Setting up locations

BMC Helix Digital Workplace provides an intuitive experience for users to search for locations and assets such as conference rooms, offices, and printers. BMC Helix Digital Workplace is context- and location-aware and enables users to find nearby resources, follow resource status updates, and update resource status to help other users.

Locations added to the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Admin console appear as choices in the end user console's Preferences > Set location selector, which determines the location-aware broadcasts users receive by default. When you delete a location, you can also delete all associated floor maps and assets.

The following video (4:40) provides an overview and demonstration how you can enable a Google Maps license, add locations, create floor maps, and add assets to the floor maps in BMC Helix Digital Workplace.

 https://youtu.be/QIIuHNMMADI

Example

John, a member of the the professional services group, receives a request to attend a session the next day in an unfamiliar city. Given the short notice, John wants to find the campus from the airport without having to search the internet for the specific address. Upon arrival at the airport, John starts BMC Helix Digital Workplace on his mobile device. BMC Helix Digital Workplace retrieves the geographical coordinates of John's current location and displays the closest campus location. BMC Helix Digital Workplace uses Apple Maps to provide a route to the location that John selects.

After successfully locating the campus with BMC Helix Digital Workplace, John enters Building 4. He checks his watch—the session starts in a few minutes, and no one is behind the information desk to help him locate his room. Using BMC Helix Digital Workplace, John accesses the campus floor maps. Looking at the assets marked on his current floor, he sees the location of the elevators. With a few more taps, John sees a label pinpointing the location of the conference room, and he also sees a lavatory on the way. John confidently makes his way to the conference room (with a short stop along the way) and arrives on time.

Before you begin

• Read the use case for finding places and assets.
• Enable a maps license, as described in Adding a Google Maps license key. (Users select their location from a map. The map is displayed only if you enable a maps license.)

Adding locations manually  

To add locations manually

1. In BMC Helix Digital Workplace, click Location Management.
2. Under Locations, click View All.
3. Click Add.

4. Complete the fields that appear below the Add button.

   

   Important

   Images must be 320x200 pixels, 640x400 pixels, or another size with the same aspect ratio. The profile image supports .gif, .jpg, .png, and .bmp file types.

5. Click Save.
   After you save a location with an address, BMC Helix Digital Workplace automatically adds a map. The Name, Phone, Address, and Profile Image values are displayed in the location's profile. The profile image also appears in the list of locations and in the map pin for the location. 

Adding locations automatically as a bulk import

You can import locations by using a comma-separated values (CSV) file in the following format:

# ExternalId*,name*,address*,phone,desc,siteName*,longitude*,latitude*,timeZone*,type
999,BMC Houston,"2101 City W Blvd Houston, TX 77042",713-918-8800,http://www.bmc.com,BMCHQ,29.742528,-95.559265,America/Chicago,0

Following is an example locations CSV file in Microsoft Excel:

The locations CSV file must meet the following requirements:

• The file must be in MS-DOS, comma-delimited format.
• Fields with asterisks (for example, siteName*) must contain an entry.
• The ExternalId field (used for API integration and location updates) cannot be duplicated in the database.
• The field names in the file must match the field names in BMC Helix Digital Workplace.
• The phone number cannot contain spaces.
• If an entry in a field contains spaces, the entry must be enclosed in quotation marks.

• The entry in the desc field must contain fewer than 255 characters.

• The time zone in the file must be correct because you cannot change it in the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Admin console.

  Important

  The desktop end user console, Admin console, and Android mobile client do not show location maps unless a valid maps API license is installed. For more information, see Adding a Google Maps license key.

To add locations automatically as a bulk import

1. In BMC Helix Digital Workplace, click Location Management.
2. Under Locations, click CSV Import.
3. Click Choose File, and select a file.
4. Click Import.

Where to go from here

Managing floor maps