Note: Applicable only for accounts in which workspaces have been enabled.


A workspace is where members of one team can work together to manage employee requests without compromising on security. Each team can have its own workspace, configure its workspace-level admin settings, and control access to its tickets and other workspace data.


Workspaces can be configured to suit the specific needs of each team and have different form fields, workflows and access permissions. This allows teams to co-exist seamlessly on a single platform while still maintaining operational integrity & exclusivity.


Freshservice allows admins to create multiple workspaces within a single account. Some benefits of using multiple workspaces:

  • Isolation of data 

  • Separation of configuration 

  • Delegation of administration 

  • Cross-functional collaboration and reporting 

  • Unified employee experience 


TABLE OF CONTENTS

What is a primary workspace?

The first workspace created in the account is tagged as the primary workspace. It functions as follows:

  • Any ticket raised will be assigned to the primary workspace if its destination workspace cannot be identified. 

    • If the workspace field has not been enabled for the ‘Report an Issue’ form on the support portal, tickets will be assigned to the primary workspace. If a global workflow rule has been configured, it will route the ticket to the right workspace.

    • If a ticket has been created through a marketplace app, integrations or API call and the value for the workspace field is not specified, that ticket will be directed to the primary workspace. 

    • Marketplace Apps that reference your service desk’s form fields can only refer to the primary workspace’s form fields. 

Note:

  • Tickets raised via the Service Catalog will be routed to the home workspace of the service item.

  • Tickets raised via email will be assigned to the home workspace of that email address.

When should you create a workspace? 

A workspace becomes a business need in all of the below scenarios:

  • Offer employees a unified support portal to raise requests, irrespective of the department they need services from.

  • Keep infrastructure and maintenance costs in check with a single, user-friendly platform

  • Secure platform to collaborate extensively and protect sensitive employee information 

  • Configure different settings for each team and require exclusive performance tracking

  • Exercise complete control over data access & permissions  

Who can create/manage/delete a workspace?

Any agent who gets the ‘Manage Workspaces, Agents, Agent Groups, and Agent Roles’ privilege at an account-wide level. The permissions include: 

  • Create/manage/publish/delete/access all workspaces in that account 

  • Convert workspaces to restricted workspaces

  • Limited admin control of the workspace (specific privileges need to be assigned)

  • Access certain user management settings like agents, agent groups & agent roles

Single vs Multiple Workspaces

Single workspace: 

By default, the existing service desk is created with a single workspace which is also the primary workspace of the service desk. This workspace contains all account-level settings such as user management, plan & billing, field settings etc.


Multiple workspaces:

As soon as more than one workspace is added to the service desk, a section called global settings is introduced to allow admins to centrally manage key operations such as user management, plans and billing, field settings etc. 


Modules such as Field Manager, Email Notifications, Workflow Automator, etc. will also have a global equivalent and settings added here will be applied to each workspace in the account respectively.


Learn how to manage multiple workspaces here.

What is a template? 

A template is a starter kit that helps set up workspaces & go live faster. Currently, there are five pre-built departmental templates available for IT, HR, Facilities, Finance, and Legal. Each template comes with service items, sample solution articles and workflows for specific teams that accelerate the workspace creation journey. 


You can also start from scratch with a blank workspace and get started with Freshservice without any sample data.   

Draft mode

What is a draft workspace?

A draft workspace is a workspace that is being built, configured and taking shape but not yet complete.




What does the draft mode enable you to do?

The draft mode ensures a secure space to configure a workspace and gives the necessary time to build the same. Any activity in the draft mode will not be exposed and hence will not impact the support portal in any way. Thus no tickets can be raised to the draft workspace from the support portal. Requesters will not view this workspace in the drop-down menu and cannot submit tickets or access service items/solution articles. 


Changes in the draft mode are not exposed to any other agent outside the draft workspace. Changes are exposed only to member agents who: 

  • Can view the draft workspace & create tickets

  • Can view work items such as tickets from a specific workspace using the workspace filter

  • Can complete draft workspace set-up (solution articles, service items, business hours, SLA policies). This will not be published until the workspace is published.

  • Can create sample tickets, test workflows and business rules

  • Can move tickets from a draft workspace to a published workspace

  • Cannot create tickets from requester portals, but only from the agent portal


Note: 

  • Service Requests cannot be raised since they are in draft mode

  • No active tickets are allowed to enter a draft workspace. However, draft tickets can be moved to active workspaces.

Publishing a workspace 

Publishing a workspace is the final step in creating a workspace. Publishing means making the workspace live for usage. 


Assuming a primary workspace is already present in the service desk, the second workspace will be in draft mode. When the draft workspace is published, requesters & agents will be prompted to select a workspace as a drop-down in the ‘Report an issue' form. 



Depending on the workspace input chosen by the end user, the form fields will dynamically change as configured.



Admins can choose to opt-out of choosing a workspace by de-selecting the 'Requester can edit’ check box. In this case, no drop-down is displayed & the primary workspace form is rendered by default.



Faq's


1. How to delete or deactivate a workspace?


Navigate to Admin, then click on the three lines in the top left. Next, click on the three dots near the manage settings and select Manage Workspaces. Find the workspace you want to delete, click on it, then click the three dots near the edit icon, and select Delete.


Note: All the work in this workspace will be permanently deleted and you will not be able to retrieve it.


2. Is it possible to convert a published workspace to draft?


No, it is not possible to convert a workspace back to draft once it has been published in Freshservice. Once a workspace is published, it can only be deleted.


3. When raising a new incident ticket in Freshservice, is it possible to hide certain workspaces from the selection list, allowing you to choose which workspace the ticket belongs to, without deleting the workspace?


Yes, you will be able to do this using the business rules. Navigate to Global Settings Admin > Business Rules > Create a new rule > Set the "Applies to" based on your requirement and add any conditions if required. In the Action select "Set options" for "Workspace" and add the respective workspaces which would be visible to the end users.


4. How to create fields for a particular workspace?


Navigate to the respective Workspace > Field Manager and have the respective fields created here. 

Fields created within a workspace are exclusively accessible within that workspace. However, default fields, like the category field, can be updated only under Global Settings> Field Manager> Ticket Fields.