Territory Manager Reference Guide  -  Districting

As the crow flies (calculation type)

Searching as the crow flies results in a districting without any reference to the road network. It is faster, and less precise, however it provides a rough idea of the simulation.

Apply by sector*

Associated to Allow editing. Selecting this option allows you to choose whether a given modification is applied by sector, or globally. When activated, the same proportion of candidate points in all sectors will be subject to a change in assignment. If the option is not activated, modifications will be heterogeneous, depending on the sector.

Allow editing*

This option allows you to retain some of the previous assignment, allowing only X% of points on the map to change sector.
Linked setting: Max to reassign (%)

Capacity / Volume (constraint)* or Set up volume and capacity correspondences

This constraint sets up a relation between a quantity assigned to an object and a capacity assigned to a site for the assignment.
Each site can be assigned a maximm capacity. Once this capacity has been reached, no further points or geographic zones (these having themselves an assigned quantity) can be assigned to the site. These points or geographhic zones will therefore be assigned to the second nearest site, if this has capacity.

Workload

Applies balancing based on an estimated journey time and on an indicator representing visit time. The journey time is the time from the first to the last visit. The journey between sites (or barycentres) and the first visit, and the journey between the last visit and the site (or barycentre) are not taken into account.

Compatibility*

The application will assign to each object the site that is nearest and has the same compatibility value as the object. This indicator must be present on sites and objects.

Grouping criterion*

This option allows you to group a series of points having a common value stored in a field that renders them unsplittable in the event of an assignment.
In this way, points sharing a common attribute, which can be definedby selecting the field, will be assigned to the same site.

Balance territories*

Depending on the number of points and/or depending on indicators present:
- Three indicators maximum in addition to the number of points to district the geographic points or zones.
- The number of points or an indicator to district objects around the sites.

Exclude unassigned

Unassigned objects will not be included in the districting proposed.

Visit frequency*

Provides estimated journey time to weight with the number of visits made to the point in the period analysed (week, month, year, etc.). This can be linked to the Journey time indicator and edited when estimating this indicator.

Indicators

Enables balancing on the districting as a function of an indicator.

Shortest (calculation type)

Searching on shortest, via the road network, results in more compact sectors, because the distances travelled are minimised

Fastest (calculation type)

Searching on fastest, via the road network, results in sectors that are less geographically compact, but more accessible.

Limit in minutes
Limit in kilometers

A search radius around sites in terms of duration or distance can be defined. Points lying outside the search limits will not be assigned.
To assign all points whatever their distance to the site, the search limit must be set to 0. This can be edited when estimating the Journey time indicator.

Number of points

Indicates the number of points used when calculating the estimation.
A low value (for example, 10) takes little account of the point density.
A high value on the other hand (for example 100) will give priority to the nearest points. This can be adjusted when estimating the Journey time indicator.

Geographic points / zones

Select one of three options:
All,+ Selection,
Assigned only.
This functionality allows you to run the automatic districting on all objects, selected objects only, or just assigned objects.

Districting priority*

Associated to Balance territories. Defines a possible weighting in relation to the perfect balance between the different sectors. When Districting is applied, the algorithm takes into account the statistical rule used (equal sectors according to X indicators) as well as the sector’s geography (compact sector, without holes). The closer the cursor is to Balanced the greater the respect for the statistical rule will be. The closer the cursor is to Compactness the more compact the sector will be.
Under Advanced settings, when using several criteria, you can give one indicator dominance over another by moving one cursor closer to Balanced, and the cursor of the other indicator towards Compactness.

Respect all criteria*

If this is checked, when a point has several compatibilities (separated by semicolons ;) it will only be assignable to the site that also has all these compatibilities (separated by semi-colons ;).

District visible sectors only

Only takes into account sectors that are visible on the map (hidden sectors will remain unchanged). If no sector is hidden, this option is not available. This makes it possible to lock certain sectors so they are not taken into account in an automatic districting.

Workload*

This option results in a districting balanced on an estimation of journey time. If combined with the Visit time indicator, you will obtain a balancing on workload.

Calculation type

The calculation type (fastest, shortest, as the crow flies) allows you to strategically shape the resulting sectors.
Your choice will depend on the type of sectors you require, the business constraints (economise on time or kilometers), as well as the geographic coverage balanced (in densely populated urban areas, balancing on shortest is not ideal, and the opposite is true for rural areas).