Advanced Collections uses segments to limit the scope of a scoring engine and improve system performance. Each scoring engine must have an associated segment. Segments create a subset of records, or view, in the database to score against. For example, a collections organization could run scoring for a segment of all customers, or it could create a segment to limit customers by variables, such as country, annual revenue, or disputed transactions. Scoring engines use segments to optimize performance, score groups of customers differently, and support operations in different regions around the world. For example, you can process Australian invoices when it is nighttime in Australia and United States invoices when it is nighttime in the US.

Every scoring engine must have a segment. Your database administrator creates a subset of the database called a view based on a PL/SQL query or a function. Then your Collections Administrator creates a segment, associates it with a database view, and then adds the segment to a scoring engine.