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Building Operations Console

Upgrading to the Building Operations Console

If you have been using the On Demand Work application prior to the v.21.2 release, you have the choice to continue with your current interface for defining service level agreements (SLAs) and routing work requests, or to switch to the new graphical interface for defining SLAs, and to the Building Operations Console for managing work.

The new interface simplifies choices for SLA creation. For example, it enables you to:

• Create and maintain multiple SLAs at once.
• Select workflow steps using a diagram of the workflow to simplify step selection
• Create new SLAs by prefilling the form using an existing SLA, or to use an SLA that you have designated as a template.

For a comparison of the two ways of working, see Comparison of the v.21.2 and the Pre-v.21.2 Interface for Managing Work and Creating SLAs.

A significant difference between the two ways of working is that the Building Operations Console SLA workflow focuses exclusively on the work request, and not at all on the service request. This is unlike developing SLAs in the pre- v 21.2 interface that includes SLA steps for both service requests and work requests.

Because the two interfaces differ in this significant way, you must decide to use either the Building Operations Console and the new screens for defining SLAs, or to continue using your current interface. You cannot go back and forth between the two ways of working.

If you want to continue using your current screens for developing SLAs and for submitting and routing work requests, you do not have to do anything.

If you opt to use the Building Operations Console interface and the SLA definition screens, you can run a workflow rule that automates the process of converting your existing data, and changing your data moving forward.

Procedure: Upgrading to the Building Operations Console using the workflow rules

To upgrade to the Building Operations Console using the workflow rules:

1. From the Process Navigator, select System Administration / ARCHIBUS System Administration / ARCHIBUS Administrator - Application Configuration / Use Building Operations Console.

   The Choose Option screen appears.

2. Select the option button to indicate whether or not you want to use work requests only.
   • Select No if you want to use work orders to organize your work.
   • Select Yes to use work requests only which hides work orders.

   The application uses your selection to set the WorkRequestsOnly application parameter, and to ensure that your legacy data uses the work request statuses that are appropriate for your selection. For example, if you select not to use work orders, the status Assigned to Work Order is not used.

3. Click Use New Console.

   When you click this button, the application does the following:

   • Updates the application parameter “WorkRequestsOnly” with the value you selected (Yes or No).
   • The application checks if your current work request data needs to be updated. For example, if you have maintenance service requests that do not have an associated work request, the application creates these records for you.

   • Converts any existing SLA steps defined for the Service Request status to the Work Request status. An example is an Approval step. Formerly, Approval steps were defined for the Service Desk status Requested, but are now defined for the Work Request status Requested. Similarly, for the Satisfaction Survey step, the application converts these steps from the Service Request status Completed to the Work Request status Completed.

   • If you are working with Work Requests only, then the system makes the ‘AA’ status the Approved status, and converts any existing SLA steps that were defined for the Work Request ‘A’ status to be defined for the Work Request ‘AA’ status. Similarly, it advances the status of any open Work Requests in the ‘A’ status to be in the ‘AA’ status.

   • When you click the Use New Console button, the application makes changes to your Process Navigator to point to the new Building Operations Console and Define Service Level Agreement interfaces.
   • A message informs you of all the changes made.
4. Restart the application server to have the changes take effect.

   The System Administration / ARCHIBUS System Administration / ARCHIBUS Administrator - Application Configuration / Group Work Requests into Work Orders task is now available. This task is available in case you want to change the selection you made for using work orders or for using work requests only.

   Manually converting your data

   If you prefer to do this data conversion in a non-automated way, you can change application parameters to convert your data moving forward without running the workflow rules used when you run the Use Building Operations Console task. For example, if you have extensive customizations, you would not want to use the workflow rules that runs when you use the Use Building Operations task.

   Instead, using the manual method, you change your data moving forward using the System Administration / ARCHIBUS System Administration / ARCHIBUS Administrator - Application Configuration / Configure Application Parameters task. You would set the following parameters:

   • AbBldgOpsOnDemandWork. UseBldgOpsConsole: To use the Building Operations Console and associated SLA definition screens, set this to 1.
   • AbBldgOpsOnDemandWork.WorkRequestsOnly. To use work orders, set this is 0; otherwise to hide work orders, set this to 1.

After setting these parameters, you would then need to manually change your existing data that’s in process – such as, your existing SLAs, work requests, and service requests. You can use the description of the data that is converted in the above procedure as a guide for how your existing data would need to be changed.