How to Work with Watchers (Actionable Insights)
- Jan Panoušek
Out of the box, there is an Actionable Insight type available, delivered by the Actionable Insights Accelerator as a Model Class. It is a Datamart or Dashboard Watcher template that can be configured to detect trends in you transactional data and create actions for users. You can use this template (or type) to build your own Watcher instance.
Watcher creation can be triggered from several places in the Pricefx application:
From the application menu Actionable Insights > Watchers.
From any chart in the Analytics module (using the context of the chart)
From Sales Insights or Customer Insights Dashboards (using the context of the dashboard)
We recommend reviewing these implementation examples that describe in detail the possible usage of these out-of-the-box types: Churn Risk, Margin Opportunity and Low Margin Deals.
General Rules
The provided Datamart/Dashboard Watcher in four steps identifies negative trends in data and creates actions which it assigns to users who can then tackle the problem.
The Dashboard Watcher works only for supported dashboards from either Sales Insights Package or Customer Insights Package (for their required minimum versions see the release notes). These dashboards need to have a result matrix portlet or a data tab.
Data Scope
This step sets the scope of the data for the Watcher. The data source will typically be a Datamart, but sometimes also a Model Table. Other supported data sources are Simulation Datamart and Rollup. For a Dashboard Watcher, the source of data is a Dashboard portlet.
Define at least one data series. You can define more series and join them. In this case, Series 1 is always the base series to which other series relate.
For each series, set the dimensions, measures and filters – see Charts for details.In a configuration with multiple data series, define the Join series. Set the relation (joining key) between the added data series and the base series. Note that series are always joined to the base Series 1, so you cannot compare, for example, Series 2 and 3. You can define up to 4 Join series.
Click Apply Settings to display data preview of each series (including the join series). If required, you can change the data series' labels here.
When defining measures, make sure that the name that you give them is not identical with a field in the Datamart.
When joining data series, verify that in the Join Series definition none of the selected dimensions contains rows with null values. A database Join will not join two rows that have null value in the same field because null != null. For more details see Troubleshooting (Actionable Insights).
Detection Rules
This step sets the alert conditions for the Watcher and its schedule. Actions will be triggered during the next Watcher run when the set conditions are met.
Select a series and define conditions. You can preview the data that meet the condition by clicking Preview Rules.
Set up a schedule for running the Watcher.
Action Definition
Define actions which will be created by the Watcher once the alert conditions are met so that the specified user can address the detected problem or opportunity. The Watcher creates Actions on the row level in the Detected Insights (i.e., if there are 5 rows in the identified data, 5 actions will be created).
To avoid overloading users and the system with a very large number of Actions, there is a default limit of 20 Actions. If there are more Actions detected, only a single Action is created aggregating all detected insights, so that it can be assigned to a user with the goal of resolving the situation. This limit is configurable on the partition level. The difference between the number of Actions detected and created is clearly shown in the Tables section. You can access it in the three-dot menu in the header of the page. In Model Tables Actions represent created actions; whereas Detected Items represent all detected insights.
Click the Add Action button.
Enter a Summary to identify the Action.
Add a Description with details of the action for the user.
(Optional) Select the Due Date. The due date will be relative to the date when the action is created (now in the menu options means the day when the action will be triggered).
In Assign To select to whom to assign the Action (a single 'fallback' assignee). If no one in “Assign to per Dimension” is set or no user is found based on the mapping defined there, then this fallback assignee is set for the Action.
In Assign to per Dimension, you can select users to whom the Action will be assigned based on the value of any dimension of the selected series from the Data Scope. Mapping to users is set for the values of the selected dimensions.
(Optional) Select the Action Plan and the specific Action Group to which this Action will be connected. Action Plans allow you to group Actions created by a Watcher together by their nature. Action Groups are wrappers for Actions under one Action Plan.
(Optional) Add a Dashboard that will be displayed in the Action detail. You can select any dashboard but only Sales Insights and Customer Insights dashboards are fully supported. Other dashboards can be used with limitations, for example, some inputs will not be recognized and values will have to be entered manually by the user. Dashboards will only work properly if their data source is the same as the data source of the Watcher.
Embedded dashboard's context (Product / Customer filters) is defined by the dimensions in the Detected Insights table. Only those dimensions which are synchronized with Customer Master of Product Master will be applied to the dashboard's filters. They will be mapped to existing fields in Product / Customer Master tables and applied as default filters.
Summary
Review the setup of the Watcher, here you can see all the set parameters in one place.
If you are happy with the setup, click Submit for Approval. Once the Watcher is approved, it becomes active and starts monitoring your data bases on the schedule.
Notes:
After the approval/activation this step displays the results of the Watcher: detected insights, actions and action plans for each run.
Note that an active Watcher is read-only and you cannot make any edits. You can, however change or add schedules – go to 3 Dots menu > Schedules.
Under this menu, you will find also other useful options, enabling you to review the Watcher’s tables, attachments or execution history.
If you need to edit a Watcher that is already approved and active, the only option is to go to the Watchers list page, select the Watcher and Duplicate it. Once done, the previous Watcher can be deleted from the same page. The new duplicated watcher will be in the Draft status and can be edited.
Follow-up
Once the Watcher is set up it is run regularly as per its defined schedule. When the alert condition is met, action will be created for the defined users. They will be notified by email and in the Notification center and they will see the assigned Actions on the Actions page.
The Watcher does not automatically re-create the same kind of Actions every time it is run:
The same kind of Actions that have been created previously and are still open (or rejected, blocked, postponed) are not re-created.
Actions that have been marked as done are re-created if more time has elapsed from their original due date than the set schedule period. For example, if the original due date of an action is April 30 and the Period in the Schedule section is set for 1 month, Actions will start to be re-created after May 30.
Previously postponed Actions are reopened if the due date is in the past.