Working with Workspaces

Workspaces are integral to SAP Build Work Zone, serving as collaborative environments that significantly enhance productivity and team synergy. They offer a flexible design and integrate various tools and applications to streamline work processes, gather data, and share best practices. Workspaces enable seamless communication and interaction among colleagues and teams, fostering a connected and efficient workplace.

Workspace creation can be enabled for all internal users or restricted to administrators. Management of workspaces is then available to all internal users assigned as workspace administrators.

Workspaces serve many different purposes and allow members and admins alike to:

• Add Content: Incorporate diverse content types to support work processes.
• Use Planning Tools: Employ tools for project planning and coordination.
• Integrate Applications: Add business applications, cards, and widgets for enhanced functionality.
• Publish Communication: Create blog posts, wiki pages, and links for information sharing.

To actively participate and contribute to a workspace, individuals must join as members. Within these workspaces, members can communicate through feeds or forums and utilize workpages to disseminate information and content. Alternatively, content consumption of workspaces can also be enabled for 'non-members' if required, especially if the workspace use cases are less collaborative in nature - for instance using it as a repository for HR self-service documents.

To streamline the setup of a new workspace, SAP Build Work Zone offers workspace templates. These templates provide a Workspace complete with placeholder content and a predefined structure, optimized for specific business scenarios.

Members have the option to create workspaces (public or private) by selecting from predefined templates or starting without a template. This flexibility allows for the creation of workspaces tailored to specific needs and objectives.

For more tailored requirements, workspace administrators can create custom templates via the Administration Console. This option allows for the creation of unique workspaces that cater to specialized business processes or collaboration needs. Content packages - which will be covered in more detail later in this course - can also include those custom templates.

SAP Build Work Zone provides a flexible environment for collaboration, offering two main types of workspaces: Public and Private. Each type is designed to cater to different levels of accessibility and discovery, ensuring that collaboration can be tailored to suit the needs of the organization, whether involving internal or external users.

• Accessibility: Public workspaces can be made accessible to both internal and external users, not just limited to full-access users within the company. This openness allows for a broader range of collaboration, making it possible to include partners or clients in specific projects or discussions.
• Discovery: These workspaces and their content are discoverable through the global search tool or by browsing the workspace repository, facilitating easy access for permitted users.
• Note: When public workspaces are opened to external users, SAP Build Work Zone prominently displays a dedicated warning across all screens of the workspace. This serves as a constant reminder of the workspace's accessibility to users outside the organization, helping to maintain awareness and manage the sharing of sensitive information appropriately.

• Accessibility: Entry to private workspaces is strictly by invitation or user list assignment, ensuring that access remains exclusive to a select group of members, whether they are internal or external to the organization. This restriction is crucial for maintaining the confidentiality of sensitive projects or discussions.
• Discovery: Private workspaces are not visible in the global search results or the workspace repository for non-members, maintaining their confidentiality. However, workspace administrators have the option to enable discovery, allowing for controlled visibility of the workspace title and description.
• Note: Similar to public workspaces, when external users are granted access to a private workspace, a dedicated warning is prominently displayed. This feature underscores the importance of discretion and the careful management of access to these exclusive areas, ensuring that all participants are aware of the workspace's restricted and sensitive nature.

In addition to the distinction between public and private workspaces, SAP Build Work Zone, advanced editions also offers a personalized feature known as "My Workspace." This unique space is designed to serve as a personal dashboard for each user, providing a centralized location for managing and accessing individual tasks, applications, and content tailored specifically to one's own work and preferences.

"My Workspace" is a user-centric area that automatically becomes available to all users within SAP Build Work Zone. It offers a customizable environment where users can add, organize, and access the tools and information most relevant to their daily activities and projects. This personalized workspace enhances productivity by reducing the time and effort needed to navigate through various parts of the platform to find necessary resources.

The classification of workspaces into public and private categories in SAP Build Work Zone allows organizations to manage collaboration effectively, balancing openness and confidentiality according to the project's needs. The platform's design to accommodate both internal and external users, coupled with clear warnings when external users are involved, ensures that all collaboration within SAP Build Work Zone is conducted with an appropriate level of security and awareness.

Aside from workpages as the central face of structuring and designing the content of a workspace, there are also many other features that can be optionally enabled by a workspace administrator.

The Feed Updates Section is pivotal for workspaces where user interaction and timely updates are crucial. This feature provides a chronological view of comments, posts, and other user actions, fostering an active and engaged community within the workspace. It's an excellent tool for keeping members informed and encouraging ongoing dialogue.

Managing workspace access is streamlined through the Membership Section. Administrators can invite new members, grant administrator rights, and oversee the workspace's membership. This feature ensures that access to the workspace is carefully controlled, aligning with the project's needs and maintaining security.

To enhance user engagement and content discovery, the Recommendations Section highlights trending or recommended content within the workspace. This feature supports users in exploring relevant information and resources, thereby enhancing their workspace experience and knowledge base.

For complex projects requiring additional layers of organization, the Sub-Workspaces Section allows for the creation of nested workspaces. This feature supports one level of sub-workspaces, each with independent membership, content, and feature control, offering unparalleled flexibility in content structuring and access management. In order to gain access to a sub-workspace, the user must be a member of the main workspace though.

The Content Section is essential for organizing and managing detailed information, instructional videos, presentations, and more. It supports the creation of folders for content grouping and organization, with the ability to upload content in bulk via zip files. Private folders can be created for exclusive content sharing, making it a versatile tool for content management within the workspace. Content can be seamlessly integrated into Workpages through the content widget, facilitating easy access and reference.

The Events Section enhances workspace collaboration by providing a calendar view of current and upcoming events, such as webinars or meetings. Members can customize their view (day, week, list), set preferences like time zone and the first day of the week, and add or import events, making it an invaluable tool for event planning and coordination.

For workspaces focused on knowledge sharing, the Knowledge Base Section allows members to create and store articles. This form-based approach to content creation distinguishes it from the more upload-centric Content Section, providing a structured way to disseminate knowledge within the workspace. If disabled, previously published articles will no longer be visible, ensuring content relevancy and accuracy.

Offering a more structured platform for detailed discussions, the Forum Section supports the creation of question and answer pages, discussions on ideas, or topics. It's designed for in-depth interaction, complementing the more dynamic Feed Updates Section by providing a space for more detailed and focused discussions.

To discuss ideas with the members of your workspace or to ask them questions and find solutions together, you can use forums. Forums structure your exchange of ideas and become a knowledge base where you can later look up topics that were already discussed or questions that were already answered.

There are different types of forums for different purposes. Your workspace administrator defines which of the following forum types are enabled for the workspace:

• Questions
• Ideas
• Discussions

The Task Section introduces collaborative task management to the workspace, listing current, overdue, and completed tasks. This feature is invaluable for project planning, event organization, and tracking progress, ensuring that all members are aligned and informed on the tasks at hand. Workspace-level tasks can also be made available in SAP Task Center if the integration is configured.