Why the Need to Sync Employee Profile Data?
Viewing employee profile information on an interactive office floor plan forms the constitutes Floor Plan Mapper’s core functionality. Floor Plan Mapper provides does provide the tools to keep staff profile data up to date, however, often this information is managed in other corporate information systems such as Microsoft Office 365.
Hence the need to keep Floor Plan Mapper in sync with an external employee profile information system. Some of the most common issues triggering the need to sync employee profile data include:
- Employee name changes. Usually as result of a marriage, etc.
- New employee hires.
- Staff leaving the company as a result of a retirement or layoff
- Job position/title changes
- Seating location changes. Floor Plan Mapper can automatically update employee seating locations when assigned a new desk or seat location. This feature is discussed in more detail below.
Employee Profile Data Sources
Floor Plan Mapper Online provides an easy way to sync up employee profile data from any source. Some of the most common data sources for employee profile information include:
Exporting Profile Details
The first step to ensure employee profile details are in sync with a corporate staff information system is to develop a repeatable method for extracting the profile data into a format Floor Plan Mapper can use. By default, Floor Plan Mapper supports data in CSV format. The CSV file Floor Plan Mapper will import does not need to have a specific structure, or schema. During the import process, data in the CSV file will be mapped to the Floor Plan Mapper data fields.
In the case of Office 365, a csv file can easily be created by utilizing a Powershell script. For the Windows Active Directory, employee profile information can also be easily exported by utilizing the AD management console, or, also via a Powershell script. Google Workspace client can make use of the Google Admin Console to quickly export a list of employees and their associated profile data.
Syncing Data with Floor Plan Mapper
The Floor Plan Mapper Online Import function also provides the ability to ‘sync’ or update employee data. The following sync operations are available:
- Update seating locations. Each employee/desk has a unique ID. This ID is referred to as “Desk Number.” For example, Bob sits in Desk 200, and Lucy sits in Desk 300. In the updated employee profile data import file, Bob and Lucy are assigned new desk numbers. In this case, Lucy will now sit in Desk 200 and Bob will sit in Desk 300. The advanced import function will ensure after the import, Bob and Lucy will automatically be assigned the new locations in Floor Plan Mapper Online. This import function does not require an Administrator to have to manually drag Bob and Lisa to new desk seating locations.
- Sync up employee profile data. In the event any of an employee’s profile data (e.g. job title, name, telephone, etc.) changes, this data can be imported/synced into Floor Plan Mapper Online, saving the task of manually updating this information.
- Append new employees. Any employees in the CSV data file that do not currently exist in Floor Plan Mapper Online will automatically be added.
- Delete employees (optional). Any employees not in the CSV data file will automatically be removed from Floor Plan Mapper Online.
Summary
Keeping employee attributes up to date on interactive floor plans has never been easier. Setup a scheduled task and data will always be in sync. Sign up for a free Floor Plan Mapper Trial to give the advanced Office 365 syncing functionality a try first hand.
