Schedule Optimization Flashcards
Key benefits of schedule optimization
Key Benefits
Boost customer satisfaction
Create more predictable schedules, give preference to high-priority work, and help ensure SLAs are met. Focus on solving exceptional cases while Schedule Optimization handles the majority of tasks.
Decrease costs
Coordinate and direct a large number of agents efficiently. Schedule the best resource to help ensure a first-time fix. Reduce travel time and overtime.
Increase revenue
Fit more jobs into working hours to boost customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Agent productivity
Increase agent productivity by enabling quick transitions between assignments. Minimize travel time to reduce fuel consumption and lower emissions.
What are Schedule Optimization constraints?
Constraints are requirements for the tasks that Schedule Optimization assigns to agents.
Hard constraints
Hard constraints are mandatory and tasks won’t be assigned unless the assignment group meets the constraint.
List some Hard Constraints
Constraint Description
Mandatory Skills - Tasks that can be assigned only to agents with these skills.
Mandatory parts - Tasks requiring parts that can be assigned only to agents that have the necessary number of parts in their inventory.
Limit agent travel radius - Agents can’t be assigned tasks located beyond a travel radius limit from their home location.
Limit agent travel time between stops - Limits the maximum travel time between locations on the agent’s routes including the time to and from the home location.
Allow travel outside work hours - Allow flagged agents to travel outside work hours. When used, this value is applied to each shift separately. The limit value is added both before and after the shift rather than cumulatively.
Allow overtime - Allow agents to work overtime so no penalty is added to the objective. When used, this value is applied to each shift separately. For example, a two-hour limit means that each agent’s shift is allowed at most two hours of overtime.
Honor preferred and secondary agents - Tasks with agent preferences are assigned only to those agents.
Ignore excluded agents - Tasks with excluded agents can’t be assigned to those agents.
Honor access hours Use the task’s access hours instead of its time window when access hours are defined.
Honor flexible breaks - Enables setting a break of fixed duration that can be applied during a specified period of time, for example, a one-hour lunch break between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Discuss Schedule Optimization Configuration
Schedule Optimization workflow
The Schedule Optimization workflow comprises four main elements: Policies, Scheduling attributes, Batches, and Scopes. The workflow involves configuring policies and scheduling attributes, creating batches to execute optimizations, and scopes optimized by the appropriate method. There are additional configurations that will trigger optimization to run throughout the day as scheduling conditions change. By following these steps, you can effectively optimize schedules based on your specified criteria and constraints.
- Activate the Schedule Optimization plugin. For more information, see Activate Schedule Optimization.
- Create policies to determine how to optimize agent schedules based on defined objectives or constraints. For instance, if a company has 20 technicians with appointments in a city, you can configure a policy to minimize driving time. By running a batch the night before, the system evaluates all tasks and generate an optimized schedule that minimizes agents’ driving time. For more information, see Create a policy for Schedule Optimization.
- Configure the scheduling attributes to create reusable sets of common optimization settings like the default travel estimate provider and task conditions to consider when optimization runs. For more information, see Create a scheduling attribute for Schedule Optimization.
- Create optimization batches with the desired schedules and settings. For more information, see Create a batch for Schedule Optimization.
- Create optimization scopes to associate batches with existing scheduling attribute configurations, optimizing either by assignment groups or territories. For more information, see Create a scope for Schedule Optimization
- Schedule batches to run automatically to assign tasks to agents and optimize schedules.
- Optionally, create intraday configurations to automatically update agents schedules in response to events, such as an agent running late.
Explain schedule optimization based on territories
Consider the following points while implementing Schedule Optimization based on territories.
Plugin dependencies
Optimize tasks based on territories with Schedule Optimization when the Territory Planning plugin is installed.
**If the Territory Planning plugin isn’t installed or the Territory Model is inactive, the optimization seamlessly continues relying on assignment groups.
**If both the Field Service Territory Planning and Schedule Optimization plugins are installed, but the Territory Model is inactive, tasks are optimized based on assignment groups. Keep territory-related batches inactive until the Territory Planning plugin is activated.
