. This user profile makes sure that alle users can create reservations in any of the Workplace Experience touchpoints.
Because this is a Workplace Experience only environment, other user profiles are not applicable, since no user will log into Asset directly.
2.5 Navigation menu and startboard options
Since no user will log into Asset, a navigation menu or startboard is not applicable. The user only has access to the Workplace App, Go and possible the other touchpoints (Door displays, Floor displays and/or Kiosks).
3. Additional information
More information about the steps which need to be done on MCS side and actually change the “engine“ can be found here: MCS to Axxerion re-implementation
4. Q&A
Waiting for questions to be answered.