There are a lot of different ways in which you can use Flowscape Rules to structure your office. Below, we will go over some of the most common use cases to guide you in how to set up your Flowscape rules.

In this post, we will cover:

• Create Department zones

• Give Executive Assistants extended capabilities

• Create General areas where everyone can book
• Temporary projects and project teams

Create Department Zones

One of the most common ways to use booking rules is to assign specific zones to specific departments or “teams”. Let us say that you have 3 different zones in your office, where you want your specific departments to have earmarked seats. For example, Sales & Marketing sits in “Sales & Marketing area”, Operations sits in the “Operations area" and Development sits in “Development area”. You also want the managers to be able to book on behalf of their team and book seats anywhere they want (in any Area).

Below we will show you the process of setting this up step by step.

Note: Make sure that you have created your zones in the Flowscape Portal, read the manual on zones here.

• Start by creating your teams, click on “add new team” and add team members to this team manually or by auto-assigning using the department name from Azure AD. Learn more about how to create a team here.

• When you have created your new teams, they will be visible on the list, make sure to always double check so everything is correct.

• When you have created your desired teams, you can now start creating your rules.
• Click on “add new rule”

• Because the rules are prioritized depending on the priority level given to that rule. It is important to have the priority of the rules set before starting to adopt them.

In this particular case, we will need 6 sets of rules, read the manual on how to create new rules here.

• First rule (level 428) – restrict bookings for all.
• Second rules (level 429-431) – allow bookings for departments.
  • Allow Booking Development – Development Area (level 429)
  • Allow Booking Operations – Operations Area (level 430)
  • Allow Booking Sales & Marketing – Sales & Marketing Area (level 431)

It does not matter which priority level is set for these rules, as long as it surpasses the first rule.

• Third rules (level 432-433) Allow booking and booking on behalf of for managers.
  • Allow booking on behalf of – Managers (level 432)
  • Allow booking everywhere – Managers (level 433)

You can select what type of numbers you want in the priority level freely. To first use a rule that restricts to then re-give access is the best way to go about creating “department zones”. You can also create department zones by first allow bookings and then restrict. But because there in most cases are a lot more to restrict than give access to, it is generally easier to start by restricting. What will work best for you in your particular case can vary, so make sure to test different options before deciding.

Note: the most Important thing is that you have the highest priority rule market with the highest priority number. For example, if the first rule had priority level 434, no one would be able to book any resources, even if the other rules exist.

• After creating your rules, you will see them in the list. Make sure to review the rules to make sure you have set the right priority level.

Give Executive Assistants extended capabilities

In certain cases, you will also want to give executive assistants the ability to book on behalf of managers or VIPs, and maybe also the ability to book on behalf of guests. To do this, you need to first create a team for the executive assistants.

• When you have created you team, you can now give them access to book on behalf of others.
• Because you can add multiple teams to one rule, you can just add the executive assistants to the already created rules for management (432-433)
• Why do you also need to give executive assistants booking rights to all resources? If Executive assistants only have the ability to book on behalf of, but do not have booking access to all resources, they only be able to "book on behalf of" on the resources available to them.

When you have added the executive assistants to the two rules above, they will be able to book on behalf of VIP:s, Guests and Managers. 

General Areas

In many cases, office buildings will have some form of general area that is available to everyone independent from department. This can be an “Open area” or a “team collaboration area”. If you want a specific zone in your office to be available to book for everyone. You can create a new rule that allows booking for the whole company.

The general area will now be available for everyone, make sure that they are not any restriction rules for certain teams that have a higher priority level than this rule. Otherwise, the team included in the restriction rule might not gain access to the general area. 

Temporary projects and project teams

In some cases, you may have users from different departments collaborating on a specific project and therefore need access to the same area. It is possible for you to create a temporary project team and give them access to a “project area”, with desks and meeting rooms for a short period of time.

Note: The team and the rule need to be manually deleted when the project is over, there is no available function that can automatically delete a team or rule after a certain amount of time.

• Start by Creating your new team

• Create a new rule (With the highest priority level) that gives the team in question access to the “project area”

The team will now have access to the project area. If you want someone in the team to be given permission to book on behalf of everyone else in the team. You can create a new team for only that person or allow everyone in the team to book on behalf of. You can then give that user the ability to only book on behalf of in that particular zone.

For example, let's say that we want Anders in the team, the project manager, to book on behalf of everyone else during the project period.

• Start by adding Anders to a project manager team.

• Add a new rule where you give the new project management team the ability to book on behalf of in the same zone that we just gave the project team allowance to book. (set the highest priority level)

• The user “Anders” will no be able to book on behalf of its team in the project area.