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Key takeaways from the WSD Roundtable 2025
At our latest WSD roundtable, representatives from diverse industries in the market shared their most pressing challenges, their future aspirations and many of their expectations. However, it was more than a conversation. It was a way for both attendees and experts to discover real-world challenges, solutions, and future aspirations to create an efficient workspace.
5 minutes
Table of contents
Contact person
Eduard Arends
WSD Expert
WSD transforms Employee Experience
We kicked off our WSD roundtable with a success story from one of our valued clients, a global retailer. The story proved that with help and support, it’s possible to overcome operational threats and create a better workflow.
Before WSD, everyday tasks were managed manually through Excel sheets, emails, and point-solution systems. Employees faced challenges in case management, navigating 200 different types of facility tickets, which therefore led to delays, confusion, and lack of transparency.
With WSD, the company has simplified their case management system, from 200 workplace ticket types to 15. Improving employee experience and efficiency by providing faster solutions. The introduction of the tools MeetNow and BookNow has also changed visitor and reservation management, making room bookings, guest registrations and other manual tasks effortless.
Replacing these old systems with an upgraded digital workspace has drastically changed employee experience by not only optimizing operations but creating smoother workflows and a user-friendly experience for everyone.
Is Data the MVP?
According to our WSD expert, Eduard, the biggest lesson learned through this process is data. We often underestimate how powerful data can be when it’s used the right way:
- Accurate workplace and office data: helps facility teams understand how space is being used and track occupancy
- Up-to-date floor plans: together with occupancy data, it can enhance employee experience when reserving desks or meeting rooms via the portal, Outlook/Google, Kiosk, or the NowMobile App.
- Spotting underperforming assets: enterprise assets, facility assets such as furniture. Help identify patterns of failure that may require a potential vendor change.
- Having data is one thing, using it is another. Leveraging e.g. sensor data to enable managers (and AI Agents) to propose improvements and make data-driven decisions.
It is all about analyzing the process and the data to achieve the best results.
Common pain points
Despite the different contexts throughout the industries, the struggles remained the same. These pain points are not just common, but critical in ensuring long-term success for a company.
Email is slowing you down!
A recurring theme in this WSD roundtable was that employees typically prefer sending an email to the service desk and waiting for a follow up. People like to send emails and get it off their chest. Using the portal, on the other hand, just feels like more effort, with forms to fill out and extra steps to go through. But this habit can backfire to employees as email impacts efficiency which means:
- No categorization of facility cases: making it hard to assigns requests accurately
- No prioritization: unable to detect urgent cases
- No collaboration: teams can’t work on the same case simultaneously
- Most importantly: No data insights
“People Contact” and company culture
The email phenomenon mentioned above affects companies that are used to “People Contact”. Over time, people start to see the benefits — there’s no need to reply to countless emails or explain things multiple times. Requests go straight to the right expert, and follow-up is quicker. It is all about making it easier for the revenue-generating employees. For companies that value face-to-face interaction, ServiceNow offers more than just technology; it combines design with the ability to customize it to your company’s needs.
Stop wasting space
Another very important pain point discussed is the misuse or underuse of office spaces. Examples of a room for 12 people being used only by 1 person can become part of the daily struggle in the office if not managed correctly. WSD can help optimize office spaces by providing transparency through dashboard analytics that show most meetings average 4-5 people, making many large 8-12 person rooms unnecessary. It can provide meeting room optimization based on group size, location, and historical usage due to the smart room booking app, MeetNow.
Will you be in the office tomorrow?
With companies turning to hybrid workspaces, the need to know when other fellow employees are in the office becomes evident. In our WSD roundtable, we came up with a solution to this problem. A way to let employees know when they will be in the office and the option to tailor it specifically to where they are seated, through the Employee Presence option in WSD.
How WSD is shaping tomorrow
Technology is always evolving, and so is ServiceNow and WSD. In this roundtable, future discussions were also a main topic, and not only from the experts but the attendees themselves. Examples such as the assets sending error messages to their portals as soon as an operational failure occurs were captivating. Moreover, with the increase in usage of sensors with WSD, someone pointed out the mind-bending idea of the sensors detecting when someone is having a heart attack. Additionally, with the integration of AI, companies can now analyze data and provide solutions in a much simpler way. One major highlight is AI Agents, they can be customized to act on behalf of facility managers and coordinators. For example, when a workplace event needs to be adjusted, they act accordingly by checking alternative locations, updating room availability, and informing all stakeholders affected with minimal disruption. The possibilities can be endless, and this all starts with WSD.