Building Operations Console

Comparison of the v.21.2 and the Pre-v.21.2 Interface for Managing Work and Creating SLAs

With v.21.2, you have the choice of continuing with the pre-v.21.2 screens for defining SLAs and for processing work request, or of opting in to using the v.21.2 interface.

Using either interface the following features are included:

Employees can request maintenance work
Managers can approve work
Supervisors can issue and update work
Craftspersons can update work
All work processes adhere to assigned Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
Service desk managers can define and manage SLAs
Service Desk Managers may schedule workflow substitutes
Work Requestors may complete satisfaction surveys

The following sections describes the differences between using the v.21.2 and the pre-v.21.2 interface for managing your on demand work, and for defining SLAs:

Comparison of the two ways of working when defining SLAs
Comparison when submitting and managing work requests

Comparison when defining SLAs

The following table describes the differences between the two interfaces for defining SLAs.

Approval for Estimation and Scheduling steps	Yes	Yes, but the Step is renamed Confirmation Approval for estimation and scheduling are now Confirmation steps. Confirmation steps do not include the ability to edit.
Approval for work requests	Yes Approval steps (without editing) and Edit and Approve steps for work requests are both available.	Yes Approval step is now called “Confirmation.” The “Edit and Approve” step is renamed “Approval”.
Auto-create work order? (Response parameter)	Yes	This is determined by the application parameter ‘WorkRequestsOnly”, which controls whether or not you see work orders.
Auto-create work request? (On-Demand Work parameter) Note: The one change universally applied to both the old and new interfaces is that all submitted maintenance requests create work request records.	Deprecated. This is no longer an option as work requests are always auto-created when the request is submitted. This is the one way in which the pre-v. 21.2 interface has been changed to match the v. 21.2 interface	Not an option Work requests are automatically created for all submitted requests.
Auto-issue? (On Demand Work parameter)	Yes When you select Auto-issue for a work request, you are required to select a craftsperson and enter the task’s duration.	Yes When selecting Auto-issue, Craftsperson Code and Default Duration are no longer required.
Copying SLAs	Yes	Yes
Estimate and Schedule steps	Yes, but only on work that is associated with an SLA that requires these steps	Yes - on all work, regardless of SLA If an Estimation or Scheduling step is defined by SLA, however, it is required to complete before moving on. Otherwise it is available, but optional.
Estimation, and Scheduling, steps	Yes Available only if defined in the SLA.	Yes Always available; required if defined in the SLA, otherwise, they are optional steps.
Feature	Pre-v.21.2 SLA interface	v.21.2 SLA interface
Grouping SLAs	No	Yes Grouping enables you to create and manage multiple SLAs at once if the SLAs differ only in their request parameters (such as problem type, location, or requestor).
Hiding Work Orders	Yes You hide work orders by using the "Supervisor (Work Requests)" and "Craftsperson (Work Requests)" processes. These processes hide the work order information, so that users can directly access work requests.	Yes An application parameter controls whether or not work orders are shown.
Selecting a Service Desk role as a responder for a step	Yes	Yes
Selecting an AFM role to perform optional steps for a work request, such as approval, estimation, scheduling, and confirmation.	No	Yes The ability to use AFM roles to complete steps is new to V.21.2 and available in the new SLA interface only. Only one response is allowed (for example, not multiple approvals from employees in the same role).
Service Level Agreement Definition
Survey step	Yes Available only if defined in the SLA	Yes Available only if defined in the SLA
Templates	No	Yes You can save any SLA that you have created as a template, so that it is available to create new SLAs. Note, however, that if you delete this SLA, it is no longer available as a template.

Comparison when submitting and managing work requests

The following table describes the differences between working in the v.21.2 interface and in the pre- v.21.2 interface for managing your work requests.

Building Operations Console
Feature	Pre- v.21.2 interface	v.21.2 interface
Filter console	Yes	Yes
Predefined filters	No	Yes Filters include predefined selections for the most common situations. For example, the supervisor can select to see the 10 oldest requests, the 10 newest requests, or the 10 requests nearest to escalation.
Quick Actions	No When performing actions for work requests, such as approving, scheduling, estimating, issuing or completing, you use a form that includes all fields.	Yes You can perform actions on work requests using pop-up forms that include the most commonly needed fields.
Selecting multiple requests having the same status for bulk processing	No	Yes If you select requests having the same status, and run an action, such as Complete, you are shown a form that has a set of fields that are likely to be the same for multiple requests. The information you enter is applied to all the selected work requests.
Add new background data when processing requests	No Data is set up using the Business Process Owner process.	Yes An Add New button enables authorized users to add data such as locations, problem types, and craftspersons as needed. You have the option of also using the Background Data process to add data.
Estimation step includes Tool Types	Yes Using this information, the scheduler can schedule specific tools of this type for the job.	No You can reserve tools when scheduling work, and can see if the tool is already reserved, but this does not include tool types.
Service Desk Managers can schedule workflow substitutes	Yes	Yes When you log in, the Building Operations Console can determine your role and shows data appropriate to that role. The query for work requests associated with the logged-in user also takes into account those requests for which the user is a substitute. The user can be defined as a substitute for any role.
Maintenance Mangers can define and generate Preventive Maintenance Work Orders	Yes	Yes, but using a simpler interface to facilitate setting this up.