**If both the Territory Planning and Schedule Optimization plugins are installed and the Territory Model is active, tasks are exclusively optimized based on territories. You can create scopes specifically for territories.
Activation prerequisite
Before activating the Field Service Territory Model, ensure batches optimized by assignment groups are inactive, and batches optimized by territories are active.
Post-activation
After activating the Field Service Territory Model, tasks need territories selected for Schedule Optimization to assign them to agents.
Territory-Centric optimization
With both plugins active and the Field Service Territory Model enabled, tasks are exclusively optimized based on territories.
Intraday efficiency
Resolves complexities of agents handling multiple territories in a day, especially during multiple shifts.
Overlapping Territories management
In the Field Service Territory Model, territories can overlap either in geography or with shared agents. Machine learning-driven capabilities consider these overlaps for effective assignment and management in task optimization.
How to activate scheduling optimization?
Activate the Schedule Optimization plugin (com.snc_schedule_optimization) for Field Service Management with the administrator role.
Before you begin
Role required: admin
Schedule Optimization requires a separate subscription from the rest of the Now Platform.
To purchase a subscription, contact your ServiceNow account manager. When you purchase a subscription, certain plugins are activated automatically. If a plugin doesn’t appear in the instance, submit a request via the Now Support Service Catalog.
Schedule Optimization requires the following plugins. Ensure that these plugins are activated before you install Schedule Optimization.
Predictive Intelligence (com.glide.platform_ml)
Provides various capabilities and solution types for training the system to predict, recommend, and drive data outcomes.
Field Service Management (com.snc.work_management)
Adds a number of plugins related to agent scheduling and work order task management.
Map Integrations for Field Service (com.snc.app_fsm_map_integr)
Performs intelligent travel time estimates to allocate work order tasks to agents, taking into account both the agent’s location and the task’s location.
How to create a policy for a schedule optimization?
Before you begin
Role required: wm_admin
About this task
Policies help achieve your optimization goals by combining objectives and constraints. Understanding your goals lets you customize optimization strategies.
For instance, if you have 20 technicians working in a city, you can set a policy to minimize travel time. By running optimization before the day begins, tasks are organized efficiently, reducing commute time. You can adjust existing policies by adding objectives and constraints to prioritize tasks and specify criteria for task assignment groups. For more information on objectives and constraints, see Objectives and Constraints used with Schedule Optimization.
Procedure
Navigate to All > Schedule Optimization > Administration > Policies.
How to add objectives to a policy
About this task
Objectives serve as the compass that guides task prioritization in Schedule Optimization. Objectives set the goals of a Schedule Optimization policy. The following are the default and optional objectives in Schedule Optimization.
Default objectives
Maximize task assignment- Focused on ensuring as many tasks as possible are scheduled. Adds as many tasks as possible to agent schedules to maximize productivity.
Minimize travel time- Targeted at reducing agent travel time. Limits the travel time between tasks for all agents.
Note: These objectives are default and cannot be removed from your policies.
Optional objectives
Maximize High-Priority Task Assignments: Prioritizes urgent tasks.
Minimize Under/Over-Skilled Agent Assignments: Matches task complexity with agent skill level.
Minimize Truck Rolls: Limits the number of tasks per agent per shift.
Minimize SLA Violations: Keeps service delivery within agreed timeframes.
Minimize Overtime: Caps agent work hours within standard time ranges.
Maximize Balance in Tasks & Work Hours: Distributes tasks and hours evenly among agents.
Note: Objectives are optional but act as levers, adjusting your optimization to better suit your needs. For example, if Minimize overtime is set as an objective, Schedule Optimization will try to assign tasks to agents during normal hours. If that’s not possible, tasks will be assigned to agents even if it will require overtime. For a list of the objectives, see Objectives and Constraints used with Schedule Optimization.
Procedure
Navigate to All > Schedule Optimization > Administration > Policies.
Select the policy.
Select the Objective tab.
