--- sourceDocument: Australia Field Service Management sourceDocumentLink: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/field-service-management Release : - australia ft:locale : - en-US ft:publication_title : - Australia Field Service Management ft:clusterId : - fsm bundleId : - fsm workflow : - Customer and Industry --- # Intraday optimization # Optimizing technician schedules at set intervals {#ariaid-title1} Release version: Australia Updated September 10, 2026 ![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 2 minutes to read Summarize ![AI sparkle icon](https://servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ai-sparkle-icon) Summarized using AI This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete. ## Summary of Optimizing technician schedules at set intervals This functionality enables continuous optimization of technician schedules by running schedule optimization at defined intervals throughout the day. It helps ServiceNow customers efficiently reassign tasks and maximize technician productivity by responding dynamically to operational changes such as cancellations, technician unavailability, and new high-priority tasks. Show full answer Show less ## Key Features * **Intraday Optimization:** An event-based schedule optimization mode that runs at set intervals (default every 60 minutes, minimum every 15 minutes) to adjust schedules based on triggering events like canceled tasks, technicians running late, sick or on PTO, or new high-priority tasks. * **Policy Configuration:** Administrators create policies comprising optimization features that prioritize task assignments and set constraints on assignment groups or territories. This controls which tasks and technicians are considered during optimization. * **Trigger and Job Creation:** When relevant events occur, corresponding intraday events are created; during the next optimization cycle, specific groups or territories with these events are optimized, excluding schedule-locked tasks. * **Technician Starting Location Determination:** The starting location for each technician during optimization is set based on their last scheduled task location, configured start/end locations in resource schedule attributes, or their home location as a fallback. This starting point remains fixed for the duration of the optimization cycle. * **Prioritized Event Optimization:** Enables immediate response to critical events by triggering focused optimization on affected technicians and tasks without rescheduling the entire group or territory. * **Manual Optimization Triggering:** Dispatchers can manually invoke optimization from the Dispatcher Workspace if intraday optimization is enabled and an on-demand applicable policy is configured in the scheduling attributes. ## Practical Benefits * Ensures technician schedules are continuously updated to reflect real-time changes, improving responsiveness and task completion rates. * Minimizes downtime and inefficiency caused by unforeseen technician absences or delays. * Allows dispatchers to react quickly to urgent scheduling needs without disrupting all assignments. * Maintains control over optimization scope through policies and constraints, preserving operational rules and preferences. * Prevents manual schedule edits while optimization is running, ensuring schedule integrity. Efficiently reassign tasks and maximize productivity by continuously running schedule optimization at selected intervals throughout the day. ## About intraday optimization {#optimize-your-schedules-intraday__section_mvr_hlv_4xb} Intraday is an event-based mode of Schedule Optimization that runs on a set interval to optimize schedules. It triggers when the following events occur: * Canceled tasks * Technician running late * Technician calling in sick * Technician using PTO * New high priority task added Create a policy, a grouping of optimization features that run in combination, to define the rules for optimization. Policy objectives prioritize technician task assignment. Policy constraints determine the criteria that must be met for an assignment group or territory to be assigned a task. The basic intra-day flow runs every 60 minutes by default, with a minimum option of every 15 minutes. When a trigger condition is met, an intraday event is created. When the next intraday flow runs, an intra-day job is created for each of the groups or territories that have intraday events and those qualifiers are optimized. When a group or territory is selected for optimization, all tasks within the group are considered for optimization, except for schedule-locked tasks. When optimization is complete and the tasks are updated, the intraday job shows a status of Assignment Complete. When intraday optimization runs, it determines each technician's starting location in the following order: 1. Location of the technician's previous scheduled task (if applicable) 2. Start or End location specified in the technician's Resource Schedule Attributes 3. Technician's home location (fallback) Admins configure Start and End locations for each technician in their Resource Schedule Attributes. See [Configure an agent's profile](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/aUNogT8JFWG6icHwNk0_pA "Configure shifts, skills, schedules, and schedule attributes for agents in your organization.") for details. The starting location is locked in when the engine runs and remains fixed for task assignments until the next optimization cycle. Prioritized event optimization responds immediately to critical events instead of waiting for the next scheduled intraday run. When a high-priority event occurs, prioritized optimization triggers shortly after and targets only the specific technicians and tasks affected by the event. This focused approach allows urgent scheduling changes to be handled quickly without rescheduling all tasks in the group or territory. Dispatchers can manually trigger optimization to run from the Dispatcher Workspace when both conditions are met: * Intraday optimization configuration is enabled * An on demand applicable policy has been added to the scheduling attribute See [Create a scheduling attribute for Schedule Optimization](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/81xNM0itm8aRQDkiML0QKw "Create scheduling attributes to specify which tasks to optimize and define the rules to perform the optimization. You can create different scheduling attributes configurations for each policy.") to add an on demand applicable policy to the configuration. Note that agent schedules can't be manually updated until intraday optimization is complete.