Visualize the extent of areas via beeline, zone or route

The display of are extents as beelines, distance zones or routes are available in every map of territory optimization and are suitable tools if you prefer manual optimization of territories instead of automatic optimization.

Beelines

For each territory, direct connecting lines are drawn between home location and all associated customers.

1. Open the desired map, e.g. Initial situation > Map.
2. In the top right corner of the map, click the cogwheel icon.
3. Change Display: Customers to Display: Beelines. The extent of all territories is displayed in beelines.
   
4. To go into more detail about a territory, select the desired area in the selection box All territories.
5. In the selection box that appears below, select With neighboring territories instead of Without neighboring territories to display overlaps.

An intersection with the lines of another area can be an indication that customer assignment is in need of improvement. We recommend using the more modern route display to analyze the situation correctly (see below Routes).

Distance zones

The distance zones provide information on how long your employees have to travel to reach the individual regions of your sales area.

1. Open the desired map, e.g. Initial situation > Map.
2. In the top right corner of the map, click the cogwheel icon.
3. Switch Display: Customers to Display: Distance zones.
4. The extent of all territories is displayed as distance zones in different shades of blue, by default in: up to 60 minutes driving time, up to 120 minutes driving time and up to 180 minutes driving time.
   
5. To change the distance zones, select the desired entry at Zone: 60 / 120 / 180 min.
6. The distance zone for a region is determined based on the nearest home location. If you only want to determine the distance zones based on one territory, switch the All territories selection box to the desired region.
7. If you want to display the selected territory alone, select Without neighboring territories instead of With neighboring territories.

Light or non-colored regions indicate that the support of customers is associated with more driving time there. To analyze the situation correctly, we recommend to color the customers according to driving time (see Show customer map for territory optimization).

Routes

In Routes display mode, there are two options for selection: Routes from home location and Typical routes. Due to the complexity of the calculation, routes cannot be displayed simultaneously for all territories.

Routes from home location

All routes are shown, which are necessary to reach every customer with call interval directly from the home location in the fastest way.

1. Open the desired map, e.g. Initial situation > Map.
2. In the top right corner of the map, click the cogwheel icon.
3. Change Display: Customers to Display: Routes. The alphabetically first territory is displayed with routes from the home location.
   
4. The green/orange/red coloring of the route indicates how long it will take to get there. By default, the limits are 60 and 120 minutes. Change this by clicking on Color: 60 / 120 min and select the desired durations.
5. Select the desired territory in the second selection box.
6. The neighboring areas of the selected territory are displayed in a lighter color. If you want to hide them completely, select Without neighboring territories instead of With neighboring territories.

The thickness of the route indicates how frequently a road must be used to reach all customers.

Typical routes

This display is similar to Routes from home location, whereby the routes between neighboring customers are also visualized. It provides a good insight into which roads the employee is likely to drive on and how often on their tours in order to visit their assigned customers in the desired call interval.

1. Open the desired map, e.g. Initial situation > Map.
2. In the top right corner of the map, click the cogwheel icon.
3. Change Display: Customers to Display: Routes. The alphabetically first territory is displayed with routes from the home location.
4. Click on Routes from home location and select Typical routes instead.
5. Select the desired territory in the second selection box.

The displayed overlaps of routes between the territories are an indicator that there is potential for optimization.