Schedule Optimization travel estimate providers

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Schedule Optimization travel estimate providers

    Accurate travel time estimation is critical for efficient allocation of work order tasks to agents in Schedule Optimization. The system supports two travel estimate providers: Straight-line and Beans.AI. Administrators must select a travel estimate provider for each qualifier-level group to ensure optimal scheduling based on travel times between agent and task locations.

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    Travel Estimate Providers

    • Straight-line: Uses a simplified calculation based on straight-line distance. Administrators can configure speed limits and apply multipliers to adjust travel time estimates depending on whether the estimated time is under or over 15 minutes. This method serves as a fallback when a map provider is not selected.
    • Beans.AI: A supported map provider offering more precise travel time estimates by querying real-world distances. Administrators create connection and credential records in IntegrationHub to enable this service.

    Configuration and Limits

    • Administrators can configure travel estimate settings under Schedule Optimization Scheduling Attributes, including speed multipliers for straight-line estimates.
    • For Beans.AI, administrators can limit the number of location points per query to manage performance. If the number of locations exceeds this limit, the system defaults to straight-line calculations.
    • The default maximum number of location points in a provider call is 300, adjustable via the Travel Time Estimates property.
    • Beans.AI configuration includes request threshold and maximum location element count settings to handle expected query volumes efficiently.

    Practical Benefits

    By selecting and properly configuring a travel estimate provider, ServiceNow customers can achieve more accurate travel time estimations, leading to better optimized scheduling and improved service efficiency. The fallback to straight-line estimation ensures continuity if map provider limits are exceeded or not preferred.

    Travel estimate providers used by Schedule Optimization.

    Efficient allocation of work order tasks to agents depends on accurate estimation of travel time, taking into account both the agent's location and the task's location. Schedule Optimization supports two options to calculate distances between agents and task, Straight-line and Beans.AI. An administrator is required to select a travel estimate provider for all qualifier-level groups. See, Create a scheduling attribute for Schedule Optimization for more information on where the options are located.

    Straight-line

    To enter straight-line travel estimate configuration properties, an administrator can navigate to All > Schedule Optimization > Configuration > Scheduling Attributes and open the travel estimate configuration record.

    In the General tab, you can add the speed limit for the region in the speed multiplier field.

    In the Multipliers tab, the multipliers defined in the straight-line calculation, are the values that the estimated straight-line travel time is multiplied by, depending on the time bracket the estimate falls in. If the travel time is less than 15 minutes, multiply by a value greater than 1, to increase the estimated travel time. If the travel time is greater than 15 minutes, multiply by a positive value smaller than 1 to decrease the estimated travel time.

    Note:
    Straight-line distance calculation is a fallback logic in case a customer doesn’t want to choose a map provider for travel time estimates.

    Beans.AI

    Beans.AI is the map provider that Schedule Optimization supports for travel time estimates.

    To create a connection and credential record for Beans.AI, an administrator can navigate to All > IntegrationHub > Connection and Credentials > Connection and Credentials Aliases.

    Travel estimates are obtained every time Schedule Optimization runs. An administrator can limit the number of locations that are queried from Beans.AI. For example, if optimization runs for two agents and two tasks, a 4x4 matrix is sent to Beans.AI to find the shortest distance to the new location. A 4x4 matrix sends 16 location elements to Beans.AI. If the number of locations queried exceeds the set value, the query defaults to straight-line. To change the maximum number of location points allowed in a provider call, an administrator can navigate to All > Schedule Optimization > Configuration > > Properties > and change the value in the Travel Time Estimates field. The default value is set to 300.

    To change the configurations for Beans.AI, an administrator can navigate to All > Map Integrations for Field Service > Map Provider Configuration.

    By default, the Inputs field is set to Beans.AI. By default Decision table is set up as follows:
    Table 1. Fields in Beans.AI configuration for travel time estimates
    Field Value
    Request Threshold Limit 5000 [considering 50 runs a day with 100 groups in each run]
    Max Location Element Count 250,000 [considering 500 x500 matrix support per Map Provider call]
    Note:
    Straight-line distance calculation is a fallback logic in case a customer doesn’t want to choose a map provider for travel time estimates.