How do I optimize travel key configuration?
For accurate estimations of activity and travel durations, you must configure the activity and travel duration keys in such a way that the key values generated are neither too specific nor too broad. If the key values are too specific, Oracle Fusion Field Service wouldn’t have enough reported data to estimate durations for each key value. If the key values are too broad, the accuracy of the estimations might be compromised.
For example, if the configured travel key generates travel key values that are too specific, each travel key value covers only a small geographical area. This leads to a situation where there are too few activity locations in each travel key, resulting in very little reported data between different pairs of travel keys. The application would take a longer time to generate accurate travel estimations between all pairs of travel keys and would also use the default travel duration very often, since there wouldn't be enough activity locations and reported travel data for each travel key.
On the other hand, if the configured travel key is too broad, each travel key value covers a large geographical area. This results in a huge variation in the reported travel data from one travel key to another. This variation affects the overall accuracy of the travel estimations.
This is also true for activity duration keys if they're too specific or too broad.
Conditions for a Key to be Considered Sub-Optimal
The conditions for a key to be considered sub-optimal are:
Activity Duration Key
- An active activity duration key is considered as too broad if it generates five (5) or fewer unique activity duration key values and shows very high variations in the reported durations for the activities belonging to the same key value.
- The key is considered as too specific if more than 40% of the activities don't have enough reported data (at least 25 activities) for the key they belong to.
Travel Duration Key
- A Travel duration key is considered as too broad if more than 40% of activities use keys that are very large (greater than 200 sq km/75 sq mi).
- A Travel duration key is considered as too specific if more than 40% of activities use keys that don't have enough reported data (at least 15 activities) for the key they belong to.
Notification Message
Oracle Fusion Field Service notifies Administrators if the configured activity or travel duration keys are either too specific or too broad to provide accurate duration estimations. If the configured keys are found to generate keys that are too specific or too broad, a banner message is displayed on the Configuration page. You can click 'Configure' to open the Statistics page and modify the keys appropriately. A similar banner is also displayed on the Statistics page.
The notification helps you take corrective actions based on the suggestions provided in the message. It also ensures that good quality of duration keys are available, which helps in estimating more accurate activity and travel duration.
You can see more details about the corrective actions below the configured keys. Apart from the banners, the administrator who last modified the key gets a notification in the Collaboration > Notification tab informing about the configured keys being sub-optimal.
Are the configured keys too specific or too broad is checked either when the daily statistics are calculated automatically, or when the administrator applies the configuration changes manually on the Statistics page. This check is performed only for the 'Active' activity duration key. The inactive duration keys aren't checked.